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Tips for the Behind and Stressed
Dr. Amy Jarmon,
Assistant Dean, Academic Success Programs
You have just finished the third week in which classes have been held. Are you getting behind? Are you losing sleep? Are you feeling stressed? If so, the following tips may help you get back on track.
Catch up on your back reading in chunks. It makes more sense to find time to read 10 pages a night for four nights to catch up than to try to find time to read 40 pages at one time. Prioritize the back reading by importance to current class understanding. For example, background reading may be of lower priority than cases that are on your current class topic.
Tackle your most difficult (or least enjoyable) tasks first. By focusing first on your hardest tasks, you are more alert when your brain cells are doing a heavy workout. By doing the least enjoyable task first, you do not have it hanging over you all day.
Do not let your level of studying be affected by whether you will be called on in class. If you have assigned days for the “hot seat” in a class, do not stop reading the material and slack off once your day has passed. If you do, you will have to spend more time learning the course later. “A” and “B” grades are more often won by the tortoises that plod along consistently throughout the semester than by the hares that race through a cram at the end.
Distribute project or paper time over several weeks rather than using one long stretch at the very end. If you have been given two weeks for an assignment, break it down into smaller tasks that you work on during separate days throughout the two weeks. It is easier to get motivated to work on a specific small task than to get motivated to write an entire paper in a few days.
Outline for each class every week. Finding time to outline one week’s material is very easy. Finding time to outline six weeks’ material is very difficult. You will forget 80% of what you learned within two weeks if you do not review. So, why put off outlining until you have to relearn the material before you can outline it?
Learn more by processing material yourself. You will remember more and gain a deeper understanding if you make your own outline, flashcards, flowcharts, etc. The struggle of processing the material will increase your learning. If you use study aids (either commercial or from others), use them to check your own processing or to compare your own results rather than as substitutes for your own hard work.
Increase your hours of sleep to no less than seven per night, and preferably to at least eight per night. Research shows that getting minimal sleep will negatively affect your memory, your concentration when reading, your attention level in class, your stress level, your interpersonal relationships, and your outlook on life. Need I say more?
Get help now if you are confused in a course. Go to your professor on office hours or after class. Go to your tutor’s office hours for individual help. Ask classmates for help in understanding the material. Do not wait thinking the fog will lift eventually. It may become denser and engulf you completely.
Start now to study for exams. Memory only works for you if you distribute learning and review over the entire semester. If you wait until the last half or third of the semester to study for exams, you will need to relearn that segment of the course while you are trying to learn the rest of the course.
Use your learning preferences/styles to advantage. Learning preferences are critical to using your study time efficiently and effectively. There are a myriad of useful tips that can help you study with your learning preferences in mind. If you want an appointment with Dr. Jarmon to assess your learning preferences, e-mail her for a day/time.
Use weekend time wisely. By sleeping to noon or two o’clock, you lose valuable time that is needed on reading or outlining or other study tasks. Likewise, endless hours of television or video games only make you guilty about studying you have not done. Use the morning and afternoon hours productively.
Keep balance in your life. Exercise. Eat healthy and regular meals. Spend time with family and friends outside of the law school (on the phone if not here). Schedule down time to read a novel, see a movie etc. If you are saying there is not time, make an appointment with Dr. Jarmon ASAP – you need help with time management.
Remember your goal is to know the law when you get to the bar review at the end of law school. If you manage to cram at the end and do okay in a course, you are ultimately cheating yourself as a graduate. Students who learn the material at a deep level of understanding during law school will be more likely to remember material when they take the bar review course. Students who remember material only long enough for their law school exams will have to relearn more material prior to the bar exam.
Remember your goal is to be a competent attorney when you graduate and pass the bar exam. You are making your professional reputation right now. If you are known now as a person who cuts corners (using scripts, outlines from other people, or notes from other people; not doing the reading; leaving research and writing assignments to the last minute; cutting class more than the allowed absences; surfing on the web during class), your classmate attorneys will be unlikely to feel comfortable in referring clients in the future to you as an attorney. Bad study habits in law school often translate into bad work habits as an attorney.
Adviser
Time is of the essence for smart studiers
by Amy L. Jarmon
Originally published in: Student Lawyer, September 2007, Vol. 36, No. 1, All rights reserved
Time is often a law student’s enemy. We have all heard the stories. Law students lament that they sleep only five hours a night because they are constantly reading for class. They complain about frantically finishing writing assignments hours before the deadline. They consider it impossible to find time to outline, do practice questions, or review for exams.
Charles Buxton once said, “You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” This adage is certainly true for law students who wish to succeed rather than merely survive. Proven strategies exist that make time for effective studying and still leave time for life.
How does one make time? Here are some techniques that can help you:
Realize that prior study techniques may not match the reality of successful studying for law school. Law school reading is more “dense” because it includes cases, which have a specialized language. Casebooks rarely have introductions, headings, graphics, or summaries. The volume of material covered is daunting. Many law professors guide students rather than tell them exactly what they need to know. Few law students made course outlines in college. Law school final exams focus on the application of material rather than the cases read.
Because of these differences, new strategies and regular review of material are essential. Many law students relate that they earned As in college while studying less than 15 hours per week and cramming for exams. Even those with graduate degrees remark on adjustments to law school studying. Older law students often relate that they have forgotten how to study.
Stop making “ad hoc” study decisions. Many law students decide day by day, or even hour by hour, what they will do. These law students are finding time for tasks instead of making time. They stay very busy, but most of them do not study efficiently or effectively.
Law students who are ad-hoc time managers often expand tasks into the time available (taking four hours to read what could have been read in three and a half hours). They procrastinate because they “have all day” to complete several tasks. They waste time getting ready to study. Consequently, they become focused only on reading for class. Other assignments and tasks are completed haphazardly. They grasp at shortcuts rather than more efficient and effective ways to study.
