2L Year

When I started law school I was told the first year they scare you to death, the second year they work you to death and the third year they bore you to death. Well the first year you are running around like a headless chicken unsure of what you are doing and whether you are doing it right or not. Everything is new, and your old study habits are useless. You are told to IRAC and outline, yet it’s unclear what you must IRAC or outline. You read cases; memorize each annoying fact for the fear that you will be called in class. They use Socratic Method so you don't know when you will be called on. Truth be told it will likely happen on that case you didn't read, or you read and didn't understand, or the day you forget your notes at home or didn't read the footnotes. Murphy's Law applies all the time.

So you take your first round of exams do the best you can and wait. You have to wait over a month to get your grades; spring semester has already started by then. There is no point on complaining about grades or stressing because it’s a new semester and all you can do it work hard, study differently, or if you did well continue doing the same. Yeah trust me we don't really like those smarty pants. We already know they will grade on to law review, steal all the best job interviews, and yes they are likely the class gunner.

Second year you think you have it all figured out, after all you just spent the last year being a first year right? Well the problem is you may have finally figured out a schedule that works well but you forgot to add on to the mix part time job, law review, club activities, interviews, mixer events with local attorneys etc. You may now know not to read every single case, or gotten faster at skimming cases and taking notes only on what's important, but you still don't get enough sleep. You continue to compete with your classmates over grades, letters of recommendation, informal interviews, real interviews, summer job offers and scholarships. So maybe you do work yourself to death.

I am currently in my second semester of my second year and all I can think about is next year, where I don't think we will be bored to death but will continue to be worked to death. Since we will have to be taking the MPRE(multi-state professional responsibility exam), preparing for the Bar, gathering information for our Bar application and yes trying to land our first job after law school.