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Going to be graduating in Dec. and won't be in law school until fall 2011. Wanted to know how much reading is typically assigned in law school (esp first year) so I can keep up and not struggle when I start. Please specify in pages (or words), and not how long it takes you. If you also wouldn't mind saying around where you're school ranks, I think it'd be interesting to see if there is a difference there. Thanks.

Are you going to be reading from casebooks?

If no, then there isn't really a point - the reading you will do in law school will be much more dense than most stuff you would be reading.

If yes, well... then we have a whole different problem.

Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

Rank means nothing when it comes to workload. For the most part all schools, T14 and TTT's, use the same casebooks and read the same cases. The finals are different of course, but the work leading to the final is generally the same.

Dont be fooled into thinking a lower ranked school is "not as hard" as a higher ranked school.

One last thing, use the seach function! This topic has been beaten to death.

Good luck!

Could be 0 depending on your exam-prep method.

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

I keep hearing that but from the few casebooks I've read it doesn't seem any denser than stuff I read in 3rd/4th year in undergrad for poli sci (journals) and political philosophy.

gdane5 wrote:Rank means nothing when it comes to workload. For the most part all schools, T14 and TTT's, use the same casebooks and read the same cases. The finals are different of course, but the work leading to the final is generally the same.

Dont be fooled into thinking a lower ranked school is "not as hard" as a higher ranked school.

One last thing, use the seach function! This topic has been beaten to death.

Good luck!

I figured as much for the workload, just wanted to check. And as for the topic being beaten to death I'd agree with you, but people always ask what to read as opposed to how much. I already know where to find stuff just as dense as law textbooks, but I don't know how much you guys read.

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

What if you were an English major and read pretty much everything?

Just wondering, since it seems this site leans heavily towards econ / engineering type majors. I read a ton, and I'm used to close, analytical reading.

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

I wouldn't say case reading is all that difficult. In fact, it's pretty straight forward... you'll be surprised how much common sense is used in law. However, there are some terms and language that you may be unfamiliar with so a legal term dictionary would be handy.

But back to the main point, I wouldn't recommend spending a whole lot of time worrying about prepping for law school. read something you like so you don't burn yourself out before you're even a 1L.

mallard wrote:Could be 0 depending on your exam-prep method.

Si.

AR75 wrote:

mallard wrote:Could be 0 depending on your exam-prep method.

Si.

Suger is a scary mofo.

kalvano wrote:

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

What if you were an English major and read pretty much everything?

Just wondering, since it seems this site leans heavily towards econ / engineering type majors. I read a ton, and I'm used to close, analytical reading.

I got my undergrad degree by doing a similar type of reading.

It doesn't even begin to compare to legal reading. Most of the issue is the language used in the analysis, not the analysis itself. If you learn the words, then the reading goes faster, makes more sense, and is much less complicated.

To answer the OP's question, you can expect 20-35 pages per class per meeting. So, if Torts meets twice a week, you can expect about 40-70 pages for the week. In all, depending on the number of classes you are taking, you will likely be reading between 200-300 pages per week.

findlayswimmer28 wrote:To answer the OP's question, you can expect 20-35 pages per class per meeting. So, if Torts meets twice a week, you can expect about 40-70 pages for the week. In all, depending on the number of classes you are taking, you will likely be reading between 200-300 pages per week.

DOPE! I lost hope of finding my answer.

kalvano wrote:

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

What if you were an English major and read pretty much everything?

Just wondering, since it seems this site leans heavily towards econ / engineering type majors. I read a ton, and I'm used to close, analytical reading.

No... casebooks are a creature of their own. I can read 25 pages of anything else in an hour. It takes me an hour to read 10 pages from a casebook.

2011Law wrote:

findlayswimmer28 wrote:To answer the OP's question, you can expect 20-35 pages per class per meeting. So, if Torts meets twice a week, you can expect about 40-70 pages for the week. In all, depending on the number of classes you are taking, you will likely be reading between 200-300 pages per week.

DOPE! I lost hope of finding my answer.

That is one person's answer. How much reading you have, from my experience, will depend largely on what doctrine is being taught. Within that doctrine, the reading will depend on what strand(s) the professor is currently discussing in class. In contracts, we might have had 11 pages for one class session, but 40 for the next. For property, we might have had 20 pages for one session, but a chapter for the next. Torts was always done in 10-15 page increments. If you seriously want an answer, you would be better off waiting until you are accepted at a school, finding out who your professors are, then tracking down students who had those professors. Then, ask them.

