January 6, 2025 • 27 mins
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today we are celebrating the new year and talking about how you can create a plan for success for the upcoming semester of law school.
In this episode we discuss:
- What is the one thing every law student should do as they go back to school this month?
- Questions to ask your professors in office hours
- Self-evaluation and goal setting
- Tips for class preparation
- How to set up your schedule so you have time for deep work
- Making a plan for a better second semester if the first didn't go well
Resources
- Second Semester 1L Reboot (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/second-semester-1l-reboot/)
- Podcast Episode 480: Ethical Uses of AI in Law School (w/Professor Susan Tanner) (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/podcast-episode-480-ethical-uses-of-ai-in-law-school-w-professor-susan-tanner/)
- How to Stick to Your Goals in Law School (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/how-to-stick-to-your-goals-in-law-school/)
- Six Ways to Use Office Hours (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/six-ways-to-use-office-hours/)
- Notes? Case Briefs? Highlighting? How Do You Prepare for Class? (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/notes-case-briefs-highlighting-how-do-you-prepare-for-class/)
- Are You Taking Good Law School Class Notes? (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/taking-good-law-school-class-notes/)
- Five Techniques for Using Deep Work to Excel in Law School (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/five-techniques-for-using-deep-work-to-excel-in-law-school/)
- Law School Toolbox Experts Share: How Should Law Students Create a Study Schedule? (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/law-school-toolbox-experts-share-how-would-you-advise-law-students-to-create-a-study-schedule/)
Download the Transcript
(https://lawschooltoolbox.com/episode-484-new-year-new-you/)
If you enjoy the podcast, we'd love a nice review and/or rating on Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/law-school-toolbox-podcast/id1027603976) or your favorite listening app. And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website (http://lawschooltoolbox.com/contact). If you're concerned about the bar exam, check out our sister site, the Bar Exam Toolbox (http://barexamtoolbox.com/). You can also sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter (https://lawschooltoolbox.com/get-law-school-p
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lee Burgess (00:01):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we are celebrating a new year andtalking about how you can create a plan
for success for the upcoming semester.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonahan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the
(00:23):
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, pleaseleave a review or rating on
your favorite listening app.
And if you have any questions,don't hesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.
Alison Monahan (00:47):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we're talking aboutmaking the most of a new year.
It's a great time to reflect onwhat's working, what's not working,
and what you want to do differently.
Lee Burgess (00:59):
Happy New Year, Alison!
Alison Monahan (01:01):
Happy New Year!
Yay, 2025!
Lee Burgess (01:04):
So today we are going to arm you with a plan to critically
evaluate how you did last semester andhelp you create a plan for this semester.
So it's not really abouta new year's resolution.
It's really a new year plan, becauseresolutions don't work anyway.
Alison Monahan (01:22):
Exactly.
Well, I think the first thingpeople really need to do to kind
of evaluate what happened, andwhere they might move forward is,
go talk to your professors - I knowpeople don't love to do this - and try
to get some feedback on your exams.
Even if it went well, there'restill probably some things you can
do to set yourself up for success.
(01:42):
And that's a great opportunity tostart building that relationship
for a reference letter later.
We recommend getting copies of yourexams if you can, and actually setting
up a meeting with your professors.
So your school may or may not givethem, your professor may or may not give
them back, but if you can, get thoseexams and take a look at them, look
at the answer key, figure out what youmight think you did well or did poorly,
(02:05):
and then go talk to your professor.
Lee, do you have any advice on whatpeople should be talking about here?
Lee Burgess (02:10):
Absolutely.
We have a whole list of thingsthat you should ask your
professors in office hours.
And if you find your professorparticularly intimidating, as some
of them can be, you can check thetranscript of this podcast and write
down the list that you want to takeinto your office hours meetings can
really help reduce some of this anxietythat you might have and make it a lot
(02:32):
easier to chat with your professors.
So, you've got to do it.
You've got to go in and talkabout the test, whether it
went well, whether it didn't.
Professors really do often wantyou to make an appointment.
So they should be clear about whetheryou can just show up at office hours,
but you may want to make an appointment.
Please go to the appointmentif you make the appointment.
And sometimes they will pull out thetest so you can look at it together.
(02:56):
And here are some questions thatyou want to ask your professors.
To get things kicked off, I would startwith, "Did I spot the correct issues?"
The thing is, your professorsaren't taking a lot of notes on
those exam answers, so you're notgoing to see a lot of comments.
So I think that it's a really greatquestion to start with, because if
you didn't raise enough issues, youprobably couldn't collect enough points.
Alison Monahan (03:20):
Yeah, and there are kind of two sides to this.
One is, can they show you a placewhere you missed an issue that
maybe you should have talked about?
And I will say if they've givenyou a sample answer, you want to
have done some of this work before.
So maybe you could bring it in and say,"It looks like I missed an issue here.
Is that what happened?"
And they're going to say,"Yeah, that's what happened."
And then you can say, "Well,what facts triggered this issue?
How was I supposed toknow to talk about it?"
They also might show you aplace where you talked about
something that wasn't relevant.
Sometimes you may have seen somethingthat just was completely off-base.
So, that's also useful information
(03:47):
to
have.
Yeah.
Another good question
Lee Burgess (03:56):
to ask is, "How accurate and complete were my rule statements?"
This may be a little bit differentdepending on whether or not this was
an open-book test or a closed-booktest, but I still think it's important
to see if you got your rule statementscorrect, and were they complete.
So you can ask your professor, "Can youshow me a place where I could have done
a better job with the legal rules?"
(04:16):
Or like Alison said, if you havea model answer, you can say, "Is
this a place where I could havedone better with the rules?"
Right.
Yeah,
Alison Monahan (04:26):
because if you have that model answer - even if
you don't - sometimes we recommendhighlighting things in different colors.
So, highlight the issue statement,highlight the rule statement,
all the pieces of IRAC or CREACor whatever you were using.
Do it on the sample and then do it onyours, and kind of see how they match up.
And once you've kind of gotthe issue and the rule, then
we're in the analysis piece.
So, did you use all the legallyrelevant facts in the analysis?
(04:49):
Maybe your professor can show youa place where you did not use the
facts as effectively as you couldhave, or maybe you could ask them
about it (04:55):
"How was the analysis?
Was it too conclusory?"
That's something people hear a lotand may not necessarily understand.
Or a place you might've missedcounterarguments, is another big
place, because this analysis is wherethe meaty part of the test often is.
So, if your professor says you were justtoo conclusory about things, ask them to
show you what that looks like, becauseI think that can be hard for people to
(05:17):
understand until it's pointed out to you.
Lee Burgess (05:20):
Yeah.
Those counterarguments are alsoreally important when you're going
through and evaluating, did youpresent both sides of an issue?
