Many 2Ls across the country are starting out the year with one question—how to pull their grades up from last semester. Students are feeling this pressure on many fronts. For example, jobs want to see transcripts of their law school classes. And 2Ls are starting to get worried about the bar exam (yes, weak test-taking skills in law school can foreshadow bar exam problems). So what do you do?
To make a change you need to go through an exercise of self-evaluation.
It is important to spend time examining the entire academic process—from how you prepared for class and how you studied outside of class to the type of feedback you got on your exams. You want to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Not sure how to do this? Well, we have a questionnaire as part of our Law School Toolbox Course; it will walk you through the process. But even without that, you still need to sit down and critically think about each step in the process (here is a list to get you started):
- How did you prepare for class?
- Did you feel prepared when you went to class?
- Did you review materials outside of class?
- Did you make your own outlines?
- Did you feel those outlines helped you study for and take your exams?
- Did you do practice exams?
- Did you get feedback on your practice exams?
- What did you need to improve on for your final exams?
You must ask for help.
You shouldn’t feel as though you are on this journey alone. If you struggled last semester, you need to go through the process of identifying what happened. This can be done in a few ways. You need to get feedback on your exams from your professors. Then, you may want to visit your Academic Support Services office (or whatever your school calls it) to try to get more advice on how to change your study habits. Or see if your classes have teaching assistants.
But the way you prepared for class last year didn’t work. Something is broken. So you need to make a change.
There are many resources you can check out to get help re-vamping your study process for 2L year. It is not too late to change your law school academic story. You can bring up that GPA. You can work on your study and test-taking skills. You can feel more confident going into your final exams.
If you aren’t sure your school has the resources to help you out, then see if any of our resources may be helpful. Our course is full of information on how we recommend you approach the law school experience (from preparing for class to writing a great exam answer).
And for students who may need a little more help, we also offer one-on-one support—we work with them to figure out what went wrong and what they should do differently. Having a law school tutor to help you adjust your study approach can be just what a 2L needs to change the law school experience. Want to learn more about law school tutoring? Check out our page here and send us an email. We would love to talk to you!
Getting help isn’t a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength! You are spending all this time (and money) in law school and we want you to get the most out of it. Drop us a line; we are here to help you.
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Check out these other helpful posts:
- Surviving the first weeks of law school.
- Law school exam prep 101.
- Getting feedback on past exams is critical.
- Pay attention in class, it can save you time!
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Looking for some help to do your best in law school? Find out about our law school tutoring options.
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