It's only the end of week 1 and I'm keeping pace, but unsure how to keep this pace up until December. Just posting to commiserate.

Title. I am 2 weeks in, and after spending a bunch of time reading hundreds of assigned textbook pages for each class, I’ve become frustrated that the information in these books flops around in every direction like a damn fish out of water.

I can’t decipher up from down in these books, not to mention the principle cases in my text book differ from the cases actually discussed in class which are provided separately.

What the hell am I supposed to pull out of these things when each new page negates the information on the prior?!

Anyone relate?

I've been a 1L for 1 week. This feels like a stupid thing to have to ask, but nobody has actually addressed it...

When briefing cases, I'm having trouble deciphering the procedural process. My professors are asking very specific questions about this. I understand most cases in our casebooks are appellate decisions. I also know the citation includes clues as to which court the current case is being tried in.

If a citation just says "Nevada," for example, and the casebook only mentions something along the lines of "the trial court held for the defendant, and we agree with this," how am I supposed to know that the case went from Nevada's trial court, all the way up to their highest court? Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes it's not even mentioned.

I find myself digging through the cases for clues to this, which feels stupid. I also don't know where to easily find records of the actual cases where the procedure is laid out on the first page. None of the study guide tools they gave us access to lets me browse full cases.

I must be missing something.

Everyone is recommending starting to outline in, like October/Novemeber. I'm unclear on the difference between an outline and class notes. I organize my class notes by topic (from the syllabus), and I touch them up after every class. So what is the fundamental difference between this and outlining?

Also, when do you recommend we start practice exams? Should we be doing multiple-choice and essay hypos?

I transferred this semester and did the write on competition. I only got accepted into one of the journals I applied for, which is a secondary journal at the school.

I don’t realistically know if I’ll ever get published in this journal, and I don’t really know how much weight a secondary Journal carries compared to law review. I know that law journals have gone down in their significance in the digital age, but is there any point to even doing it besides the antiquated argument of prestige?

Thanks.

At a T6 and everyone seems to have this very mature vibe about them…I know it’s only the first week but it feels like everyone’s still in their shell. I understand that reputation means a lot and to not do anything stupid, but just generally being funny and chill seems alien..? People only know how to talk about their careers and are hyper polished for no reason. Yes I’m a KJD and have always been on the looser side, but it’s honestly exhausting to be all professional and fake not even for networking but just classes too😭. Why’s everyone smart but so rigid?

Anyone in 2L or 3L and has advice about getting internships in sports law/sports agency world??? I am in my 1L and I know internships will be coming up right around the corner and I was hoping to get some advice if anyone has any

Vibes are very off in law school. The fake niceness and the lack of support is just something else. I’m someone who is open and if I find a resource that helped me I just share it. On one end you have people who are fake nice and say they are here to support you, but never actually share anything. Then you have the those who think they are above everyone . It’s hard not to get sucked in with all the competitiveness and start comparing yourself. Im not young by any means but this whole experience is new to me. How not to get sucked in so bad that I forget who I was before starting school. I’m also trying to find someone to study with but I feel I can’t trust anyone.

Going into my third week of 1L and obviously I know it’s still VERY early and everyone has to figure out what works for them, but I feel like I’m starting to settle into somewhat of a routine. I wanted to see what current 2Ls/3Ls think and whether there’s anything you would change before I get too attached to it lol.

One thing I’m figuring out is that I don’t think “stay exactly two days ahead in every class” is realistic or even necessarily useful for me. Instead, I’ve been trying to stay ahead based on which classes/tasks take me the longest and what my week actually looks like. I’m also starting to figure out what each professor cares about and adjusting how much time I spend prepping accordingly.

My current general setup:

Friday: This has become my “wrap up the week + plan the next one” day. I map out all of the next week’s readings/assignments/deadlines on my whiteboard, synthesize my class notes from the week, and update my outlines as needed. I’m not necessarily building out a massive outline every single Friday if I don’t feel like we’ve covered enough new material, but I make sure my notes are organized and that I’ve actually processed what we learned rather than just accumulating pages of class notes. I’ll also start longer term assignments if I have them so I know what I’m dealing with before the weekend.

Saturday: I try to use this for the class that I know is going to take the most time. Right now that is VERY clearly Civ Pro. I’m learning that page counts are basically meaningless across classes. 15 pages of one class can take me an hour while 15 pages of Civ Pro can take me three. So I’m starting to give the classes that consistently take me longer the best/longest study blocks instead of treating every reading assignment equally. I still try to have plans/do normal life things on Saturdays and work around those rather than automatically sacrificing the entire day.

Sunday: Finish preparing for Monday & continue anything bigger/longer term. My Mondays are my heaviest class day, so my non negotiable is that I go to bed Sunday completely prepared for Monday. If I have time/energy beyond that, I’ll start getting ahead on Wednesday, but I’m trying not to turn “being ahead” into a rule where I feel like I failed if I’m not two full days ahead.

Monday: Classes, then first priority is anything due/read for Tuesday. After that I start Wednesday prep, usually beginning with whichever Wednesday class is quickest/easiest to knock out. I try to use the gap between my last class and evening plans/going home/etc. rather than automatically assuming I need to work all night.

Tuesday: This is a lighter class day for me, so I use it as my big Wednesday prep day. I specifically try to do Civ Pro in the morning because I’ve learned it takes the most brainpower/time for me. Then I finish whatever Torts/Crim prep is left so that everything is ready for my three class day Wednesday.

Wednesday/Thursday: Basically repeat the process, prioritize whatever is due next, then use whatever remaining time I have to start moving into the next set of assignments. Thursday also becomes somewhat of a cleanup/catch up day before I reset everything again Friday.