And if you weren't clear in youranswer that you were changing
sides to argue both sides, that'sjust a red flag to look out for.
And it's really easy to just start talkingabout analysis and not saying things
(05:40):
like, "The plaintiff will argue", "Thedefendant will argue", "The government
will argue", "The defense will argue".
You do need to give thoseflags to your professor to show
where that legal analysis is.
And so, as you're evaluating your work andalso going through it with your professor,
you want to see if you kind of used those,I guess we call them signposts - you can
call them lots of different things - tokind of anchor your work and show that
(06:01):
you're doing what is being asked of you.
Alison Monahan (06:03):
Yeah.
And I think you also want to belooking for signposts and phrases
that show places that you're tyingthe facts and law together - so,
things like "because" or "which showsthat" or anything along those lines.
If you don't see anything like that,then probably your analysis is going
to read as too conclusory, becauseyou're not explaining anything.
Lee Burgess (06:23):
You also want to look at your IRAC or your CREAC or whatever is the
preferred format that you're writing in.
Like you mentioned, you can usea highlighter if you get copies
of your answer before and tryand see where each piece of that
IRAC or CREAC is in your answer.
I'll be honest, if the A is thin inone sentence, that's not a good sign.
You usually want thatto be the longest part.
(06:44):
But again, if you can't tell fromyour work if it's there, then ask your
professor for their feedback on that.
Along with that format, you need to lookat the organization of the question.
How was your organization of the answer?
Did it make sense?
Did you use clear headers?
Is it easy for the professorto follow your organization?
(07:05):
You really want to getfeedback on that as well.
Alison Monahan (07:08):
Right, because I think that's where a lot of people kind of
fall short, is they think maybe thatthey were being organized, and then
when you actually read it afterwards,it's very stream of consciousness.
Maybe this question wasstructured with multiple
defendants or something like that.
And instead of doing, Alice, Bob, andCharlie in your analysis, you talked about
a bunch of issues and rules all together.
(07:30):
There are lots of ways that thingsshould be structured that may not
be immediately obvious to you.
But if you want some feedback,your professor is the
person who wrote the exam.
They're very able to say to you,"Well, you really ought to have done
this as Alice, Bob and Charlie, notas a bunch of unrelated issues, where
sometimes you talk about Bob andthen sometimes you talk about Alice.
(07:51):
That's not the way the questionwas expecting an answer."
Lee Burgess (07:54):
Yeah.
You may have had a multiple-choicesection on your test, and often
professors will not let you see thosequestions again because they like to
reuse them, but you can still ask forsome feedback on how you did, maybe
in comparison to other students.
But you should try and get some feedbackon the multiple-choice if you can.
And then just do it open ended,like, "Do you have any other
(08:14):
thoughts on my exam, or areas whereI should focus on for improvement?"
Really, unless you got the top score inthe class, and even then almost everyone
has something that they can improve on.
So, you do want to try and get alladvice, even if you did fairly well.
Alison Monahan (08:31):
Yeah.
And I think really try to listen to that.
And sometimes professors may or maynot be giving you very solid advice,
but if you talk to a few of them andyou hear the same thing, I think that's
definitely a place where you're saying toyourself, "Okay, I'm getting consistent
feedback that I need to work on X.
I probably really need to work on X."
Lee Burgess (08:48):
Yeah.
So, hopefully you have feedbackfrom your professors and have
gotten to review exam answers.
And now comes the funjob of self-evaluation.
So, here are some questions to start with.
First, overall, what do youthink is the biggest mistake
that you made first semester?
(09:08):
And I think almost every lawstudent makes some mistake.
I know I did, I know you did.
I mean, we all make mistakes.
Alison Monahan (09:14):
Nobody's perfect.
No one knows how to do this.
Lee Burgess (09:17):
No.
So, I think it's a really valuableexercise to ask yourself what was the
biggest mistake you made first semester.
And it can be on anything, from preparingto class to executing your exams.
Alison Monahan (09:27):
Right.
I know for me, I definitelystarted taking practice exams
way later than I should have.
I took my first practice exam, likefull practice, closed-book exam, I did
the day before my first Torts final.
Lee Burgess (09:41):
Not great.
Alison Monahan (09:41):
That was not as early as it should have been.
I learned from that mistake going forward.
Lee Burgess (09:46):
Yeah, exactly.
I definitely focused way too much onpreparing for class and not enough
on final exam prep until the end.
I did not keep my eye on the end game.
Yeah, eye
Alison Monahan (09:59):
on the ball.
No, same.
I think I also started puttingthe material together too late.
I remember being around Thanksgivingbefore I really was like, "Oh,
I need to figure out how allthis stuff fits together."
So again, these things happen, but Ithink just understanding, "Okay, well,
next time around, I probably shouldstart putting the material together
earlier and doing earlier practice."
(10:20):
That's all it is.
It's not that I'm a terribleperson or that I'm stupid.
It's just that, "Huh, yeah,that's something I probably should
improve upon going forward."
Lee Burgess (10:27):
Yeah.
So you want to not only identifythese mistakes, but you want to start
brainstorming about how you willcorrect these mistakes moving forward.
Another thing that I think isimportant to evaluate is, what do you
think is the biggest challenge foryou that you'll face this semester?
Is it a class?
Is it something going on in your life?
Is it maybe one of the mistakes orthe challenges you had from the first
(10:49):
semester and trying to remedy that?
But I think it's important to identifywhat those challenges are, so then
the next step can be, what techniqueswill you use to manage this challenge?
And those may be techniques thatyou're going to implement for
yourself, they could be support fromfolks at school or outside of school.
But you do need to have a plan inplace to kind of help bolster you to
(11:12):
meet those challenges as they come up.
Alison Monahan (11:14):
Yeah.
And I think for a lot of students,the second semester, that challenge
often comes down to a class or twobecause the level of the classes often
second semester ramp up a little bit.
So a lot of people might be takingsomething like Con Law, which
frankly is a little harder for mostpeople than something like Torts.
Yeah, Con Law and Property, kind ofthe classic harder second semester
(11:35):
classes, but if that is the case,there're some good hornbooks out there.
I mean, how currentthey are now, who knows?
But you want to look into resourcesfor those harder topics, to make sure
that you're not going to be kind offlailing later on in the semester.
Lee Burgess (11:50):
Yeah.
I also think that the beginningof the semester is a great time
to set any goals for yourself.
Goal setting is somethingthat can be very powerful.
Goals are not New Year's resolutions.
Goals are goals.
Alison Monahan (12:01):
I think even have a podcast on like smart goals,
which very important that they bekind of measurable, actionable,
not just, "I'm going to do better."
Right, okay, how do you measure that?
How do you know that you'regetting towards that goal?
A good goal might be somethinglike, "I'm going to carve out
every week, six hours of deep worktime and commit to doing that."
