What Is Law School Like?
For each of the following questions, choose the best answer.

1. Law teachers begin class with an explanation of the material and what it means. They then offer their views as to what the significance of the case is and how it should have been decided. Finally, they ask for questions.
   • True
   • False

2. In law school, students study different types of lawyering, such as how to do real-estate closing, how to handle child-custody proceedings, and how to perform mergers and acquisitions.
   • True
   • False

3. Of the following, which student is most likely to receive the highest grade in class:
   • the person who speaks the most times during class discussion
   • the person who has the longest outline
   • the person whom the professor likes the most
   • the quiet person on your left who never says a word in class but who can spot, evaluate, and analyze issues extremely well

4. If a student either fails to attend class regularly or regularly shows up unprepared, a law professor is most likely to:
   • not care at all
   • applaud the student if she receives a good grade on the examination anyway
   • lower the student's grade, reprimand the student, or request that the student prepare in the future
   • chaperone the student to the final exam

5. Law students are generally evaluated on a minimum of:
   • three quizzes and a final exam
   • a midterm and a final exam
   • a final exam
   • three writing courses and a clinical program before graduation

6. At least 20 percent of the first-year class:
   • flunks out
   • cries in class
   • believes at one time or another that they are not smart enough to attend law school
   • will be admitted to an honors track in law school

7. Most law students:
   • cannot be trusted with anything
   • will cheat or steal during their first year
   • have experienced the Socratic method at length in college
   • will receive lower grades than they expect

Answers

1. False. Law teachers ask a series of questions, which, by inference, suggests how to analyze and evaluate the subject matter. It is left solely to students to create a framework of analysis and strategies for dealing with the material. Law teachers approach the material indirectly and implicitly.

2. False. Lawyering activities are not usually taught in law school. Most of the time in school is spent learning legal rules and principles and how to think about them. The various activities regularly engaged in by a lawyer, such as real-estate closing, are learned after a student graduates and enters her area of practice.

3. The quiet person. There may be little correlation between those who speak often in class and those who perform well on exams. The skill of oral presentation does not necessarily correspond to the skill of writing an exam under significant time pressure. There are always students who hardly speak in class but who do well on exams.

4. Lower your grade. The American Bar Association requires class attendance. Your professors make their own policies. Some permit a certain number of absences before lowering the final grade; others are not as strict.

5. A final exam. Perhaps the biggest adjustment most law students must make relates to the evaluation process. Unlike college, where several tests or quizzes are commonly used to determine a student's final grade on a course, in law school one final examination per course usually determines the final grade.

6. Feels inferior. The fact is that law schools and law students are competitive. Almost every student has feelings of inferiority at one time or another, and there is often no positive feedback to alleviate such feelings.

7. Will receive lower grades. Most of your fellow law students will have graduated in the top part of their college classes and will be accustomed to earning As and Bs. In law school, the grading scale is often tougher than in most colleges. For example, a B will generally place a student near the top of the class.