How important is it (or not) to do prep the summer before 1L starts? Forum

[nick417]

Save your energy and brain power for when school begins. Since professors test you based on what they teach you in class, studying horn books or whatever is pointless before class even begins. Also, each professor tests you differently and looks for different things. Thus, books like "Getting to maybe" are not really helpful either. Your best bet is to enjoy summer.

If you really want a leg up, do the following (once school begins):

(1) Meet with your professors early and often to just talk about the material; and

(2) start studying (reviewing your class notes) and outlining early.

[totesTheGoat]

I'll echo what has already been said.

1L is more about effort and style than it is about substantive knowledge. The material isn't particularly brain-busting, so almost everybody walks into the exam with a decent working knowledge of the substantive material. I've heard profs say that you're going to get median if you know all of the material, but you get above median by showing your ability to do analysis.

Reading a hornbook or cases or E&Es teaches you very little about analysis. Therefore, any prep you do with those resources is just focused on the "get to median" substantive material... the same material that you were going to learn anyway (unless you completely slack off). That makes your pre-1L prep entirely redundant.

If you're going to be doing any work pre-1L, read books that tell you about the law school experience and how to think in law school (Getting to Maybe being the big one). That's really the only way you can jump start your ability to do analysis. Beyond that, rest your mind. You're going to need that rest come next October/November.

[BigZuck]

You definitely do not need to do any substantive preparation, and it may be counterproductive if your professor teaches things very differently from how you learned it. That said, if you want to do something productive, I would read Democracy and Distrust. It's not very long but Ely comes up all the time.

It's probably an excellent book but I have never heard of Ely before.

I don't know what Ely is and therefore can confirm it doesn't come up all the time

This is exhibit A for why 1L prep is, at best, a waste of time

[mornincounselor]

I use six also and it doesn't seem to hold me back one bit. I shift my hands slightly across the keyboard. I type 65 when I am reading from a sheet of paper, and closer to 85 when I don't have to stop and look at what I am typing from.

My opinion on the topic of 0L prep differs from the majority, but I am an 0L, so I will keep my opinion to my self until I have some experience to back it up with.

[BigZuck]

I use six also and it doesn't seem to hold me back one bit. I shift my hands slightly across the keyboard. I type 65 when I am reading from a sheet of paper, and closer to 85 when I don't have to stop and look at what I am typing from.

My opinion on the topic of 0L prep differs from the majority, but I am an 0L, so I will keep my opinion to my self until I have some experience to back it up with.

I totally agree, 0Ls keeping their thoughts on the merits of 0L prep to themselves is probably for the best

[hamiltoniana]

If academic pre-1L prep is far from necessary (and that seems to be TCR), then what's the best way to spend the summer before 1L? It seems like there's a lot of support for rest and for getting personal affairs in order, but how important is it to spend that time doing something law-related? Is it at all possible for OLs to work as research assistants? Are there any legal opportunities at all available for OLs, because it seems like everyone wants undergrads for clerical work or actual law students for actual legal internships.

[BigZuck]

I guess it's just hard to understand if you haven't been through it yet but you guys just need to take a leap of faith and trust people who have been in your shoes when they tell you that prep won't help and that you should just chillax and enjoy your time off before school.

[A. Nony Mouse]

If academic pre-1L prep is far from necessary (and that seems to be TCR), then what's the best way to spend the summer before 1L? It seems like there's a lot of support for rest and for getting personal affairs in order, but how important is it to spend that time doing something law-related? Is it at all possible for OLs to work as research assistants? Are there any legal opportunities at all available for OLs, because it seems like everyone wants undergrads for clerical work or actual law students for actual legal internships.

It's not important at all. Don't worry about it. You will have plenty of chances to get law-related experience in law school.

[NoDayButToday]

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[banjo]

I did zero prep, but you could probably benefit from working through Glannon's Civil Procedure E&E. I think that's the 1L course with the least amount of variation between schools/professors, and there's a good chance you'll end up using Glannon as a supplement anyway. Pay attention to how Glannon picks apart the examples at the end of each chapter--I think most professors would consider that "good legal analysis." If you really have no life, you could also look at Glannon's Torts E&E. Your professor might only cover 2/3 of the concepts in that book though.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

The gist is that the majority of TLSers think 0L prep is a waste of time while a small minority think it's useful. After my first semester of 1L I would only recommend reading GTM and LEEWS. I would also take a cursory look at maybe 5 law school exams per doctrinal course somewhere online from a school's public database to give you an idea what a law school exam is and is not.

Beyond that, learning the substantive law is a waste of time. I even thought reading supplements once school started was a waste of time until about 1 month in

[malleus discentium]

You definitely do not need to do any substantive preparation, and it may be counterproductive if your professor teaches things very differently from how you learned it. That said, if you want to do something productive, I would read Democracy and Distrust. It's not very long but Ely comes up all the time.

It's probably an excellent book but I have never heard of Ely before.

