All the tools you need for law school success
Not too long ago, I wrote a post for the Bar Exam Toolbox about rubber duck bar study. In it, I revealed that the idea came from my husband telling me that Duckie Debugging has nothing to do with the Pretty in Pink character. I have decided to dispute his claim, and simultaneously offer up Duckie Law Study as the new thing to try if you, like many of your peers, are struggling with how to learn the law.
[Read more…] about Whimsy for the Win: Using Ducks to Improve Law Study
Have you ever seen the stand-up show Dress to Kill by Eddie Izzard? (If not, it’s hilarious, and a great distraction for a couple of hours if you need a break.) She has a bit where she’s talking to a career adviser, and tells them about these big dreams for her life. And the career adviser responds with “look, you’re British, so scale it down a bit, all right?”
We frequently hear from people who haven’t done as well as they hoped or expected during the first semester or first year of law school. This is really common! Our site is full of suggestions for improving your approach and results, and it’s a popular topic for a reason. Law school is hard. So, seeing your grades and wanting to do better is nothing new. The problem is when you shift from trying to do better into planning to be best – especially all at once. [Read more…] about Need to Boost Your Grades? Set Realistic Goals!
If you spend any time on web forums, you’ve probably read stories about a certain type of person (I think there’s a special haircut involved?) demanding a manager. Of course, the most viral of these stories involve some sort of comeuppance. Like finding out that they were actually speaking to the manager. Or that the person they spoke to was literally the only person in the organization who could help, even though they technically weren’t a “manager.” [Read more…] about Ask for What You Need – From the Person Who Can Give It to You
I love an oversimplified analogy. Law school reminds me of swimming. Some people dive right in. They have to get used to the currents, and they might get tired, but they do just fine. Some people need those little floaty things on their arms. They go into the water knowing they need some help, and they take the time to learn what they need to do to stay afloat. Some people jump in, realize they hate everything about being in the water and get out as quickly as possible. If you’re the second or third type, this post probably isn’t for you. You already know you need help or that law school isn’t for you.
There’s a fourth type. Some people think they’re doing just fine (the first type), and don’t realize they’re struggling until they are WAY over their heads. I’m going to outline four indicators that you might need a boost, and suggest some resources for each. The earlier you recognize the need for help, the more likely you are to get the type of help you need to make it through law school successfully. [Read more…] about How to Recognize When You’re Out of Your Depth in Law School
We work with bar studiers in addition to law students. In the summer of 2022, our bar students were collectively having more trouble than any group of bar studiers we had worked with before. Now, the world has been in chaos (more than usual), and people are still reeling. But we also realized that many of these studiers had spent a substantial portion of law school doing classes online, having pass/fail classes, and just generally experiencing law school in a different way from prior law graduates.
We could probably write an entire series of blog posts about how the pandemic impacted law students and law schools, but that’s not what this is about. One of the (many) things our tutors realized was that this different approach to law school didn’t offer the same incentives to establish traditional law school study habits. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. But if law students don’t establish some sort of sustainable study plan, that void will have major impacts down the road, including when you get to the bar exam. [Read more…] about Study Habits Go Further Than Law School
Some law schools have legal writing, legal skills, and other similar courses set up as pass-fail. Even if yours is graded, this might still be worth reading if your school gives it one or two credit hours per semester, compared with four or five for something like Civil Procedure or Constitutional Law. Many of our tutoring students have taken this as evidence that, when they are low on time, they should focus on the high-credit class and push legal writing to the back burner. Is that an unreasonable conclusion? Not really, no. Is it a good idea? Also no.
[Read more…] about My Legal Writing Course is Pass-Fail: Should I Even Bother?