This is the first post in a serious on how to succeed in law school. It’s based on a lengthy document I wrote out for a friend of mine who went to law school a few years after I did, in which I outlined pretty much every thing I did to do well. For me, these methods worked, and worked well. I got the highest grade in the class in 4 of my 6 1L classes (most of which had over 100 people). As I told my friend, though, the same study methods aren’t going to work for everyone. I cut corners in a lot of places to spend time thinking about a “strategy” for taking each class. I didn’t spend time doing things that some people might need to, just because different people learn differently. For example, an auditory learner is going to need to do things differently from someone who learns mainly visually through flashcards. The point of this isn’t to tell you that there’s some set in stone method to getting good grades in law school - it’s to show you how I did it, and hopefully give you something to think about when trying to plan out how you’re going to study yourself. If there’s any bullet-point condensation of what I learned to be said, it’s to try every study method you can think of at least once, and stick with what seems to work. Make sure to set aside at least some time to think about whether what you’re doing is actually working - it’s worth that time to get rid of inefficient study habits.

Now, to the question that’s on the minds of anyone who’s thinking about going to law school and was an overachiever in college (read: pretty much all law students). What should you be doing the summer before your first year? Most people seem to be pretty excited about getting started, and they want to get any leg up that they can. You’ll also find all kinds of advice on all ends of the spectrum on this. Some people say just to sit on your ass and take a vacation. Some say don’t do anything substantive, just read some John Grisham books to get yourself in the mindset. At the other end, there are people who buy the first year textbooks and jump right into reading them.

My approach was something in the middle. I didn’t go get the casebooks, but I did read just about every “how to do well in law school” thing I could find on the Internet - forums, articles, a couple of books. I also got one substantive book from the “Examples and Explanations” series - a hand-me-down from a friend who had just completed his first year. And yeah, I read Brush With the Law, One-L, and all the other books glorifying your first year.

In retrospect, I think it’s probably a good idea to do some of this reading during the summer if you’ve got the time. The key thing to remember is: you are just not going to get some kind of benefit by trying to “learn” the law ahead of your peers. You cannot do better by going out and trying to memorize everything about Property Law. That’s not how you do well on exams in law school - the law is virtually infinite. There is no way to memorize it all - and no way to know that your first year teacher will actually teach you what you were trying to memorize. The curriculum varies greatly from school to school and class to class - what will end up separating you from the pack on a law school exam is your skill at analyzing the law and finding legal issues that need to be addressed. The things you do during the summer need to be geared around improving your performance when you get to law school - not trying to learn stuff beforehand.

So what can you do? I would definitely read everything you can in terms of “stories” about law school. Those books and Internet forums were actually useful when I got there - mainly because I had a good idea of what the heck everyone was talking about. I knew what outlines were, I knew what all the recommended study techniques were, and I knew a bunch of different things I could try. Getting into your first few days of reading is going to be shock enough - you’ll be thrust into reading legal cases that are hard to understand and are basically in a different language (it’s English, but it’s a professional “lingo” with a bunch of different terms you’re going to have to look up and memorize). If you go to law school without any idea what to expect, you’re not going to be able to jump right into things as far as studying goes.

Next, go get the Glannon Examples and Explanations book on Civil Procedure. Of all the study aids or materials I read in law school, this is the easiest to understand. You don’t need any background in the law to read it and do the problems. It’s required reading in a lot of schools anyway simply because it’s such a good book. Order it on Amazon, and read and do the questions in at least 5 or 6 of the chapters. The point is not to memorize the material. It’s to get used to studying it. With this particular book, it’s hard to go wrong even with no experience or knowledge of the law.

Also, you should read at least a few classic legal cases before going. It doesn’t really matter what they are - but you are going to feel overwhelmed your first week if you don’t. With the older cases especially, they are written in a legalese that is hard for anyone to understand, even lawyers. Go read some of those - look up every word you don’t know. I spent a ton of time the first week of law school just trying to memorize unfamiliar words - you can get at least some of this out of the way. Check out Marbury vs. Madison, read Hawkins vs. McGee (a classic contracts case that is referenced in the Paper Chase):

http://www.kentlaw.edu/classes/rwarner/remedies/contract_lawhawkins_v_mcgee.htm

Just get some basic familiarity with what it’s like to read a judicial opinion - because for the next 3 years, that will be how you’re going to learn. Law school teaches people through the “case method” - a method by which your professor doesn’t tell you anything, you are supposed to go read a bunch of judicial opinions and draw out what you need to know from them. The only problem is, about 90% of what’s in the opinions you don’t need to know. They aren’t written as a study tool, but they’re being used that way. So you need to get used to reading them and trying to figure out what they say. Most of the time they have a bunch of peripheral legal issues in them that you won’t have any experience with and won’t be taught in your class - but you have to get a basic understanding of them anyway.

Finally, read online about the different study methods people use. Outlining, highlighting, briefing cases, study groups - at least know what they are and the basics of them. Lots of people will be talking about them when you get there, and you need to know what’s up.

Don’t spend your entire summer doing this. There is a lot of truth to the idea that you shouldn’t burn yourself out beforehand. Give yourself a taste of what you’re in for, but don’t gag on it.