As a law school strategy coach, I recently got asked by someone, if law school prep
is so important, then why don't more new law students prep for law school? And I thought
it was a really good question and a really interesting one because they're right. You
don't hear nearly as much about law school prep as you do about LSAT prep or bar prep.
And so then the question becomes why. So I give it some thought and I wanted to share with you guys
the top five reasons I think. New law students, myself included at the time, don't prep for law
school. The first reason I think is because law school prep hasn't formed a part of the
law school culture in the same way as, or for as long as LSAT prep and Bar Prep, for example.
And for the longest time it wasn't really talked about. And, and when I started law
school 15 years ago, I didn't even know that law school prep was a thing. And honestly,
even just in these last few years have I become aware of it as sort of a concept
or that there are resources out there. That help you and [00:01:00] can teach you some of
these pieces and these, these skills and these strategies or even that they're needed, right?
And so I think it's becoming more, um, of, uh, a part of the culture and people are
becoming more aware of it because even law school orientations are starting to pepper this stuff in,
even at a basic level, a high level. They're starting to teach some of these steps,
some of these skills and strategies, and I think for the longest time it was just
this generally held belief that law school is hard and there's nothing you can do about it.
Which is interesting because I've never heard that expressed in the same way for the lsat,
for example, that the LSAT is just hard and there's nothing you can do
about it or on the other side of law school that the bar is just hard and
there's nothing you can do about it. So I think it's interesting.
But yeah, I think that's really what it probably comes down to. As this first major reason,
which is it just wasn't talked about for for very long, and so very,
only very recently has it started to seep into that culture of this larger law school
experience. The second [00:02:00] reason I think is because of a belief that law school
grades are unteachable in a way that is very different than the LSAT or the bar, right?
So the LSAT on the front end and the bar on the back end are very, Standardized tests,
they're more formulaic. You can literally go back 5, 10, 15, 20 years and see every test
that's ever been given, every question that's ever been asked. Um, the number of times that
a question, um, has been presented on the test, the wording that's being used, right?
So you can actually break it down that way. And so, I assume that there's a belief that because
those things are so structured, it's easier or possible to teach them. And I think when people
think of law school, there's sort of this, um, obstacle or sort of skepticism in mind that says,
well, every professor, every law school professor is slightly different, right?
So every professor teaches the material slightly differently. Every professor.
Emphasizes substantive concepts a little bit differently. Every professor [00:03:00] wants
to see something a little bit different in their final exam answers, and that means that,
that the entirety of law school grades is, is unteachable and unknowable.
And in my experience, coaching law students for the last three years,
that's. Actually not true at all. So yes, it is true that there are these distinctions
between professors and how they teach and what they're looking for, but in my experience,
that piece is maybe five, 10, 15% of this overall understanding or this, uh, overall strategy.
What I have seen in coaching law students is that if you can get a really firm foundation in terms
of these skills and these strategies, that's about 75 to 85% of the game. And so once you get really
clear on. Going from step A, getting assigned that first case to step Z, writing a final exam answer,
you will have a really strong foundation to position yourself for the grades you want.
And not only that, you'll be able to take that and then rinse and repeat [00:04:00] it every
class for the rest of law school. Now that five to 10 to 15% of sort of idiosyncrasies
of the professor and and what they're focusing on is important. It definitely is. Which is why.
I always go through the first semester of law school with my students because we need to zero
in on what that is and, uh, and really tackle what makes a professor slightly different from,
from each what each professor, slightly different from each other.
But yeah, that those tiny distinctions are such a much smaller piece of the puzzle than
people realize. The third reason I suspect, is a defensiveness thing, which I know how could
lawyers or law students ever be defensive about anything, right. But no, we all,
we all want to believe that we did it. Right.
Right. So I think again, because we talked about law school prep not being a thing until
very recently and, and even now not being, um, an incredibly widespread thing that a
lot of people do most. [00:05:00] By default, most of the lawyers and law students you'll
talk to won't have prepped, uh, for law school. And so because every one of those individuals,
myself included, have gone through law school and become lawyers,
I think that there's this sort of default assumption that there's nothing you can do
to prepare for law school or there's nothing you need to do to prepare for law school.
Right? Because we all went through it. We all survived, we all came out the other side and
we didn't prep. Hence fourth, you don't need to prep. Right? And so I think it's easier to give
that response. Um, and I know that because I gave that response for years and years. Uh,
no, of course there's nothing you need to do to prepare for law school.
