It’s crazy to say that I’ll be starting my second semester of law school tomorrow. (Technically it doesn’t start until next week, but I’ve got a week long course beginning tomorrow that requires academic work, so I’m counting that as the start of the semester.) Looking back, although I still haven’t received grades to formally assess how I did last semester, I’ve reflected on my first semester experience. Considering how scary and daunting everyone made the first semester and year out to be, I think I held my own. Somewhere along the way I developed these ideas about how to do first semester that I now know are myths. So I am taking the time to debunk, demystify, or de-whatever-you-want-to-call-it those myths. Here are four of the biggest myths about my first semester of law school:
Myth: First semester/year will be all work and no play.
Reality: You have time for what you make time for.
Coming into my first semester of my first year in law school, I had heard horror stories of how difficult it would be. People spoke of how there would be significantly less sleep, more late nights, and almost no time for anything outside of school. The reality is, all of that is true if you don’t have time management down before or while you’re here. There are opportunities to socialize and go out. You can get enough sleep. You can still make time for fitness at the gym. I still had time to work on this blog and share content on social media on a relatively consistent basis. That isn’t to say that you won’t need to make some adjustments. You just need to be more intentional about your priorities to stay on top of your work.
Myth: Everyone will be cut throat.
Reality: Although there are plenty of competitive “type A” students, many are willing to share resources and help each other.
I don’t know how or why, but I got the impression that everyone in law school would only ever be looking out for themselves. My mind was filled with stories of people making secret study groups or hoarding outlines (law school study guides) just so that they could do better than everyone else. I vowed that no matter who was around me, I’d do me and stay true to self because it’s really never that serious. It turns out that there are plenty of mature and kind people who know that having access to certain resources or information won’t necessarily make you perform better on an exam (it’s also kid of a sad realization about law school but I digress). The point is, there were a surprising amount of people who had no issue sharing any resources they came across.
Myth: Attending office hours often and consistently will significantly improve your performance.
Reality: Office hours will only be as helpful as the effort you put in to figuring out your weak spots. On top of that there are TA review sessions that may be more helpful than office hours.
I never attended a single office hours session in college. So coming into my first semester of law school I had made up in my mind that from day one I would go to office hours to build relationships and improve my performance. Many older students suggested going to office hours, so I made a point to do so for classes I needed the most help with. However, the reality is that if you don’t go to office hours with clear questions in mind, it may not be that helpful for you. People go to office hours for many reasons, and sometimes they go just to become a familiar face to the professor or to talk about something unrelated to the subject of the class. If you’re genuinely confused about a topic, you may be better off going to the TA review sessions if your school has them. I found those to be much more helpful towards understanding the material than going to office hours. Additionally, exams are graded anonymously, so going to all of the professor’s office hours likely won’t give you brownie points towards your final exam grade.
Myth: You should be in a study group.
Reality: Study groups aren’t always productive for every class. Figure out what works for you based on your study habits and the course material.
Before law school, I had developed a habit of studying alone. It just seemed like the best way to actually make sure I studied the material and stayed focused while doing so. I knew that study groups could be more distracting than they are productive, so at the start of the semester when everyone was in a frenzy to find study groups, I didn’t. Yes, there were definitely people who had locked in their study groups the first week of class. But as someone who didn’t necessarily have a consistent study group until finals, I can tell you that I felt perfectly fine studying alone for most of the semester and then coming together with other people to do some finals review. The reality is everything you do in law school, or in life in general, should have a purpose. If a study group is not going to be purposeful for you, don’t do it.
Final Thoughts
This goes without saying and it applies to all of my blog posts, but the ideas in this post reflect my own experience. Every law school is different. Everyone comes into law school or grad school with different ideas of what the experience is going to be like. I’ve just shared ways in which my experience so far has turned out to be vastly different from what I expected based on other’s experience and the general stereotypes about law school. Thanks so much for reading and good luck to anyone getting ready to start another semester!
“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
