WHAT TO DO IN LAW SCHOOL

Kiesel, Boucher & Larson LLP

So Professor Doe assigns you thirty-eight pages of materials to review in advance of a ninety-minute class two days from now.  On a scale from one to ten, which of the following are the most important for you to do? 

• Read the thirty-eight pages
• Brief (means "take structured notes about") the thirty-eight pages
• Arrive at the class on time
• Pay close attention to what the professor says during class
• Take careful notes during class
• Be prepared to discuss the materials during class
• Ask good questions during class
• Review your notes after class
• Summarize your notes after class
• Further condense your notes during the weekend
• Ask questions after class
• Attend office hours
• Participate in a study group
• Review the topic discussed in class in a commercial outline
• Answer five commercial test questions regarding the topic addressed during the class
• Write an essay based upon a question about the topic addressed during the class

• Approach 1:  The Standard Approach

The average intelligent, hard-working law student will read and brief the thirty-eight pages and take good notes during class.  She will be sufficiently prepared to discuss the materials in case the professor calls on her during class.  After the class session is over, she will feel pressed for time to prepare for another class, and she will turn her attention to that.  She will devote little or no time to many of the other activities on the list above.  After spending most of the semester preparing for class sessions, she will squeeze some time in to prepare her course outlines.  Then she will cram for the final exams with a week or so remaining in her courses.

• Approach 2:  A Better Way

A better approach involves valuing the activities on the list above differently and investing time and effort in them according to their importance.  Here is my opinion regarding the value of the activities on a scale from one to ten, with ten being most important:

Item	Importance:
Read the thirty-eight pages	5
Brief the thirty-eight pages	5
Arrive at the class on time	10
Pay close attention to what the professor says during class	10
Take careful notes during class	10
Be prepared to discuss the materials during class	5
Ask good questions during class	2
Review your notes after class (as soon as you can)	10
Summarize your notes after class (as soon as you can)	10
Further condense your notes during the weekends	10
Ask the professor follow-up questions at the end of class	1
Attend office hours	9
Participate in a study group	7
Review the topic discussed in class in a commercial outline	7
Answer five commercial multiple-choice questions regarding the topic addressed during the class	9
Write an essay based upon a question about the topic addressed during the class	9

During class, take careful notes.  Then prepare a one-page or-less summary of those notes after the class, preferably right away, and definitely before the next class.  Compare your summary with that of one or two trusted classmates who have adopted the same approach (this will be your study group).  Attend office hours for the specific purpose of determining whether your class summaries are complete and accurate.

Combine your class summaries into one document.  Further condense that document during the weekend (this is known as "outlining").  Review a commercial course outline and several commercial test questions that address topics discussed during the class to reinforce what you know about what you have summarized.[2] Now write practice essays based upon past exam questions in the course, questions from a commercial outline, questions presented by your professor, or good questions from any other source.  Get feedback from your professor about how good your essays are. 

The standard approach tends to yield average results.  It consists mainly of trying to absorb and understand voluminous amounts of information in advance of classes throughout the course, then pulling everything together at the end sufficiently to survive the final exams.  Approach 2 is better because its structure automatically begins to prepare you for the final exam, keeps you on track throughout the course, and lets you think more deeply and carefully about the topics presented in your courses. 

If you adopt Approach 2, you need to realize that you may not perform as well when you are called on in class.  This is because you will spend less time and effort digesting and briefing material in advance of class, specifically so that you have more time to solidify your understanding after class. 

Before class, you can only guess what the professor considers essential in your massive reading assignment.  After class, you have heard the professor tell you what to focus upon.  Adopting Approach 2, you will reflect upon that, and then apply it to practice problems.  This will prepare you far better for the final exam, upon which your entire grade generally rests. 

The fact that Approach 2 stresses reviewing after class does not mean that preparing before class is unimportant.  It just means that reviewing after class is much more important. 

Adopting the standard approach, most students will wind up playing catch up ball throughout their law school careers.  They will believe this is normal, that it is the way law school is supposed to be.  They will conclude that students who excel in law school do so because they are just that much smarter. 

Notice, though, that the differences between the "standard" and "better" approaches have nothing to do with who is naturally more intelligent.  These are simply different approaches to processing information. 

