Preparing for 1L Forum

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cav900

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Preparing for 1L

Post by cav900 » Wed Dec 23, 2020 1:10 pm

I understand that it is pretty tough to get much of an advantage over anyone else going into 1L. The concensus is that you're always going to be in over your head when you begin law school. No argument here! Simultaneously... i have a lot of time on my hands between now and Fall 2021. I found a resource on the University of Michigans website (link below) that suggests some commercial resources for law students but more importantly it suggests WHEN to use them. I figured that getting my hands on some of the resources that are recommended for the early part of the semester couldn't hurt me.

To make my question more specific; does anyone have any advice on what resources one could read/ study prior to 1L if they refuse to sit still and do nothing? There are just so many resources... the understanding series, the short and happy guides, even audio lectures! Should I just take my pick of anything from the "early semester" column of the U of Michigan guide (again, link below).

Thanks!

https://libguides.law.umich.edu/examprep/studyaids

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thriller1122

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Re: Preparing for 1L

Post by thriller1122 » Wed Dec 23, 2020 2:39 pm

cav900 wrote:
Wed Dec 23, 2020 1:10 pm
I understand that it is pretty tough to get much of an advantage over anyone else going into 1L. The concensus is that you're always going to be in over your head when you begin law school. No argument here! Simultaneously... i have a lot of time on my hands between now and Fall 2021. I found a resource on the University of Michigans website (link below) that suggests some commercial resources for law students but more importantly it suggests WHEN to use them. I figured that getting my hands on some of the resources that are recommended for the early part of the semester couldn't hurt me.

To make my question more specific; does anyone have any advice on what resources one could read/ study prior to 1L if they refuse to sit still and do nothing? There are just so many resources... the understanding series, the short and happy guides, even audio lectures! Should I just take my pick of anything from the "early semester" column of the U of Michigan guide (again, link below).

Thanks!

https://libguides.law.umich.edu/examprep/studyaids
Some might disagree, but I definitely wouldn't read anything on that website. Those are exam prep materials and help my supplementing what you are learning in class. You are going to learn all that stuff (or maybe not all of it) in class, so there isn't really a benefit to reading it now. Additionally, if you don't understand it and learn it wrong you would have no way of knowing and it could hurt you when you get to school.
As far as what to do, I know a lot of people suggest reading "Getting to Maybe." I didn't read it, but know it's a popular read for 0Ls. Others I have seen suggest reading anything (books, newspapers, the Economist). That is probably good practice whether you are going to law school or not. I might add to begin writing (if you don't already). Journals or whatever. You will do a lot of writing in law school and beyond and the better you can get at it the better you will be as a law student and lawyer.
As a general point, I really don't think it matters. The top two graduates in my class were a "gunner" who had worked as a legal secretary at a V5 firm for 10 years and a stay-at-home mom who asked me what an appelant was on the first day of class (I didn't know either). Law school is about achieving success with what you do at law school, and Im not sure anything in particular is going to give you a "leg up" over other students. Everything you end up doing (a) someone else did it too or (b) other people didn't need to do it. As a last little bit, if you literally have nothing to do I might reccomend working and earning a bit of money. Law school is pretty expensive.

nixy

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Re: Preparing for 1L

Post by nixy » Wed Dec 23, 2020 3:38 pm

Yeah, I agree with all the above. Don't delve into any of the study resources on that page - they're designed to be used along with your course, not before you get to school. Hornbooks are usually long, expensive, and designed to be used as references, not really read cover to cover. You won't know what you need references for till you have coursework. Case summaries won't be useful until you get to school and learn how to read cases (you don't need to learn that now, it won't help you). The Examples & Explanations series are fine, probably won't cause active harm, but you want to avoid learning stuff differently from how your profs will teach it, including stuff that your profs won't cover (e.g. I know of a torts prof that only covers negligence in the entire course, so reading about intentional torts or products liability will 1) be a waste of time and 2) possibly confuse you and/or 3) lead you to talk about other stuff in an exam which won't help you).

I'm not trying to suggest that legal stuff is some kind of secret mystical lore that only profs can guide you through successfully; it's not. But because profs can be finicky about what/how they teach, it's best just to do what they want you to do, not try to develop some kind of independent understanding that might not match what they expect you to learn.

I think Getting to Maybe is fine to read (it makes more sense once you've taken some law school classes, but it's not going to steer you wrong), and the general guides to "how to do law school" are usually fine - like Law School Confidential (it's been around a while now but I think it's fine). Do NOT read Planet Law School, it's like 900 pages of scamblogging + Barbri (i.e. terrify you about what you don't know and what convince you that you'll fail if you don't follow their method).

The anecdote above about the stay-at-home mom is great and absolutely true.

cav900

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Re: Preparing for 1L

Post by cav900 » Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:18 pm

Thanks for all the feedback. I did a phone interview with a lawyer the other day and he said something similar. He mentioned that about the only resource(s) that really helped him much were a few books with actual legal stories in them. Actually I think they're literally called "torts stories," "contracts stories," etc.

I read getting to maybe and will probably read through it again on my way into law school.

I guess I can conclude that maybe the resources that give examples (i.e. examples and explanations) or actual legal stories are the only ones worth while and that they don't help a ton but simply acquaint you with what you're studying?

Thanks, and all the best

nixy

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Re: Preparing for 1L

Post by nixy » Wed Dec 23, 2020 6:43 pm

I think the only things that will 1) make sense and 2) not lead you astray at this point are generic enough not really to be helpful. Yes, you may develop some familiarity with the general subject, but you will get everything you need to know just by going to law school. There's no edge you will get from having read that stuff.

I looked up Tort Stories and it's basically essays about some of the most famous tort cases, putting them in historical/economic/social/legal context. I think it could be kind of misleading because again, your prof may not want to focus on those cases so heavily, or might disagree with what the essay author thinks is the most important point of the case.

I guess something to clarify is that advice here about not prepping ahead of time is mostly offered in the context of how to do well in class. Many 0Ls want some kind of magic bullet for success (not meant as criticism; we'd all love one of those) and, defining success as getting good grades, there isn't one - you need to focus on what happens once you start taking classes. Getting good grades isn't necessarily the best measure of legal understanding in a broader sense; in the sense of becoming a well-educated well-rounded student of the law as an academic subject, there are probably a lot of resources that would be helpful. But as a 1L success isn't coming up with some broader understanding/theory of jurisprudence. It's getting good grades in your classes. The best way to do that is to tailor what you do to your professor's course, which you can't do before you get to school.

emc91

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Re: Preparing for 1L

Post by emc91 » Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:35 am

The only thing you should do to “prepare” for 1L is this: take care of your appointments (eye doctor, dentist, doctor), your annual car service, your dog’s vet appointment, etc. Make sure your doctor has refills for any medication you take. Maybe buy an instant pot or crockpot for easy and fast dinners. Free yourself from the burden of all of life’s little errands so that you can focus on school. Few things are more annoying than being in the middle of exam prep and realizing you’re out of contacts or you don’t have any refills of your medication.

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