What could this old nursery rhyme have to do with law school?
It reminds us to take one step at a time to accomplish a task.
Huh? Well, think about it this way . . . .
Most law students right now are madly juggling a long list of tasks for multiple projects. They are preparing for class each day. They are finishing assignments or papers. They are keeping up with outlines. They are reviewing for exams. They are completing practice questions. And, they are doing all of these things for multiple courses at the same time.
Many of them are feeling scattered and a bit frantic. They dart from task to task and feel exhausted at the end of the day. They are losing sleep, eating junk food, and feeling overwhelmed.
And, they lament that there is no time to get everything done.
So, just as in the nursery rhyme, it is time to get organized, have a plan, and take one step at a time. Here is an approach that helps many students get control of exam review:
- For each exam course, list all topics with their subtopics that will be on the final exam. (Warning: The list will be long because it is subtopics, but they can be completed more quickly than whole topics.)
- Focus on learning and understanding the subtopics. (You will want some later time for practice questions, but understanding has to come first.)
- If you already understand any subtopics well enough that you could walk into the exam on those, highlight them on the list to show completion.
- For the remaining subtopics that you have already covered in class, estimate how much time you need to understand that subtopic well enough to walk into the exam. (Estimates may be minutes or hours depending on the subtopic's difficulty.)
- Total your subtopic estimates for the material already covered in class for each course. (You will complete estimates for additional subtopics as they are covered later in class.)
- Now compare your estimate totals for each course. You might have 12 hours for one, 15 hours for another, 20 hours for a third, etc.
- Your totals help you see proportionately how much time you should devote to each course to learn what you have already covered in the course.
- Schedule blocks of time each week to complete exam review to make progress on your estimated totals.
- There will be some subtopics that need little time and can be slipped in between classes, while you wait for dinner to cook, etc.
- As you complete each subtopic, remember to highlight it as completed.
- All progress is forward progress. Whatever you can get completed before the end of classes means less to learn during exam period.
What if you have a paper to write? You can make a similar list for specific tasks within larger categories: tasks for research, writing, editing, citations, grammar and punctuation, format OR by tasks for paper sections if you prefer.
Step back from the jumble that you feel your life represents right now. Organize small steps within the larger units. Then take it step by step: one, two . . . . (Amy Jarmon)
