Pre-Law School Courses
    A trend has recently surfaced in which companies are touting expensive courses (www.lawpreview.com‘s 5 day course is currently $975…and that includes the early enrollment discount!) designed to prepare incoming 1L's.  The courses are handled in different ways.  Some bring in teaching professionals, and a week or more is spent gearing up payees for the law school experience.  This sort of overkill reminds me of the lawyer joke you may have heard.  A lawyer, a doctor and an accountant are on a fishing trip together.  While out on the boat the accountant curiously asks the doctor how much he charges for a tonsillectomy.
    "$2400 dollars", replied the doctor.
    The doctor then asked the accountant how much he charges to file tax returns for a solo practitioner filing a 1040A.
    "$340 dollars", replied the accountant.
    Then both the doctor and the accountant inquired of the lawyer how much it would take to defend against a contract action.
    "how much have you got?" replied the lawyer.
The joke helps illustrate the enormity of law.  There will always be more you could have done.  There will always be more you wished you had done.  The joke also helps illustrate my position on the pre-law courses.  If you ask me how much time it takes to prepare for first year exams, my reply would be "how much time have you got?"  Pre-law courses might help, they might not help.  But there can be no question that the more one works at the law, the better one’s chances of success will be.  Indeed, if you spend 5 years preparing for first year courses, you will probably improve your chances of success.  My point here is this, there is no limit to the amount of preparing that one can perform, both during the semester and before law school begins.  But in the end, you presumably want to live life.  The law school curriculum has been set up to be 3 years, and that should be sufficient.  There is no need to start early.