Tip #1 It is important to stop working at the end of the day. To figure out when I should stop working I would try to recognize when nothing was going into my head. When the words you read are not going in your head or you stop understanding or have to read the same sentance ten times, that means it is time to stop and go to bed. At this point your body is telling you to stop for the night and sleep.

Tip #2 Take one day of the weekend off completely. I would get my school work done for the upcoming Monday and Tuesday and half of Wednesday’s work done on Saturday. Then I would spend all day on Sunday relaxing. I would use this time to eat out or sleep in or watch tv. Just do anything that is not law school related. For me it was incredibly helpful to have a day off so I could come to school Monday and do my best.

Tip #3 When briefing cases try to summarize the facts into your own words. If you get cold called the professor will not just want you to read the facts of the case straight to them. They want to make sure you gave it your best shot at understanding the case. So, do your best to summarize the facts of the case. This helped me understand what was going on in the case and it will probably help your understanding as well. But if the professor says to do something else then make sure to do what they say.

Tip #4 Remember that no matter what it looks like none of the students around you know what they are doing so it is ok to not know what your are doing. No matter what class you take everyone in that class is taking it for the first time. So no one knows what is happening. Everyone is learning new information at the same time.

Tip #5 Ask questions in class if you are confused because if you are confused then other people are probably confused too. When I started law school I would not ask question becasue I was scared to ask a dumb question. But I realized my questions were not dumb, I was just confused. But if you are sitting in class and really do not want to ask the question in front of everyone or really think no one else has that question then write the question down and ask the professor after class. Just make sure to ask your questions.

Tip #6 Try to outline after each section of material. Once a professor moves onto a new topic then outline the material. This is something I did in my second semester and it helped me feel less overwhelmed when it came to finals. Then once you outline take it to the professor to make sure you did not miss anything. You could also meet with some friends to compare outlines.

Tip #7 Try to start studying as soon as possible. So, after you outline a section try to start memorizing that information. This also helped me feel less overwhelmed when it came to finals.

Tip #8 Go to the professors office and ask questions. They understand this is hard and will not give you a hard time for asking questions. It is there job to help you and they want to make sure you understand. Even if it is one question or ten, go ask your professor sooner then later.

Tip #9 Take an hour or two at the end of the week to write down when next weeks assignments are due. Then take those assignments and try to plan out when you will do those assignments. This helped me keep track of everything and helped me make sure I got everything done.

The last tip I have for you is to breathe becasue this will be very very very hard. Give yourself grace to mess up or not understand.