Welcome to law school! This is a biweekly series with tips and tricks for success in law school. We’ll cover things like time management, outlining, preparing for exams, and more! Although this series covers skills and tricks that might be new to 1Ls, I hope that every member of the law school community can find something helpful here.
Happy New Year! I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and have been relaxing during your winter break! You probably have a couple weeks left before the spring semester begins, but it’s time to get a few things onto your radar to prepare for the upcoming semester.
- Gather Your Materials
As the spring semester approaches, you should already know which classes you’ll be in and which professors you’ll have. If you don’t, now is a good time to find that information so that you can start gathering your materials for spring. Once you have your list of classes and professors, you can start purchasing your textbooks and downloading your syllabi. Your school may have a default day that course webpages and syllabi are published, so keep an eye out for those resources as the semester approaches.
- Sketch Out a Schedule
Even before the semester begins, you can have a rough outline of what your weeks will look like during the semester. You can start creating a weekly schedule for yourself, putting in when your classes are and making note of when you might do your reading for each class. While you should revisit your schedule each week to make sure you’re making the most of your time, you can create a weekly template now. I generally recommend a time-blocking approach for time management in the 1L year, and you can start blocking in your standing commitments (like class!) before the semester even starts!
- Set Goals
You may not have your fall grades yet, but you don’t need them to identify areas of improvement for the spring semester. Before the new semester begins, I recommend reflecting on last semester. Ask yourself things like:
- Did I stay on top of my reading?
- Were my case briefs helpful in class discussions?
- Did I start outlining in the beginning of the semester?
- Did I update my outlines regularly?
- Did I integrate practice problems into my weekly routine?
- Did I seek meet with TAs throughout the semester?
- How was my time management?
These are all things you can evaluate now to help you set goals for the spring semester. If you found yourself trying to figure it out on your own when you were unsure, you can set a goal to see a TA once every other week in the spring. If you didn’t update your outlines regularly, then your goal for spring can be to block a recurring time in your calendar for outlining. If you’re struggling with goal setting, talk to your school’s academic support professionals to guide you through the process. Whatever your goals are, make sure they’re measurable and realistic!
- Read & Brief
Of course, I can’t have a prepare for spring semester blog without mentioning reading and briefing assigned cases. Please don’t forget to look at your syllabi and complete all the assigned reading before your first class! You don’t want to start the semester already behind on your reading and briefing. And, if you’re someone who has a goal to be ahead on your reading, make sure you’re starting the semester off on the right foot!
With these pre-semester tasks done, you’ll be able to jump into spring on the right foot! Before you start those tasks, though, I hope you enjoy New Year’s Day with your family and friends!
(Dayna Smith)