I don't know what Ely is and therefore can confirm it doesn't come up all the time

This is exhibit A for why 1L prep is, at best, a waste of time

I'm pretty surprised neither of you have ever heard of him--his ideas came up a lot in my con law class. I don't think it makes reading his book a waste of time though. It was certainly more useful than reading GTM.

[NoDayButToday]

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[ManoftheHour]

Do some people in your class type out their exams with just two fingers?

I know someone that only types with one hand. I asked her about it and she said that that's how she learned. Didn't seem to affect her on exams. Got top of class, got biglawl.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I'm pretty surprised neither of you have ever heard of him--his ideas came up a lot in my con law class. I don't think it makes reading his book a waste of time though. It was certainly more useful than reading GTM.

The thing is, you and Zuck and I all had different con law profs at different schools, and con law is the class that probably varies most by prof. Someone I knew from a summer job said her prof was a former Scalia clerk who taught con law as all originalism, all the time. I'm not saying it's a waste of time to read Ely (it's not like reading supplements), but it's not going to be relevant for everyone.

[Good Guy Gaud]

Do some people in your class type out their exams with just two fingers?

I know someone that only types with one hand. I asked her about it and she said that that's how she learned. Didn't seem to affect her on exams. Got top of class, got biglawl.

Just lol at the thought of her struggling to meet a midnight deadline. Props to her for typing with one hand but that doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

me = 1L who just finished 1st semester.

the most common advice here will be for you to not do anything substantive during your summer before 1L. i myself read tons of threads with similar questions and followed the advice. if i can go back in time, i probably would not follow that advice again. dont try to actually study shit b/c you have no idea what your prof's style is and what areas of the subject he/she will focus on, but i think it would be a big help to casually read through something like the "examples and explanation" series for civ pro or w/e your first semester courses are.

it's not going to give you some secret advantage to law school success, b/c whatever "advantage" you have on day 1 of law school by going through the e&e over summer will be gone by the time exam time comes around on day 100 or w/e into the semester when pretty much everyone knows their shit.

but what it does do is lessen the blow of "wtf am i doing?" during your first few weeks into the semester. and something like the civ pro e&e is so generic enough that, unless your professor is batshit crazy, it will have a lot of overlaps with what your prof will cover. not having to have that rough adjustment period early in the semester of getting your frame of thinking into "LS" mode is probably worth it. it will certainly lessen anxiety/stress during those few early weeks.

dont do it expecting you will have some tremendous advantage. like i said, the exams are 3-4months into the semester not day 1.

[NoDayButToday]

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[Clemenceau]

I agree that the only advantage would be to put your neurotic mind at ease. The material is not difficult to learn over a 4 month semester.

[Peterson08]

Mod edit: SPAM

[Mjohn2426]

Mod edit: SPAM

[NoBladesNoBows]

[Glasseyes]

me = 1L who just finished 1st semester.

the most common advice here will be for you to not do anything substantive during your summer before 1L. i myself read tons of threads with similar questions and followed the advice. if i can go back in time, i probably would not follow that advice again. dont try to actually study shit b/c you have no idea what your prof's style is and what areas of the subject he/she will focus on, but i think it would be a big help to casually read through something like the "examples and explanation" series for civ pro or w/e your first semester courses are.

it's not going to give you some secret advantage to law school success, b/c whatever "advantage" you have on day 1 of law school by going through the e&e over summer will be gone by the time exam time comes around on day 100 or w/e into the semester when pretty much everyone knows their shit.

but what it does do is lessen the blow of "wtf am i doing?" during your first few weeks into the semester. and something like the civ pro e&e is so generic enough that, unless your professor is batshit crazy, it will have a lot of overlaps with what your prof will cover. not having to have that rough adjustment period early in the semester of getting your frame of thinking into "LS" mode is probably worth it. it will certainly lessen anxiety/stress during those few early weeks.

dont do it expecting you will have some tremendous advantage. like i said, the exams are 3-4months into the semester not day 1.

+1

Yeah, this seems about right. I read Getting to Maybe and found it great for approaching racehorse issue-spotters, though it took some conscious unlearning of the GTM approach for a couple profs that absolutely didn't want us wasting time arguing things both ways on every question. Still, I used a lot of the advice and it calmed the nerves somewhat.

I did Law Preview as well. Under no circumstances should you pay for the course, but if you can get in via scholarship (seems like most schools have essay competitions for this; mine did, which is how I got in) it's not a bad way to indoctrinate your brain into 1L. The substance of the individual classes is just total overload, like drinking from a firehose (as one of the LP profs repeatedly described it), but the experience of reading cases and talking about them in class is helpful in and of itself. Some profs will give you a light dose of socratic-style coldcalling as well. The study tips were definitely more useful than the substantive stuff, though a lot of folks would disagree with their approach of pouring every waking hour into your homework. I can't say how much Law Preview actually affected my 1L performance, though every one of my future GULC classmates that was in the same Law Preview session did get Biglaw—correlation not causation, but still interesting. I definitely followed their approach for most of the first semester and don't regret it, but there wasn't any huge secret other than "go in expecting to work your ass off, then actually work your ass off".