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Ok so orientation week is through and day 1 officially starts tomorrow. I did all my required reading and briefed the cases to the best of my ability. I just feel like I can't be relaxing now and need to put more time into preparing for class. I already read Pierson v. Post and Johnson v. M'Intosh for Property and I think I get the major concepts; I also read CivPro and the reading was pretty much a background of how litigation works in the U.S.

Should I just keep re-reading again and again? Should I use my new Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg subscriptions to find out more into the topics or can I just chill and forget about law school until tomorrow morning?

bdm261 wrote:Ok so orientation week is through and day 1 officially starts tomorrow. I did all my required reading and briefed the cases to the best of my ability. I just feel like I can't be relaxing now and need to put more time into preparing for class. I already read Pierson v. Post and Johnson v. M'Intosh for Property and I think I get the major concepts; I also read CivPro and the reading was pretty much a background of how litigation works in the U.S.

Should I just keep re-reading again and again? Should I use my new Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg subscriptions to find out more into the topics or can I just chill and forget about law school until tomorrow morning?

Major concept from Johnson v. M'Intosh: "Native Americans aren't people."

Fuck Marshall and fuck that case.

Relax. One of the biggest mistakes 1Ls make is overdoing it during the first half of the semester. Read, take notes, and make sure you aren't completely lost/way behind for the first month at least. Save your neuroticism for when finals get here.

chicubs88 wrote:Relax. One of the biggest mistakes 1Ls make is overdoing it during the first half of the semester. Read, take notes, and make sure you aren't completely lost/way behind for the first month at least. Save your neuroticism for when finals get here.

This this this. Do NOT create extra work for yourself. Just do the reading and go to class.

If you freak out too much about READING ALL THE THINGS ELEVEN TIMES early on, you're more likely to burn out six weeks in and let it all go to shit. Slow and steady is a better approach.

bdm261 wrote:Ok so orientation week is through and day 1 officially starts tomorrow. I did all my required reading and briefed the cases to the best of my ability. I just feel like I can't be relaxing now and need to put more time into preparing for class. I already read Pierson v. Post and Johnson v. M'Intosh for Property and I think I get the major concepts; I also read CivPro and the reading was pretty much a background of how litigation works in the U.S.

Should I just keep re-reading again and again? Should I use my new Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg subscriptions to find out more into the topics or can I just chill and forget about law school until tomorrow morning?

On the off-chance that I should not have just brought some marshmallows:

Put the supplements down and step away from the edge. Go have a beer or cupcake or something. Go outside.

You're probably going to understand or, even more likely, remember 10% of what happens tomorrow. From my experience, the first day in any class isn't going to be of much significance. The idea, especially for the first day of 1L, is to get you used to how class will run and what some of the basic ideas are. The rest of the semester uses it as a launching pad. Of all my doctrinal classes, approximately 0 had anything from the first day on the final. Don't burn yourself out now. Just continue to get your reading done and understand the concepts presented in the material you covered.

Probably one of the best things I did was started to read online briefs BEFORE reading the cases. I knew what I was looking for, and they were much easier to follow. And then I re-read the online briefs and just quickly went over everything again.

I can't coherently form anymore advice, so:

tl;dr - chill out

ETA: Syntax

bdm261 wrote:Ok so orientation week is through and day 1 officially starts tomorrow. I did all my required reading and briefed the cases to the best of my ability. I just feel like I can't be relaxing now and need to put more time into preparing for class. I already read Pierson v. Post and Johnson v. M'Intosh for Property and I think I get the major concepts; I also read CivPro and the reading was pretty much a background of how litigation works in the U.S.

Should I just keep re-reading again and again? Should I use my new Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg subscriptions to find out more into the topics or can I just chill and forget about law school until tomorrow morning?

I'd read the Civ Pro E&E for some perspective. That's one subject where it is particularly difficult to see the forrest for the trees.

Sounds good OP. There will be a lot of sophistry and BS from the profs over the next few weeks. Do not over do it reading M'Intosh and Post 15 times a piece... These cases are total discussion starters; they have at best a peripheral impact on any exam... unless the prof is quizzing you weekly. Don't take any guff from those swine. GL.