Done
The accursed paper is done and emailed to my prof. Such is the culmination of 3 years' work (and plenty of procrastinating over that time).My advice to 1Ls boils down to the following:
Don't freak out about what you see others doing, or what you read in those "how to succeed in law school" books. Figure out what works for you, study-wise. It's true that the habits that got you through undergrad will not necessarily get you through law school. Law school students are the type of people who didn't have to work hard in class, could cram the night before, and still get As if they felt like it. Put all those people together with a mandatory curve, and only 10 percent will get As. No way around it. You have to work hard to do better than the curve, but you don't have to work hard the same way everyone else is. Your books don't have to look like a rainbow barfed on them to end up in the magic top 10 percent. Some people rarely emerge from the library. Their grades are all over the spectrum. Some take weekends off every weekend except right before finals. Their grades run the same gamut as the library people's.
Figuring out what works for you might not get you into the top 10 percent, but it'll make law school one whole hell of a lot more enjoyable for you. Worrying about what you "should" be doing makes law school miserable, guaranteed.
Also, do law review if you possibly can. You will be a better writer for it, which makes all the work (and there's more than enough to go around) worthwhile. Bluebooking is about as fun as it sounds, but it's a skill employers like, and despite what your legal research & writing profs tell you, you'll need to know it unless you're pretty much set on being a litigator (even then, it's useful).
Finally, do something pro bono over the course of your law school career. Volunteer for your school's public interest project or something else that interests you. Law is a helping profession, so get started on that service to others stuff now.
posted by collateral evidence @ 4:23 PM
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