How I Am #1 In My Class At Law School- The Secret Truth
The honest truth, I didn’t have a life. The good news, you only have to have no life for a really, really short amount of time. Before you start thinking, ‘ughs just another upper class spoiled brat who wants to show boat about their success and lack of mental health,’ that is not the case.
In undergraduate I received two pieces of amazing advice about law school. They are PIVOTAL and can not be understated: 1.) Only go to law school for free, and 2.) The first year is all that matters.
That advice led me to choose a law school (after scouring the 509 Law School Reports), that gave out full scholarships and my LSAT scores placed me above their average.
That advice also led me to be competing in a law school environment, that while stressful, scary, and new, also was honestly kind of fun. It introduced me to two of some of the best friends I’ve ever had. So, you’re probably thinking…. ‘okay but this doesn’t explain how you do well.’ It kind of does.
First Major Key: Type Up All Notes. I knew my cousin, who is a certifiable genius and had done amazing in a competitive Masters program, typed up her notes after every class. From day one, I hand wrote notes from class and typed them up after. It wasn’t “pretty notes.” In fact, it was hella sloppy and probably not english most of the times. TYPE THEM UP. Everyone always talks about “outlining” well, you’re basically doing it while not doing it from day one.
Second Major Key: Find Similar Friends. Everyone always talks about, “study groups!” It’s a mantra law administration shouts at you over and over and can be daunting. I lucked out when I talked to someone about half-way through law school and realized we were very similar in caring about school and we both had been outlining/typing up notes since the beginning. THIS WAS KEY: we started to stay after everyday and work together. Basically, we were working separate. However, just having someone to talk to as I worked about concepts made me less likely to quit and give up.
Biggest Key: TIMING IS EVERYTHING. About second week of October, after Fall break, I realized that I had no grades (its how law school works), and a massive 4 hour tests in every subject at the end of November. I knew from Undergrad that in hard classes 2-weeks sometimes had not been enough time for me to do well on much shorter exams. Basically, I panicked and stopped having a life for about 2 months. I gradually stopped going to boxing classes every day after class like I had been, and started just staying in the schools libraries working on my outlines. I sat in nice locations, went for walks around our pretty campus, and ate campus Subway for dinner like I was the biggest fan of the product. It allowed me to be prepared for every exam, on time, without burning myself out because I didn’t really devote myself till after Fall Break.
Fourth Key: Make Outlining Fun. First tip, use google docs. Do not risk losing everything you do, when you have multiple 100+ page documents- google docs is the friend you need. I used bookmarks for everything, and kept it on offline access, so I could always reach materials if I needed them. Outlines- are your massive prep for the exam. Therefore, 1.) Identify what you think the exam will be like (past exams- ask professor), 2.) Try and make your outline like a massive answer key/fill in the blank to this exam, 3.) Try and take practice exams with this answer key to see if it works for you. 4.) Obnoxiously highlight, add jokes, do what you need to do to make the process kind of enjoyable and not hell.
Overall: I gave up expectations of having a life for about 2 months of every semester before exams and found success. The time passes and before you know it you have grades for the first year, are ranked against your classmates, and that ranking is ALL YOU HAVE when applying for big paying employers for 2L Summer Jobs, that become your law jobs. It is WEIRD, the first year is all that matters!!! So YOLO, time your grind, make it count! You got this :)
