Orientation will probably be the beginning step, where the professors and dean will give speeches about how special you are for being there. If you have gotten into law school, you are special.  

The syllabi will come out days before it is time for classes to start. Law school is not like undergraduate or even regular graduate school. In those programs, you show up on the first day with nothing done, you receive the syllabus, and you talk about what is in store for the semester. Not so in law school. In law school, you are expected to show up having read and completed the first assignment. If you haven't done this, the professor may call on you and embarrass you in front of the class. If this happens, be sure to sit in a totally different part of the room next class, so nobody realizes it was you who was not prepared.

Each evening, when you get home from school you should do your reading assignments and take organized notes and turn them into outlines. Then, after the class in which you have discussed each reading assignment, you must go back to your outline, and add in notes from the professor's lectures.

These outlines will be what allow you to study and pass the exams at the end of the semester. Don't put them off, because in order to really understand the case law, you have to study it as you go.

The first year of law school is going to be unlike any other experience you have had before, and it basically boils down to the following 7 issues:

1. Don't show up to the first day of law school unprepared. Generally, law school professors will post reading assignments prior to the first day of class. Be sure to complete the reading assignments and be prepared to answer tough questions on the first day, questions designed to get you and your law school classmates to start thinking like a lawyer.2. You will be enrolled in the basic first year law school classes - contract law, tort law, criminal law, property law, and civil procedure - not to mention legal research and writing. These first year law school classes will lay the foundation of the rest of your law school experience. You will learn the law in each area based on analyzing court opinions3. Be prepared to pay a costly price for your law school books. You may very well be able to find used books at a cheaper cost, but it may not be worth it if the books are already highlighted and marked up.
4. Be on the lookout for law school study groups. One of the best ways to prepare for law school exams is to create outlines for each law school subject. Law school study groups are a great way to collaborate with other law school students to create a master outline and be sure that nothing goes untouched.
5. Law school exams generally consist of one final exam at the end of the semester. This can be quite different than what you were used to in college. Your entire grade will be based on this final exam, which will generally consist of the entire matter covered during the course of the semester. These law school exams are generally essay-based and require you to take a complex factual story and identify legal issues and defenses.
6. Think you did well on an exam, but still only managed a B plus? Well, in law school, most professors will only hand out so many A's and so many B's. So essentially, you are competing against your fellow law school classmates.
7. Don't worry about your first summer legal working experience. Spend the first semester studying, studying and studying and trying to maximize your grades. Generally, employers will start interviewing and accepting resumes from first-year law students for internships or clerkships in winter semester, and will offer interviews based on your first semester law school grades.