The game of law school, especially in the first year, is exam preparation.  This makes some sense didactically given that law school courses tend to be oriented toward litigation.  It may be argued that in litigation what counts is what the lawyer presents to the judge, jury, or opposing counsel, such as at trial, and not what she does beforehand to prepare for that presentation.  So if the final examination is analogous on some level to a trial, then it makes sense to evaluate a student based upon performance in the exam room, and not upon events leading up to that performance. 

That said, competitions are won in practice.  Approach 2 is designed strategically to enable any student to play the exam preparation game much better by conditioning and preparing that student for the exam from the outset.          

• The Most Important Things You Can Do In Your Law School Courses

Each class lecture will probably generate about ten pages of single-spaced text.  Your objective is to convert the ten pages of mush into a few paragraphs that you can memorize and actually work with to solve legal problems.  You want to isolate the rules discussed during the class, and the examples ("cases") that were presented to show how these rules apply.  

Just before you enter the next class session with Professor Doe, review your one-page summary from the last class, and have it with you when the class begins.  Some professors like to open with, "So Mary, can you refresh the class's memory about what we discussed last time?"  You'll be a star if you can answer concisely and accurately.  You'll want to melt into the floor if you have focused so much on preparing the current assignment that you cannot recall the details of what happened last time.

At the end of each week, add your class session summaries to your summary of the course (this is your "course outline") and condense the outline further.  Then, well in advance of the exam - and no later than halfway through the course - begin applying your outline to practice essays and multiple choice questions.  (It is helpful to remember that the question stems for many multiple choice questions make good essay questions in and of themselves.) 

Many law school students have no clue what they are supposed to do during the first semester, if ever.  Law schools typically grade on a curve and class participation does not count.  The grading is based entirely upon exam performance.  There may be a mid-term, but typically everything rides on the final.  If you prepare steadily and consistently throughout the course, you will perform better relative to those who start to prepare in earnest a week or two in advance of the exam.  In other words, you will perform better relative to most students.

• How to Prepare Before Class

Instead of trying to plow through a case in a single reading, read it three times.  (1) Skim it without marking the pages.  (2) Review it again, focusing on what you think is actually important to know.  (3) Read the case with an eye toward sparsely highlighting to identify (a) the key facts, (b) the legal issue addressed (there will only be one or two for purposes of your class), (c) the rule that the court announces in the case, and (d) how the court applied the rule to the facts to solve the parties' problem.  Then, in a paragraph or two, write down the key facts, the issue, the rule, the court's reasoning, and the court's holding. 

At that point, you are done.  You are ready to discuss the case if you are called on in class, so move on.  Just get a handle on the facts, issue, rule, reasoning, and holding so you can take a stab at answering questions if you have to.  If you spend inordinate time preparing in advance, you will not have sufficient time to review after class.

   

• What to Do During Class
  

You have probably heard that the average person processes about 30% of what she hears.  This may be sufficient for daily life, but a law school student cannot afford to be so inefficient.  When you are in class, you must pay careful attention to everything the professor says.  The reading materials will not make it clear what rules and examples you need to know for the final exam, but during lectures the professor generally will.

Bear in mind that the rule for the exam is whatever the professor says it is, not what is in the book, and not what the law actually is.

If you are called upon to answer a question, do not worry.  Just do your best based upon the preparation that you have done.  How you handle or ask questions in class has nothing to do with your grade.  You just need to prepare sufficiently to have something to say, to maintain the professor's respect, and to help the professor keep the class flowing along.

• What Study Groups Are For

Study groups are for comparing one-page summaries and outlines with one or two other students to determine, to the best of your ability, that they are accurate and complete. 

They are also for working with practice questions, essays, and exams.  They are for maintaining the discipline and motivation of their members.  They are for forging lasting relationships with colleagues. 

If by chance you find yourself in a group that wastes time, flee. 

If you work well on your own, do not feel the need to be in a study group, especially initially.  You will get to know who the most effective students are.  Many of them will gravitate eventually toward others who also study effectively. 

 

• How to Use Office Hours

Office hours are for confirming that your one-page summaries and outline are accurate and complete.  You can do that alone, or you can go with members of your study group.

Professors typically post regular office hours and also state that they can arrange another time to meet upon request.  Arrange a special time instead of coming to the regular hours.  Otherwise you risk waiting upwards of half an hour for some other student to ask questions that do not help you confirm that your summaries and outline are accurate and complete, and getting short shrift because the professor runs out of time for you. 

Additionally, professors sometimes do not show up for the regularly scheduled office hours because no one tends to come to them.  If you arrange a special time to meet in advance, the professor is more likely to be there when you arrive. 

