How hard is to pass first year law? (1 Viewer)

[trickx]

Experiences and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[circusmind]

Very easy.

Edit:

and by that I mean passing. As long as you turn up to class, do a fair amount of reading and construct some sort of summary you shouldn't have any trouble passing. Law isn't all that difficult, unless you're really shooting for the stars.

 

[MichaelJackson2]

depends which law school you're going to. i believe at most law schools you don't study very much black letter law in your first year. usually it's just torts and you do contracts in your second year. the rest is filled with pointless subjects such as 'law and society', 'legal reasoning' and what not. so usually it's pretty easy (so long as you do your work). however, if you were in my unfortunate situation, where they made you do contract law in your first year in addition to torts, then it's a little harder but that's not to say that passing first year law is hard. i hear that it's harder to pass first year law if you go to a sandstone university where they intend to weed out the bludgers early on. i go to a standstone uni and during my first year a tutor told us that we shouldn't be too concerned with our marks because our aim is to survive. but i think things have changed since then.

 

[melsc]

Do your readings, go to class, participate and start your assignments early and you will be fine. If you do these things you wont be cramming or sending in sub-standard work.

Do not expect high marks straight away as law and university involves a different way of thinking, studying, researching and writing.

The best you can do is make the most of all the opportunties you can, listen to your lecturers, especially in your introductory subjects as they will be teaching you how to write essays at university level etc. If you need extra help most uni's have essay writing courses, uni-prep or skills courses and mentoring programs - all of these are helpful and even if they teach you what you already know, you can still make friends.

You will find as each week passes you will read and understand faster, know what you must read and what you can skim and you will also begin to think like a lawyer and more independently.

I averaged credits in my law subjects for the first year with one fluked HD by attending almost every class and doing the readings, my marks improved as I got used to the university style of learning and my skills developed.

It wont be easy but you dont need to make it harder for yourself do you work and dont miss class just because you can.

Good luck

p.s. when you have open book exams try and summarise your notes as much as possible, at the most you only need a few pages and the textbook (tabbed) as a safety net. You will see people take in as much as they can, but in the end it just wastes time. My torts exam in my first year only allowed us ONE a4 page and i survived.

 

[Lara1986]

Provided that you turn up to classes; do as much of the set readings as you can (you don't always have to do all, but the more you can do the better usually); make a real effort as opposed to a one hour job the night before on your assignments you should be fine.

Basically - it's pretty easy to 'pass' - getting HDs is another matter but if all you are worried about at the moment is passing, just make sure you put in some effort and don't let yourself get behind or overwhelmed with work and you'll be fine

 

[melsc]

As people said the subjects also affect the difficulty and how much effort you gave to put in.


At uws in first year we had to do Intro to law and torts in first semester and law foundation (sort of critical thinking plus some law in society stuff) and criminal law in second semester, at the time this seemed quite hard however I think we were better off for it. At MQ they only did the non-substantive subjects in first year(i.e. no torts, crim etc) and it was easy at the time but then in second year the substantive subjects seemed harder for them, it was a while since they had learnt about reading cases etc and hadn't put it into practice.

In the end make the best of what you can.

 

[twistedtigers]

My first year invovled torts and contract law which was good as it gives you a clear idea of expectations early on.

If you have a chat board where you can post end of topic answer attempts DEFINITELY do this! I find the most important thing to do each semester is work out the way to answer the questions. Having the knowledge and not being able to apply it won't get you the marks. If you post topic answers, your lecturer and fellow students will comment on it - can be crushing but invaluable when that exam rolls around.

Start your topic notes early and keep them up to date. I then revise them and condense them about 3 weeks before exams. I tend to take in about 100 pages of typed notes - flagged by topics and in the order you would use them to answer your question. I almost never refer to my text books in an exam - its a sign your notes aren't comprehensive. I then use the final 3 weeks memorising my notes so I know exactly what is located where. The danger with taking too many notes is that you'll waste time page flipping and you just don't have the time for that. You need to be thinking about what you'll be tackling next as you are writing the current response. But, most lecturers will recommend taking no more than 10 pages of notes into your exam. I'm a D/HD student so am sticking with what works for me. You'll just need to get a feel for how your brain works best!

Also, from what I hear about how competitive it is to get articled clerkships - you don't want to simply be passing law. You really need to be avoiding pass and credit grades.... although this is just guesswork - I hope I'm wrong??....

 

[Omnidragon]

like really easy...
the key is to get good notes off someone and you wont even need to go to classses

 

[Azamakumar]

I'm gonna say pretty hard, just for you though, considering your astounding command of grammar.

 

[tinfoilhat]

...

congrats on the D/HDs.. i'll def give your method a try.. it's so comprehensive and a great way to keep yourself learning + motivated throughout the year which is exactly what i need after two years of cruising