1st year law school advice needed?
Hey everybody,
I am asking for help from those that have achieved a 1st or 2:1 in Law. I have just started my law undergrad and in hopes to achieve better results than I have before, I am asking some advice from high achievers like yourselves.
Let me tell you more about yourself.
- I am 18 years old.
- I am an ambitious young person with more than 4 years of volunteering experience with international experience.
- I have social mobility issues like being bme and from a poor socioeconomic background surrounded by low employment levels and lack of motivation.
- I am the youngest of seven and am the first to attend university.
- I have just started my undergrad for Law. I have been to a bunch of networking events already, attended the courts and have a lot of volunteering experience. In spite of this, I tend to not get the results I want from academics or people.
This is why I need your help.
My biggest dilemma is that I work hard, but not smart. So, I'm simply asking those fellow aspirers, how do I achieve results?
- How should I study for law school to work smart and hard?
- What should I do to avoid burning out?
- What will make me stand out to potential employers?
- How do I make sure I'm on track?
- How should I organise my time?
- How do I make serious and valuable friends?
Thanking you all in advance.
I am asking for help from those that have achieved a 1st or 2:1 in Law. I have just started my law undergrad and in hopes to achieve better results than I have before, I am asking some advice from high achievers like yourselves.
Let me tell you more about yourself.
- I am 18 years old.
- I am an ambitious young person with more than 4 years of volunteering experience with international experience.
- I have social mobility issues like being bme and from a poor socioeconomic background surrounded by low employment levels and lack of motivation.
- I am the youngest of seven and am the first to attend university.
- I have just started my undergrad for Law. I have been to a bunch of networking events already, attended the courts and have a lot of volunteering experience. In spite of this, I tend to not get the results I want from academics or people.
This is why I need your help.
My biggest dilemma is that I work hard, but not smart. So, I'm simply asking those fellow aspirers, how do I achieve results?
- How should I study for law school to work smart and hard?
- What should I do to avoid burning out?
- What will make me stand out to potential employers?
- How do I make sure I'm on track?
- How should I organise my time?
- How do I make serious and valuable friends?
Thanking you all in advance.
My advice (as an older student half way through a graduate LLB) is to start as early as you can on practicing prior exams. Tailor your learning based upon the fact that you will have to answer exam questions, and in a very limited amount of time, at that. This, along with using revision guides such as the Concentrate series or Law Express, will be highly beneficial. Do learn the names of individual Law Lords, and quote their dicta for key cases in your examinations. Also learn to use the standard method for answering law exam questions (often called IRAC) as it will help keep your answers focused.
My biggest advice is to start work as soon as you get it, there is a lot of content to learn and it's so easy to fall behind if you can't stay ontop of it (meaning less time for revision!)
I also vouch for learning to case read as soon as, you'll often be given 70-80 page cases in your reading lists and you simply don't have time to trudge through the whole thing page by page.
Learn how to evaluate the law - Mega important! If you're answering a problem question and applying a controversial piece of legislation/case law then make it known that it's controversial and how that would effect your current scenario rather than merely applying it. It's a good way to pick up some easy marks and I've been constantly told again and again that this is what they're looking far.
Also, learn to use OSCOLA as soon as you can, I've seen so many people lose marks on stupid things like referencing, keep a quick reference guide by you as you write.
(I know I didn't answer all of the questions but I'm just going by what helped me achieve my decent grades)
I also vouch for learning to case read as soon as, you'll often be given 70-80 page cases in your reading lists and you simply don't have time to trudge through the whole thing page by page.
Learn how to evaluate the law - Mega important! If you're answering a problem question and applying a controversial piece of legislation/case law then make it known that it's controversial and how that would effect your current scenario rather than merely applying it. It's a good way to pick up some easy marks and I've been constantly told again and again that this is what they're looking far.
Also, learn to use OSCOLA as soon as you can, I've seen so many people lose marks on stupid things like referencing, keep a quick reference guide by you as you write.
(I know I didn't answer all of the questions but I'm just going by what helped me achieve my decent grades)
(edited 4 years ago)
Okay J Papi, thank you for your comments I'm taking all of these on board. They're all straight to the point, I appreciate that. Also, how do I approach cases? I've just started law school so shall I just wait to learn or are there specific methods I have heard of IRAC alongside OSCOLA
Original post by MidgetFever
My biggest advice is to start work as soon as you get it, there is a lot of content to learn and it's so easy to fall behind if you can't stay ontop of it (meaning less time for revision!)
I also vouch for learning to case read as soon as, you'll often be given 70-80 page cases in your reading lists and you simply don't have time to trudge through the whole thing page by page.
Learn how to evaluate the law - Mega important! If you're answering a problem question and applying a controversial piece of legislation/case law then make it known that it's controversial and how that would effect your current scenario rather than merely applying it. It's a good way to pick up some easy marks and I've been constantly told again and again that this is what they're looking far.
Also, learn to use OSCOLA as soon as you can, I've seen so many people lose marks on stupid things like referencing, keep a quick reference guide by you as you write.
