Day 67: What Works in Law School
Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash
A student stopped by my office today and asked for advice about how to succeed in law school. I started by asking him what he is already doing that has worked for him. He mentioned several habits that I thought were great tools for success:
Read the assigned material for class as well as possible, but if you can’t read everything, at least read the cases well enough to know what the facts and issues are, because hypothetical fact patterns on exams are often based roughly on cases read in class
Pay close attention in class and note any approaches recommended by the professor, since the professor will be looking for that approach in an exam answer
Seek out clinical experience, because the way the law plays out in real life is sometimes surprising, and different from what you’d expect from reading books
Talk to people and ask them what has worked for them. As the student said, you can forge your own path from hearing many different stories; you can’t forge own your path if you don’t have the information.
Have a specific goal for what you want to accomplish, the level of performance you want to reach to achieve your long-term goals
Be willing to make mistakes in law school, and learn from them. As a professor once told the student, making mistakes in practice could have serious consequences. Making mistakes in law school might affect your GPA, but GPA doesn’t matter anymore after you get out of law school.
I mentioned a few other things that research and experience say make a difference:
Use the Rule of 7: You can learn whatever you want in about seven sessions
Move from passive to active learning through applied problem sets, like old bar exam questions, CALI lessons, or the Examples and Explanations series
Take notes by hand, not on a laptop. Research shows this works better beause the requirement of being choosy about what you write down leads you to cognitive processing, not just passive receiving, as you listen
After midterms, meet with your professor to learn what your strengths and weaknesses are (even if you did really well or even if you’re really disappointed). Strengths can be repeated and weaknesses can be improved - but not until you hear what they are.
Once you identify any weaknesses, seek out the academic excellence professionals at your school, who specialize in techniques to improve in target areas
A strong work ethic is important, but remember to do things you enjoy with people you enjoy being around. Those things make us happier, and happiness leads to success (not the other way around)
Most importantly, do what the student was already doing: adopting a “growth mindset,” a belief that performance and abilities are not fixed but can be improved with knowledge and effort