Do not schedule your special appointment time for just after class or most of those who hang around to ask generally useless questions after the class session is finished will tag along for the ride, often at the professor's invitation, and waste your office hour. 

During office hours, you can also ask the professor for sample questions to work on, and to review your answers to practice exams that you have taken.  Do this starting early, no later than halfway through the course, because the professor will not give you much attention if you present a sample exam for comments near the actual exam.  Professors tend to notice, appreciate, and reward consistent preparation.

You are there so you can nail the topics at hand and move on.  Make sure you get clear responses to your questions from the professor during your office hours. 

 

• Pay Attention to Your Physical Needs

Getting four hours of sleep a night is not conducive to learning.  If you prepare adequately for class, take careful notes, reduce them to one-page summaries shortly after class, outline, and work on applying your outline to additional examples, then you should not be sleep deprived or overly stressed, such as during the week before the exam when many of your classmates are contemplating suicide.  A proper approach to law school involves getting sufficient sleep, eating well, and being able to have some exercise and recreation.

• Be Prepared for Tricks

In class, the professor may introduce hypotheticals that seem informal and "off the cuff."  One of more of these may well show up on the exam.  These are not just informal statements for the class's general edification.  They are integral to the instruction.

The professor may throw out something critical at the very end of class, just as everyone else is packing up and getting ready to leave after a long class session.  Be sure not to miss it.

The professor may intentionally state the rule in a jumbled and garbled way, or state it five slightly different ways, forcing you to craft your own, single, clear statement of the rule.  Just do your best, and run what you come up with by the prof at office hours to make sure you have it.  By the way, if a professor states a rule five times in five slightly different ways over the course of a couple of weeks, that is a strong indication that it will be on the exam. 

The professor may call on the same person four times in a row (on four separate days) to keep the class on its toes.  If you are using Approach 2, you will be prepared to handle this and it will not rattle you. 

The professor may talk about one set of rules for half the class, then introduce a fact pattern that seems to require those rules, when in fact it requires a completely different rule from five classes ago, and then pretend not to understand why the class did not "get it."

The professor may state a rule extremely quickly so half the class will not get it down in time (and so you can't get it down because the guy next to you is mumbling something to you).  Get the rule straight at office hours.  

The professor may never give you a clear statement of the rule in class no matter how many times you ask, and may never state the rule the same way twice.  Write the rule yourself as best you can and verify that you have it correct during office hours.

The professor may tell you that you got the rule "wrong" when just one word is missing, and instead of telling you what word is missing, restate it in garbled language.  Get the rule straight at office hours. 

The professor may tell you not to use legalese in your exams, but may use legalese to state rules throughout the entire semester, thus requiring you to simplify them. 

The professor may spend lots of time on very simple rules so you wonder if there is something you are missing (when you are not), and spend relatively little time on what will actually appear on the exam. 

Criminal law professors are notorious for spending most of the semester on policy issues related to the "purposes of punishment," and only the last part of the semester on the law you will need to apply on the exam (and the bar exam).

Some professors maintain a policy of refusing to let you record any class session, even if you have a solid reason for being absent.  Have three friends in class who are good students e-mail you their notes.  Condense them into your own one-page summary and bring it to office hours.  Do your best never to miss class. 

Sometimes students whose parents are connected to the school in some way get special attention.  The son of a professor who has a rough time early on may wind up near the top of the class.  To compete, use the techniques described above. 

Be careful if the professor brushes over a topic very quickly and then seems to dispense with it.  Follow up in office hours to make sure you understood it.  If the professor refuses to discuss it in office hours, it will not be on the exam. 

Certain professors "hide the ball" from most students, but not from those who demonstrate a high level of consistent preparation.  Use the techniques described above in your preparation to be on the right side of this equation.

One professor told the class, "There is really no way you could prepare for this final exam because there are just too many rules in the Civil Procedure Code that could apply.  So I advise you not to spend a lot of time preparing for it."  Right, sure. 

Some professors will spend a large amount of time on a topic that does not appear on the final exam. 

Some professors will give tips during the review session before the exam about what kinds of questions might be on the exam, and then ask a question on the exam about something completely different.  For the most part, though, review sessions are very helpful and indicate generally what to expect.

A professor may ask a question for which, the professor says to the class as a whole, students cannot prepare (such as a policy question) and provide little meaningful advice about what to do with it.  Then the professor will turn around and give the meaningful advice to people who have come to office hours or otherwise displayed talent or initiative.

