typical day in the life of a law student Forum

[micwrecka45]

i dont know if this has been discussed before, i couldn't find it on a search.

i'm a 0L and i was wondering what the typical day encompassed for a law student during the earlier part of the semester and then during the quarter-semester before finals. is it just gonna be 7am wake up, study, sleep? or do you have time to do a few other things?

thanks.

[rayiner]

i dont know if this has been discussed before, i couldn't find it on a search.

i'm a 0L and i was wondering what the typical day encompassed for a law student during the earlier part of the semester and then during the quarter-semester before finals. is it just gonna be 7am wake up, study, sleep? or do you have time to do a few other things?

thanks.

7am? Lazy ass! Try 5am.

[Anastasia Dee Dualla]

.

[Grad_Student]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&start=25
Thats my typical day.

Of course, that's fucked now that finals have started

[JaHerer22]

A typical day this semester:

9am--wake up
10-11:50 class
12-1:30--lunch/reading
1:30-3:50--class
4---reading/studying in library

After 7 I didn't really do much law, save for when my brief was due and the last week or so before exams. I tried to outline for 4-6 hours on Sat. and Sun. Rumors of the law school workload are vastly exaggerated.

[Bezerkley]

I agree with the above that to some extent law school workload is exaggerated.

The reason why it seems like so much work is because you are never "done." You may get to the point where you understand enough about the area of law to get an A, but you never get the point where you could get all the answers correct, like you could in an undergrad exam. The key for me is to stop at some point. I realize I will never learn it all and like the above poster I don't do a lot of work after dinnertime to give myself a break.

[Fly]

I agree with the above that to some extent law school workload is exaggerated.

I just want to voice my agreement with this. My typical day is very similar to JaHerer's, with a bit less reading, perhaps. From what I've seen, very few students have days like Grad_Student's. If I read his schedule properly, he has about eight hours devoted to various kinds of studying (reviewing, outlining, reading, etc) each day. Very few students actually study that much. I would say I spend roughly 2-3 hours on the various kinds of studying each day, with a bit more on the weekends. It really isn't that stressful at all.

[LawSchoolWannaBe]

First half of semester:

Weekdays: wake up at 6:30, eat, and do studying/class through around 5PM.
Weekends: wake up at 8:30, eat, and do homework for the week for 4-5 hours.


3rd quarter of the semester:

Weekdays: wake up at 6:30, eat, and do studying/class through around 5PM.
Weekends: wake up at 8:30, eat, and do homework/outlining for the week for 7-8 hours.


Last quarter of the semester:

Weekdays: wake up at 6:30, eat, and do studying/class through around 8PM.
Weekends: wake up at 8:30, eat, and do homework/outlining for the week for 7-8 hours.

Finals time:

Wake up around 8, do work for 4 hours, take a few hours off, do work for another 4 hours.


I probably do basketball, tennis, or running around 15 hours a week throughout the semester. I also do lunch and dinner with friends quite often. Still, there's quite a bit of work thrown in there.

[papertiger]

Most of the semester:

Wake up at 7. Breakfast, dressing, reading the news, etc. until 8.
Class from 8:30-12, lunch break, study for an hour, then class roughly from 2-4. Study until 5, go home, exercise, dinner, study for another 2 hours or so and stop at 9 or 10. (I almost always get 8 hours of sleep.)

When legal writing assignments were due, I worked later. And during finals, I worked much more. I also worked on the weekends from 9-5 on Saturday, and then about half a day Sunday.
My classmates study all the time, so I felt like I had to study a lot to keep up. It worked last semester.

[aer]

If the people who responded don't mind giving more info I was wondering where your workload puts you in terms of class rank and how hard you worked compared to other students in UG?

[JaHerer22]

After first semester I was in the top 2-3%, obviously I don't know how it will turn out this time. I'm not sure I can maintain that but I'm hoping I can stay in the top 10%. It's hard to say how much I work compared to others, I feel like I put less time in "working," but when I work I get down to business and work hard. I know a lot people who are in the library for 12 hours a day, but they are talking, facebooking, eating, walking around, etc. If that's how you get things done then by all means do it, but I would much rather work for 3 hours straight and then go home and forget about law school and do my dicking around there.

In undergrad I did almost no work, didn't really go to class or do reading, just wrote papers and studied for tests the night before. None of friends really did much either though. I lived in a frat house and mostly just drank and played video games. Law school is much tougher than that, but not nearly as bad as most make it out to be. If you think of it as a full time job and spend 8-9 hours a day working/attending class you will be more than prepared. Obviously exams and brief time can be an exception, but other than that I've found that if I plan on 8 hours a day there are plenty of times I feel caught up enough to take the afternoon off.

[J Boogie]

http://kelvinlesterlee.wordpress.com/20 ... aw-school/

This made for a good read. But he went to law school in the Phillippines... doesn't that generally mean that he is focused/smarter/better... joking but no, really?

[aer]

After first semester I was in the top 2-3%, obviously I don't know how it will turn out this time. I'm not sure I can maintain that but I'm hoping I can stay in the top 10%. It's hard to say how much I work compared to others, I feel like I put less time in "working," but when I work I get down to business and work hard. I know a lot people who are in the library for 12 hours a day, but they are talking, facebooking, eating, walking around, etc. If that's how you get things done then by all means do it, but I would much rather work for 3 hours straight and then go home and forget about law school and do my dicking around there.

