What you said has been my experience 100%.

You may find law school to be largely useless and very frustrating. The learning is done in a way perverse to what you are used to. Take civ pro for example. Instead of having a case to delve into with research and applicable court rules to learn, you will be given the minutae on all of the federal rules and be expected to apply them to some case the professor makes up. The case, unlike in the real world, will be full of red herrings that make the experienced student tear his hair out because he is used to thinking on his own, while the other students are trying to gear their answers to the prof.

Almost everything you do will be judged on form over substance, including moot court and legal writing. When you come up with a unique argument that works and the prof didn’t think of, you will be graded down. Legal writing is a complete joke. You will be frustrated by having to write in some pedantic tuxedo version of a law memo in a case fact scenario that is full of bunny trails and case precedents that don’t really apply. The best students will be the inexperienced who clue into what the prof wants–even though they couldn’t come up with a legal remedy in a real life case to save their lives. You will be writing your own law review articles for publication in other journals, while other students see no point to what you ar doing and instead obsess with the meaningless endeavor of “making law review.” My point is that if you find yourself frustrated in this way, you are not alone. Just study the best you can and don’t pressure yourself to be the best in the class. Law school really is a big money scam. Try not to go nuts. I know you’re good and I will hire you when you get out.

“You come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer.” Professor Kingsfield, The Paper Chase.

Professor Kingsfield was right; law school changes the way you read, the way you think, and the way you analyze. Not unlike boot …