(12:22):
Great, we can track that.
Lee Burgess (12:24):
Exactly.
So, setting those goals so you could alsoconstantly check in with yourself and
see how the progress towards that goal isgoing, is also a really great technique.
Aright, let's talk aboutpreparing for class.
This is an area that a lot of 1Lsspecifically find they want to make some
changes, likely because you, like me,spent too much time and effort preparing
(12:46):
for class when you needed to rememberwhat the point of preparing for class was.
So, first off, you want to thinkabout how you're going to prepare
for class this semester reading,briefing, using supplements.
Are you going to make changesto how you prepared for class?
Are you going to be more efficient?
Are you going to trim some of the time?
(13:07):
How are you going to take notes?
Are you going to try book briefing?
There are lots of different thingsthat you can try, but you want to
evaluate what went well and what waschallenging, so you can implement a
better system for the next semester.
I also think it's important to thinkabout when you will do your reading
and other class prep, because I thinkthis is a trap a lot of law students
fall into, is doing this reading atnight, when they're exhausted, and
(13:30):
then they don't retain anything.
And then they go to class and theycan't remember what they read.
Alison Monahan (13:34):
Yeah, I think you've just got to know yourself here.
So for me, I think I did onewritten brief because they forced
us to, I never did another one.
I book brief, I'm a visual learner.
But yeah, I think you've gotto keep class in perspective.
The point of class is tohelp you learn the material.
And if you get cold called, you want tohave a basic understanding of what you've
read, so it's clear that you're preparedfor class and you're doing your best.
But beyond that, I think focusingendlessly and fixating on having to
know every single thing and havingthese huge elaborate briefs in
case you
(13:55):
get
called on, it's just probably not reallythe best use of most people's time.
I think you want to give classreading a good faith effort.
You want to go in with some notesthat allow you if you get called
on to seem like you are prepared.
(14:16):
And that's kind of about it,really, in terms of your actual
responsibility for preparing for class.
Lee Burgess (14:21):
Yeah.
And the further you get into lawschool, you should find it easier
to read these cases the more used toreading in the legal format becomes.
And so, if you don't find that you'regetting more efficient, that's kind
of a flag, and you want to maybego talk to academic support and ask
them what you may be doing to kindof be a little slower and not being
(14:41):
able to get your prep done in time.
So, it is just really importantto make sure that this doesn't
take over your schedule.
Another thing to think about iswhat your class notes looked like.
Were they helpful?
Were they written on paper?
Were they on a Kindle?
Did you type them out?
What worked last time, what didn't?
(15:02):
Do you want to try something new?
I think the beginning of a semesteris a great time to test some new
note-taking techniques, if you'retrying to mix things up and help with
retention and understanding in class.
Alison Monahan (15:12):
Right.
And also, what do you do with yourclass notes after you take them?
Do you just throw them in the trash?
I mean, are they actually helpful to you?
Do you ever look at them again?
There are techniques you can use, likestarring things with certain words that
your professor has flagged as beingreally important, so that if you're
doing electronic versions of things,you can go through and look at like,
"Professor says, professor says", andthose are kind of highlights for you.
(15:33):
But yeah, I think if you didn't feel likeyou were getting as much out of class
as you were putting into it, I thinkthat is something to discuss either with
your professors or academic support ora tutor or whatever it is, because you
want to make sure that you're spendingthe right amount of time, but not reading
cases four times or something like that,because you don't have time for that.
Lee Burgess (15:53):
Yeah.
I also hear students talkingabout using AI to go through their
class notes to develop things.
I mean, listen, we love some good AI.
Alison Monahan (16:04):
Claude is our new best
Lee Burgess (16:05):
friend.
Claude is our new best friend.
But you do need to be thoughtful about howyou're using AI and make sure that you're
not having it do work that you're goingto need to be accountable for, in the
sense that, if Claude is synthesizing allthe material and then you're not really
understanding how it fits together, that'snot a good use of our friend Claude.
Alison Monahan (16:24):
Yeah, Claude already knows Torts.
Like, you could just ask him.
It's actually way moreefficient than having Claude
summarize your notes for you.
Just ask Claude what he thinksabout negligence, he'll tell you.
He can even quiz you.
It's actually a really good use of theAI tools, are to quiz you on things.
But yeah, just having it kind of makean outline from your notes, I'm not sure
is any more useful than picking up anoutline that someone else made for you.
Lee Burgess (16:46):
No, I think it's pretty much the same thing.
It's just going to have less errorsin it, because Claude did it for you.
Okay, we love deep work hereat the Law School Toolbox.
So, one of the things we want you tospend some time considering is, how
are you going to set up your scheduleso you have time for deep work?
Deep work is where youdo the heavy lifting.
You're wrestling material, you're creatingstudy materials, you're doing practice.
(17:09):
This is where the magic happens.
Alison Monahan (17:12):
And I think this is so, so important.
And I think it's so important to do itearly on, and to do it consistently.
And the reality is, you need largerchunks of time, typically, to do this.
So, we say three to four-hour chunks.
I would say ideally at least once,preferably twice a week, from
the beginning of the semester.
In the beginning, you might not have thatmuch to put together, but the problem
(17:35):
is, if you don't start working withit and kind of compiling it and making
sense of it, you're going to have a lotwhen you start to look at it a month in.
Lee Burgess (17:43):
Yeah.
Yeah, better to start early.
Chip away at it.
Don't ever feel behind.
So I think as you think about yourdeep work, one of the things that
you want to do is think about whatkind of study aids were helpful for
you in your first semester classes.
And so, what are your study aidsgoing to look like this semester?
Did you learn what workedfor you and what didn't?
And do you need to make some changes?
Alison Monahan (18:04):
Right, yeah.
So I learned at the end of my firstsemester that what seemed to make
sense to me was making flowcharts.
And so that's something I keptdoing, because it actually helps
me think about the materialand make sense of the material.
And it was a great referenceon an open-book test.
But if your test is a different format,then maybe that's not so helpful.
You've kind of got to work with thesituation that you have in front of you.
Lee Burgess (18:25):
Yeah.
So you also want to think about, asyou mentioned, where are you going
to find the time for that deep work?
I think it's great to have a consistenttime that you put on your calendar.
And then when you're looking at thatcalendar, maybe you should just pick a
date to really have your outline started.
And then also complete it and just dropit on the date, because you should have
(18:48):
your final exams on that calendar too.
And I think that looking at thesemester as a whole is a really
worthwhile thing to do as you're tryingto figure out how you're going to
allocate your time for this deep work.
Alison Monahan (18:59):
Yeah.
And I think one thing that we've talkedabout before is there's kind of a
difference between planning and preparingto do the work and then doing the work.
And you kind of need time for both.
If you plan to, on X date, take a practicetest, maybe the week before you block out
an hour to find practice materials forthe test I plan to take the next week.
