20 Tips for Success in Law School
6 min readMar 16, 2021
- DO THE READING. Do all of the reading assigned for your courses. Do not fall behind; you may never catch up. Do your reading at times of the day when you are most alert. Also, do your reading in a location where you will not be distracted or tempted to do something else. Otherwise, you will find that it takes you far longer than necessary to prepare for class.
- BRIEF THE CASES. Take notes while reading. For each assigned case, write down the legally significant facts, the holding of the case, and the rationale for the court’s decision. This is what is referred to as “briefing” cases. Your case briefs should be just that-brief.
- REVIEW BEFORE EACH CLASS. Review your reading notes (case briefs) right before class. That way, the cases will be fresh in your mind, and you will substantially increase your ability to follow the class discussion (not to mention avoid the embarrassment associated with being unprepared when called upon by the professor).
- GO TO CLASS. Most professors cover some material in class that is not discussed in the reading, so failure to attend class will put you at a big disadvantage when you take the final exam. Also, you will receive an “FW” if you miss more than 20% of the sessions of a course. This is factored into your grade point average as an “F” and is never removed from your academic record, even if you retake…