If a professor brushes off a question and says, "Save it for law review," it won't be on the exam.    

• Multiple Sets of Rules

In many of your courses - contracts and criminal law, for example - the professor will introduce more than one set of rules.  In civil procedure there are rules for state court and there are rules for federal court.  In criminal law, there is the "Model Penal Code," which is not actually law, but which may be persuasive in certain cases, and there are the actual statutes.  In contracts, there is the Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC"), and there is case law for situations where the UCC does not apply. 

In going over a particular case during class, the professor may discuss four or five outcomes under different sets of rules.  Most students will not really nail these. 

So if you are answering a criminal law exam question and are able to write intelligently about the outcome under the Model Penal Code as well as under the applicable statute, you will have a leg up.  The keys to being able to do this are preparation, memorization, and practice well in advance of the exam with a great course outline.

 

• Appropriate Outline Size

Your outline should generally be between ten and thirty pages long at the end of the course.  If you go to forty pages, condense further or the outline will not be useful to you for exam preparation.   

 

• Open Book Exams

An open book exam tests how well you can organize yourself.  In an open-book setting, you do not have to retrieve information from your head.  All you need to know is where to get what you need.  If you have carefully prepared, you can look up exactly what you need quickly and be certain that what you are citing is accurate. 

If you have an outline containing chapter and page references to your pertinent course materials, such as to your casebook, you can cite exact language from legislation and case law as it pertains to the exam question to an extent that probably would not be possible if you had to recall it from memory. 

  

• Take Hints from Professors Very Seriously

A professor says about her upcoming open book exam, "Once in a while, one of the answers on the exam comes straight from past exams."  You have just been directed to take every one of the past exams, review every sample answer carefully, and have the entire set well organized when you walk into the exam room with it so you can just copy the answer verbatim.  This is valid from an educational standpoint.  The professor is testing your willingness and ability as a lawyer-in-training to listen and follow instructions, such as from a judge who indicates what she wants to see at trial.

Also be alert if the professor slips in, "You know, it has been a long time since I've tested wrongful death. . ."

The professor may mention the same case three times at three different points in the semester, with a serious look on her face each time.

The professor may offer to read a sample exam if you write it and show it to her.  Do it - this week!  Note that if you have adopted Approach 2, you will be ready to go.  If you are using Approach 1, you will need to look back at gobs of uncondensed notes before you will be in a position to write the sample exam.  You might be ready two or three weeks later (too late), if at all. 

The professor may say during office hours, "I'm not really sure, but I'm thinking the exam might have a question about _____."

You may be reviewing the available sample exams and realize that it has been a few years since the professor has asked about _____.  You have nothing to lose by being well prepared to address the issue, and if, as is quite likely, it does turn up on the exam, you'll kill it.

• Law is Not a Liberal Art

The liberal arts are about thought for its own sake.  Law is about solving a client's problems.  Liberal arts professors often reward free thinking and abstraction ("How would someone raised in a cave conceive of the world?").  Law is about applying rules that someone else created to facts that are given to you, and coming up with an argument that would make sense to just about anyone.   

  

• Read More Carefully in Upper-Level Courses

The winning approach in upper level courses is often different.  Do the reading and give more attention to pre-class preparation, because in upper-level tax and business law courses, not everything that is on the exam will be addressed in the course lectures.  A lot will be based upon the reading. 

• The Internet Can Help

Sometimes good rule statements, or starting points for good rule statements, can be found on the Web.  Use http://dictionary.law.com.

  

• Keep An Eye on the Campus Honor Society

The campus honor society may sponsor an event for new students, such as a session on test-taking.  Attend, and note who else comes with an eye toward who you may want in your study group.  

  

• Focus on the Job at Hand

Great law students focus on their work, and tend to socialize within that context.  They do not spend an hour in the cafeteria just chatting after class.  They are working in the cafeteria, perhaps with friends, but they are working.  They do not take free time until they have it.  The first order of business is a one-page summary after class.  Then there will be time for a break.

  

• Do Not Sweat the "Rule Against Perpetuities"

The hardest rules are not worth very much on exams.  The real property exam is not going to be about the "rule against perpetuities."  The torts exam is not going to focus on "proximate cause."  Nor will the bar exam.

 

• Winging It Does Not Work

Do not "wing it" in law school.  Preparation is key. 

