In other words, go into the exam with a list in your head of the six or ten or dozen big ticket issues you covered, and throw those against every hypo to see if they belong. I'm skeptical most of this will translate into something that can go into a program because it's mostly mental health advice, but here it is: Keep the same schedule, ideally one that can be mostly mimicked on bar exam day. 90% of my finals so far have been open book, so I concentrate on preparing really good outlines/condensed notes, and then practicing on old exams. So that meant there would be a lot more evidence questions in the afternoon than any other section. Over summer courses, I finally figured out I was learning the wrong thing. I skated by without reading in high school and college and was terrified when an undergrad professor told me all law students do is read and study. For the bar exam, I also wrote outlines based on the lectures. If I found a rule paragraph I liked better in essay 3 than essay 1, I would modify the original rule paragraph. FIVE: Does the question call for a list? Every morning I woke up around 5:30/6:00am and either went to the gym or went for a run. Know if your professor wants you to cite to cases after every rule, some do, some don’t. 5-10 minutes before I go to sleep, repeating the chunks out loud. We could beat it by a few days, but not by much. I then make a master outline from their information and the info I've received from taking the class myself. For current and former Law School Redditors. Outlines? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, http://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/203fw6/free_access_to_beta_of_serious_a_spaced/. When you’re in the thick of it it’s hard not to feel self conscious that you’re doing something different than everyone else, but that’s ok as long as what you do is thorough and works for your learning style. If you’re generally pretty good at a subject, but find that you panic and mess up during tightly-timed exams, you might have some form of anxiety or other problem that warrants accommodations. Law school exams are more skill based than knowledge based. Don't wedge them in where they don't fit. I found the Finz Method extremely helpful in dissecting them. For answers advocating a certain outcome or result, you have explained WHY that is the right result but you have also spent nearly as much time describing the countervailing arguments, and supporting or disposing of them as well. Pay attention as best you can, but don't stress about it too much. As such, I approached law school as if it were a job during my first year. I graduated SCL all those years ago, with only one B+ grade on any exam, from a school where nearly all classes were single, cumulative, essay finals. Use commercial outlines and supplements. Keep a notecard and practice outlining your answers in bulletpoints then check your answers. ", Have you got specific questions? I think just general bar insecurity, probably. What is a law degree? Over and over and over. Hope this helps! I didn't do anything for the first 10 weeks of the semester except try to pay attention in class and listen for the "Buzzwords" the prof uses. Ask questions, seek advice, post outlines, etc. Accordingly, much of law school is spent learning how to analyze case law. Plan to … Can you do it in 250 words? Study smarter. Know the steps on how to logically work through a problem that in that area of law and you should be all set. I want a "good answer": That means you have ignored the irrelevant material in the hypo (most hypos have some red herrings for you to avoid), spotted the real issue or issues (see reverse issue spotting, supra), and written about them in cogent, organized and persuasive manner. Write down the key facts and holding, and leave space for your own notes. So you need to spot legal issues in the fact pattern then use IRAC. Working out was a big part of my life before law school, and I did not want to lose that. I read and take notes all semester, but generally don't review the material until around 2-3 weeks before finals. But I'm betting he/she thinks the same. I imagined trying to read 100 pages of undergrad textbooks and study for 8+ hours a day and it sounded hellish. Do not write a single sentence -- or, heaven forbid, paragraph -- that fails to say something of substance. Read the entire hypo and all the questions attached to it. I mean active studying, not 'studying' for 8 hours where 1.5 of those were on reddit. If the Barbri/Themis/Whatever schedule feels like it isn't working for you, feel free to modify it. I thought I'd cope well with a law degree, having performed well at school. Ilana Kowarski Dec. 7, 2020 What You Can Do With a Marketing Degree This is where a political science degree shows its advantage in law school. Anyway, don't bother. please don't spend any time on that. Like any project, planning is key in the application process. EDIT #2: Jeez. I project April 21. Figure out what study method works best for you and don’t get caught up in doing what everyone else does. THEN write. I think every day I managed to at least study and play vidya or do some other activity. . For example, I'll have the definition of a battery on my outline and then I'll have "battery (4)" in my notebook, indicating the four elements of battery. 805 votes, 999 comments. After I do that I try to get an outline from someone who has taken the course to compare my outline to and then I use that to fill the holes in my outline. I then had a notebook where I took the outline, line by line, and shortened it. Eat. Don't study the day before the bar, or in between days. Your tort prof wants to know about the duty of care and foreseeability and all that torty stuff. (Many students write right up to the word limit on every answer and I can tell that it is often a result of being insecure about what's IN the answer. You'll get used to short, concise outlines while still working on knowing and applying substantive law. That got me through finals and the bar exam. programs are three-year programs, though some are four-year or part-time programs, and a few two-year accelerated programs are available. 45.) Students in this fi… It's comforting, but ultimately it's nicer and faster to have a personal connection to help out. I look forward to your feedback and hope this system brings you great results. For current and former Law School Redditors. Most exams are long fact paterns. Honest. However, what I credit the most for my success is memorizing the rule paragraphs of the Barbri essays. During your first year of law school, you can expect to log 12-15 hours per week in the classroom. admissions at Boston University School of Law… Flashcards? Lastly, practice as many multiple choice questions as you can. During the morning portion of the MBE I had enough time to categorize each question and count the categories. Thinking is really important. When I stopped, I worked out every other day. I almost didn't go to law school because of a similar feeling. Law degree hopefuls should not panic over the dramatic spike in law school applicants and applications, experts say. An extra couple hours of sleep and a walk around the park will allow you to access what you know and understand when the proctor says, "You may begin. Average LSAT Score: 153.8 Average GPA: 3.39 The most popular major of law school candidates is political science. Touching on that last point: every time you do a practice essay, you don't need to write it