Semester's End: Reading

[This is the 2nd in a series of "First semester 1L wrap-up" posts...]

Last year, when the idea of law school was still kind of foreign (I'd taken the LSAT in October, and I applied in early-mid November), everyone that I talked to about law school generally reacted in one of three ways: "Wow, that's great," (generally, random people who found the idea of law school to be somehow prestigious or mythical) - "Of course," (generally, people who already were in law school, or knew me through a particularly law-oriented extra-curricular activity) - or, "Good luck. I hear it's a lot of reading."

Here's the truth: law school IS a lot of reading. That is, it WOULD BE a lot of reading, if I did it all. Which I don't. Thank goodness.

I found in college (if not earlier) that one of my greatest skills is to somehow understand what a teacher's expectations are, insofar as reading or class participation or test answers go...and then, to perform at that level, or slightly above, but not to over-exert myself unnecessarily. As a doctrine I've since religiously adopted, it tends to get me what I want (a good grade, a pretty deep level of understanding) without the burden of stressing over school work all the time.

I thought maybe I'd turn over a new leaf in law school. You know - read everything. Underline. Or highlight in various colors, for different parts of case law (facts = blue, holding = pink, etc.). Take notes in the margins. [I did NONE of these things systematically in college.] This new system worked, for all of three days. Maybe. [NB: I might have had more motivation to keep it up had we actually been graded on our work this semester. But, uh...no.]

Since then, I found that by the end of the semester I was really only comprehensively reading regularly for (maybe) two classes. [It is no coincidence that those were the two classes where it was at least marginally possible that I'd get called on during any given class session.] I had, in the mean time, become well-acquainted with three of a law student's best friends: Lexis Nexis headnotes (short summaries of the major points in a given case, available online in seconds), Wikipedia (mostly for constitutional law cases - I mean, c'mon...do I *really* need to read that Scalia dissent?), and a good ole Google search. In a pinch, those tools and a few minutes before class (or, a few seconds in class) can pretty much get you what you need to know in order to survive a 2-hour class session. I'm not ashamed that a quick, strategic search plus CTRL+F saved my classmates and I from literally "seventeen minutes of silence" in small group a few weeks back.

So go ahead, call me a slacker. But selectively NOT doing my reading has made law school a ton more enjoyable. I've been able to spend a lot of time getting to know my classmates, and getting involved in extra-curricular activities that I otherwise wouldn't have, had I decided to dedicate myself completely to my studies. Sure, I've got a bit of catching up to do before exams (but I am certainly NOT the worst among my classmates, some of whom haven't been to a certain early-morning class in two months)...but (hopefully) it's nothing a few hardcore days of studying and a few outlines won't be able to solve.

Happy Holidays!

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