(19:20):
Particularly people who maybe don'thave such natural executive functioning
skills or maybe have ADHD, things likethat - you really have to block out
the time to prepare to do the task.
And then when you get to do thetask, it's just, "Okay, here's
what I've already figured out.
I'm going to sit down, I'm going to startdoing this and I'm going to complete it."
And then I think that's goingto be a lot more effective.
(19:41):
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (19:42):
And then the practice is a much more contained task.
And it doesn't take as long either.
Alison Monahan (19:47):
Right.
You're not using the mental energy tofind the question, because you already did
that and then you went on about your life.
And two days later you sitdown and you have the practice
question and answer ready to go.
And maybe you block out another hourthe next day to review it, so you're
not trying to do everything at once.
Lee Burgess (20:03):
Yeah.
I also think that you want to thinkabout how early you can start to practice
when you're looking at that calendar,realizing that just after you've learned
just a bit of law in your semester, youcan start doing practice questions, even
if they're pretty narrowly formulated.
I mean, you can even ask our friendsClaude and ChatGPT to draft some for you.
(20:26):
I mean, they will do that.
So, there's no shortage of questions.
Alison Monahan (20:30):
They can be on focused topics, and even if you need some multiple
choice, they can generally do a prettygood job and not be totally accurate.
But that's actually even a good processfor you to go through, is to figure out,
"Why doesn't this seem right to me?"
So, I don't think you couldjust turn off your brain.
And I have an episode recently witha law professor talking about how to
use AI productively in law school.
But to say that "Oh, I can't finda hypo" is kind of ridiculous
(20:52):
at this point, because youhave an endless supply of them.
Lee Burgess (20:55):
Yes.
I think it's also important tothink about how you're going to
get feedback on that writing.
So, are you going togive yourself feedback?
And if so, how are you going to do that?
Are you going to get a studygroup together and exchange work
and give feedback to each other?
I think there's value to that.
Do you need to get feedbackfrom academic support?
Do you need a tutor, like our team?
(21:15):
But you do want somebody to evaluateyour work, because that's very
important to make sure that you not onlyunderstand the law, but that you are
doing enough legal analysis and thatit's robust enough to make sure that
you're prepared when final exams come.
So, that is a piece of the practicepuzzle that you can't ignore.
Alison Monahan (21:33):
Yeah, and I think early in the semester is really the
time to gather all this information.
What type of exam do you have?
Is it long essay, shortanswer, multiple choice?
Is it open book?
Is it closed book?
What samples does yourprofessor have on file?
Because if they don't have any of this,then you need to start asking those
questions early, so that you know, forexample, that your entire exam is going
(21:53):
to be multiple choice, which I wouldprobably prepare differently for that
than I would if I had one giant essay.
Lee Burgess (22:00):
Okay, well, before we wrap up, if the semester didn't go
well - and really, I mean, almostanyone can find a growth point in their
semester it's time to make a plan.
That's what this wholepodcast has been about.
So, how do you sit downand make that plan?
We've talked about pieces of the plan,but let's kind of overall talk through it.
So, if you have an academic problemor concern, you need to think about
(22:21):
who you are going to turn to for help.
Make sure you use all theresources at your law school.
They are free.
Well, they're free as inyou've already paid for them.
But you should contact academicsupport, see what resources
there are for you, especiallyif you're on academic probation.
Usually schools have specificprograms for students that are
at risk of being on academicprobation after that first semester.
(22:44):
So you want to go meetwith those professors.
Those meetings aren't always easy,but they're so kind, generally,
in those offices, and theyreally want to help you succeed.
So, try and reach out and set upan appointment to figure out who
you're going to turn to for help.
Of course, our team ishere to help you too.
If you want to get help outsideof your school, you can always
contact us at LawSchoolToolbox.comand we can talk about tutoring.
(23:07):
But you really do need to make surethat you have the right people on
your team to help change outcomes.
Alison Monahan (23:14):
Right.
For me, for example, I came back to schooland was basically clinically depressed.
So, I showed up one day in the healthservices office and said, "I need
to talk to someone about this."
You know I went into therapy,turned out to be a great move.
But if you are suffering from any typeof mental health issue, often your school
has resources available to you that arealready included, so you can get help.
(23:36):
Law students are notoriousfor needing therapy.
I think everybody understands it.
Nobody's going to look down on you,no one is going to think it's weird.
They're going to say,"Thank you for showing up.
It's great that you're here.
Let's get you some skills to handlethe stress of your future career,
because that is just the reality."
So, if you had test anxiety,that's something to look into.
(23:57):
If you have any type of issue thatmaybe you need to look at accommodations
for, I think that's also somethingto go talk to your school about.
They all have officesfor this sort of thing.
But anything that sort of impededyour best performance, now you know.
Before you didn't know.
Now you do know.
You know what happened.
You know what the results were.
(24:18):
So, I think it's about getting thepieces in place to help you overcome
those challenges and move forward ina way that is working better for you.
Lee Burgess (24:27):
Yes.
And I think that a lot of studentsreally struggle with the idea that
someone has suggested they may have ADHD.
I know of students who have gone tothose meetings with their professors,
talked about their exams and theirprofessors have said, "I'm concerned that
I'm seeing some work that may suggestthat something like that is going on."
And then a student might say, "Idon't want to go down that road."
(24:48):
And I understand that.
However, I would really encourageyou to realize that knowledge
is power in this situation.
If you learn more about how yourbrain works, it just allows you to
build the scaffolding and have thecoping skills to perform at your best.
It can feel very vulnerable to askfor more help, to learn more, but in
(25:08):
the long run, it's really going tosupport you and your academic efforts,
and lead to success on the bar exam.
All of this stuff builds oneach other, and so you really
want to keep that in mind.
So, I know it can be really hard togo ask for help when these challenges
present themselves, but you're goingto be glad you did in the future.
Alison Monahan (25:26):
Right, because your professor sees a lot of exams.
And the reality is, we talk to a lot oflaw students, and oftentimes we can tell
pretty quickly - not that we're diagnosinganyone, but we sort of have a sense of,
"Hmm, has anyone ever mentioned that ADHDmight be something you want to look at?"
And more often than not, we'rekind of correct about it.
So, it's just a pattern thatpeople see, and that's all it is.
(25:47):
But I do think, get whatever help you needto be the best law student you can be.
And I think that's what this is allabout - it's just doing your best.
You're not going to beperfect, but just do your best.
Lee Burgess (25:57):
Yeah.
It may feel like we've asked you to do alot in this episode, where we've talked
about a lot of things that you need todo to set yourself up for the semester.
But when we talked about havingthose pockets for deep work, I
think this is the deep work to doat the beginning of the semester.
