- Hindsight is of course 20/20. But now having practiced
law for over 10 years, there is so much that I
would have done differently in law school if I had
known then what I know now. So here's a list of things
I would've done differently if I had to do law school all over again. Please, learn from my mistakes. (plucky instrumental music) Okay, so what would I do differently if I had to do law school all over again? Well, the first thing that I would do is I would spend way less
time preparing for class. In law school, class participation usually counts for almost nothing. At best it counts for maybe
five or 10% of your grade. There's almost no class participation. Preparing for class is a time-suck. It doesn't help you on the final exam. Your job is not to understand everything by the time you get to class. If your professor's doing their job, they will help you understand
it when you get to class. I know the idea of getting cold-called in class is so scary, and
nobody wants to look dumb in front of their classmates, but it will not matter how
hard you prepare for class, even if you do get called on. The professor creates
their questions in a way that no one could possibly
answer all of them. If you do the reading,
and preferably you use our flipped-case method, the
link for that is down below, then you'll be prepared enough for class. But you should prepare for
class in an efficient way. Don't obsess about getting
everything perfect beforehand. Understand that by the time
you start studying for finals, you will have forgotten everything that you did to prepare for class. I would have put in the absolute minimum to prepare for class and
would've used class time to refine my thinking
and work on my outline. I would've taken the time I used to spend preparing for class, and I would've started
preparing for finals sooner because it's the finals
where you get your grade, not preparing for class. So, in retrospect, I would've
spent so much less time obsessing over every nuance
and minutiae in the case and preparing for class on the odd chance that I got called on by the professor, and I just would have
prepared for finals instead. Also, even if your class does
have participation points, you don't have to rely
on the only interaction of your professor being
when you're cold-called. You should ask questions of your professor when you have legitimate questions. And on top of that, you
should go to office hours and talk to your professor
in a less formal environment. These are all ways that you can raise your participation grade while also bettering your understanding of the case material itself. The next that I would've done differently is I would've started taking
practice tests way earlier. We talk about this a lot at Legal Eagle. Practice tests are one of
the most important things that you can do to get
better grades in law school. Writing a law school exam is unlike any other kind of writing. That's why English majors have such a hard time with law school. They, more than anyone else, have to undo the habits that
they learned in college. A lotta the things that they
learn in terms of good writing are actually bad for writing quickly and clearly on a law school exam. In fact, that's why at Legal
Eagle we created a master class specifically teaching people
how to think like a lawyer and write like a lawyer on a final exam. I would have started taking practice tests at least halfway through
the semester if not sooner. I know that sounds crazy,
but it is never too early to start taking practice tests, and it is guaranteed to
get you better grades. The next thing I would've
done in law school is I would've taken a course on how to write law school
final exams earlier. Because law school final
exams are so unusual and because your law school
won't teach you the skill, it is so important to learn what a law school final exam looks like and how you're supposed to write them. Odds are if you took the LSAT, you probably took some courses on how to answer the questions, whether it is a logic game
or reading comprehension. There's so much to learn
that's specific to the LSAT that you probably had no frame
of reference for in college. The LSAT is not like the SAT, and it's certainly not
like your college classes. And it's the same way when
you get to law school itself. Law school final exams
are unlike any other test in any other field at any other graduate or professional school. They are issue-spotting exams where you have to actually
use the law itself. Just showing the professor that you know the law is not enough;
you have to apply it. There is a method and a science to breaking down issue-spotting essays and writing an A exam every single time, and it has very little to do with how much law you actually know. The person that knows less law but more about how to write the essay is gonna get a better grade than the person that knows more of the law and memorized more of the
facts in class discussion but doesn't actually know
how to spot the issues and how to write them
down on the final exam. Like the LSAT, answering law school issue spotters is a skill, and you can get better at any skill. You can also learn how to
do that particular skill. There's strategies that you can
use to get better over time. And the better you get at final exams, the better your grades will
be at the end of the year. The next tip, the next
thing I would have done differently in law school
is I would've lived much, much closer to campus. When I went to law school, I actually didn't live that far away, but the law school was