Make a weekly schedule that includes all of the study tasks for success. By having a regular routine that is modified but not reinvented, you take control of your study tasks. A full-time student will study 55–60 hours per week to complete all study tasks and prepare for exams during the entire semester. A part-time student will study 35–45 hours per week. The rewards are lower stress and guilt-free relaxation.
Critical study tasks to include are reading for class, briefing for class, reviewing before class, reviewing class notes after class, outlining, reviewing outlines, and doing practice questions. Other tasks may vary and include weekly tutoring, study groups, and extracurricular obligations. Following are the steps for making your base study schedule:
1. Make a template table for Monday through Friday with days as column headings and one-hour slots as row headings. Half-hour slots can be designated with a line dividing a slot into two parts.
2. Label time blocks specifically with the tasks. Examples: “read Income Tax,” “outline Evidence,” “review Torts notes.”
3. Include four to eight hours weekly for each project or paper course even if these tasks will start several weeks later. Any unused time initially can be allotted to other tasks or relaxation.
4. Fill in regular commitments first. These commitments may vary depending on your lifestyle. Examples: classes, tutoring sessions, morning prep time, commuting time, bedtime story for your child, church service.
5. Fill in seven to eight hours of sleep at the same time for Sunday through Thursday nights. Vary the weekend sleep cycle by two hours at the most. With more sleep, you will be more productive and retain more information.
6. Fill in a half hour per class to review your readings, briefs, and prior class notes before going to class. You will follow class discussion better, take better notes, and feel more confident.
7. Consider reading your class assignment two days beforehand. On Saturday, you read for Monday’s classes. On Sunday, you read for Tuesday’s classes. On Monday, you read for Wednesday’s classes, and so forth. Advantages of this system: you are less hurried and can learn the material rather than highlighting for later learning, you have more time to brief cases, you will be finished with the week’s reading on Wednesday, you have made time on Thursday and Friday for tasks such as outlining, reviewing, completing practice questions, and writing papers.
8. Write down an estimate for your reading/briefing time for each course for one day’s assignment. Estimate the longest time needed if your daily assignments vary in length. If your estimate is a range such as three to three and a half hours, choose the higher number.
9. Write down an estimate for your outlining time for each course for one week’s material. Estimate the longest time and take the higher number if you estimate a range. If you have no idea, include two hours per week. If you need to catch up, estimate the total time needed. Use that figure initially, and go to the lower weekly figure once you are current.
10. Fill in your reading time for each class. Choose times when you will be most alert. Consider reading for your most difficult course first so that it will not hang over you all day.
11. Fill in time for the remaining tasks: outlining, reviewing course material, working practice questions.
12. Fill in a half hour per class to review your class notes within 24 hours after class. In this time, fill in missing information and organize your notes.
13. Schedule your free time. Most law students schedule free time on Friday and Saturday nights. Choose realistic times to get up and begin studying on the weekend.
14. Add some flex hours that will not be used for studying unless you need them. Psychologically, it is easier to give up this time for study if you have already made that commitment. These flex hours allow you to reconfigure your schedule for unexpected assignments, illness, or other reasons.
Use a monthly calendar to indicate deadline dates. Set an artificial deadline two days earlier than the real deadline. An artificial deadline gives you flexibility if problems arise. Make a list of all of the small tasks to meet a deadline. For each task, estimate how long it will take you. Then, enter on the calendar the specific tasks to be accomplished each day to stay on track.
Use a prioritized daily to-do list for the specific tasks that will be completed in the time blocks designated on your weekly schedule. “Read Torts” is not specific enough. “Read Torts pages 120–148” is better. However, if you need a feeling of accomplishment, break down the assignment by cases or page numbers. Prioritize all tasks with designations that make sense to you.
You will need several weeks to monitor and finalize the weekly schedule. Do not give up if things sometimes go awry. The two-day method is easiest to start or restart on Saturday. Your law school experience will be more successful when you make time rather than find time.
Amy L. Jarmon is assistant dean for academic success programs at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock.
These are taken from the Suffolk School of Law webpage.
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YES, if you learn best by listening to others or by talking out the material or by trying to teach the material.
If you do decide to join a study group, carefully select the members by their agreement to the purpose and method of the group. If it is to be social and academic, choose those who want that. If it is to be business only, choose those. If you want personal support as well as a chance to learn, choose others like yourself.
Then set some rules - e.g., meet once a week and review notes in each course for 45 minutes per course. Meet once a month and work through CALI problems for property and Examples and Explanations problems for contracts.
If you know you want social time, build it in but set a time limit, then go to the study agenda.
Do not divide up responsibility for outlining. The value in outlining is in the process of doing the outline, not in the reading of someone else's product.
Do alternate leading the discussion. it is when you try to explain the material to your peers that you learn it or learn the gaps in your knowledge. Rotating this taks assures that everyone has a change to "teach."
Do use your time to review, fill in gaps in your notes, but most importantly test your knowledge by doing practice questions. This will help you master the law, master analysis and prepare you for the exam. Tips: use CALI exercises, problems assigned by your professor, problems in Examples and Explanations, Siegel's study aids, Lexis' Q and A series, or, best of all, old exams your professors gave or problems your professors post for you.
For more tips, see Succeeding in Law School, ch. X.
If you are unsure about the court system, read Succeeding in Law School, pp. 6-22 or check out www.abanet.org and click on Public Resources, About the Law, and read the piece on How Courts Work, including Steps in a Trial. You do not need to memorize this information; as you work through cases, this material will become familiar to you and you will learn what information you do need to memorize.
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