How to Get Straight A's in Law School

did you know that basically your entire law school career recruiting wise can depend on your 1l grades hey everybody welcome back to the channel my name is Julian I'm a lawyer I'm a content creator I'm also an advocate for mental health on social media and today I want to talk to you guys about how to crush your 1l year of law school many don't realize this until they're in law school but your grades from your 1l year are actually by far the most important grades of the three years that you were in law school this is because if you want to recruit in big law or government or even in-house a lot of the most important recruiting timelines and efforts hinge on your 1l grades because to get into these positions requires you to do a 2L summer associate ship or internship after your second year of law school and what that means is that a lot of these interview process take place at the beginning of your second year of law school and what do employers have access to at the beginning of your second year of law school you guessed it you're 1l grades now this can obviously be a lot of pressure when I was in law school I used to think to myself wow I'm spending 300 grand for a legal education but my job prospects are based entirely on this first year this is partially why I think that law school can actually have more pressure and stress than some more rigorous programs out there in graduate school levels like medical school and no I'm not saying that medical school is easier than law school heck no it's way harder and Kat my fiance has a hundred stores she could tell you about why that's the case before we dive into the tips for crushing your 1l year please hit that sub button and drop a comment for any content that you want to know about whether it's related to law school your career big law or the legal World At Large and let's dive in okay let's start with the basics of doing while you're 1l year and we'll start with class first of all go to class I know that this might be common sense but you'd be shocked at how many people don't do the very basic minimum things that you would naturally Common Sense wise think oh yeah obviously I'm going to do that if I want to do well in school go to every single lecture if you can and when you're in lecture take notes on things that the professor says you don't have to write everything down in fact in law school the way that most classes are run is by what is called the Socratic method where a professor will lob out a question and then allow discussion among students to last sometimes up to 15 minutes A lot of the time none of that discussion is actually pertinent or relevant to the exam or to doing well in the class this may sound messed up but as a rule of thumb for me when I took notes in law school if my classmate was saying something I completely stopped typing sorry not sorry the professor is writing the exam not my classmates so go to class and make sure that you're taking notes on things that your professor says let's talk about studying habits and preparing for class by reading case law most of the time in law school the only homework you have is reading cases typically cases that involve the area of law of the class that you're in read every single case of course you can go on Quimby or go on YouTube or look up short versions and Wikipedia summaries of these cases yes you can always do that but the thing that's going to help you in the long run is really getting a good feel for how these judges go through their legal reasoning and Analysis and the only way to really absorb that is by reading the cases yourself if you want to go overboard and do some extra credit studying read every case twice no I'm not kidding and when you're reading your cases make sure that you are briefing them briefing is just a fancy way of saying that you're taking notes on them when you're briefing you want to make sure you hit the following elements at a minimum the facts of the case the issue at hand the ruling or what direction the court actually ended up deciding and the reasoning of the case AKA how the judges came to the decision in that case by far the most important part of your brief is the reasoning section because the reasoning section is where you actually get into the meat of why and how the judges unpacked and came to the conclusion to rule for one party or the other or how they developed a new area of law or created a new default rule in the doctrine that you're learning the reasoning section is going to be the most impactful and helpful in preparing for your exams in law school so let's say you're doing everything right your briefing your cases you're coming into class prepared you're taking good notes during class in most law schools your entire grade in each class is determined by one graded exam that happens at the end of each semester or quarter so let's talk about how to crush these exams first of all you've got to write your own outline you might ask what is an outline in brief an outline is a short condensed version of your notes for the entire semester of a single course most often people use and create outlines because it's just way too much work to read through every single line of all of your notes for the entire semester per class it's unworkable and it's unreasonable whereas an outline will let you condense let's say one page into three or four sentences that way you can make it through an entire course in a 30 to 50 page outline rather than 200 plus pages of notes and briefs write your own outline start with your case briefs pull out the most important points put them in a document then go through your notes from class on that case pull out any other relevant important points that your professor made drop them into the document rinse and repeat for all of your classes you might be inclined to use other people's outlines from the years prior or maybe even a buddies or even some pre-made ones online just know that from my perspective if you're going to be lazy with your studying like that you should be okay getting a B plus maybe just a flat out B on your exam like anything else in life getting great scores in law schools reflects how much work you put into the process and how seriously you take it and quite simply your brain is not going going to be able to comprehend and understand the concepts that you're learning by reading somebody else's outline compared to if you do the hard and the true