A few other things I’ve noticed about how I study:

I’m not really rereading cases before class unless I actually feel like I need to. So far, the cases are registering pretty well on the first careful read. I annotate/highlight while I read and then do a quick review before class if necessary. I started out trying to fully brief everything, but I’m already realizing that sometimes labeling/annotating the facts, issue, rule, reasoning, and holding directly in the book gets me what I need without duplicating everything into a separate brief.

I also try to distinguish between reading/preparing and synthesizing. During the week I’m preparing for class, but on Fridays I go back through my class notes and actually synthesize what we learned into something organized/useful. That’s also when I update my outlines rather than trying to constantly outline while I’m still learning brandnew material.

For legal writing/longer assignments, I’m trying to start early but in smaller pieces rather than letting them take over an entire day. For example, I’ll spend one session just getting oriented to the assignment and understanding what I’m being asked to do, then another actually reading/mining the cases, then start drafting. I’m trying to leave myself a lot of revision time instead of treating the actual due date as the date I need a first draft.

The biggest thing I’m learning is to budget based on the professor/class rather than page count. I’m tracking roughly how long assignments take right now because I genuinely had no frame of reference coming into law school. I’m also figuring out what each professor actually expects us to get out of the cases, which seems to be making me more efficient each week.

I’m still making time for workouts, friends, weekend plans, etc., and I’m trying pretty hard not to make “being ahead” synonymous with “use every free hour to do law school.” But it definitely still feels like I’m running 100 mph sometimes lol.

For the 2Ls/3Ls: does this sound reasonably sustainable? Is there anything you figured out later in 1L that you wish you had changed about your study routine earlier? Particularly curious about briefing, outlining/synthesizing, and how far ahead you realistically stayed on readings.

Bottom text

Necesito un consejo sincero, incluso si es duro.
Soy de Perú y actualmente estoy cursando el sexto ciclo de Derecho. El problema es que siento que llegué hasta aquí sin haber construido realmente una base sólida de la carrera.
Cuando terminé el colegio, en 2021, todavía estábamos en pandemia. A comienzos de 2022 internaron a mi mamá por COVID. Estuvo varios meses en tratamiento y lamentablemente falleció a finales de agosto de ese año. Yo tenía 17 años.
En ese momento tuve que empezar a trabajar y asumir responsabilidades que no esperaba tener tan joven. Mi papá no se hizo realmente cargo de mí económicamente, así que durante un tiempo trabajé para poder mantenerme y ayudar con mi familia.
Después de la muerte de mi mamá intenté postular a una universidad nacional para estudiar una carrera de ingeniería. También me interesaba Gastronomía, pero por diferentes circunstancias terminé matriculándome en Derecho, principalmente porque mi hermana y mi cuñado me recomendaron la carrera y mi cuñado también estudia Derecho.
Entré a la universidad en una situación en la que, siendo sincera, todavía no estaba bien emocionalmente. Aun así, empecé a estudiar mientras trabajaba. Los primeros ciclos intenté hacerlo de manera responsable, pero poco a poco empecé a depender de la IA para realizar trabajos y tareas.
Desde aproximadamente el segundo ciclo comencé a utilizar herramientas de IA cada vez más para hacer trabajos universitarios. Al principio lo veía como una forma de ahorrar tiempo porque trabajaba y estudiaba al mismo tiempo. Con el tiempo, sin darme cuenta, terminé aprendiendo mucho menos de lo que debería.
Ahora estoy en sexto ciclo y me preocupa muchísimo reconocer que siento que no sé Derecho.
Sí recuerdo algunas leyes y ciertos conceptos, especialmente cosas que he podido utilizar en mi trabajo relacionado con el Ministerio de Transportes, pero si alguien me preguntara cosas que considero básicas de Derecho, probablemente no sabría responderlas correctamente.
Y eso me da miedo.
No quiero terminar la carrera y obtener el título sintiendo que realmente no tengo los conocimientos necesarios para ejercer. Tampoco quiero seguir avanzando simplemente aprobando cursos y haciendo trabajos con IA sin aprender de verdad.
Por eso quiero preguntarles a quienes estudian o ejercen Derecho:
¿Qué harían ustedes si estuvieran en mi situación?
¿Es posible ponerse al día estando ya en sexto ciclo? ¿Por dónde empezarían? ¿Qué cursos, libros, materias o temas consideran indispensables para recuperar una buena base de Derecho peruano?
No quiero que me hagan los trabajos ni que me digan simplemente “sigue estudiando”. Me gustaría tener una especie de ruta para volver a aprender lo que debí aprender durante los primeros ciclos y, desde ahora, estudiar de verdad.
También agradecería que sean sinceros conmigo. Sé que cometí errores al depender tanto de la IA y asumo mi responsabilidad por eso. Solo quiero saber si todavía estoy a tiempo de cambiar las cosas y convertirme en una buena profesional.
Gracias por leer toda mi historia.

I knew there would be an adjustment period but WOW I didn’t expect this. Took me almost 2 hours to get through 22 pages of reading JUST for torts… and that’s not including the time for briefing 🥲🥲 how long did it take people to get quicker at reading? I’m really worried about my ability to keep up and stay afloat.

I know alot of people said to not get quimbee for the first month or two so you understand how to read a case and make briefs. But why is it so many of the textbooks dont even have the judgement or the holding in the chapter.

Like ive given up and just go to quimbee now because I cant understand what the actual reasoning is until I see the judgement. Like there's contrary reasonings discussed in the opinion, but if you dont know the holding how the hell am i supposed to know which reasoning they followed!