What do you wish you'd known/owned/done before starting 1L? Forum

[quidprobono]

Books to read? Concepts to understand? Gadgets to purchase? I'm not so interested in hitting the books this summer—plenty of time to do that over the next three years—but I'm curious if anyone has ideas for preparation.

[NonTradHealthLaw]

1. Gotten into a disciplined exercise routine;
2. Mastered a dozen fast, cheap meals;
3. Learned OneNote inside/out;
4. Organized my office;
5. Gotten a 12x refill on prescriptions;
6. Visited doc/dentist/eye doc;
7. Full car service;
8. Had more fun.

[lifestooquick]

1. Gotten into a disciplined exercise routine;
2. Mastered a dozen fast, cheap meals;
3. Learned OneNote inside/out;
4. Organized my office;
5. Gotten a 12x refill on prescriptions;
6. Visited doc/dentist/eye doc;
7. Full car service;
8. Had more fun.

This is actually a pretty legit list

[Flash]

Withdrawn and not gone to law school.

[LSATNightmares]

I felt pretty prepared for law school based on what I read on TLS and in books. This is what I did:

1. Read Getting to Maybe (don't read any other book... not worth it).
2. Take care of as much medical issues beforehand.
3. Manage your family and friends' expectations of what you'll be able to do with them.
4. Set auto payments for bills through online banking. Otherwise, you won't be able to keep track of when bills are due.
4. Update resume and cover letters for possible internships over the summer.
5. Get in a study group with smart people. If people think you're smart (whether or not you are, it's all based on how you sound in class), it makes smart people interested in studying with you.
6. Outline beginning early in the semester and keep up at it. I'm one of those people who doesn't bother with briefing, unless the professor is really scary and demands amazing in-class participation (I literally had that kind of professor this past semester, and he cold called on me almost every day).
7. Doing E&E's and practice exams is really good. Practice makes perfect.

Things I wish I had known or done:

1. Spend more time at the beginning of the year meeting new people instead of freaking out about grades and studying.
2. Spend less time worrying about whether I'll do well.
3. Be more efficient with studying and use that time to have more date nights with husband.
4. Law is a lot of work, but if you're from a competitive undergrad, it's not that hard. You just have to be very disciplined every day. Law school, at least 1L, doesn't involve all-nighters, which makes it easier.
5. Go more to office hours, just to build relationships with professors.
6. Go to more networking events. But that can always wait until 2L year.

[akeyva]

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[dailygrind]

Dual monitors. They are awesome. I have considered upgrading to triple.

[Tom Joad]

1. Gotten into a disciplined exercise routine;
2. Mastered a dozen fast, cheap meals;
3. Learned OneNote inside/out;
4. Organized my office;
5. Gotten a 12x refill on prescriptions;
6. Visited doc/dentist/eye doc;
7. Full car service;
8. Had more fun.

I really need to learn OneNote since I know I am too lazy to do the others.

[sundance95]

Dual monitors. They are awesome. I have considered upgrading to triple.

+1. This and mastering One note are on point.

[jcm043]

I'm currently reading Getting to Maybe and it is a great read. I wish I would have read it even before the LSAT. For some reason it has really opened my understanding of what I think will be on test.

I have also fully understood how an artist can be fucked over by the buyer of a painting.

[quiver]

Dual monitors. They are awesome. I have considered upgrading to triple.

+1. This and mastering One note are on point.

I've used dual monitors since undergrad...absolutely awesome. Imagine the amount of frustration we save by just looking back and forth instead clicking a thousand times to minimize and whatnot. It's probably added a good 5 minutes to my life at this point.

[ShastaNikki]

Dual monitors. They are awesome. I have considered upgrading to triple.

+1. This and mastering One note are on point.

I've used dual monitors since undergrad...absolutely awesome. Imagine the amount of frustration we save by just looking back and forth instead clicking a thousand times to minimize and whatnot. It's probably added a good 5 minutes to my life at this point.

My fiance has dual monitors (his laptop screen and then an additional), and whenever I try to use it I can never find the goddamn mouse.

I was considering getting a new desktop (my original UG laptop is dying, otherwise I have just a little netbook I got last year for portability and convenience) and using our current 21" TV/monitor as a monitor...along with the sweet Win7 slamming windows to the side feature, do you think that size of monitor would be just as effective as two separate monitors?...or at least effective enough? (I use the Win7 feature all the time--love it!)

[gaud]

This may be helpful for some of you

OneNote:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=127496

Tips for incoming 1Ls:


http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9#p4382244

[ShastaNikki]

Also--what are the benefits of OneNote that you can't get from..anything else?
I guess I don't know a lot about the program. I looked on Microsoft's website, and it just seemed to talk about put videos and webclips on document-like things...how often do you do that in LS?

EDIT: nvmd, I'm an idiot. I was trying to find reasons to justify getting it...I already have it, apparently. Looks cool, too. *Starts playing around with it in order to master it as suggested by awesome people with advice on TLS*...

[parebare23]

.

[Cupidity]

I wish I had spent another year or two working minimum wage and living on the beach, getting drunk and contemplating life. Can't do that any more because I have student loans, and I have to work to pay them down.

[Kabuo]

I honestly believe that if I had listened to the barbri lectures the week before class started, I could have purely coasted all through the semester and gotten great grades. Sign up for barbri as soon as they let you, and just go through your classes. It hardly even feels like work, and you'll have a great foundation to build on. Just pay attention and the stuff your prof thinks differently will jump right out at you.

[booboo]

Learn how to write in a simple, concise way. Easier said than done.

Part of it relates to how well you can transfer the thought you have to the words on the screen.

[yngblkgifted]

Take a year or two off.

[071816]

Take a year or two off.

This. Also, recognize that 0L prep is useless. Enjoy life before 1L starts.

[Law Sauce]

I think LEEWS is actually a good idea. Not necessary and shouldn't be followed to the letter, but its still good idea to do.

[071816]

I think LEEWS is actually a good idea. Not necessary and shouldn't be followed to the letter, but its still good idea to do.

Yea that and GTM are probably fine, but people who do substantive stuff are wasting their time and asking to get burned out.

[Law Sauce]

I think LEEWS is actually a good idea. Not necessary and shouldn't be followed to the letter, but its still good idea to do.

Yea that and GTM are probably fine, but people who do substantive stuff are wasting their time and asking to get burned out.

For sure, it takes about 2 weeks to learn a class once you learn what you are doing, which is the whole hard part of the first semester, so you don't need to start doing that early.

[ilovesf]

I had fun and did absolutely nothing to prepare. I would do the same exact thing over again.