LAWTUTORS ULTIMATE GUIDE ON HOW EXACTLY TO GET GOOD GRADES DURING YOUR FIRST YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL
DATA FROM HUNDREDS OF OUR LAW STUDENTS: PART III
By Professors Brittany Raposa, Hemanth Gundavaram, and Heather Kenny, Attorney Instructor Sheri Mason, and CEO of LawTutors Tania Shah
What do we know? Our LawTutors Team, still decidedly relatable and hip, have not been 1Ls for a long time. We heard you. You want the real stuff from the people who are in it right now. So, the LawTutors Team gathered data from hundreds of first year law students who had just completed their first semester of their first year of law school and had received their grades to put together this Ultimate Guide.
The purpose of article is to share with you the feedback we received from all of these students on what worked for them (and what did not work for them).
In Part I and II, we shared with you guidelines for class preparation, class time, condensing your notes, outlining , and practice problems. Please read on for Part III
SELF ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK
A lot of our students thought that did not get enough direction or feedback from their professors throughout the semester. This is where the importance of self-assessment comes in. All of them told us that they would like to be more comfortable with doing practice with self-assessment, so they could figure out what works for them early on.
For those of who did do some form of self-assessment, the analysis part of their writing was the biggest concerns. First, there is still a general concern about connecting the law and the facts together to form your analysis. Second, there is the question of weighing your issues (ex: how long you should spend on each issue). This would be a great focus of your one-on-one sessions with us this semester.
PROFESSOR’S OFFICE HOURS
Those of our students who could do practice problems and utilize office hours with their professor to review your answers found this incredibly useful.
Even if your professor has limited availability and/or may not be willing to review a practice problem with you, going to your professor’s office hours is still helpful for the following reasons:
• You want to find out how your professor thinks, and
• You want to find out what your professor expects from you.
Stay Tuned for Part IV
