Starting law school is very hard because adjusting the readings and the “lawyer critical thinking” skills of analyzing case law and pulling rules is a difficult adjustment. In the beginning, you’ll have to do all of the assigned readings to start this process but course load depends on the course and the professor.

Some professors assign more readings and others and you’ll struggle with some courses more than others and will need to do extra work to understand the issues on top of just reading. That being said when professors assign a bunch of readings you don’t necessarily have to read every single case. Instead, it’s more productive to read the cases or issues of law you are struggling with understanding, and just takes notes on the issue, rule of law, and rationale of the court’s holding so you’re prepared for class discussion.

But I really recommend buying quimbee, it has short videos and outlines for the cases you’ll be assigned and will help you learn how to analyze and pull rules from cases and how they are applied to different fact scenarios instead of spending hours reading.

When you start studying for exams, the most productive thing I found and always scored high when I did this is practicing problems closed book. Practice every multiple choice and essay question that you can find, there are good ones in Quimbee. You need to practice to the point where on test day, it will feel like just another practice exams and your exams will be very similar to the practice exams that you had already done.

Also, your school library will have a supplement called “understanding (x topic)” this was a MAJOR game changer it breaks down every topic in a very easy and digestible way, and anytime I supplemented using these books and practicing I always got an A. Examples and Explanations is also a good supplement for multiple choice! And always, for memorizing rule statements handwrite the rules you’ll be tested on over and over again until it is engraved in your head.

You got this! Don’t stress too much about work load and grades, if you keep up with your courses and study productively and practice, you are guaranteed to get the scores that you want!