This is what you do before you outline,before you have a lot of substantive work
(26:18):
to do, is to take some time and generatethese plans, look at your calendar, go to
these meetings, do the self-evaluation,so you know that the hard work you're
putting in for the rest of the semesteris going to get you to your goals and
really allow you to perform at your best.
So, it may seem like a lot, butI think investing in this work at
the beginning of the semester isgoing to really set yourself up
(26:39):
for much better next few months.
Alison Monahan (26:42):
I agree.
If you enjoyed this episode of theLaw School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions or comments,please don't hesitate to reach out to
Lee or Alison at lee@lawschooltoolbox.comor alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
(27:04):
form at LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we are celebrating a new year andtalking about how you can create a plan
for success for the upcoming semester.
Your Law School Toolbox hosts are AlisonMonahan and Lee Burgess, that's me.
We're here to demystify the lawschool and early legal career
experience, so you'll be the bestlaw student and lawyer you can be.
We're the co-creators of the Law SchoolToolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the
(00:23):
career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs TheGirl's Guide to Law School.
If you enjoy the show, pleaseleave a review or rating on
your favorite listening app.
And if you have any questions,don't hesitate to reach out to us.
You can reach us via the contactform on LawSchoolToolbox.com,
and we'd love to hear from you.
And with that, let's get started.
Alison Monahan (00:47):
Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast.
Today we're talking aboutmaking the most of a new year.
It's a great time to reflect onwhat's working, what's not working,
and what you want to do differently.
Lee Burgess (00:59):
Happy New Year, Alison!
Alison Monahan (01:01):
Happy New Year!
Yay, 2025!
Lee Burgess (01:04):
So today we are going to arm you with a plan to critically
evaluate how you did last semester andhelp you create a plan for this semester.
So it's not really abouta new year's resolution.
It's really a new year plan, becauseresolutions don't work anyway.
Alison Monahan (01:22):
Exactly.
Well, I think the first thingpeople really need to do to kind
of evaluate what happened, andwhere they might move forward is,
go talk to your professors - I knowpeople don't love to do this - and try
to get some feedback on your exams.
Even if it went well, there'restill probably some things you can
do to set yourself up for success.
(01:42):
And that's a great opportunity tostart building that relationship
for a reference letter later.
We recommend getting copies of yourexams if you can, and actually setting
up a meeting with your professors.
So your school may or may not givethem, your professor may or may not give
them back, but if you can, get thoseexams and take a look at them, look
at the answer key, figure out what youmight think you did well or did poorly,
(02:05):
and then go talk to your professor.
Lee, do you have any advice on whatpeople should be talking about here?
Lee Burgess (02:10):
Absolutely.
We have a whole list of thingsthat you should ask your
professors in office hours.
And if you find your professorparticularly intimidating, as some
of them can be, you can check thetranscript of this podcast and write
down the list that you want to takeinto your office hours meetings can
really help reduce some of this anxietythat you might have and make it a lot
(02:32):
easier to chat with your professors.
So, you've got to do it.
You've got to go in and talkabout the test, whether it
went well, whether it didn't.
Professors really do often wantyou to make an appointment.
So they should be clear about whetheryou can just show up at office hours,
but you may want to make an appointment.
Please go to the appointmentif you make the appointment.
And sometimes they will pull out thetest so you can look at it together.
(02:56):
And here are some questions thatyou want to ask your professors.
To get things kicked off, I would startwith, "Did I spot the correct issues?"
The thing is, your professorsaren't taking a lot of notes on
those exam answers, so you're notgoing to see a lot of comments.
So I think that it's a really greatquestion to start with, because if
you didn't raise enough issues, youprobably couldn't collect enough points.
Alison Monahan (03:20):
Yeah, and there are kind of two sides to this.
One is, can they show you a placewhere you missed an issue that
maybe you should have talked about?
And I will say if they've givenyou a sample answer, you want to
have done some of this work before.
So maybe you could bring it in and say,"It looks like I missed an issue here.
Is that what happened?"
And they're going to say,"Yeah, that's what happened."
And then you can say, "Well,what facts triggered this issue?
How was I supposed toknow to talk about it?"
They also might show you aplace where you talked about
something that wasn't relevant.
Sometimes you may have seen somethingthat just was completely off-base.
So, that's also useful information
(03:47):
to
have.
Yeah.
Another good question
Lee Burgess (03:56):
to ask is, "How accurate and complete were my rule statements?"
This may be a little bit differentdepending on whether or not this was
an open-book test or a closed-booktest, but I still think it's important
to see if you got your rule statementscorrect, and were they complete.
So you can ask your professor, "Can youshow me a place where I could have done
a better job with the legal rules?"
(04:16):
Or like Alison said, if you havea model answer, you can say, "Is
this a place where I could havedone better with the rules?"
Right.
Yeah,
Alison Monahan (04:26):
because if you have that model answer - even if
you don't - sometimes we recommendhighlighting things in different colors.
So, highlight the issue statement,highlight the rule statement,
all the pieces of IRAC or CREACor whatever you were using.
Do it on the sample and then do it onyours, and kind of see how they match up.
And once you've kind of gotthe issue and the rule, then
we're in the analysis piece.
So, did you use all the legallyrelevant facts in the analysis?
(04:49):
Maybe your professor can show youa place where you did not use the
facts as effectively as you couldhave, or maybe you could ask them
about it (04:55):
"How was the analysis?
Was it too conclusory?"
That's something people hear a lotand may not necessarily understand.
Or a place you might've missedcounterarguments, is another big
place, because this analysis is wherethe meaty part of the test often is.
So, if your professor says you were justtoo conclusory about things, ask them to
show you what that looks like, becauseI think that can be hard for people to
(05:17):
understand until it's pointed out to you.
Lee Burgess (05:20):
Yeah.
Those counterarguments are alsoreally important when you're going
through and evaluating, did youpresent both sides of an issue?
And if you weren't clear in youranswer that you were changing
sides to argue both sides, that'sjust a red flag to look out for.
And it's really easy to just start talkingabout analysis and not saying things
(05:40):
like, "The plaintiff will argue", "Thedefendant will argue", "The government
will argue", "The defense will argue".
You do need to give thoseflags to your professor to show
where that legal analysis is.
And so, as you're evaluating your work andalso going through it with your professor,
you want to see if you kind of used those,I guess we call them signposts - you can
call them lots of different things - tokind of anchor your work and show that
(06:01):
you're doing what is being asked of you.
Alison Monahan (06:03):
Yeah.
And I think you also want to belooking for signposts and phrases
that show places that you're tyingthe facts and law together - so,
things like "because" or "which showsthat" or anything along those lines.
If you don't see anything like that,then probably your analysis is going
to read as too conclusory, becauseyou're not explaining anything.
