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How to
Succeed in First Year of
Law School |
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The first year of law school (One L) is
the most difficult year among the three year study, with the first semester
being the toughest semester. There are two reasons for this: (1) Law School
adheres to the mantra of survival of the fittest; (2) No one knows what to
expect.
(1) Survival
The first year of law school requires an
exceptional amount of reading. A typical semester of four courses will
require case books of about 1000 pages each, plus voluminous study aids and
supplements.
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Although classes meet no more than 2-3 times per week, on a given night you will
be assigned about 400 pages of reading (100 pages average per class).
Professors will expect you to read and digest this difficult information and
then be ready to be called upon in class the next day. |
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Such a schedule is nearly impossible to maintain and to not lose your sanity.
There are simply not enough hours in the day. This schedule only works if all
you do is eat, sleep, and study for four months! Working hard is important, but
it is not worth giving up your entire lifestyle just because professors make
unreasonable requests on their students. There is an easier and better way to
succeed. You can work smarter and not harder. For more details see below. |
In addition to the enormous amount of required reading material, another
difficult aspect of One L is the grading system. Most schools grade on a
mandatory curve. At University of Miami Law School, for example, the
mandatory curve for first year student is a 2.7 GPA. That is a C+
average!! That means that the average score of the first year class must be
a C+! So if your class has a few students who write ‘A’ exam papers, other
students deserving of such grades may end up receiving lower scores because
the professor may only bestow a certain amount of ‘A’ grades or else the
professor will hurt the curve. Although most schools have a higher
mandatory curve than the University of Miami Law School, they all place
similar pressure on students because of the ultimate class rank. So if you
attend George Washington Law School in DC, for example, your GPA may be
higher, but your class rank, upon which many firms will judge your
candidacy, will still stagnate.
Finally, the last vital area of concern
is the testing itself. Unlike any other class you ever had, the grades for
most law school classes are determined by a single final exam. That’s
right!
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No midterms, tests, papers, or quizzes. Just one test for the entire semester.
Although, at first, this arrangement may seem great because one can slack off
for the entire semester and not wake up until a week or two before the final,
this arrangement is not what you think. |
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The stakes in law school are much more intense than anything you have ever done
in your professional career to this point. The reason is because your grades
from your first semester are used to help determine who will receive the best
opportunities for summer jobs. First summer jobs and first year grades help
determine 2nd summer jobs, and 2nd summer jobs help
determine your job post-graduation. So, the grades you receive in your first
semester of law school can make or break you. Law school isn’t like college,
where you have four years to improve your GPA before graduation. In law school,
the focus starts right at the beginning, and you only have one test to get it
right. Moreover, since the testing format on law school exams is different than
anything you have ever done before, by the time you figure out what works and
what doesn’t, your first grades are already in. You only have one shot to rise
to the top. Don’t blow it by listening to the teachers. Work smarter and not
harder. |
This brings us to our second problem (2) No one knows what to expect. As
mentioned earlier, law school is unlike any other schooling you have seen.
Aside from the subjects, which are not taught prior to law school (except
for business law, on occasion), the testing format is extremely different.
In law school, most exams are in the form of three-hour blue book essay
exams. Although most schools are replacing the blue book with a laptop
option, the general length of the exam and essay format largely remain the
same. The exam usually consists of 3-5 essay questions. That’s it! Your
entire grade for 1000 pages of assigned reading and 4 months of studying
boils down to 3-5 questions. If you don’t know the answer to these
questions, you’re sunk.
In addition, law schools require that you
learn a different way to write your answers to the essay exams. This is not
the 5 paragraph essay that you were taught in middle school. Instead,
professors look for answers in the form of IRAC
(Issue-Rule-Analysis-Conclusion). Although they won’t teach you the method,
they expect you to know it. The IRAC method should be used in each
paragraph of your answer to a law school essay by detailing (1) the legal
issue involved, (2) the rule of law that applies, (3) your analysis of
application of the facts to the law, and (4) your conclusion.
Quite simply, most essays
are issue-spotter questions. This means that the question will be a long
fact pattern describing a hypothetical scenario. You are expected to read
the entire question carefully and to spot all the problematic issues that
could lead to legal consequences. But, there is a special way in which you
must write your answer. Because lawyers/Judges/professors expect legal
analysis to be presented in a certain fashion (namely IRAC), any deviation
from that method is likely to result in missed points and a lower grade.
So, not only are you trying
to learn all the legal information which is presented to you for the first
time, you must learn the proper way to write essay exams and must to do all
on the first and only try. Sounds difficult? You bet. But, if you learn to
work smarter and not harder, you can succeed.
Click here to find out
how.
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