on one end of the campus, and I lived on the other end of campus. So it took me probably about 45 minutes to walk each way to and from class because it was a very large campus. So even though I was
within walking distance of the law school, it still
took 45 minutes each way, or an hour and 1/2 each day out of my day, to walk to and from class, and that's only if I went to the law school once a day. If I went twice, then that's
three hours that I lost. It's even worse for the people that have to commute to school. During that commuting
time, you can't study. It's just dead time, and worse, it's probably stressing you out. Driving is no fun when
you're on a deadline. One of the worst things that you can do is live so far away from
campus that you have to drive. Commuting is just the worst. It's time that you can't study. It's probably pretty stressful because driving on a deadline just tends to be very stressful. And it's probably exhausting too. So if you're commuting to class, that is hours a day where you can't study. And it's just making you more tired, so it's going to prevent you from studying later on in the day. Often, if you live very close to campus, there's no doubt that the rent costs are going to be more,
but at the same time, you can probably forego
the cost of owning a car, having to insure it, having to pay gas. So even though the rent might be more, it might actually save
you money in the long run. And frankly, if you're going
to law school full-time, you're probably already on the hook for spending at least $100,000. So spending slightly more to avoid commuting is completely worth it, especially if you can turn the time that you would otherwise commute to class into studying time where
you can get better grades, that will result in a better, higher-paying job down the line. That's what law school's all about anyway. So, if I had to it all over again, I would've lived as close to
the law school as possible so that I could just get
up, walk across the street, and then go to law school
without even thinking about it. I would've saved so much time, I would've been far less tired, and I would've been able
to study more and better. The next thing that I
would've done differently, I would have trusted
the professor much less. In law school, it's so
easy to get in this mindset where your professor is just infallible, and they are giving you
the law as it exists straight from a platonic ideal. But the thing is, your
first-year law subjects, they seem really hard when you're in it, but they're really not. When you start practicing, you realize just how oversimplified everything is. And different law professors
have completely different ways of communicating those
subjects to students, and there is no universal
conception of the law, so it's not like your
professor can give you the law as given by Moses and
the tablets or whatever. I would've worried much less about when the professor
said conflicting things, when the professor said confusing things. A lot of what you learn in
law shool is just confusing. It's complicated when you're
in it for the first time, and you have no frame of reference. I wouldn't really have worried when the professor said things that seemed to contradict each other or said some conception of the law that seemed confusing at the time. Law professors often make things worse. Sometimes they do things
to intentionally obfuscate so that they can generate
conversation in the class. Remember that the Socratic method exists not for the benefit of students, but for the benefit of the professor to make it interesting for
them when they're lecturing. The Socratic method is not
a good way to teach the law. It's just simply the historical way that we've used it for 150 years. So, I wouldn't have worried as much when the classroom
discussion is confusing. I wouldn't have worried when the professor seemed to make it even more complicated. Now I know that almost
everything that is discussed in a one-L class is just settled law, especially when you get
into a particular state. Sometimes a state can vary
with a different state in terms of law, but for the most part, all of the questions that you deal with in a first-year class
are completely settled. It's only at the very extreme margins where there's much controversy, but that's not what
first-year classes test. If the professor created
more confusion in class, I simply would've ignored the professor, knowing that I could
figure things out later on when I went back to my
commercial supplements and worked on my outline or if I looked up the cases on Westlaw. Knowing what I know now about the law, it would've made life so much easier, because I would've
realized that the professor is not the best source of the law, and I could always go back
and get the black letter law from my outlines and supplements. And speaking of which, if
you want additional tips on how to reveal all the
mysteries of law school and how to crush your
next law school exam, click the link below for
our guide on law school. And please subscribe to our channel. We come out with new tips on how to crush law school all the time. And I'll see you next
time here at Legal Eagle. Please, learn from my mistakes. There's no reason that
you should go through the same kind of crap
that I had to go through. Started taking (gabbles). Start taking practice tests, and it is ... And it has very little
to do with actual ... Very close to campus, all right.
