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I'm 6 weeks into my first year and I've fell behind on readings due to illness. Is there any hope for catching up? Any thoughts?

Do the readings you missed.

If you absolutely can't, utilize past outlines and supplements. Also, go to office hours.

When I got behind/felt overwhelmed with readings, I found it more helpful to read the readings after class carefully than rushing to read before class. A lot of times it makes wayyy more sense as a 1L after you see what your prof focuses on. You WILL look dumb in cold calls using this method, but that's ok.

Take a weekend and skim/casebrief.com the cases you missed. IRAC'ing might help you draw connections as to what rule of law the prof wanted you to take away from the case but it's not necessary. Go to office hours to check/reconcile what you read vs what the prof wants. You'll be fine.

dont read the cases. read a case brief. or just find an outline and read the 3 pages covering that 6 weeks.

shifty_eyed wrote:When I got behind/felt overwhelmed with readings, I found it more helpful to read the readings after class carefully than rushing to read before class. A lot of times it makes wayyy more sense as a 1L after you see what your prof focuses on. You WILL look dumb in cold calls using this method, but that's ok.

This is good advice. Just keep up with the materials to the best of your ability. Chances are that most of your classmates will forget what was taught in the beginning of the semester. Exam day is what really matters. Don't worry about appearing dumb during a cold call. We have all been there and it is nothing to be ashamed about.

also just quickly reading the post-case notes can be helpful the get the basic idea of what rule came from the case

Your goal during the school year should be to get enough information on each case to not be completely lost in class. If you read the current assigned cases and are completely confused, start going backwards through your previous assignments until you feel comfortable with the material and read from there. If you're comfortable with the materials, just skip to the current readings and mark the missed ones for extra scrutiny when you start prepping for finals.

If you're over a week behind, cut your losses and read case briefs/E&Es. You'll be wasting a lot of time trying to double up. For future 1Ls, don't fall behind on your reading unless theres simply nothing you can do. Plan ahead if you have life things going on. The reading load is manageable but needs to be maintained consistently.

I advise skipping the readings you missed and doing the current readings. When you have spare time, read casebriefs for the cases covered by the readings you missed.

Write down the ones you missed, do the current ones, and work on your backlog when you get the chance.