For those entering 1L Forum

[Sean1269]

1) Don't read any law books before summer. The amount you will retain is minimal. I read the E&E torts, the only thing I remembered was literally the last thing I studied...at the end of semester 2.

2) Read a few interesting books over summer. Do this to get your reading comp. up to speed. But read books you enjoy and are intellectually challenging.

3) Don't go over other people's outlines before school starts. Get a life.

4) Do the case readings and brief them, whether you book brief or type is up to you. I say this because EXAM hypos often are similar to cases, as are multiple choice questions.

5) make your own outline and then get other people's to fill in holes

6) Memorize your outline, you will be surprised how many people don't

7) Stay healthy, eat healthy, exercise. You will be much happier and won't gain weight. This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

Have a separate life from law school and law school friends. Take kickboxing or something, the last thing you want is to sit around and talk about law school....all day

9) Start the 1L job search early.

10) Lastly, treat every case you read as a little exam. Then by the time you get to exam time you have taken 50+ "mini" exams.


Good luck.

[whymeohgodno]

Here are some tips for entering 1L, take them at your own risk. Since things tend to be credential based, I'll give whatever credentials I have right straight out: I got to a T2, ranked somewhere in the top 15%, yes I have a job for the summer, yes I have a scholarship, and yes it's still possible to lose it.

1) Don't read any law books before summer. The amount you will retain is minimal. I read the E&E torts, the only thing I remembered was literally the last thing I studied...at the end of semester 2.

2) Read a few interesting books over summer. Do this to get your reading comp. up to speed. But read books you enjoy and are intellectually challenging.

3) Don't go over other people's outlines before school starts. Get a life.

4) Do the case readings and brief them, whether you book brief or type is up to you. I say this because EXAM hypos often are similar to cases, as are multiple choice questions.

5) make your own outline and then get other people's to fill in holes

6) Memorize your outline, you will be surprised how many people don't

7) Stay healthy, eat healthy, exercise. You will be much happier and won't gain weight. This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

Have a separate life from law school and law school friends. Take kickboxing or something, the last thing you want is to sit around and talk about law school....all day

9) Start the 1L job search early.

10) Lastly, treat every case you read as a little exam. Then by the time you get to exam time you have taken 50+ "mini" exams.


Good luck.

....?

[protein]

This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

This is my plan.

[shoeshine]

This post would have more weight if OP would post his approximate first semester grades, rank of school, and plans for 1L summer.

[yale2011]

.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

I'm pre-reading anyway. I like it and have a paralegal certificate SO Legal knowledge already. If you don't retain much from a book, it's because it's badly written. The other advice sounds reasonable though,

[sch0123]

This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

This is my plan.

+1,000,000. I've been exercising every day and ordering every sandwich I get on wheat bread in preparation for law school.

[Ellie80]

.

[LawWeb]

1) Don't read any law books before summer. The amount you will retain is minimal. I read the E&E torts, the only thing I remembered was literally the last thing I studied...at the end of semester 2.

Disagree - some basic primer stuff, taken in casually, a little here or there over the summer, can be nice to make things a little easier starting out. Ones that give a general overview of the court structure, etc...

3, 4, 5) Do the case readings and brief them, whether you book brief or type is up to you. I say this because EXAM hypos often are similar to cases, as are multiple choice questions.

Solid advice - in general, I've found other people's outlines, etc anti-helpful, since each brain organizes differently, and the main point of an outline is to minimally have indicators that will remind you of what you want to remember or info set up in a way you can access well (for open book). None of this 1L's need to think about over summer, but the 1 piece of advice I'd give from 1L year is to outline as you go. You're already doing the reading, picking out the key points - why forget them, then have to come back later, etc. It takes more time up front, but when everyone else is spending reading week working on outlines, you can simply be reading yours.
Addtional tip: use One Note (or another notebook program) rather than Word - if you have office you likely have One Note. It's hella easier for organizing, having everything in one place, not having to open/close documents to see things, merging for outlines, printing. You can have your whole semester in a single document basically (all classess) and all nots for a single class tabbed along a single page. Play with it over the summer if you've never used, it's uber simple

6) Memorize your outline, you will be surprised how many people don't

Depends on the class, if open note not nec, but yes, memorizing is not that difficult and most people don't...

