You may have heard people say that you can get by without a laptop in law school. The truth is you need a laptop (we’ve reviewed the best laptops for law school). Although technically you may be able to get through school without one, and you may know one or two classmates without one, you put yourself at a serious disadvantage by not having a laptop for law school.
Why You Need A Laptop For Law School
1. Law School Exams Require Laptops
Your law school will likely allow you to hand write your law exam answers. However, you should never do this. Almost everyone on earth can type faster than they are able to write. This is important during your law school exams.
For the most part, your law exams will be essay exams. This means you will be given a lengthy fact pattern and then asked one or more questions based on the fact pattern and the relevant law.
Some exams answers will have a straightforward answer. However, a large majority of your exams will be “issue spotter” exams which means there will be multiple issues within the fact pattern that you need to identify and analyze the relevant law for. Typically, there will be more “issues” to spot than you have time for. But, the more issues you spot, the better.
Somebody who is able to type out their answers faster than handwriting will certainly get to more issues in the allotted time for the exam. Also, if the exam is a take home exam or open book style, you will be able to copy and paste which you can’t do with handwriting.
This is why you must get a law school laptop. You will be able to type out exam answers faster. Faster exam answers can lead to better exam answers. Better exam answers lead to higher grades. Higher grades lead to prestigious internships. Prestigious internships lead to job offer. Job offer leads to improved lifestyle.
2. Studying and Outlining Is Easier With A Laptop
A big part of studying for exams at the end of the semester is consolidating your notes. There are many ways to do this but one great way is to make an outline of the entire class and all the topics you learned. You can fill in your outline with class notes, questions you asked, practice questions and answers, etc.
This is much easier to do with a laptop because you can refine, reorganize, and search through your law school notes. All of these tasks are more difficult without a laptop because you create more paper and more work when you should be consolidating knowledge and compartmentalizing topics at the end of the semester. This allows you to easily recall the law when you recognize a fact pattern that it applies to on your law school exam.
3. Bar Exam Requires Laptop
After you graduate, you will immediately begin studying for the most important test of your life – the bar exam. All major bar prep courses are online. You will want a laptop so that you can do your bar studying anywhere and everywhere. A desktop computer can work, but it will be way less efficient and you will be confined to wherever your desktop is located.
More importantly, the bar exam uses a special software that must be loaded on to a laptop. For the same reasons discussed above, time and typing speed, you must have a laptop when taking the bar exam. You cannot risk all your time, effort, and money by attempting to hand write the most important test you will ever take. You need a laptop so that you can churn out bar exam answers as fast as possible.
The bar exam gives you even less time to answer questions than you’ll be accustomed to from law school. So, the ability to type bar exam answers quickly is even more important. In fact, one tip for the bar exam is to practice typing out rule statements as fast as you can over and over before exam day.
That way, when the bar exam question comes and you identify it as a civil procedure subject matter jurisdiction question, your fingers have typed “Subject matter jurisdiction in federal court may arise under federal question jurisdiction or diversity jurisdiction . . .” before you brain has even decided what the analysis will be.
4. What About A Desktop Instead of Laptop?
A desktop computer is better than no computer because at least you have something to do assignments on and look things up. However, you can’t bring your desktop to class if you’d like to take notes on it there. You can’t bring a desktop to your law school exams. You can’t bring a desktop to take the bar exam. It simply isn’t as good as a laptop. Although desktops work great if you also have a law school tablet that you can take to class with you, neither of these will be allowed during an exam.
Conclusion – Yes, You Need A Law School Laptop
You need a laptop in law school. It ensures you can get the highest grades possible. This helps you jumpstart your career. Additionally, a laptop will be required for the bar exam that you have to take immediately after law school. So, it makes sense to invest in a quality laptop as you begin your law school journey if you don’t already have one. If you are curious about the best laptops for law school check out our guide and reviews!