Lee Burgess (06:23):
You also want to look at your IRAC or your CREAC or whatever is the
preferred format that you're writing in.
Like you mentioned, you can usea highlighter if you get copies
of your answer before and tryand see where each piece of that
IRAC or CREAC is in your answer.
I'll be honest, if the A is thin inone sentence, that's not a good sign.
You usually want thatto be the longest part.
(06:44):
But again, if you can't tell fromyour work if it's there, then ask your
professor for their feedback on that.
Along with that format, you need to lookat the organization of the question.
How was your organization of the answer?
Did it make sense?
Did you use clear headers?
Is it easy for the professorto follow your organization?
(07:05):
You really want to getfeedback on that as well.
Alison Monahan (07:08):
Right, because I think that's where a lot of people kind of
fall short, is they think maybe thatthey were being organized, and then
when you actually read it afterwards,it's very stream of consciousness.
Maybe this question wasstructured with multiple
defendants or something like that.
And instead of doing, Alice, Bob, andCharlie in your analysis, you talked about
a bunch of issues and rules all together.
(07:30):
There are lots of ways that thingsshould be structured that may not
be immediately obvious to you.
But if you want some feedback,your professor is the
person who wrote the exam.
They're very able to say to you,"Well, you really ought to have done
this as Alice, Bob and Charlie, notas a bunch of unrelated issues, where
sometimes you talk about Bob andthen sometimes you talk about Alice.
(07:51):
That's not the way the questionwas expecting an answer."
Lee Burgess (07:54):
Yeah.
You may have had a multiple-choicesection on your test, and often
professors will not let you see thosequestions again because they like to
reuse them, but you can still ask forsome feedback on how you did, maybe
in comparison to other students.
But you should try and get some feedbackon the multiple-choice if you can.
And then just do it open ended,like, "Do you have any other
(08:14):
thoughts on my exam, or areas whereI should focus on for improvement?"
Really, unless you got the top score inthe class, and even then almost everyone
has something that they can improve on.
So, you do want to try and get alladvice, even if you did fairly well.
Alison Monahan (08:31):
Yeah.
And I think really try to listen to that.
And sometimes professors may or maynot be giving you very solid advice,
but if you talk to a few of them andyou hear the same thing, I think that's
definitely a place where you're saying toyourself, "Okay, I'm getting consistent
feedback that I need to work on X.
I probably really need to work on X."
Lee Burgess (08:48):
Yeah.
So, hopefully you have feedbackfrom your professors and have
gotten to review exam answers.
And now comes the funjob of self-evaluation.
So, here are some questions to start with.
First, overall, what do youthink is the biggest mistake
that you made first semester?
(09:08):
And I think almost every lawstudent makes some mistake.
I know I did, I know you did.
I mean, we all make mistakes.
Alison Monahan (09:14):
Nobody's perfect.
No one knows how to do this.
Lee Burgess (09:17):
No.
So, I think it's a really valuableexercise to ask yourself what was the
biggest mistake you made first semester.
And it can be on anything, from preparingto class to executing your exams.
Alison Monahan (09:27):
Right.
I know for me, I definitelystarted taking practice exams
way later than I should have.
I took my first practice exam, likefull practice, closed-book exam, I did
the day before my first Torts final.
Lee Burgess (09:41):
Not great.
Alison Monahan (09:41):
That was not as early as it should have been.
I learned from that mistake going forward.
Lee Burgess (09:46):
Yeah, exactly.
I definitely focused way too much onpreparing for class and not enough
on final exam prep until the end.
I did not keep my eye on the end game.
Yeah, eye
Alison Monahan (09:59):
on the ball.
No, same.
I think I also started puttingthe material together too late.
I remember being around Thanksgivingbefore I really was like, "Oh,
I need to figure out how allthis stuff fits together."
So again, these things happen, but Ithink just understanding, "Okay, well,
next time around, I probably shouldstart putting the material together
earlier and doing earlier practice."
(10:20):
That's all it is.
It's not that I'm a terribleperson or that I'm stupid.
It's just that, "Huh, yeah,that's something I probably should
improve upon going forward."
Lee Burgess (10:27):
Yeah.
So you want to not only identifythese mistakes, but you want to start
brainstorming about how you willcorrect these mistakes moving forward.
Another thing that I think isimportant to evaluate is, what do you
think is the biggest challenge foryou that you'll face this semester?
Is it a class?
Is it something going on in your life?
Is it maybe one of the mistakes orthe challenges you had from the first
(10:49):
semester and trying to remedy that?
But I think it's important to identifywhat those challenges are, so then
the next step can be, what techniqueswill you use to manage this challenge?
And those may be techniques thatyou're going to implement for
yourself, they could be support fromfolks at school or outside of school.
But you do need to have a plan inplace to kind of help bolster you to
(11:12):
meet those challenges as they come up.
Alison Monahan (11:14):
Yeah.
And I think for a lot of students,the second semester, that challenge
often comes down to a class or twobecause the level of the classes often
second semester ramp up a little bit.
So a lot of people might be takingsomething like Con Law, which
frankly is a little harder for mostpeople than something like Torts.
Yeah, Con Law and Property, kind ofthe classic harder second semester
(11:35):
classes, but if that is the case,there're some good hornbooks out there.
I mean, how currentthey are now, who knows?
But you want to look into resourcesfor those harder topics, to make sure
that you're not going to be kind offlailing later on in the semester.
Lee Burgess (11:50):
Yeah.
I also think that the beginningof the semester is a great time
to set any goals for yourself.
Goal setting is somethingthat can be very powerful.
Goals are not New Year's resolutions.
Goals are goals.
Alison Monahan (12:01):
I think even have a podcast on like smart goals,
which very important that they bekind of measurable, actionable,
not just, "I'm going to do better."
Right, okay, how do you measure that?
How do you know that you'regetting towards that goal?
A good goal might be somethinglike, "I'm going to carve out
every week, six hours of deep worktime and commit to doing that."
(12:22):
Great, we can track that.
Lee Burgess (12:24):
Exactly.
So, setting those goals so you could alsoconstantly check in with yourself and
see how the progress towards that goal isgoing, is also a really great technique.
Aright, let's talk aboutpreparing for class.
This is an area that a lot of 1Lsspecifically find they want to make some
changes, likely because you, like me,spent too much time and effort preparing
(12:46):
for class when you needed to rememberwhat the point of preparing for class was.
So, first off, you want to thinkabout how you're going to prepare
for class this semester reading,briefing, using supplements.
Are you going to make changesto how you prepared for class?
Are you going to be more efficient?
Are you going to trim some of the time?
(13:07):
How are you going to take notes?
Are you going to try book briefing?
There are lots of different thingsthat you can try, but you want to
evaluate what went well and what waschallenging, so you can implement a
better system for the next semester.