 

• You Do Need to Memorize

Committing the rules stated in your course outline to memory is essential because you must apply them to questions in closed-book exams.  Fortunately, memorization is a relatively easy task for humans to perform.  Most law students do not really want to perform this relatively simple task, so if you memorize your outlines well then you will have an advantage on your exams.

After completing your one-page summary at the end of a class session, say the rules contained in the summary five times aloud, and you will be well on your way to memorizing them.  This will take only a few minutes and they will be time very well spent.

  

• Your Job is to Communicate Plainly, Clearly, and Sensibly

You will read a lot of gobbledy gook in the assigned materials.  The professor, too, may spout some (or a lot of) gobbledy gook.  Central to success on exams is translating the rules that you need to use into simple English.

Gobbledy gook:

The party directed himself to a theatre of moving images, in which he observed a set of pictures in motion until the projection material was complete and terminated and he exited the premises. 

Simple English: 

He went to the movies.

  

Gobbledy gook: 

The right must be exercised:  (i) within three years after the spouse in whose favor the right arises has actual knowledge of the application of property to the satisfaction of a debt . . .

 

Simple English as it might appear in your outline: 

Spouse must sue within three years after discovering that property was applied against the debt...

  

• Taking the Exam

If you have been preparing consistently as described above, actually taking the exam will be a formality.  You will be stressed.  Unlike those who crammed everything in at the end, however, your stress will come from wanting to show how well you can do, like a thoroughbred chomping at the bit and waiting for the gate to open.  Once the exam begins you will probably enjoy yourself.

The exam in any given course will probably be a combination of essays and multiple choice questions.  You will answer almost everything the same way:  review the facts, identify the issue, state the  applicable rule, apply the rule to the facts, and state your legal conclusion.

  

• What You Can Do to Prepare Before the Course Begins

Obtain a good outline of the professor's course from a campus club, many of which will have outline banks, or from another student who took the class in a prior year.  

Having the outline loaded on your laptop during the class session may be useful since much of the material is necessarily the same in a professor's course from year to year (the law does not tend to change that dramatically or that quickly).  You can add notes to the outline as part of the process of putting together your own outline, instead of having to come up with everything from scratch.  This will give you more time to think during class instead of focusing so much on taking notes. 

Avoid Nutshells and hornbooks.  They provide too much material, and most of it will not be relevant for your course.  They will waste your time.  So will many commercial outlines.

  

• What the Exams in Your Basic Courses Will Be About

When you're in class, it can be easy to lose the forest for the trees for examination preparation purposes.  Here, briefly, is what many of your classes are likely to boil down to: 

• Criminal Law - Someone or some people engaged in certain conduct.  What crimes were committed?  (What are the issues?  What laws should apply?  What result in this particular case?)  There may also be a public policy question.
• Torts - Someone engaged in conduct and an injury resulted.  Discuss.
• Contracts - People have a dispute over an agreement.  What are their rights?
• Real Property - A dispute arose over land or a structure.  Maybe it was rented.  Maybe it was owned.  Analyze.  Also, answer a series of short questions about tricky "future interests," applying one of the sets of rules that the professor discussed in class.  (Pay attention to multiple sets of rules when outlining.  One professor asked the class to apply the rules for future interests on a final exam that were in effect in the 1700s.) 
• Criminal Procedure - The police conducted themselves in a certain way with respect to one or more criminal defendants.  Were the criminal defendants' rights violated?
• Evidence - Here's a bunch of evidence.  What kind is it?  Is it admissible at trial or not?  Why or why not?
• Constitutional Law I - A dispute arose over federalism or interstate commerce.  Analyze.
• Constitutional Law II - Here are some facts.  Does equal protection, substantive due process, procedural due process, or the First Amendment apply?
• Legal Writing - Take down and follow every single instruction the professor gives.  Follow the professor's nitpicky directions to create memos as if you were a new associate and the professor were your supervising partner.  Give the professor exactly what she asks for.  Get everything done early or, at the latest, on time.
• Legal Research - Research meticulously.  To come out on top, you will need to research more exhaustively than the other students do.  This class will prepare you to join the law review.

  

• What You Can Do to Prepare Before You Start Law School

Go to the law library and photocopy a short law review article on a topic that interests you and copy, word for word, between five and ten pages of the text, including footnotes.  This is a surprisingly useful exercise.  It will give you a feel for what good legal writing is like.  If you can, by all means take a solid pre-school prep course.  Obtain PMBR materials for your first semester classes and begin working through the multiple choice questions. 

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