1L Success

Demosthenes49
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:38:49 +0000

Neonzeus:

Yeah, or talk to someone who actually attended. For OP, TLS is known for having very snarky, know-it-all posters.



In my experience it isn’t so much that TLS is uncivil, it’s that it doesn’t bother to sugarcoat the truth. That can be very bracing when moving from the rather fluffy world of undergrad advisers, parents and TV selling the dream of law school into the reality that law school is a deeply Darwinian process that has a very good chance to chew you up and spit you out. At my T14, I know a substantial number of people that whiffed OCI and now are looking at dropping out - and these are smart, capable people. Law school is a very big step and people should go into it eyes open.



I still think study groups can be tricky as a 1L. It can be useful to review the material with others, but a study group can also adversely affect someone’s grades if participants waste the time focusing on the wrong issues, get caught up in arguing for the sake of arguing, rely on shared outlines instead of doing their own, induce panic because individuals appear to be “getting” the material faster, etc.



This is a fair point, but I think it speaks more to “manage your group well” than “don’t form a group.” This is one reason I suggested OP form a group instead of joining one.



bluebayou:

Silly, but obvious question: how do you know who is “smarter” than you? LSAT score? SAT? IQ? Undergrad GPA?



Lol, if you can find those things out you can try it that way, but you definitely don’t want to be that guy that goes around still talking about the LSAT. I did it based on subjective impression. Worked pretty well too, since everyone finished top 1/3, one of us was #1 in the class, and everyone CALIed at least one class. It’s not a perfect system, but I formed the group about 2 weeks in and it lasted the whole year.