Jul 06
Law School Pressure — When Does it Hit? How Do I Cope?
0L Pre-Law, 1L Students, All Articles Add comments
Kansas City School of Law Professor Barbara Glesner Fines wrote a great article discussing the sources of Law School and Stress, such as—
- feeling pushed to learn massive amounts of information quickly
- the requirement to learn on your own
- the fact that there are often no right answers
- exam pressure
- being socialized into a profession
- and more
It also presents personal sources of stress for law school students, such as—
- lack of time
- lack of money
- lack of exercise (too much time sitting)
- unhealthy eating
- and these sources of stress during other life challenges (engagement, medical treatment, marriage, divorce, raising a family, etc.)
Next, the article also discusses symptoms of law school stress, such as—
- sickness
- worry
- relationship problems
- poor choices
- anger
- depression
- and more
Finally, the article presents a valuable four-point plan to deal with law school stress. I wish I had read Law School and Stress before my first year of law school. I believe it would help incoming law students and their loved ones to know what they will be going through and ways to deal with it.
See also...
July 14th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
[...] The first year of law school can be very, very busy. Not only is it difficult for most students to keep up with the readings for class, there is always more reading a student can do to try to understand the many deep subjects covered in class. The competition for good grades drives many students to study any free moment they have (which is normally unhealthy). For this reason, most students either 1) don’t find time to do other projects, or 2) try to do the other projects and regret it because they feel overwhelmed or their performance in school suffers. [...]
August 9th, 2006 at 9:44 am
[...] Relax and enjoy your new adventure. Congratulate yourself on entering law school. Enjoy the ride. Related Articles: [...]
September 21st, 2006 at 11:46 pm
[...] Deal with stress appropriately [...]
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:24 am
[...] Law School Pressure — When Does it Hit? How Do I Cope? [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 12:22 am
I’m attending a business law class and it’s driving me nuts already. There’s so much to memorize and my teacher doesn’t explain anything. The exam is beyond simple definitions. Most of my exam questions are application or implication base, which are never discussed in class!!
My teacher stand by his decision, I’m prepare to just take a C and forget about it.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Jack: You’ve raised a good point. Every law professor has a different style. Have you considered meeting in your professor’s office to run some hypothetical questions by him? In that way, you can see how he would answer and get a better understanding of his style. Of course, this assumes that the problem is one of style. If the problem is learning the subject, and it’s hard to learn from his style, you might consider (1) learning from another source like a study aid or hornbook, or (2) dropping the class, which might be better than having a low grade. Either way, I realize it’s frustrating.
If it helps, know that a large number of law students encounter at least one law professor that they don’t connect with. Maybe that’s just human nature. The good news is, you can be sure to never take this professor again.