(I know I didn't answer all of the questions but I'm just going by what helped me achieve my decent grades)
I also vouch for learning to case read as soon as, you'll often be given 70-80 page cases in your reading lists and you simply don't have time to trudge through the whole thing page by page.
Learn how to evaluate the law - Mega important! If you're answering a problem question and applying a controversial piece of legislation/case law then make it known that it's controversial and how that would effect your current scenario rather than merely applying it. It's a good way to pick up some easy marks and I've been constantly told again and again that this is what they're looking far.
Also, learn to use OSCOLA as soon as you can, I've seen so many people lose marks on stupid things like referencing, keep a quick reference guide by you as you write.
(I know I didn't answer all of the questions but I'm just going by what helped me achieve my decent grades)
I have recently become aware of oscola and irac, is there anything else you may of heard of? Also, what should my approach to cases be? Thank you so much for your advice so far.
Original post by *tj_nova*
My advice (as an older student half way through a graduate LLB) is to start as early as you can on practicing prior exams. Tailor your learning based upon the fact that you will have to answer exam questions, and in a very limited amount of time, at that. This, along with using revision guides such as the Concentrate series or Law Express, will be highly beneficial. Do learn the names of individual Law Lords, and quote their dicta for key cases in your examinations. Also learn to use the standard method for answering law exam questions (often called IRAC) as it will help keep your answers focused.
Thank you very much for these, I have noted these and will be getting more and more familiar with them. I appreciate the support and guidance!
Original post by becksy1931
I have recently become aware of oscola and irac, is there anything else you may of heard of? Also, what should my approach to cases be? Thank you so much for your advice so far.
Not that I can think of, IRAC is pretty important though ,so that your responses have structure, so it's good practice to try an answer any problem question in that form (even if they're just for seminars)
For cases; a small summary of the facts would be sufficient (don't waste your time going over these for ages) the majority of the time you're concerned with the decision/reasons behind the principles. So just go over the basics of what happened.
Look towards the leading judgment, because a lot of the time this will be the most important part. (Most of the time the leading judgment will be the largest) skim through it until you can find any reasoning/principle that sounds important (you can usually gage an idea of important principles from your textbooks) anything that sounds like it might be a public policy form of reasoning is usually useful to know too.
It's usually useful to look at dissenting judgements too, just so you can get another perspective. Depending on the context dissenting judgements can sometimes be persuasive if you're trying to prove a particular point.
I too stated law 2 weeks ago. And it’s a lot of reading. I am trying to work out too how to manage it all.
We have been sent details of graduate advisors who will run workshops on how to study and how to do law exams. I am hoping tutors cover it in our tutorials as well as how to reference properly- unless they just tell us to use xxx without any further guidance?
First 2 weeks the entire content is so new it’s over whelming anyway! And I’m an existing charter accountant doing a graduate llb. Used to 50 hour working weeks!
We have been sent details of graduate advisors who will run workshops on how to study and how to do law exams. I am hoping tutors cover it in our tutorials as well as how to reference properly- unless they just tell us to use xxx without any further guidance?
First 2 weeks the entire content is so new it’s over whelming anyway! And I’m an existing charter accountant doing a graduate llb. Used to 50 hour working weeks!
Original post by MidgetFever
Not that I can think of, IRAC is pretty important though ,so that your responses have structure, so it's good practice to try an answer any problem question in that form (even if they're just for seminars)
For cases; a small summary of the facts would be sufficient (don't waste your time going over these for ages) the majority of the time you're concerned with the decision/reasons behind the principles. So just go over the basics of what happened.
Look towards the leading judgment, because a lot of the time this will be the most important part. (Most of the time the leading judgment will be the largest) skim through it until you can find any reasoning/principle that sounds important (you can usually gage an idea of important principles from your textbooks) anything that sounds like it might be a public policy form of reasoning is usually useful to know too.
It's usually useful to look at dissenting judgements too, just so you can get another perspective. Depending on the context dissenting judgements can sometimes be persuasive if you're trying to prove a particular point.
For cases; a small summary of the facts would be sufficient (don't waste your time going over these for ages) the majority of the time you're concerned with the decision/reasons behind the principles. So just go over the basics of what happened.
Look towards the leading judgment, because a lot of the time this will be the most important part. (Most of the time the leading judgment will be the largest) skim through it until you can find any reasoning/principle that sounds important (you can usually gage an idea of important principles from your textbooks) anything that sounds like it might be a public policy form of reasoning is usually useful to know too.
It's usually useful to look at dissenting judgements too, just so you can get another perspective. Depending on the context dissenting judgements can sometimes be persuasive if you're trying to prove a particular point.
This is great advice, since the best answers will often deal with the opposing argument, too. Like a point/counter-point structure. Especially in cases where the outcome is a tough call (I'm thinking about instances in Land Law for example, where equity often intervenes). Don't be scared to point out the weakness in your own position to the examiner.
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