300 pages per week isn't bad at 3min/page. only 15hours. even 5min/page (which seems quite long even for dense legal prose) is only 25hrs.

sayan wrote:300 pages per week isn't bad at 3min/page. only 15hours. even 5min/page (which seems quite long even for dense legal prose) is only 25hrs.

Great breakdown

LAWYER2 wrote:

sayan wrote:300 pages per week isn't bad at 3min/page. only 15hours. even 5min/page (which seems quite long even for dense legal prose) is only 25hrs.

Great breakdown

Sticking to 3min/page and adding in 10 hours for supplement reading and outlining is 25 hours. 15 more hours for classes and overall you're looking at a 40 hour work week. Welcome to law school.

sayan wrote:

LAWYER2 wrote:

sayan wrote:300 pages per week isn't bad at 3min/page. only 15hours. even 5min/page (which seems quite long even for dense legal prose) is only 25hrs.

Great breakdown

Sticking to 3min/page and adding in 10 hours for supplement reading and outlining is 25 hours. 15 more hours for classes and overall you're looking at a 40 hour work week. Welcome to law school.

It almost actually seems "doable" when you put it that way, lol

rbgrocio wrote:

kalvano wrote:

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

What if you were an English major and read pretty much everything?

Just wondering, since it seems this site leans heavily towards econ / engineering type majors. I read a ton, and I'm used to close, analytical reading.

No... casebooks are a creature of their own. I can read 25 pages of anything else in an hour. It takes me an hour to read 10 pages from a casebook.

I can read about 100 pages an hour and remember what I read, and I'm used to oddly-phrased things (lots of Shakespeare / Chaucer / medieval lit).

I'm hoping that will help me somewhat.

Broadly speaking, my first semester assignments broke down like this:

Contracts: 20-30 pgs/night
Civ pro: 15-20 pgs/night
Crim: 10-15 pgs/night
LRW:

So, worst-case scenario, you're looking at 50-75 pages of pretty dense reading per night, plus whatever supplements you end up finding helpful. Rather than spend 2-3 hours a night (about what most people probably put in), I found it convenient to use the weekends to put in 5-6 hour days and get the week's reading done, so I could spend the weeks just taking a quick glance at a canned brief book and calling it a day.

kalvano wrote:

rbgrocio wrote:

kalvano wrote:

legalease9 wrote:Legal Cases aren't like anything else you read in Undergrad. Its most akin to dense philosophy. More Cryptic and Dense than your average College-level reading.

What if you were an English major and read pretty much everything?

Just wondering, since it seems this site leans heavily towards econ / engineering type majors. I read a ton, and I'm used to close, analytical reading.

No... casebooks are a creature of their own. I can read 25 pages of anything else in an hour. It takes me an hour to read 10 pages from a casebook.

I can read about 100 pages an hour and remember what I read, and I'm used to oddly-phrased things (lots of Shakespeare / Chaucer / medieval lit).

I'm hoping that will help me somewhat.

lol. You will not get even closed to 40 pages an hour in law school.... and 100 pages of anything in an hour? I guess if it has 28 point font and one 10 words per page... I really don't believe you can read 100 pages of shakespeare in an hour.

rbgrocio wrote: lol. You will not get even closed to 40 pages an hour in law school.... and 100 pages of anything in an hour? I guess if it has 28 point font and one 10 words per page... I really don't believe you can read 100 pages of shakespeare in an hour.

It's really not that tough when you don't sweat comprehension.

SoftBoiledLife wrote:Broadly speaking, my first semester assignments broke down like this:

Contracts: 20-30 pgs/night
Civ pro: 15-20 pgs/night
Crim: 10-15 pgs/night
LRW:

So, worst-case scenario, you're looking at 50-75 pages of pretty dense reading per night, plus whatever supplements you end up finding helpful. Rather than spend 2-3 hours a night (about what most people probably put in), I found it convenient to use the weekends to put in 5-6 hour days and get the week's reading done, so I could spend the weeks just taking a quick glance at a canned brief book and calling it a day.

did all of your classes meet 5 days a week?

rbgrocio wrote:lol. You will not get even closed to 40 pages an hour in law school.... and 100 pages of anything in an hour? I guess if it has 28 point font and one 10 words per page... I really don't believe you can read 100 pages of shakespeare in an hour.

I don't really give a shit if you believe me. I can read about that and remember it.

I'm not expecting to read at that pace for class, but if I can do a quarter of that, I'll be happy.