Advice for the second year law folks

I hae how I always make a ton of mistakes first before I get anywhere (WHAT IS UP WITH THAT). This is the part where you learn from my mistakes, skipping that first step~

• Don’t skip lectures/tutorials. You’ll spend more time studying later on them, and won’t have the same confidence about the content you missed.
• Prepare for tutorials. I’ve never bothered preparing for tutorials, I just wing it. I’d survive the day, but at the end of the year I had a ton of regret. You’ll get more out of them, and it’s good practice for the end of the year (I didn’t have time at the end of the year to practice exam questions).
• Do the readings as they’re assigned – it’s easy to fall behind. Things will pile up quickly. (Relax, judgments get easier to read. Promise.)
• DO NOT DO ASSIGNMENTS THE NIGHT BEFORE THEY ARE DUE.
• If something doesn’t make sense, take the time to figure it out now. And yes, that’ll mean staring down nasty judgments for hours – it’s better now than when exams are just days away.
• Figure out if you’re a person who studies best referring to both your readings and exam notes, or whether you’re better having just one source to look at, and make your notes accordingly.
• Bring your course materials to class, or be a real pro at summarising (not word for word!!) what your lecturer’s saying.
• BUY A TRUCKLOAD OF HIGHLIGHTERS. As time went on, I found judgments are easier to break up if you use a whole lot of different colours (one for titles, a couple for mentioned cases, another for the bulk of the text..).
• Shower/brush your teeth before coming to lectures. You’ll be sitting right next to people you don’t know. Come onnnn.

And if I ever said, if you use someone else’s notes, you are admitting you don’t deserve to get into Law, I still agree with that. If you can’t get into Law without depending on someone else’s notes, I can’t imagine how you’d survive second year. It steps up (the scare-mongering at the preliminary lecture’s no joke), and LAWS101 looks like a gimmicky happy advertisment for an LLB in comparison.

Having said that, I borrowed other people’s notes last year to make sure I’m on the right track. You see, sometimes readings don’t make sense. And they’re followed by lectures that don’t make sense. Which result in notes that don’t make sense. Forget Wikipedia – you’re no med student (LOL BURN)! Nay! When all else fails, you’re back to deciphering readings again. Groan.

How did second year differ from laws101?

I found I spent a lot more time doing these things:

• Reading.
• Complaining.
• Sleepily trying to find a reason to skip 9am lectures (and alas, my conscience is a tricky thing).
• Learning how to write legal opinions again. Something different’s expected compared to what worked in LAWS101.
• Disagreeing with judges, and then thinking I’ve misunderstood something.
• Thinking about how awesome law is. I’d often catch myself daydreaming about how various unsettled issues in law should be resolved. I get so excited over how much there is to learn. Maybe that’s just me.
• Respecting lawyers everywhere – for studying Law and getting out alive.
• Getting confused, wailing, more complaining, losing the ability to sleep and my mind in general.

Enjoy!