Diary of a 1L
Friday, February 06, 2004
8:35 AM
Okay, I have to do away with comments until I can fix them.
Meanwhile...I want to think of what I have to say to future 1Ls now that I've been here a semester and a little bit. I imagined that would be my audience, by and large. I've probably said some of these things before, but I think I'll gather them in one place:
- Highlighters are good. Use a lot of colors and come up with your own system.
- Buy your books online to save money if you can.
- Make time for a social life, including getting to know your classmates.
- Make time for other stuff like exercising and recreational reading.
- You don't have to be in a study group if you don't want to be.
- It's not fatal if you don't start your outline until two weeks before the exam. In fact, it may not be fatal if you don't outline at all per se. Contrary to popular belief, there's no one right way to study for class or exams.
- Then again, I would strongly recommend preparing by taking practice exams under conditions as close as possible to the real thing. That means get your professor's old exams if you can. If you can't, practice with some of the many exams you can download.
- If you are concerned or upset about anything, don't keep it to yourself. This is actually good advice all the time, but the thing is that in law school you're particularly susceptible to thinking that your difficulties are all your own when everyone really feels the same way.
- Share your notes! I do. Competition is baloney. Being nice is good.