<p>Depends on class and style of teaching. For many, where the socratic method is still the norm, you basically have a casebook to read which has shortened versions of actual case opinions with each opinion followed by questions you can attempt to answer. As a freshman, you will be assigned some of the cases to read per class. Often it is only 10 to 15 pages of material per class. However, as the phrase was coined by Scott Turow, the author of One L, you will quickly discover that trying to read and understand the material is “like stirring concrete with your eyes.” You are trying to figure out what the case actually stands for legally and how it applies to other situations. You end up reading, re-reading, thinking, doing some of the questions. You even go to things called hornbooks for explanations of legal principles to see if that will help you understand. After about 4 or 5 hours covering 10 pages, you will think you might have it. Then you go to class and the Prof just starts asking questions that relate to the cases, never giving any real answers but attempting to drag out understandings from students who are put on the spot and lead them into the direction of where they should be. About 5 minutes into the class, you realize that you understood nothing of what you read and you feel lost in the wilderness and pray the prof doesn’t call on you. You want to give up that seat you initially took near the front of class where you might be called on and move where you can’t be seen. Here you are an A student in college and you feel like you are ignorant. That lost in the wilderness feeling continues in varying degrees for a couple of months. Then, at some point, say 6 to 8 weeks into the semester, little lightbulbs start going off in your head and suddenly you actually understand what you did in the first two weeks of class. Thereafter, you play mental catch-up for the rest of the semester.</p>