Am I Mentally Ready For Law School? 4 Questions To Ask

Am I Mentally Ready For Law School? Four Questions To Ask Yourself

Ok.  We recognize the question of whether you are mentally ready for law school can be a bit, well—daunting.  Nevertheless, it’s an important question to ask yourself! Being honest with yourself will put you in the best position to further develop your strengths and to effectively work with your less strong areas. As you go through the questions below to help determine if you are mentally ready for law school, you may consider writing out your answers.  Putting pen to paper gives you the chance to later reflect on what you’ve written, and it can serve as a great reference point as you continue through law school.

Am I Mentally Ready For Law School? Four Questions To Ask Yourself

1. Do I see the glass half-full or half-empty? (That is if you even see the glass at all.)

The very nature of law school is antagonistic.  Students must make arguments, defend their arguments, then dismantle other people’s arguments.  How you think about this process can greatly impact how well you do in law school.  When you consider this example, do you think “I’m looking forward to sharpening my analytic skills” or do you find yourself thinking that this might not be the manner in which you want to sharpen your analytic skills?  There’s no right or wrong answer here. The point is that students who characterize their experiences as those from which they can learn, rather than those in which they are always wrong, will likely have a more rewarding law school experience. How you frame these sorts of questions can help you ensure you are mentally ready for law school when classes begin.

2. Am I OK with being wrong?

This is a real question.  At some point during law school, you will likely be wrong.  What that means can be complicated.  You might be “wrong” because you misinterpreted a case or a statute.  Or you might be “wrong” because someone else was more right.  You might be “wrong” because well, you were just wrong.  It can be difficult for students who may have always been right in college to adjust to not always being right in law school.  Much like seeing the glass half full or half empty, how you respond to being wrong can greatly influence your level of resilience and mental fortitude throughout law school.

3. How do I deal with success?

This question may seem a bit confusing when determining whether you are mentally ready for law school.  You might be asking yourself, how does my relationship to success have anything to do with whether I am mentally prepared for law school?  More than you think.  Success can be just as powerful, if not more powerful, than failure.  Students who experience academic success in law school may see this as a sign that they have mastered a particular area of the law and as such, reduce the amount of time they study.  This can lead to less-than-optimal results.

So asking yourself if you are mentally prepared for law school includes asking yourself how you deal not only with failure but also with success.  Do you stay the course?  How often do your emotions get the best of you?  Do you celebrate with others?  Do you go it alone?  How we manage success can greatly influence how we perform on our next challenge.  Using success as a motivation to keep preparing and keep working hard, can help you ensure the next success.

4. Do I ask for help?

Law school can be an isolating experience.  Long hours studying a new language, an entirely different grading system, in the foreign world of cold calling, can get very old, very fast.  If you’re struggling with this, check out these 4 tips on surviving cold calling.

Think back to the last time you experienced something difficult.  What was it?  How did you work through it?  Did you ask for help?  Did you go it alone?  Would you change anything if you could?  Even though law school is incredibly rigorous, most law schools offer various forms of help.  Law School deans, teaching assistants, advisors, as well as other professionals (from mental health counselors to librarians) are all available to help students find their way.  They are all cheering you on and want you to succeed in law school. Part of that success is ensuring you are mentally ready for law school. But those resources are only helpful if students take advantage of them. Don’t be shy about seeking out resources.

Now What?

You’ve gotten honest.  You’ve written your answers.  You’re ready to take on law school.  Where do you go from here? Well, if you’ve found that you are not entirely sure if you are mentally prepared for law school, identify ways that you can practice building mental toughness.  In a previous post, Five Things to Do Now to Get Ready for Law School, we provided helpful tips and advice that, if practiced, can put you in the right mindset to succeed in law school.

You may also consider our free Law School prep course.  The course provides its students with invaluable information from how to create effective outlines to how to appropriately cite cases.  Students are also presented with the basics of legal research and law school exam-taking strategies.  Like learning a new language, or a new instrument, or any other new thing, mental preparation takes, well, preparation.

Are you mentally ready for law school?  It’s a question only you can answer and even if you decide that you’re not, there are many ways to help you get prepared.  For more tips and advice around ways to prepare for law school, check out this helpful post on how to prepare for law school over the summer.

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