3 Takeaways From My First Semester of Law School
Before starting law school, I was often told that the first semester of 1L is usually the most difficult time for a law student. This definitely proved to be true. The transition from your undergraduate program to law school is certainly not an easy one, but it’s going to challenge you in so many different ways that you wouldn’t expect.
It’s crazy to think back to four months ago when I started my first day of law school, not really knowing what to expect. Fast forward to today, where I can proudly say that I survived through my first semester of law school and my first set of exams! The first semester of 1L was definitely a learning curve for me, and I am still adjusting to a different approach to thinking and learning. After taking some time to reflect on my experiences, I have identified my biggest takeaways that I’m hoping will help you if you will be starting law school, or if you’re currently in 1L trying to figure it all out like me!
1. Work Smarter, Not Harder
This is my biggest takeaway this semester (it has also been drilled into my brain at this point by multiple upper-year students). Don’t get me wrong — law school is A LOT of work, and you still have to work extremely hard to succeed. The key is increasing your efficiency when managing your hectic workload.
The most difficult part about law school is learning how to manage your time to be more productive. Right off the bat, you’re going to be overwhelmed with readings and assignments to the point where you won’t know how to keep up if you don’t stay organized. Prioritize upcoming deadlines and aim to get them out of the way before a busy week to avoid procrastinating and rushing to complete tasks last minute.
A big mistake that I made during my first semester of law school was having three sets of notes for every class. I had one set of notes for readings, one set for lecture notes, and another for my condensed outline. At the end of the semester, I was overwhelmed with the amount of information that I had from each class (most of which was repetitive, by the way), and it became time-consuming to condense them all into a single outline. This semester I have decided to have two documents for each class: my reading and lecture notes combined into one document using different font colours, as well as a document for my outline. This way, I won’t have to flip back and forth between multiple documents and go down a rabbit hole of information to condense my notes at the end of the semester. This brings me to my next takeaway…
2. Do NOT Procrastinate on Your Outlines
This was another big takeaway for me last semester since exam week crept up on me faster than I expected. Do not wait until the week before exams to start your condensed outlines. While upper-year outlines serve as a helpful guide when creating your outline, it’s important not to solely rely on them for your exams.
Outlining and condensing the information into the most important takeaways is an important skill to learn in your first year of law school. You can use them to cross-reference your case notes and figure out the best way that you can organize the content based on your learning style. This semester, I have created one document for my condensed notes in each class and plan to update them at the end of each week. At the end of the week, I go back to my class notes from that week’s lecture and readings, and I pull out the most important information from each topic for my outline. Condensing your notes into a short outline may seem like it won’t take long, but the process can be extremely time-consuming and overwhelming if left until the last minute.
3. Block Out The Noise
One of the challenges with being in an online environment is not seeing your classmates daily. It’s easy to feel as though you are the only person in your class that feels overwhelmed by the chaos of law school when you can’t pick up on each other’s social cues. The reality of it is, your classmates are most likely just as overwhelmed as you are, but you’re just not able to tell that through a screen.
Someone once told me that “law school isn’t hard; it’s the people in law school that can make it challenging”. I’ve come to realize that there is a lot of noise when you’re in law school about grade distributions, the recruitment process, and how many extracurriculars you should have on your resume to stand out to future employers. It’s easy to get sucked into the whirlwind of all the buzz and start comparing yourself and your approach to law school to your classmates. Another takeaway that I have from this past semester is to block out the noise and stay focused.
The truth is that everyone’s experience and approach is going to be different and tailored to their own individual styles of learning as well as to their ultimate end goal upon graduation. The noise can also lead to imposter syndrome that law students typically feel when they start comparing themselves to one another. (If you’re interested in learning more, check out my previous blog on Coping With Imposter Syndrome). Remember your ultimate end goal and stay focused on performing as best as you can. Take advantage of opportunities that can help your future career goals and further your learning, not just ones that you can stack onto your resume.