There's nothing you can do to prepare for law school, even if you wanted to, um, you know,
just take it easy. Go on trips, spend time with friends and family. Um, and just wait for, wait
for it to begin. Right. Um, and I think it's just easier to say that than it is to sort of sit and,
and critically think and reflect on, well, is there anything that I could
have [00:06:00] known ahead of time that would've helped or there any skills that I wish I had?
Um, developed or practiced before day one of law school, and I just don't think,
um, as law students or as lawyers, we spend a lot of time thinking about that because,
you know, we're busy being law students and lawyers and there's
just a lot of other things, um, that are capturing our, our time and attention.
And so it didn't even. Really occurred to me until I started to get a lot of
questions from law students and, and law students reaching out to help,
uh, for help to even consider is there something that can happen before law
school begins that that would be helpful, that would be empowering, that would give
you confidence that would shed light on what this whole law school thing is about.
The fourth reason is a logistical one, which is this proximity in time. So we have all
just found out that we got into law school, right? We've crossed this huge finish line,
had this major accomplishment, uh, jumped over this incredible hurdle,
and I think for a lot of us it's. [00:07:00] Tough to then sort of switch gears and immediately start
thinking about next steps and immediately start thinking about, okay, what do I need to do?
What do I need to know? What steps do I need to have in place in order to prepare for law
school? And I think that that is even more sort of exacerbated the later in the cycle
you find out that you got into law school. So if you find out in May or June, July, August,
Um, the, the closer to that start time, I think it can add additional sort of stress,
um, or difficulty, especially if you're doing something like changing cities.
If you have a spouse or you have children and that spouse needs to find a job or you have
to put your children in the school. Um, if you don't already have this idea of law school prep
from the beginning and have that built into the process, it can be really difficult to,
to sort of, Find time or wrap your head around also adding that to, um, to the journey.
And so what I have found to be really helpful for people is to sort of map that out early on
so that you can decide, all [00:08:00] right, how much time, how much energy, uh, do I want
to allocate to law school prep? When do I wanna start it? What makes sense in terms
of what I've heard back from law schools? If I know where I'm going, how long am I waiting?
Um, to hear back from these wait lists and things like that. And then you can decide based on your
own personal situation, how, where in that process you want to fit in law school prep
and what you want that to look like. And the fifth reason why I think so many of us don't prepare for
law school before law school starts is the big one, which is we don't think that we have to,
and I've seen this with myself and so many law students that I have coached because
most of us continue on to law school because we've done so well in school up to that point.
Right. And so because law school or because undergrad high school,
undergrad, grad school has come so easy to us because. Uh, we haven't even had to
work that hard because we've always gotten straight A's our entire [00:09:00] life. I
think that there's this assumption that how could law school be that much different?
How could it be that much harder? Um, how could what I've done up to this point not continue to
work? And so I think it's kind of a testament to. Um, the aspects of law school not being
talked about that much, and I think that goes hand in hand with law school prep not being
talked about that much because there's sort of this gap in, in understanding and this gap in
knowledge about how law school is taught, how law school is tested, the strategies to use.
Uh, to prepare yourself for the grades that you want. And so I think that for a lot of us,
we sort of walk in with this false sense of confidence that we're gonna be at the top of the
class by default, just because we've always been at the top of the class. And so, as a law school
strategy coach, what I will often tell my students is that, Getting good grades in law school isn't
about being the smartest person in the room, and it isn't about a history of good grades.
It's about strategy. It's all about strategy, and in my [00:10:00] experience,
learning that strategy before you start is such a favor to your future self because
now you know exactly what is going on. You know exactly what to do,
and so you can hit the ground running. On that first day of class without losing any time,
without having your energy or your focus going in a million different directions.
So I know I've talked a lot about law school prep in this video. If you guys are
curious about what those strategies look like, definitely check out my free beat,
the Curve Guide. It walks through the five step study plan that I teach all of
my students of how to actually break down the process from getting that first case.
To taking that first final exam and what that actually looks like. So I'll
definitely drop the link in the comments below if you guys wanna check that out,
and I will see you guys in the next one. If you're curious about more law school strategies,
definitely check out these two videos over here. I know they're going to be,
uh, really valuable for you guys, and I'll see you guys in the next one.