I also think it's important to thinkabout when you will do your reading
and other class prep, because I thinkthis is a trap a lot of law students
fall into, is doing this reading atnight, when they're exhausted, and
(13:30):
then they don't retain anything.
And then they go to class and theycan't remember what they read.
Alison Monahan (13:34):
Yeah, I think you've just got to know yourself here.
So for me, I think I did onewritten brief because they forced
us to, I never did another one.
I book brief, I'm a visual learner.
But yeah, I think you've gotto keep class in perspective.
The point of class is tohelp you learn the material.
And if you get cold called, you want tohave a basic understanding of what you've
read, so it's clear that you're preparedfor class and you're doing your best.
But beyond that, I think focusingendlessly and fixating on having to
know every single thing and havingthese huge elaborate briefs in
case you
(13:55):
get
called on, it's just probably not reallythe best use of most people's time.
I think you want to give classreading a good faith effort.
You want to go in with some notesthat allow you if you get called
on to seem like you are prepared.
(14:16):
And that's kind of about it,really, in terms of your actual
responsibility for preparing for class.
Lee Burgess (14:21):
Yeah.
And the further you get into lawschool, you should find it easier
to read these cases the more used toreading in the legal format becomes.
And so, if you don't find that you'regetting more efficient, that's kind
of a flag, and you want to maybego talk to academic support and ask
them what you may be doing to kindof be a little slower and not being
(14:41):
able to get your prep done in time.
So, it is just really importantto make sure that this doesn't
take over your schedule.
Another thing to think about iswhat your class notes looked like.
Were they helpful?
Were they written on paper?
Were they on a Kindle?
Did you type them out?
What worked last time, what didn't?
(15:02):
Do you want to try something new?
I think the beginning of a semesteris a great time to test some new
note-taking techniques, if you'retrying to mix things up and help with
retention and understanding in class.
Alison Monahan (15:12):
Right.
And also, what do you do with yourclass notes after you take them?
Do you just throw them in the trash?
I mean, are they actually helpful to you?
Do you ever look at them again?
There are techniques you can use, likestarring things with certain words that
your professor has flagged as beingreally important, so that if you're
doing electronic versions of things,you can go through and look at like,
"Professor says, professor says", andthose are kind of highlights for you.
(15:33):
But yeah, I think if you didn't feel likeyou were getting as much out of class
as you were putting into it, I thinkthat is something to discuss either with
your professors or academic support ora tutor or whatever it is, because you
want to make sure that you're spendingthe right amount of time, but not reading
cases four times or something like that,because you don't have time for that.
Lee Burgess (15:53):
Yeah.
I also hear students talkingabout using AI to go through their
class notes to develop things.
I mean, listen, we love some good AI.
Alison Monahan (16:04):
Claude is our new best
Lee Burgess (16:05):
friend.
Claude is our new best friend.
But you do need to be thoughtful about howyou're using AI and make sure that you're
not having it do work that you're goingto need to be accountable for, in the
sense that, if Claude is synthesizing allthe material and then you're not really
understanding how it fits together, that'snot a good use of our friend Claude.
Alison Monahan (16:24):
Yeah, Claude already knows Torts.
Like, you could just ask him.
It's actually way moreefficient than having Claude
summarize your notes for you.
Just ask Claude what he thinksabout negligence, he'll tell you.
He can even quiz you.
It's actually a really good use of theAI tools, are to quiz you on things.
But yeah, just having it kind of makean outline from your notes, I'm not sure
is any more useful than picking up anoutline that someone else made for you.
Lee Burgess (16:46):
No, I think it's pretty much the same thing.
It's just going to have less errorsin it, because Claude did it for you.
Okay, we love deep work hereat the Law School Toolbox.
So, one of the things we want you tospend some time considering is, how
are you going to set up your scheduleso you have time for deep work?
Deep work is where youdo the heavy lifting.
You're wrestling material, you're creatingstudy materials, you're doing practice.
(17:09):
This is where the magic happens.
Alison Monahan (17:12):
And I think this is so, so important.
And I think it's so important to do itearly on, and to do it consistently.
And the reality is, you need largerchunks of time, typically, to do this.
So, we say three to four-hour chunks.
I would say ideally at least once,preferably twice a week, from
the beginning of the semester.
In the beginning, you might not have thatmuch to put together, but the problem
(17:35):
is, if you don't start working withit and kind of compiling it and making
sense of it, you're going to have a lotwhen you start to look at it a month in.
Lee Burgess (17:43):
Yeah.
Yeah, better to start early.
Chip away at it.
Don't ever feel behind.
So I think as you think about yourdeep work, one of the things that
you want to do is think about whatkind of study aids were helpful for
you in your first semester classes.
And so, what are your study aidsgoing to look like this semester?
Did you learn what workedfor you and what didn't?
And do you need to make some changes?
Alison Monahan (18:04):
Right, yeah.
So I learned at the end of my firstsemester that what seemed to make
sense to me was making flowcharts.
And so that's something I keptdoing, because it actually helps
me think about the materialand make sense of the material.
And it was a great referenceon an open-book test.
But if your test is a different format,then maybe that's not so helpful.
You've kind of got to work with thesituation that you have in front of you.
Lee Burgess (18:25):
Yeah.
So you also want to think about, asyou mentioned, where are you going
to find the time for that deep work?
I think it's great to have a consistenttime that you put on your calendar.
And then when you're looking at thatcalendar, maybe you should just pick a
date to really have your outline started.
And then also complete it and just dropit on the date, because you should have
(18:48):
your final exams on that calendar too.
And I think that looking at thesemester as a whole is a really
worthwhile thing to do as you're tryingto figure out how you're going to
allocate your time for this deep work.
Alison Monahan (18:59):
Yeah.
And I think one thing that we've talkedabout before is there's kind of a
difference between planning and preparingto do the work and then doing the work.
And you kind of need time for both.
If you plan to, on X date, take a practicetest, maybe the week before you block out
an hour to find practice materials forthe test I plan to take the next week.
(19:20):
Particularly people who maybe don'thave such natural executive functioning
skills or maybe have ADHD, things likethat - you really have to block out
the time to prepare to do the task.
And then when you get to do thetask, it's just, "Okay, here's
what I've already figured out.
I'm going to sit down, I'm going to startdoing this and I'm going to complete it."
And then I think that's goingto be a lot more effective.
(19:41):
Yeah.
Lee Burgess (19:42):
And then the practice is a much more contained task.
And it doesn't take as long either.
Alison Monahan (19:47):
Right.
You're not using the mental energy tofind the question, because you already did
that and then you went on about your life.
And two days later you sitdown and you have the practice
question and answer ready to go.
And maybe you block out another hourthe next day to review it, so you're
not trying to do everything at once.
Lee Burgess (20:03):
Yeah.
