Never did I say to do nothing. In fact I said the contrary. You should be getting an advantage which most certainly is possible. The problem is, its not the most intuitive thing.
Much of law school success is counter-intuitive. Because of the curve, you only do particularly well when you distinguish yourself from the rest. By implication, those who do what everyone else does don’t usually end up doing all that well. Thus, it takes a mindset of thinking of what everyone else will likely do and then doing something different. Its a hard thing to stomach. But whenever something seems like the “default” way to do well or get ahead, a red flag should go up because you are likely falling into a trap. Many people fall easily into these “default” traps. Sure, a smart kid who is a real go-getter thinks that it would be smart to read prep books to get ahead. But that is what many other smart students in the class will think. And right there, you have a “default” trap. The truly smart one, and the one who will likely do the best in the end is the one who has the guts to do something counterintuitive that will actually be MORE helpful in the end because he has something that will distinguish himself from his peers in a more beneficial way.
Any time spent “prepping” before school should be in a macro sense, with the only specifics being how to take an exam and what it entails. This is what SO many smart students will forsake because they fall into default traps that take their eyes off the ball. I can’t tell how many people did 0L prep and how few it actually paid off for. Yet I can tell you a select few people who are close to the top of the class and, guess what? They didn’t fall into those traps and spent their “prepping” doing something that would actually distinguish themselves. Allow to elaborate as to what you can do (though by no means “need” to do in order to help yourself out):
–Learn all about exams. Read Getting to Maybe, read the Delaney book about how to take law school exams, do the LEEWS program if you wish. There is a special mindset for exams that most people don’t have coming in that would benefit you SO much. Don’t be the student who falls into a trap and thinks he can learn the law. Be the one who learns something that you ABSOLUTELY can and will be able to utilize to your advantage when it actually counts
–I attribute nearly all my success to taking practice exams toward the end of the semester. But at the end of the semester, you are busy applying for jobs. If I had spent time perfecting and editing my resume in the summer, I would have done even better on my exams. The correlation is just that direct. Make some template cover letters addressed to firms, judges, etc. I can’t describe to you how helpful this would be
–Contact alumni of the school you will be attending. Making contacts early is very valuable and can be the “in” you need to getting a great internship first summer. A quick phone conversation can lead to weekly email updates to keep in touch, or perhaps meeting up for lunch. You want to “plant the seeds” early, and put a lot of time and care into it so that you hopefully form lasting contacts
–Get yourself organized, prioritized, get your head clear, etc. This is sort of the catch all, but take some time for self-reflection and mentally prepare yourself for what is ahead.
Sorry for the length of this post, but I feel like it is to anyone’s benefit to know this stuff. I haven’t even gotten into the majority of reasons why 0L prep is bad (and there are a number of them), but here you have the main reason: because you are failing to give yourself the advantage that the truly top students will me smart enough to gain. Don’t fall in line. Don’t fall into a default trap. And there you have it guys. Good luck to you all.