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The general advice (which I ignored) is don't try to get a leg up or start studying the summer before law school.

It's good advice. With ONE exception!

There are series of law school audio lectures on disk/mp3 called "Sum and Substance" and "Law School Legends." They cover the main doctrinal classes you will be taking. All you have to do is listen to them. Driving, the gym, etc. Most are done by the top names in their fields (Dressler for Criminal law, Chemerensky for Con law, etc) and are actually quite interesting to listen to. More so than most law school professors. If you only have time for one (they're 6-8 hours) do the Legal Research one. It's everything I wish I had known my 1L year, but like a dummy, didn't listen to it until 2L. Don't take notes, don't try to memorize anything. Just listen to the lectures and think about the material.

They can be had through a Library ILL, often through a law library, and possibly...other places. They're not cheap, but they're worth it. They've helped me considerably to study when I wasn't in a studying mood, since driving my car and listening to them isn't "studying."

Best of luck to all the 0Ls of the Class of 2021!

Agree with this advice all the way up until "Don't take notes."

Take notes. Take lots of notes. Take notes and reorganize them after class. Take notes that show where you need to take more notes; then speak with your professors to fill in the gaps. You will cover a lot of material in 1L. Much of it will be interesting to think about. But if you don't take any notes, you will never be able to keep it all straight and, come finals, you will be barely better off than if you hand't gone to class at all.

anonymouse919 wrote:Agree with this advice all the way up until "Don't take notes."

Take notes. Take lots of notes. Take notes and reorganize them after class. Take notes that show where you need to take more notes; then speak with your professors to fill in the gaps. You will cover a lot of material in 1L. Much of it will be interesting to think about. But if you don't take any notes, you will never be able to keep it all straight and, come finals, you will be barely better off than if you hand't gone to class at all.

I think he was referring only to the audio lectures re: not taking notes.

My mistake--I see that now. I guess take my above comment as ill-placed advice

Interesting advice. There is something to be said for not hearing about a topic for the first time in class, which probably makes things a little stressful.