Comments on: So You’ve Survived Your First Week of Law School

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:32:20 +0000

Just ran across this really great post. I’m about halfway through the first semester of my second year and I’m surprised at how different things are. I hope this post encourages any struggling 1Ls. It does get better.

By: ouij

ouij — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:09:18 +0000

@Dole, I take my notes on paper, with a pen. When outlining time comes around (optimistically, October. Realistically–more like Late November), I recompile them into neatly-formatted & indexed outlines using the LaTeX document markup language.

The trouble with typing notes in real time is that you will be tempted just to transcribe whatever is going on around you. Not everything is important. The key is to take better notes, not more notes.

By: Tales from the 1L Underbelly

Tales from the 1L Underbelly — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:27:49 +0000

[...] school and my job here is to teach you what I can about life as a 1L. Claire wrote an excellent post about surviving your first week of law school, but I’m going to do something a little [...]

By: Claire Marie

Claire Marie — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:07:15 +0000

@Dole, I just used regular old Word and it worked well for me, but only you know how you’ll like a program.
As for integrating notes and lecture notes: I tended to use the syllabus/book-index as the outline for the notes and when something would deviate inside a subject matter I’d insert it under a heading of “Book Notes” or “Professor/Class Notes” to get it all in one document (so case briefs, class notes and my own were all together) and to distinguish between the two in case a professor felt a particular way on a subject (to remember to use that information on an exam).
As far as a study-outline, yes October is a good time to start cutting the fat from that note/brief document. If you keep it organized from the beginning it’ll be almost no trouble at all. My problem was mustering the motivation to keep the regime going so I usually ended up doing a little more work at the end of the semester than I should have.
Best of luck!!

By: Joshua Auriemma

Joshua Auriemma — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:48:27 +0000

@Dole, everyone does this all a bit differently, but my outlining process is generally a matter of sitting down, processing all my lecture notes and rectifying them with my general understanding and notes from cases / book briefing.

I don’t use OneNote (I use a wiki) but if I did I would essentially have one notebook for each class where I take lecture notes, and then my outlines would synthesize all the lecture material by using my marked textbooks.

Of course, this is all a learning process and everyone has a different way to go about it.

Good luck!

By: Dole

Dole — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:35:09 +0000

I just started LS this week, one thing I’m confused about but your site made it a little more clear. In using OneNote i’ve created notebooks for each class

In creating outlines (I should worry about this say mid october – right?), or using OneNote how do you note take, say your readings and lectures

Do you do lectures on one page in OneNote or even its own section and readings in their own section/page?

Right now In my notebook I have sections: General(Syallbi, etc), Readings (Notes from my readings), Lectures (Notes from my lectures), Cases (where I will store my briefs)

How do you suggest?

Thanks in advance!

By: Claire Marie

Claire Marie — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:16:49 +0000

@Shaz, you’re oh so very welcome: glad to know it helped :)

By: Missing Heart and Soul Sucking « No Reins Girl

Missing Heart and Soul Sucking « No Reins Girl — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:44:47 +0000

[...] around the blawgosphere found my little blown out eyes reading the reassuring words over at Legal Geekery that, yes in fact, I did survive the first week of law school. Now, I did two semesters of [...]

By: ouij

ouij — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:59:51 +0000

Things didn’t get real for me until my second day of 1L. A guy in my section came to Contracts five minutes late. “You–what’s your name?” barked my Prof. P.

The late-comer murmured an answer.

“Louder!”

“M— X,” said the late-comer, barely audible.

“Mister X, you will NOT be late AGAIN.” Snapped Prof. P. Then, without giving Mr. X a chance to sit down and collect himself, P pressed on with the attack. “Mr. X, the case of Hawkins v. McGee ended in a nonsuit. What’s a nonsuit, Mr. X? Oh, you don’t know? Where’s your dictionary?”

This continued for substantially the whole hour. The next morning, the rest of the section was fifteen minutes early for Contracts, dictionaries in plain sight, and trembling with fear.

That professor later became one of my best friends in law school.

The brutality of 1L does have something to do with forcing you to “think like a lawyer.” As one attorney I met put it: 1L prepares you to practice, since “the grilling you’ll get from a Court of Appeals is nothing like the grilling you’re going to get from your first-year professors.”

More important, I think, is this: it initiates you into the profession. I met a lot of attorneys on the Metro that first year–carrying your casebooks in plain view will start conversations in a town full of old lawyers. Every old lawyer I met was able to connect with me and bond about 1L.

By: Shaz

Shaz — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:53:08 +0000

Thanks so, so, very much for this. Def needed at the end of the 1st week.