3 Law School Essential Skills You Need To Excel

3 Law School Essential Skills You Need To Excel

As we get closer to the beginning of the law school year, we have lots of students who contact us asking us for preparation help. The majority of these students know about the large time commitment that law school requires. They come to us looking for ways to become more efficient with their time. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the top three law school essential skills students need to excel. This list comes from our experience in law school, as well as our students’ experiences. 

3 Law School Essential Skills You Need To Excel

1. Learning to Use Case Briefs and Other Supplements

The first of our law school essential skills that students must learn before entering law school is learning how to use case briefs and other supplements to speed up the reading process without losing any important information.  

We’ve written about how to read law school cases previously, so we recommend checking out this post for additional help.  By decreasing the time you spend reading cases, you can spend additional time working on their outlines and/or practicing exams.  Additionally, by becoming more efficient reading, you can learn to ignore unnecessary information. This allows you to focus on the key details in cases.

2. Learning to Efficiently Outline

Outlining is one of the most important tasks in law school. Learning how to outline is a pivotal part of our law school essential skills. Students are often told when they start law school that a good outline is priceless.  Creating an outline can initially be a daunting task. However, developing a good outline early on and maintaining it will save you a lot of time and headaches.  If you’re wondering how to create an outline, you can read these posts which include law school outline tips and a template and an in-depth guide on how to write a law school outline. The biggest piece of advice we can give you is to start outlining right away so that you can improve your outlining skills!!

3. Learning How to Take Practice Exams

The last of our law school essential skills that students need to excel is to learn how to take practice exams.  Some students are not aware that certain professors make their previous law school exams available for student use.  You should ask where to get these exams early on. Then, make sure that you have access to them when you are ready to take practice exams.  By using practice exams and your outlines, you can identify areas you struggle with prior to the final exam.  This is the absolute best way to prepare for the final exam and feel more comfortable with test-taking.

If you’re unsure on how to take a practice exam, you can check out this post which has a step by step guide.

• Seeking Success in Law School?

  • Benefit from personalized one-on-one tutoring by our seasoned law school tutors.
  • Explore our NEW and highly acclaimed law school study aids, available for a free trial.