I also think that you want to thinkabout how early you can start to practice
when you're looking at that calendar,realizing that just after you've learned
just a bit of law in your semester, youcan start doing practice questions, even
if they're pretty narrowly formulated.
I mean, you can even ask our friendsClaude and ChatGPT to draft some for you.
(20:26):
I mean, they will do that.
So, there's no shortage of questions.
Alison Monahan (20:30):
They can be on focused topics, and even if you need some multiple
choice, they can generally do a prettygood job and not be totally accurate.
But that's actually even a good processfor you to go through, is to figure out,
"Why doesn't this seem right to me?"
So, I don't think you couldjust turn off your brain.
And I have an episode recently witha law professor talking about how to
use AI productively in law school.
But to say that "Oh, I can't finda hypo" is kind of ridiculous
(20:52):
at this point, because youhave an endless supply of them.
Lee Burgess (20:55):
Yes.
I think it's also important tothink about how you're going to
get feedback on that writing.
So, are you going togive yourself feedback?
And if so, how are you going to do that?
Are you going to get a studygroup together and exchange work
and give feedback to each other?
I think there's value to that.
Do you need to get feedbackfrom academic support?
Do you need a tutor, like our team?
(21:15):
But you do want somebody to evaluateyour work, because that's very
important to make sure that you not onlyunderstand the law, but that you are
doing enough legal analysis and thatit's robust enough to make sure that
you're prepared when final exams come.
So, that is a piece of the practicepuzzle that you can't ignore.
Alison Monahan (21:33):
Yeah, and I think early in the semester is really the
time to gather all this information.
What type of exam do you have?
Is it long essay, shortanswer, multiple choice?
Is it open book?
Is it closed book?
What samples does yourprofessor have on file?
Because if they don't have any of this,then you need to start asking those
questions early, so that you know, forexample, that your entire exam is going
(21:53):
to be multiple choice, which I wouldprobably prepare differently for that
than I would if I had one giant essay.
Lee Burgess (22:00):
Okay, well, before we wrap up, if the semester didn't go
well - and really, I mean, almostanyone can find a growth point in their
semester it's time to make a plan.
That's what this wholepodcast has been about.
So, how do you sit downand make that plan?
We've talked about pieces of the plan,but let's kind of overall talk through it.
So, if you have an academic problemor concern, you need to think about
(22:21):
who you are going to turn to for help.
Make sure you use all theresources at your law school.
They are free.
Well, they're free as inyou've already paid for them.
But you should contact academicsupport, see what resources
there are for you, especiallyif you're on academic probation.
Usually schools have specificprograms for students that are
at risk of being on academicprobation after that first semester.
(22:44):
So you want to go meetwith those professors.
Those meetings aren't always easy,but they're so kind, generally,
in those offices, and theyreally want to help you succeed.
So, try and reach out and set upan appointment to figure out who
you're going to turn to for help.
Of course, our team ishere to help you too.
If you want to get help outsideof your school, you can always
contact us at LawSchoolToolbox.comand we can talk about tutoring.
(23:07):
But you really do need to make surethat you have the right people on
your team to help change outcomes.
Alison Monahan (23:14):
Right.
For me, for example, I came back to schooland was basically clinically depressed.
So, I showed up one day in the healthservices office and said, "I need
to talk to someone about this."
You know I went into therapy,turned out to be a great move.
But if you are suffering from any typeof mental health issue, often your school
has resources available to you that arealready included, so you can get help.
(23:36):
Law students are notoriousfor needing therapy.
I think everybody understands it.
Nobody's going to look down on you,no one is going to think it's weird.
They're going to say,"Thank you for showing up.
It's great that you're here.
Let's get you some skills to handlethe stress of your future career,
because that is just the reality."
So, if you had test anxiety,that's something to look into.
(23:57):
If you have any type of issue thatmaybe you need to look at accommodations
for, I think that's also somethingto go talk to your school about.
They all have officesfor this sort of thing.
But anything that sort of impededyour best performance, now you know.
Before you didn't know.
Now you do know.
You know what happened.
You know what the results were.
(24:18):
So, I think it's about getting thepieces in place to help you overcome
those challenges and move forward ina way that is working better for you.
Lee Burgess (24:27):
Yes.
And I think that a lot of studentsreally struggle with the idea that
someone has suggested they may have ADHD.
I know of students who have gone tothose meetings with their professors,
talked about their exams and theirprofessors have said, "I'm concerned that
I'm seeing some work that may suggestthat something like that is going on."
And then a student might say, "Idon't want to go down that road."
(24:48):
And I understand that.
However, I would really encourageyou to realize that knowledge
is power in this situation.
If you learn more about how yourbrain works, it just allows you to
build the scaffolding and have thecoping skills to perform at your best.
It can feel very vulnerable to askfor more help, to learn more, but in
(25:08):
the long run, it's really going tosupport you and your academic efforts,
and lead to success on the bar exam.
All of this stuff builds oneach other, and so you really
want to keep that in mind.
So, I know it can be really hard togo ask for help when these challenges
present themselves, but you're goingto be glad you did in the future.
Alison Monahan (25:26):
Right, because your professor sees a lot of exams.
And the reality is, we talk to a lot oflaw students, and oftentimes we can tell
pretty quickly - not that we're diagnosinganyone, but we sort of have a sense of,
"Hmm, has anyone ever mentioned that ADHDmight be something you want to look at?"
And more often than not, we'rekind of correct about it.
So, it's just a pattern thatpeople see, and that's all it is.
(25:47):
But I do think, get whatever help you needto be the best law student you can be.
And I think that's what this is allabout - it's just doing your best.
You're not going to beperfect, but just do your best.
Lee Burgess (25:57):
Yeah.
It may feel like we've asked you to do alot in this episode, where we've talked
about a lot of things that you need todo to set yourself up for the semester.
But when we talked about havingthose pockets for deep work, I
think this is the deep work to doat the beginning of the semester.
This is what you do before you outline,before you have a lot of substantive work
(26:18):
to do, is to take some time and generatethese plans, look at your calendar, go to
these meetings, do the self-evaluation,so you know that the hard work you're
putting in for the rest of the semesteris going to get you to your goals and
really allow you to perform at your best.
So, it may seem like a lot, butI think investing in this work at
the beginning of the semester isgoing to really set yourself up
(26:39):
for much better next few months.
Alison Monahan (26:42):
I agree.
If you enjoyed this episode of theLaw School Toolbox podcast, please
take a second to leave a review andrating on your favorite listening app.
We'd really appreciate it.
And be sure to subscribeso you don't miss anything.
If you have any questions or comments,please don't hesitate to reach out to
Lee or Alison at lee@lawschooltoolbox.comor alison@lawschooltoolbox.com.
Or you can always contactus via our website contact
(27:04):
form at LawSchoolToolbox.com.
Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!
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