Today we're going to talk about how to
prepare your life before starting at a top law school, so stick around and get a
head start. Now, it's no secret that law school is incredibly stressful. So many
lawyers I know say that law school was the worst part of their entire lives. Now
it doesn't necessarily need to be that way. You can do yourself a huge favor by making your life in law school as easy
as possible, and here are the best ways of getting your life in order so that
your life in law school is as good as it can be. So here's my first piece of
advice: get an apartment that is as close to campus as possible. I know it's
expensive it can't be helped. But if it was between having roommates and living far away from campus, I would take the roommates. You're making an investment in law school, and if that means that you're going to have to pay a little bit more
in rent to live closer to campus, I would recommend it.
Avoiding a commute can save you literally hours a day, and that's time
that you can use to either A) study more or B) relax. Both of which are
incredibly important when you get to law school. A friend of mine went to law
school in Los Angeles- he lived in West LA, but he went to school in East LA. That
means that he had, in general, a 90-minute commute each way - he lost three hours
every day he went to class. Now, law school is a marathon, it's not a sprint.
You want to work a reasonable amount every day. Adding an extra hour or two
because you're commuting is just a recipe for disaster, so if you can do it, I
highly recommend living as close to campus as possible. That brings me to my next tip: get the right technology when you start. Now that means a new computer,
potentially a tablet, a laser printer- these things will make your life so much
easier. We have an entire video dedicated to the tools that I wish I had when I
started law school. The technology has gotten so great. There are a lot of good
tablets, a lot of good laptops, you get a laptop with solid-state drive- one that
has a very long battery life you can have laptops that last ten hours at a time. Not all law schools have electrical outlets all over the
place, so you want a good laptop that will last you a long time, and preferably
one with cloud storage so that you don't lose your important notes and your
outlines, because everyone has a horror story where they lose that stuff and you
want the peace of mind. My next tip is related to the technology and that is: if
you have the time, get your typing speed up. While law
school exams are not a brain dump in the same way that undergrad exams tend to be,
you still have a huge premium by being able to type what you need to type as
quickly as possible. You can get more points simply by virtue of being able to
type faster and more accurately than your peers. If you have some time in the
summer before law school, I would say practice your typing- whether it's I
don't know Mavis Beacon or Mario Teaches Typing whatever the new typing software
is out there I would use it and get your typing speed up. I'd aim for a hundred
words per minute- you will be happy, it will serve you for the rest of your life being able to type accurately. Next: get your personal relationships in check.
It's a sad fact, but most couples break up during law school. If your
relationship is going south, honestly it's better to end it now. Law school is
a time to focus, and if that means ending a bad relationship, do it before you get
to law school because you'll be happy that you did. Next: deal with your health.
Law school is stressful, and your priorities are not going to be on
yourself, so in the summer before law school, deal with your health ahead of
time. Get a check-up, get a dentist appointment, do it so that you're not
worried about that during your first year. There is no better way to derail
your finals than getting sick right before you take your first exam. Next:
mentally prepare. So, ahead of time I would say, do a little bit of research,
read "One L," watch the movie "The Paper Chase." You're going to be putting in some long
hours, so I would recommend doing some research ahead of time to find out what
law school is going to be like. Now obviously those are
dramatizations, they're not entirely accurate. Both "One L" and "The Paper Chase"
take place in the 70s, and law school has changed, however it gives you a general
idea of what you're going to face. Next, and this is especially important: learn
how to hack law school. Doing well in law school, and especially on essay exams is
not a dark art, there is a science to it. This is the number one missed
opportunity, learning how to take law school exams. Don't worry about learning
the law itself, there will be plenty of time in law school to understand torts
and contracts and Civil Procedure. In law school, your grades are determined
entirely based on your performance on your final exam. And what's worse, is that
it's graded on a curve so the professor even if s/he wanted to give out all A's, is
limited and can only give out say five A's per class. Law school final exams are
almost always issue spotting exams, and issue spotting exams are just like the
LSAT. There are strategies and tactics that can help you do better and the more
you practice the better you get at them. So it's so important to learn how to
take law school exams. At Legal Eagle, we offer an entire course on how to take
issue spotting exams. Additionally, use the time before law school to get your
resume, your letters of rec, and your references in order. What nobody tells
you about law school is that you're going to apply for your summer jobs in
the middle of your 1L year. It can be incredibly stressful because you're
preparing for exams that you've never seen before, you're learning law that you
have no frame of reference for, and in the middle of that you still have to
apply for jobs during the summer. So those are the best ways to get your life
in order before you start law school. You can do yourself a huge favor by making
small tweaks that will make a huge difference in your law school career. Law
school is stressful enough, the last thing you want to do is not prepare
ahead of time for things that could have a huge impact during your law school
career. So remember, from everyone here at Legal Eagle, study smart through law school. Oh and one last thing, if you're getting
ready for law school, check this out: we put together a free ebook called the
"Ultimate Pre-law Checklist." Just click the link below to download it. It's some of
our best tips and strategies for getting ahead before you start law school, and it
will put you miles ahead of your classmates. Just click below, and also if
you like this video, please subscribe to our channel. We come out with new videos
on how to crush law school all the time. So thanks a lot, thanks for stopping by.