7) Stay healthy, eat healthy, exercise. You will be much happier and won't gain weight. This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

Disagree - yes, get some exercise, but F all else for 1L - you can work off those 15 pounds later. 1L grades can open doors/set your career. I'm butt ugly and got killer jobs for 1L summer...

Have a separate life from law school and law school friends. Take kickboxing or something, the last thing you want is to sit around and talk about law school....all day

F life. Focus on 1L. You have every day except those 9 months to have a life. Just hunker down, kick a

9) Start the 1L job search early.

Not necessarily - if you start too early, then end up getting solid grades, you may end up accepting something lesser than you can get. In fact, the good jobs are still there after grades come out. So don't sweat the Dec 1 deadlines (unless its gov't or some hard deadline, in general judicial externship deadlines are honestly not hard deadlines, even if they say they are) Better focus on killing first round of finals than killing yourself hunting for jobs while going through your first ever law exams...


Good luck.

[Sean1269]

1) Don't read any law books before summer. The amount you will retain is minimal. I read the E&E torts, the only thing I remembered was literally the last thing I studied...at the end of semester 2.

Disagree - some basic primer stuff, taken in casually, a little here or there over the summer, can be nice to make things a little easier starting out. Ones that give a general overview of the court structure, etc...

3, 4, 5) Do the case readings and brief them, whether you book brief or type is up to you. I say this because EXAM hypos often are similar to cases, as are multiple choice questions.

Solid advice - in general, I've found other people's outlines, etc anti-helpful, since each brain organizes differently, and the main point of an outline is to minimally have indicators that will remind you of what you want to remember or info set up in a way you can access well (for open book). None of this 1L's need to think about over summer, but the 1 piece of advice I'd give from 1L year is to outline as you go. You're already doing the reading, picking out the key points - why forget them, then have to come back later, etc. It takes more time up front, but when everyone else is spending reading week working on outlines, you can simply be reading yours.
Addtional tip: use One Note (or another notebook program) rather than Word - if you have office you likely have One Note. It's hella easier for organizing, having everything in one place, not having to open/close documents to see things, merging for outlines, printing. You can have your whole semester in a single document basically (all classess) and all nots for a single class tabbed along a single page. Play with it over the summer if you've never used, it's uber simple

6) Memorize your outline, you will be surprised how many people don't

Depends on the class, if open note not nec, but yes, memorizing is not that difficult and most people don't...

7) Stay healthy, eat healthy, exercise. You will be much happier and won't gain weight. This is important if you plan on getting jobs mostly through looks.

Disagree - yes, get some exercise, but F all else for 1L - you can work off those 15 pounds later. 1L grades can open doors/set your career. I'm butt ugly and got killer jobs for 1L summer...

Have a separate life from law school and law school friends. Take kickboxing or something, the last thing you want is to sit around and talk about law school....all day

F life. Focus on 1L. You have every day except those 9 months to have a life. Just hunker down, kick a

9) Start the 1L job search early.

Not necessarily - if you start too early, then end up getting solid grades, you may end up accepting something lesser than you can get. In fact, the good jobs are still there after grades come out. So don't sweat the Dec 1 deadlines (unless its gov't or some hard deadline, in general judicial externship deadlines are honestly not hard deadlines, even if they say they are) Better focus on killing first round of finals than killing yourself hunting for jobs while going through your first ever law exams...


Good luck.

I was mostly kidding about the good looks thing. If you spend your whole life studying for law school your first year, then you missed the boat. The semester is 15 weeks long. You don't literally need to study every waking minute to do well. I do agree that the job search should start after first semester grades though, relatively soon after, just don't start as summer rolls around.

This post would have more weight if OP would post his approximate first semester grades, rank of school, and plans for 1L summer.

I got to a t2, somewhere in the top 15%, have a paid job for the summer, have significant scholarship w/ stips.