Studying Tips for Law Students

Before I started law school, I really doubted myself. I knew memorization was a waterloo of mine and I have really bad anxiety which made me constantly worry that I might not finish studying the course outline. I wish someone had told me what to do from Day 1.

Eventually, I got a hang of things. I figured out ways to study smarter and learned techniques to improve my reading, comprehension, and writing skills.

I have a few study tips I thought I could share with you today that might help you have an easier time in law school. So, here goes nothing.

1. Minimize distractions.

The first thing you should do, before anything, is to teach yourself how to focus. You can start by not multitasking. Do one task at a time, instead, and completely immerse yourself. Read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow to better master the art of focusing.

Create a space conducive to learning. Make sure your room is well-lit. Use a bright bulb with a cooler white to natural daylight range. Play some ambient music to improve your mood and motivate you to concentrate for a longer period of time.

Try using a Pomodoro timer for short bursts of productivity and to ensure that you are actually accomplishing things over time. You can set a timer for 25 or 45 minutes with a 5 or 15 minute-break in between sessions.

2. Even when you are not in doubt, read. Read everything except when time is restricted.

Your professors will definitely remind you time and time again to read the full text. They are not saying that to scare you or give you a hard time. They are constantly reminding you to do so because it is the only way you will understand and appreciate the contents and context of the law and or the case.

Read the full case as much as you can! Do your own case digests and make sure that you have a good grasp of the facts, issues, and ruling. But don’t stop there. Read it twice just to make sure you have understood what you have read and that you didn’t just highlight stuff for the sake of it.

References to prioritize:

Codals or the Black Letter Law

Cases

Annotations

Your professor’s lecture notes

Reviewer (last resort)

When time is of the essence, try to plan out your reading schedule ahead and calculate how fast you should read for a certain topic or coverage. Try to be strict with this. You should also learn how to spot unnecessary information in the reading material. If the assigned topic is substantive, you may consider skipping the procedural issues of the case.

3. Recall what you have read.

A few weeks into class, I realized that it is one thing to be able to read the materials assigned and it is another to recite what you have learned without difficulty. We tend to bombard ourselves with irrelevant information when we read cases. Come recitation time, we say “uhmm” a number of times and our train of thought goes off the rails.

I was able to perform better during recitation by allotting time to recall the things that I have learned before attending the class. I would spend thirty minutes to an hour just reciting back what I have learned about a certain topic or course outline. It will also be a lot easier to always refer back to the table of contents or course syllabus. When you know and understand the structure of the reading material, you will process the information better and be able to incorporate the same when reciting.

Think of your brain as a computer software that needs a flow to perform commands. And like every software engineer, you will have to write them down in a way that every line has some connection with one another.

4. Have the discipline of a Lawyer.

Upon enrolling, it is presumed that as a holder of a bachelor’s degree, you have already figured out what study technique suits you most. If you haven’t, then you should bank on discipline to cope because law school is not for the lazy. Studying the law involves serious hours of work, buckets of tears, and guts.

Do not rely on motivation. Motivation is fleeting. Discipline, on the other hand, will take you to places where motivation can’t. So, if you are not willing to develop the discipline that it will take to survive Law school, maybe lawyering is not for you. But if you are someone who is up for the challenge, then you will definitely enjoy your stay.

You will learn a lot along the way, that I am sure of. And it is going to be one hell of a ride.

I wish you well in your law school journey!

Godspeed.