Law School Q&A Part 3

I haven't been as good as doing this as I wanted to, but I finally did another Q & A on my Instagram page. I got a lot of GREAT questions about balancing life as a law student and studying for exams coming up. Here are the questions I got this past week, with some longer answers than I can post on Instagram. As always, follow me on Instagram here.

Tips for how to study for finals?
There are so many ways to study...use what worked for you in undergrad. Some helpful ways are making and using an outline. Studying in groups may be helpful for certain people. I recommend focusing on key concepts. Knowing cases is good, but depending on the exam, may not be vital. Depending on the exam style and the professor, application is typically more important. Practice reading a scenario and analyzing which key concept it may fall under and why it does or does not fall into that concept.

How do you recover from a bad midterm grade?
I never took a graded midterm in law school, but I imagine it's similar to recovering from any bad grade. What is even better is that you know exactly what material you know and don't know for the final. Figure out what went wrong and how to correct it. Was it that you didn't study enough? If yes, study more comprehensively. Did you run out of time on the exam? If so, pace yourself during the final. Practice with timed exams. Ddi you study the wrong way? If so, try a new way of studying. Really reflect on what you did well and what you didn't do so well. Then apply changes!

What is your favorite part about moot court?
Getting the chance to hone my research skills. I had a lot of opportunities to do that this past summer in my internship, but not with such a difficult topic. I also enjoy getting practice arguing before "judges." Even though I want to do transactional work, not litigation, it is still an important skill to have and be able to do if needed!

What is the best way to understand Civil Procedure?
Civ Pro was my least favorite class last year. I did decent in it, but I found the material very hard to understand.  This summer, I interned for the US Attorney's Office in Kansas City in their Civil Division. Seeing how Civ Pro worked in person really helped me understand it. However, for exam purposes, professional outlines can really clear certain topics up. I'm a big fan of the Emanuel Law Outline Series.

How do you manage to stay healthy while in law school?
Be intentional. Buy healthy foods, plan healthy meals, build in time to your week to workout. Most importantly, stick to it. For example, don't tempt yourself by buying only unhealthy food. Don't skip your workout because you're being lazy. Plan plans, and stick to it!

Tips for writing memos/research to stand out from classmates?
Edit, edit, edit. Especially in legal research and writing classes, you tend to have all the same law and cases. To really stand out from your classmates, make sure you don't have any typos, that you cite properly, use the proper form of verbs, all of that stuff. Make sure to do your research too- read and re-read cases so you are pulling the proper law from them.

How to maintain energy throughout long days of school/studying/general life stuff?
Caffeine! Just kidding, but not really. But actually, make sure to keep yourself hydrated and fueled with good food. Some great snacks for this are apples and peanut butter, almonds, trail mix, etc. These are healthy, energy boosting snacks. Know yourself and when you need to take a break. And then actually take one. Even if it is just for 10 minutes, it can refresh you and keep you going.

When to start seriously studying for finals (apart from outlining throughout the semester)?
This really depends on you. For me, I typically start preparing for exams about 2/3s through the semester, so right now. However, I don't go into full exam mode until Thanksgiving in fall and mid-way through April in spring. However, some people don't need to start studying as far in advance and some people need to start studying even before that.

I will be doing more of these coming, so make sure to keep an eye on my Instagram for the next time I do it. In the meantime, my emails and DMs are always open to any questions.