School Supplies for Law School - A first Sem Student's Recommendations

First steps are always the hardest and probably the scariest of all. That's for life and especially for making such big changes as for example transitioning from High School to University.
 I personally had major respect for that transition, as I have quite bad anxiety and changes tend to really scare me. Hence I wanted to be as prepared as possible and definitely did my research on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g Law School related, including supplies and essentials for class and for studying.
I didn't actually find that much good advice except maybe on my favorite Law School blog, which is by Nikki Boyd.
Anyway. After two months of actually being in Law School I have tried out a few different methods and supplies and can now say that I am pretty happy with what I've figured out.
(! I will be doing a 2nd part of this post in Feb/March, after exam season to tell you exactly what I used for studying; so look forward to that!)

School supplies I use and work with in Law School:

·      MacBook Pro 13’’

(or any small Laptop/iPad)

I just started using my laptop for Law School. We weren’t allowed to use electronic devices in High School, so this one was def a change for me. The first week or so, I relied entirely on pen and paper but as I quickly realized, professors like to add information to previous topics three lectures later and it’s kind of hard (and messy!), having to add points to your notes later on. Also, as the lecturers like to go through their presentation pretty fast and provide so much important information in so little time, my handwriting became horribly scribbly as I tried to keep up. It just overall did not work for me at all, that’s why I transferred to using my MacBook which I cannot recommend enough.

Also, if you do decide to use an Apple device, I totally recommend working with Pages, since it is really easy and kind of minimalistic (which I like) and you can also easily share it to all your devices (iPad, iPhone, iMac…); whereas I also tried working with Word but it just didn’t quite convince me.

·      Simple white binders

I do print out everything I type after like a week or so (when it’s unlikely that the professor will make any further additions) and put it into separate binders. I will be using those for studying in exam season since I don’t love to study straight from electronic devices.

In my first couple of weeks in Law School, I used one big binder for all of my subjects together but that was just getting way too heavy after some time.

(check out my post on how to diy cute binders)

·      Spiral bound Notepads

One of my professors (criminal law) does make us print out worksheets for each lecture with which we have to work with, using pen and highlighters. When I make additional notes in this class, I do write them on my notepad and not on my laptop. 

 

·      Stabilo Boss Original pastel Highlighters

These are the highlighters that I use for criminal law. You could obviously use any highlighters that you like but these ones are pastel colored which looks super cute!!

·      Lily Pulitzer Planner (size medium)

I used the Lily Pulitzer planner in my senior year of High School and I absolutely loved everything about it -the design, the many features, the structure. Hence, I bought it again for this school year. 

I don’t love it any less, though I do have to admit I barely ever use it since I kind of only use my phone’s calendar. 

Still, I’d 10/10 recommend, solely for the aesthetic haha.

·      Schneider Xpress 0.8mm black fineliner

I got used to writing with black fineliner in High School and I’ve definitely tried out a number of different ones throughout the years but I can 100% say that this one is by far the best pen I’ve ever tried. Not gonna lie. 

xx Lady Lawyer :)