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Law School Class Attendance: Almost Always a Waste of Time

I think it's appropriate that my first post since being placed on the SCU blog roll be one that attacks a sacred cow of law school orthodoxy, namely class attendance and it's effect on your final grade. I've danced around this subject a few times, but this subject really deserves it's own post.

First of all, keep in mind that learning styles are so varied that advice from law school students to other law students is akin to walking into an eye doctors office, asking for help seeing better, and the optometrist taking off his glasses and handing them to you saying, ?Here, this works for me.? It may work for you but the chances of it working for me is pretty small.

Second, you have no idea if what I'm about to tell you is true or not. It may shock you, but you must really open yourself up to the possibility that what I'm about to tell you is just a bald faced lie. In fact, I think it's a good rule of thumb that any law student that volunteers their final grade should not be trusted.

Those things being said, here is the point I'd like to make and that the law school hierarchy probably wouldn't like me to make: going to class is almost always a mistake in law school (at least for me). Now, first year law courses almost always have mandatory attendance; mine certainly did. And I went to almost every single class, read every assigned page in my case book and got virtually all Cs. During the first semester of my second year, I was layed up with a serious knee injury and missed almost half my classes that semester and got all As and Bs. The second semester of my second year I didn't go to class about half the time simply because I was too busy with moot court, trial team, public defenders office, and the community law center, yet I had similar results; more As and Bs. This past semester I was not nearly as busy, yet I went to class fewer times than ever before. (The exception, of course, being the smaller, non lecture seminar classes where class participation is a significant part of the grade.)

I've only got one of my grades back so far, but we'll use it as exhibit A to my point because I did, in fact, get an A. It is a bar course with nearly 100 students. The professor even claimed to give credit for class participation to those who made comments in class. I went to class about five times all semester and got credit for commenting zero times. And I got one of the 5 highest grades in the class (remember only 8-12% of the grades can be an A).

As evidenced by my first semester grades, I'm not one of those legal savants who just are naturally good at this stuff. I've done better my last two years largely because I don't have 7 and a half bar courses a semester like they throw on you during the first year. I take, on average, two bar courses and fill the rest of the schedule with practical skills courses. My overall point is, for people with similar learning styles such as myself (visual reader) listening to law professors regurgitate points made in the reading is counter productive. Staring at a wall would probably more productive for people like me. My formula is not rocket science; I make sure I read all of the assigned reading carefully by the last day of classes or before so by the time finals roll around, my finals prep consists only of doing a bunch of practice problems. Viola.

So, my dear young law students and prospective law students, try this philosophy on for size and see if it works for you.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on January 07, 2008 (boomark / email).