<p>I have heard many horror stories from those who have gone through law school, but am skeptical as to whether this is typical. Can anyone give me their experiences from first year of law school, including a detailed daily schedule? Thank you</p>
<p>Varies a great deal from school to school. Generally you’ll have about twenty hours of class. How long you spend on reading varies not just school-to-school, but person-to-person.</p>
<p>Usually your first year there are courses that are set for you to take:</p>
<p>•Contracts - the law governing formation, interpretation, and enforceability of agreements, with an emphasis on the remedies for breach of enforceable agreements.
•Property - Real and personal property, the estate concept, some of the issues of landlord and tenant law, future interests, and easements.
•Torts -Liability for intentional or accidental injuries to persons or property.
•Civil Procedure - Civil litigation, including pleading, discovery, pretrial motions, jurisdiction, parties, and judgments.
•Constitutional Law I - issues of the Constitution, including judicial review, the commerce clause, separation of powers, intergovernmental immunity, and related topics.
•Criminal Law
Some sort of legal research course
Legal writing (not all schools grade the course)</p>
<p>Many schools have a set schedule where you take one group of classes term 1 and another group term 2. Students are mostly placed in sections where they will have all of their classes together. I think the legal research and writing may be smaller classes.</p>
<p>Reading will vary from course to course. You may have an assignment where you are doing 20 pages of reading, but it could be the most dense 20 pages that you have ever come across and you may end up reading multiple times and still really won’t understand it.</p>
<p>Assignments and teaching styles vary from professor to professor. Some professors have a no laptop policy, others have not electronics period (which means cells off the second you walk into the door).</p>
<p>Yes, books are expensive.</p>
<p>I made the mistake of reading Scott Turow’s book “1L” the summer before law school. I was terrified as a result. The reality of my 1L experience was nothing like that.
Basically, I ran in the morning, went to class for most of the day, ate and studied during the breaks, and got to bed about 10. A big group of us went to movies or “bar review” on Friday nights, I usually took Saturdays off from studying completely, and then I used all day Sunday to study ahead. It was a very manageable schedule and my classmates were amazing.<br>
I married another 1L, so maybe it was a happier time for me than most people.</p>