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To current students - what was your first year like?

Hi everyone,

I'm a Canadian coming over for law school and am more familiar with how law school in Canada and the US is set up, and I wanted to know how much work you were doing, how you found it initially, how many hours of work you were doing a week and if you found time to balance social life, work experience and your studies... anything that you can tell me that will allow me to prepare for it.

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

superdillon

7

samigirl

Hi everyone,

I'm a Canadian coming over for law school and am more familiar with how law school in Canada and the US is set up, and I wanted to know how much work you were doing, how you found it initially, how many hours of work you were doing a week and if you found time to balance social life, work experience and your studies... anything that you can tell me that will allow me to prepare for it.

Thanks :smile:

First year work in reality is as difficult as other modules that you will encounter in your other years and because in all likelihood you are new to the law, it is even more difficult. Initially, the work is very enjoyable because everything is new but then once you have start producing work the results that you may achieve to begin with can be quite discouraging. But that is part of the learning process. First year results do not tend to count (towards your final degree classification) and most tend to make use of this.
You will probably have between 10-15 hours of lectures per week. 3 tutorials every two weeks and possibly some essay/research to do on top of that.

Social life isn't really a problem for any first years everybody finds time for it. Getting the balance right is a lot more difficult and most people only get it right towards the end of their degree. Although if you are more strict about things then you shouldn't find it a problem.

Work experience you start doing after the first year of your degree. It is really competitive and consequently your application needs to be really good.
A break down of first year results is included in the application so this is a good incentive to work harder in your first year by finding time to do the work.

In all likelihood there will be a Law society at the institution at which you will study and this will help you organise your social, academic and career life.

Reply 2

Lewisy-boy

11

What are you on about with the "required" reading, they list loads of cases for us and i Just got a first by only reading the headnotes, if that most of the tim ... ok key cases i read a judgment, the odd dissent for some controvery, but yea readint the textbook bits is key.

Reply 3

superdillon

7

Lewis-HuStuJCR

What are you on about with the "required" reading, they list loads of cases for us and i Just got a first by only reading the headnotes, if that most of the tim ... ok key cases i read a judgment, the odd dissent for some controvery, but yea readint the textbook bits is key.

"required reading" probably includes a list of cases to read, journal articles may be and some directed reading for textbooks.
Headnotes come in quite handy, but for most cases on reading lists you should really aim to read the main judgments given in the case. This is where the law is really understood. The bare minimum that you should read of a case is how they are often found in case-books.
Textbooks often extract the important parts of the judgment and a discussion of it. But, textbooks do not cover all the main points and a significant part of studying law is through the use of such primary material.
The law as stated in cases/statutes should form the basis of your legal knowledge rather than the law stated by a particular academic in the relevant field that can be found in textbooks.

Part of the criteria for a 2:2 answer is one that uses material from textbooks and lecture notes as this shows a lack of wider reading and critical thought.
As a result it is Cases and Statutes, together with your original understanding and thoughts on them that should form the basis of your legal knowledge. Spending the required hours on the "required reading" should go some way to performing better in exams.

Reply 4

Onearmedbandit

17

1st year law tends to be a learning curve but relatively straightforward due to the lack importance attached to it :p:

Although it is of course a bit important cos they'll come into play when it comes to things like vac schemes etc.

Reply 5

Lush Law

15

I did the bare minimum. I don't think I ever prepared adequately for a single tutorial, I skim read only and often not even that. The only thing that I did properly was coursework, because you'd be foolish not to.

We had 10 hours of lectures + 2 hours of tutorials per week, I'd say I maybe did another 3 or 4 hours absolute max on top of that. It's actually awful! :eek:

I still don't know how I passed..

Reply 6

samigirl

OP

Thanks for your answers :smile:

What do you plan on doing once you finish law school?

And not to ask a stupid question (we have different terminology for different things, differences between North American and British English) - but to confirm, a vacation scheme is when you work over the summer for a law firm? And do you get paid for this?

Reply 7

superdillon

7

samigirl

And not to ask a stupid question (we have different terminology for different things, differences between North American and British English) - but to confirm, a vacation scheme is when you work over the summer for a law firm? And do you get paid for this?

A vacation scheme is work experience at a law firm that you do in your 2nd year if you are studying law (third year for non-law degrees).
They are offered in the summer but also at Christmas and Easter.
You get in the region of £200-£250 for the two weeks that a typical vacation placement lasts.
You generally apply to do a vacation placement at a firm where you would like to do a training contract and be employed afterwards.

To current students - what was your first year like?

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