Extensive Workload:
Law school is extremely difficult and stressful by design. The curriculum at many law schools consists of approximately 90 credits, which is normally taken over a three-year period with an average course load consisting of 15 credits per semester. Depending on the law school selected, students can often graduate in 28 months by attending year-round.
First-year subjects typically include such courses as Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Legal Process, Legal Research, Legal Analysis (which is Legal Writing), Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Constitutional Law. At most law schools, Contracts, Torts, and Property are six credits each-three credits per semester. However, some law schools are unique in that these same courses are condensed into four credits and taken during one semester, resulting in more courses having to be taken to satisfy the total credits necessary for graduation.
Daily preparation for classes consists of reading and briefing approximately 15 to 25 pages per course, which equals 75 to 125 pages per evening. Professors, as a rule, do not make reading assignments. Instead, you are expected to have prepared through the number of pages to be covered during the upcoming class period. Some days that means a few pages, other days you race through the book. You will rapidly gain proficiency in second-guessing the amount of material that will be covered during a given period.
With respect to the briefing process, the first step is the reading of a particular case in the casebook, so named because it consists of cases about a particular area of the law. Once the case is read, the student must list briefly (hence its name) the parties to the lawsuit, the appellate court that decided the case, the date decided, those facts relevant to the outcome, spot the issue(s)-that is, the disputed legal question(s) before the court-then list those issue(s) in a question format that can be answered with a "yes" or "no" response. Finally, the student must list the court's decision, and more specifically, which party won the case and the court's reason(s) for reaching its decision.
Generally, briefs are not handed to professors for grading, so many students resort to book briefing after the first several months. Book briefing involves highlighting the casebook itself. Some students write F beside the facts, / beside each issue, L for law, R for rationale, and H for holding. Other students use different colors of markers, with each color representing a certain item; for example, pink for facts, green for issues, and so on.
Not only are students expected to brief the assigned cases, they must be prepared to be called on in class to answer questions with respect to those cases. Students are normally called on at random so they have no idea before class if they will be selected by the professor to answer questions or, if they are selected, the case about which they will be questioned. It's best always to be ready to respond. Heaven forbid if students ever come to class unprepared and are then "carpeted" or chosen by the professor. It is a rough enough experience if you are ready; it's a miserable situation if you are not.
The method professors use to interrogate students is referred to as the Socratic method, after Socrates, who believed students learned by having questions asked of them by the teacher. It's quite intimidating to say the least! For some reason, it frequently seems to be the Contracts professor who enjoys terrorizing students the most. Students are never told how well they've done. Professors rarely give compliments or positive reinforcement; instead, they only question students further. In addition to cases, professors use hypotheticals consisting of fictitious fact patterns and then ask students to apply the correct rule(s) of law. The facts are then changed arid students are questioned as to the impact of those changes on the original rule(s) of law.
Law professors like to see if students truly understand concepts by putting them through mental gymnastics. In addition to daily preparation, students have to start preparing for final exams, which, for the most part, are totally unrelated to daily preparation. Many students purchase study aids to help them learn the basic legal theories (sometimes referred to as the "black letter law"). Although lack of daily preparation may cause a student's grade to be lowered one-half letter, it is the course grade, usually based on the final exam, which will appear on the transcript and deter-mine how a student is ranked in relation to the class as a whole.
One comprehensive final exam per course is given at the end of the semester. If you are sick or have had only three and a half hours sleep the night before, you may be out of luck. Your entire performance for most courses is based on that one final exam grade-good, bad, or indifferent. And to add insult to injury, remember that you're competing with the best and the brightest and that there has to be a top half and a bottom half. There was a T-shirt sold at law school that quite aptly summed up the extensive workload and pressure. Emblazoned across the back were these words, "When I die I know I'm going to heaven because I've already spent my time in hell."