In undergrad I did almost no work, didn't really go to class or do reading, just wrote papers and studied for tests the night before. None of friends really did much either though. I lived in a frat house and mostly just drank and played video games. Law school is much tougher than that, but not nearly as bad as most make it out to be. If you think of it as a full time job and spend 8-9 hours a day working/attending class you will be more than prepared. Obviously exams and brief time can be an exception, but other than that I've found that if I plan on 8 hours a day there are plenty of times I feel caught up enough to take the afternoon off.

Thanks.

[Fly]

My school doesn't rank until the end of the first year, but I was still able to find out that I was tied for #2 in the class after first semester. I have a feeling that's going to slip a bit this semester, but we'll see.

Anyway, I am pretty sure that I work significantly less than the average law student. I just think that I work a bit more effectively/efficiently than a lot of students. I've always thought that spending hours reading hornbooks is a waste of time, so I've never done it. Also, what JaHerer said about people in the library is spot on. A lot of people who "live" in the library don't actually seem to get a lot of work done there. My study habits were pretty much the same during UG, and I did just fine there.

[Hitachi]

You can spend as little or as much time doing school-related stuff as you want (until finals), but if you want to be diligent and go to class and do all the reading, that's 2-3 hours a day of class and 1-2 hours of reading 5 days a week, with the occasional memo that will take you out of commission for a couple of days. Certainly, you'll have more time do stuff than in high school or working at a job, though.

That's only a basis, of course, journals, moots court etc. are also options, and personally I try to prepare for finals half an hour per day from the first day of the semester.

[awesomepossum]

Exam time schedule

Wake up at 8

School at 9.

....................................


Go home at 11pm or 12pm.



I bet I could cut an hour off of that if I wasn't on TLS.

[crystalhawkeye]

Exam time schedule

Wake up at 8

School at 9.

....................................


Go home at 11pm or 12pm.



I bet I could cut an hour off of that if I wasn't on TLS.

So either late at night or... noon?

[finalnight]

1st Semester:

Monday-Thursday
6:00am-Wakeup/Breakfast/Shower/Shave
7:00am-Drive to school
8:00/9:00am-1:40/2:10pm-Class/Study
1:40/2:10pm-Gym
3:00pm-Drive Home
3:30pm-Chill
5:30pm-Eat dinner, continue to chill
7:00pm-Study
10:00pm-Chill
11:30pm-Sleep

Friday
6:00am-Wakeup/Breakfast/Shower/Shave
7:00am-Drive to school
8:00am-11:35am-Class
11:35am-Freedom!

Saturday
Chill

Sunday
Football and study during boring games.

[RudeDudewithAttitude]

Good info. Thanks!

[finalnight]

Oh and since others are mentioning it:

Finals (1st semester):

1-2 weeks Before:
Strategic skipping of classes, Generally studying 3 hrs a day for them

Weeks Of:
Non-final days: Study 4-6 hrs per day.
Final days (finals for 1L's here are always in the afternoon): Study 2 hrs in the morning, chill all evening after the final

I will note that I substantially changed my finals studying and normal daily schedule in second semester.

[awesomepossum]

Exam time schedule

Wake up at 8

School at 9.

....................................


Go home at 11pm or 12pm.



I bet I could cut an hour off of that if I wasn't on TLS.

So either late at night or... noon?

wamp wamp wamp......smartass.

[SethD2767]

Um, I noticed that most of you start class in the mornings--around 8. I am a 0L and was wondering whether this is the norm. The mornings are generally the time I prefer to spend studying before going to class, which are almost always at 2 or later. Are law schools flexible about allowing 1Ls to schedule their classes later in the day? I am most likely heading to GULC (full time) in the fall; so if there are any GULC students who have info on this that would be great.

[XxSpyKEx]

Um, I noticed that most of you start class in the mornings--around 8. I am a 0L and was wondering whether this is the norm.

No its not the norm. People on here are just crazy. With the exception of a spring break trip I took where my buddies dragged me out of bed to leave, I haven't woke up in the AM in over a year now (maybe even longer than that).

[jacktripper]

what I gather from reading this thread and other threads on the subject is that it is best to stick to a schedule and spread out the workload because waiting to the end of the semester to "catch up" is a recipe for disaster. Is this the general idea?

[chalis8]

what I gather from reading this thread and other threads on the subject is that it is best to stick to a schedule and spread out the workload because waiting to the end of the semester to "catch up" is a recipe for disaster. Is this the general idea?

I really wouldn't get more than a day or two behind. While it's definitely possible to "catch up" it's REALLY not fun to do.

In my experience I think a good rule of thumb for 1L classes is about 1 to 1.5 hours of reading per class during the average week. I usually picked one class that met earlier in the week and finished most of the reading for it on Sunday. Keep in mind though it'll probably take you twice as long to do your reading at the beginning of your first semester than it will second semester and beyond just because you're learning how to read cases and figuring out your system (i.e. taking copious notes (recommended) vs. highlighting the majority of your casebook in technicolor (not recommended), etc.).

Three weeks leading up to exams it's basically 8 hours a day.