out. I just checked to see how many people had signed up for beta...about 100 more signed up for SeRiouS since I posted this message about 12 hours ago. (I have one question I often use that does.) I have known people who know the law like the back of their hands and can info dump but can’t work well in the time limit and do poorly versus students who don’t know the law as well but can hit most of the points in the time limit and end up doing a lot better. And don't decide to switch any medications before then either. For the one closed-book exam I had I did use flash cards and that helped me immensely. So make your own outlines using commercial outlines and supplement them with your class notes as your professor might emphasize or add things not in them. Take the exams a week or two before that actual test. Around week 10 I would try to get copies of the professor's old exams and especially the answer keys. My outlines always ended up looking like flashcards, which were all I ended up using for the last two weeks prior to the bar exam. If you take 15 minutes to do that and 45 to write an organized, compelling answer 300 words long, it is going to sing to the professor like no 59-minute 600-word panic-jumble-word-barf ever will. I … The number one key thing is to know how your professor wants you to write. Law schools offer a range of programs to fit your career ambitions and schedule. How to Study Contract Law. Source: I have PTSD and some accommodations. Even so, I create a rules "skeleton" for quick reference if I need it and tab my outline to correspond with the skeleton. In both cases, YOU CAN GO HOME. I could even do something fun on top of my workout a lot of nights. After the first year, I realized that I really only needed the buzzword, the rule, and how it generally applied. This is NOT a forum for legal advice. The crazier the better because you will remember them. You can substitute video games with some other hobby like cooking, which is haaaaa not something I dabble in. Spot the issue, cite the rule governing the issue, apply the rule to the facts with the best reasoned argument you can make including counter arguments, then make a conclusion as to how the judge should rule. A Juris Doctor (J.D.) r/LawSchool: For current and former Law School Redditors. Again, check with your prof to be sure. It depends on the style of the exam. Usually by the time of the test I know the material so well from doing that, I barely use my outline (if it is open book) if at all. I almost never went back to read cases or to the textbook in general (except the UCC and Tax Code). Spaced repetition does seem like the best way to deal with the task of memorizing the rules, which is a significant part of bar prep. Stress stresses you out. For example, last week when I let people know there was free beta testing of SeRiouS beginning in April, within 48 hours, 250 people had signed up. Honestly, this has boosted my GPA considerably. So during that lunch while I ate I studied the section on marital privilege, since it had not appeared yet on the exam. It was diminishing returns after 8, and I sometimes knew I would do it to feel good about having 'studied' when, realistically, I was wasting time, energy and focus. Going to law school is expensive. If I want to memorize something - really f'ing memorize it word for word, I start doing "chunking" a couple of nights before. Try to memorize the rules exactly how they give them to you. Best of luck! Thus, as long as you know the rules, you will pass. Just have a few beers and try to relax. Take this approach instead: Do the reading, extract the key rule from the cases, and think about why that particular case was included. It’s a contentious, adversarial process, and your … I forgot sooooo much stuff during an easy tax exam because I hadn't slept in three days and I started to hear brass-band music during the exam. If you are a first year student in law school, chances are you are having to take a contract law class in either your first or second semester. Cookies help us deliver our Services. It takes ~30mins to read my prof's most recent research articles, and it's been relevant to ~80% of my exams. Go over old tests if they are posted to see the issues your professor likes to test … Watch your caffeine/Red Bull/adderal consumption. Talk to current students and graduates, and learn as much as you can about the school. Your success in law school is the first and most important factor in your success as a lawyer. . Use supplements and case summaries to help you work efficiently. Don't just take my word for it. The science suggests a few weeks is more than enough to benefit from the spacing effect. U.S. News & World Report looked into just how expensive and found that the average student at a private law school spent an average of $40,095 annually in the 2018-2019 academic year. If possible look up examples of prior top students final exams and structure them exactly the same. Issue, Rule, Application, conclusion. Whether you want to be a corporate lawyer or a public defender, you are much more likely to achieve your goals if you do well in law school.. Law students with top grades earn top salaries in their first year out of school. As a returning student (read: I'm old) it took my a long time to figure out what worked in law school. But a major portion of American law actually is case law – the rules appellate judges distill from their interpretation of statutes and other sources. This is NOT a forum for legal advice. Hope you all like it - I think the science behind this has the potential to be a game changer. I'll admit I didn't give myself enough time to study for that test, but I managed to pull off a decent grade by memorizing the various rules and ratios. If you do all-nighters make sure you do them during the outlining stage. When I listened and got the accommodations that put me on equal footing with other students, I made law review. Around finals, I would work with a study group and we worked multiple choice problems together and discussed the process of arriving at the answers. Saved me hours and hours my last two years of law school. edited 3 years ago. Nevertheless, the salary-to-debt ratio was much better than the norm at some law schools, such as the Howard University School of Law in the District of … You don't need to note every detail. The science suggests a few weeks is more than enough to benefit from the spacing effect (even a few days will result in a boost). If he/she doesn't -- still aim to be pithy and succinct. Office hours are important as well especially if you don’t like asking questions in front of the class. Perfect. about 60 hours a week including some time on the weekends and including class time. I won't say "list all the sanctions this attorney might face," then take off points because the answer isn't in the form of a five paragraph essay or a sonnet. The prof's lectures are designed to clarify difficult to understand concepts relevant to the topic at hand, but the lectures will not give you all information you need to do well. I am looking forward to seeing your system in action and will plan on passing it on to students. Press J to jump to the feed. SEVEN: Your brain is attached to your body. I don't necessarily deduct points for that, but padding a 500-word B answer to 1,000 words does not make it a B+ answer.). Generally, then I take old exams and compare them to the model answer with a study group. 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