work of analyzing it yourself condensing it in your own words and your own ideas onto your own outline and then from there the next and more important step memorizing that outline that you create and this some people say is a little Overkill and I can understand why that seems really rigorous to you know memorize a 30 to 40 page document but law school exams are about timing a lot of the time you're going to be pressed in a three hour period to write as much as you can memorizing your outline will give you a heads up on everybody else because while they're turning pages to figure out what that case name was or what the reasoning was in that one case you already have it in your mind and you're on to the next sentence and on top of that it'll just further solidify your understanding of the concepts that you're learning but apart from your regular outline you should also create an attack outline and an attack outline is a one to two page document that is specifically designed to help assist you in the exam writing process the attack outline will have things like the various rule elements or key casening things that you know you're going to need so that you can quickly wrap reference on your attack outline boom I have the three rules I'm gonna write them down to my exam now and I'm gonna keep going again the purpose here is to save yourself time so you're not flipping through your 50 page outline wasting precious seconds other things to keep in mind in this preparation period for exams when you're outlining study groups are fine but just make sure that you're actually gaining something from your time studying with other students if you feel like you're constantly tutoring or teaching everybody else or you're just kind of sitting there being a Wallflower doing your own type of studying while the group discusses things then your time is better spent on your own don't feel pressured to be part of a study group do it when it's helpful for you most law school professors will also release their past exam so that you can take a look at the kind of content and what I can exam from them typically looks like and that is great at a minimum you should scan these exams and figure out how to answer these questions make sure you understand at a basic level the doctrine that your professor is testing and just get a feel for the style of what your professor likes the test I personally don't think you need to sit down in a timed three or four hour period and take the practice exams in the exact same test taking conditions that you're going to be taking the real exam in I think that's a bit Overkill but either way just make sure that you scan these questions and make sure you know how to answer them at a very basic level last pieces of advice if you have time learn how to type the correct way very very quickly the faster you can type the more you can write if your professor is testing you and does not have a word limit try to type as much as you possibly can the more you type the more likely it is that you're going to hit different points try out creative argumentation and get a higher score in the long run many professors will not actually deduct points if you get statements of law incorrect but they will reward points if you get points of law or hit creative arguments that they hadn't seen before which means your incentive if your exam is not word limited is to write as much as you possibly can to the contrary if your exam is word limited every single word should matter every single word should be essential to the entire paper that you are writing and you should use every single word that you're allotted don't leave any space on the table remember when you answer Law School exam questions to follow follow a format like Iraq issue rule application conclusion spot the issue very clearly if it's a contract case say oh the question is whether or not this was a material breach State the general legal Rule and the doctrine for the issue that you spot and then apply it to either side in the hypothetical exam answer this side is going to argue that it was a material breach because XYZ this side is going to argue that it's not a material breach because XYZ that's the area that you can rack up a lot of points don't be ashamed to throw out wild arguments from either side the more the better and once you're done with that issue a conclusion this side will win because the breach was material all things considered it doesn't really matter which way you rule for the conclusion just make sure you put something down so in conclusion if you want to crush your 1l year in order here's what you should do go to class take good notes on what the professor says read every case and make sure that you're doing a good job briefing your cases consider reading them twice if you have extra time write your own outline both a long form and an attack outline scan pass practice exams or released tests to figure out how your professor likes to test you on these subjects learn to type quickly so you can type as much as possible and gamify the exam if there's no word limit write as much as you possibly can in that short period of time to rack up as many points as possible and if it is word limited make sure that every single word counts doing well in law school is a lot of work and it's hard work but it's also something that I believe anybody can accomplish if they set their mind to it after all this isn't organic chemistry or quantum physics it's a lot of reading and it's some writing but the concepts are not the craziest and most complicated things it just requires Focus discipline and hard work and regardless of how you study or what your goals are please make sure that you make time for yourself because it doesn't matter what you're gunning for and what your dreams are if you're miserable on the way or if in the worst case scenarios you don't even make it because you burn out or you have mental health issues alrighty everybody it's wonderful to see all of you again I hope you found this video helpful and if you did please hit that sub button share it with some of your friends and drop me a comment for videos that you want to see in the future whether they're about law career policy or even mental health thank you and be well [Music] foreign

Channel: Julian Sarafian

Views: 18,789

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Id: DPEe9se1j2o

Length: 10min 15sec (615 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023