Tag: law school tips

Learning Faster with the Feynman Technique

Post author By Beau Baez
Post date November 20, 2017
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Have you ever left class wondering what your professor was even talking about? The Feynman Technique will help you learn material faster and at a level where you will remember the concept for years to come. Professor Richard Feynman was a Nobel prize winning physicist who had the nickname “the Great Explainer.” By following four steps, you will learn a topic well enough to remember it on the final exam and the bar exam.

Step 1

Step one: write the name of the concept you want to learn at the top of a page (try to handwrite as much as possible; see this video for why handwriting your notes during class is better). As the semester progresses, come back to the document every time you need to add more knowledge related to that topic. For example, if you’re having problems understanding proximate cause, write that down. You might start off with the unforeseeable manner of injury, and then later in the semester come back to the unforeseeable intervening event.

Step 2

Step two: pretend you are teaching the topic to someone else, preferably a high school student. This means that you must make it simple enough for them to understand, including word choice and sentence structure. All too often, a law student will copy a rule verbatim from a case. While the rule statement may be accurate, how likely are you to remember antiquated language from the early 1900s or earlier? For example, when you take Business Associations you will likely read Benjamin Cardozo’s classic case Meinhard v. Salmon. Your professor will certainly focus on these words for establishing the standard of care:

Joint adventurers, like copartners, owe to one another, while the enterprise continues, the duty of the finest loyalty. Many forms of conduct permissible in a workaday world for those acting at arm’s length, are forbidden to those bound by fiduciary ties. A trustee is held to something stricter than the morals of the market place. Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.

That is some of the best legal prose I’ve ever read, but do you really understand what Cardozo is saying? Let’s take that language and make it simpler. Teach it to that high school student by stating it in modern English: “Partners owe to each other the highest standard of behavior.” And there you have it folks, a long phrase converted into ten simple words. When you are working on this step, make sure to explain the rule as simply and briefly as possible. And for some cool information on why teaching a subject will help you learn it better—and why oldest children, on average, are smarter than younger siblings—see this article on the protege effect.

Step 3

Step three: When you get stuck or are shaky on one of the concepts, go back and study more. This means looking at your books, doing more research, and talking to your professor. If you have multiple choice questions, work through those as well. Remember, if you can’t teach the material to a high schooler, you don’t know it well enough.

Step 4

Step four: Go back to step 1 and repeat the process. In other words, the Feynman Technique is about the process, not the end product. This is because we all understand material better when we teach it. I understood torts at a much deeper level when I taught it, and you will understand something better when you teach it. If you see a technical term, try to simplify it. Will that high school student really understand, without additional explanation, the terms “consideration by estoppel” or “negligence per se?” As you simplify the concept, you will begin to understand the material in a much deeper way that will help you not only remember it on the exam, but will also help you with issue spotting and multiple-choice bar exam questions.

Ultimately, if you’ve tried everything you can but are still having problems, consider looking for a law school tutor. There is no shame in asking for help, especially for something as important as your education.

Tags feynman technique, law school tips, learning faster

Study Technique Time Management

Akrasia: How to Overcome Procrastination

Post author By Beau Baez
Post date October 19, 2017
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Procrastination

What’s the most creative excuse you’ve used for your procrastination? There is the usual: Facebook, surfing the net, checking your phone. Successful people do better because they put the important things, like studying, first and avoid the unimportant, like watching that 10,000^th cat video.

Akrasia

Socrates called this problem akrasia, which is when someone acts against their better judgment. In the Bible, some English translations use the word self-indulgent. Regardless of the translation, the idea is that you know what is best for you and instead you do something else. For an easy-to-read article on why we procrastinate, read this article 0n procrastination.

100 Mile Hike

Last year I decided that I wanted to go on a two-week hike with the Boy Scouts at the Philmont Camp in New Mexico. But I had a problem: I needed to lose 75 pounds to be eligible to go. Over the course of 18 months, I experienced akrasia numerous times by indulging in several pizza buffets or eating ice cream. Each time I deviated, I knew I was hurting my chances to go on the hike.

I am glad to report I reached my goal and completed the entire two-week, 100 mile hike! To see how tan I got on this hike, and for some lessons I learned that apply to law school, check out my video on tips from hiking you can use in law school.

Tip #1

You need a commitment reminder system. I began doing this years ago by using a day planner. If you haven’t used one, this is a paper calendaring system where you place your activities into a schedule. Today you can do this with any calendar app, or if you want something a little bit different there is an app called BeeMinder. This app allows you to track any goal that can be measured by numbers. For example, you may want to spend 60 minutes a day studying for Constitutional Law. BeeMinder will send you reminders, where you can input your commitment into the app. But here’s the twist: the first time you don’t meet your goal, BeeMinder will ask you for a credit card. And if you get off track a second time, BeeMinder will charge you five dollars. By having a disincentive to lose five dollars, you are more likely to keep your commitment.

Tip #2

A second approach is for you to use short-term rewards to help you defeat akrasia. The part of teaching that I hate is grading exams. To force myself to grade, I place all the exams in stacks of five. When I grade five, I then have permission to go do something else, like get some coffee or talk to a colleague. Think about short-term rewards that will work for you. Maybe that means Facebook for five minutes or eating a chocolate kiss. Keep in mind that these have to be short-term rewards rather than long-term rewards. If you know that that 5 minute Facebook break will turn into a 60 minute Facebook break, then you should think about doing something else like going for a short walk. Exercise is a great way to get your blood flowing, which in turn helps you focus and retain information better. Watch this video on how the brain benefits from exercise if you want to learn more.

For more ideas, here are 10 more tips for overcoming procrastination. One good book you may want to read is Procrastination: Why You Do It and What to Do About it Now by Da Capo. If you need help with your procrastination, reach out to our tutors and let us help you overcome this bad habit.

Tags akrasia, law school, law school study technique, law school tips, procrastination, study technique

Classroom law school academic success Study Technique

Law School Notes

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Are you wondering how to take law school notes? If you are not a genius, like Mike from Suits, you will need to learn how to take notes during a classroom discussion. Many students fall into the trap of thinking they need to write down every word said during a class. This is a mistake! The key is engagement, rather than mindlessly copying everything you hear in class. Additionally, copying everything you hear stimulates the wrong part of the brain, as I discuss in Handwrite or Type Notes, and which is also discussed in the scientific study “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard.”

One thing you should be aware of is that most of a classroom discussion is irrelevant for the final exam. That’s right, 95% of what you hear in class will not be necessary for the final exam! The key for law school success is to separate the important from the unimportant. Here are a few things that will help you determine what you need to write down from a classroom discussion.

Keep the End in Mind

When taking law school notes, you need to keep the end in mind. So ask yourself during a classroom discussion, “what do I need to help me in the final exam?” The vast majority of law professors test you on your ability to apply laws to a set of facts, NOT facts from cases read and discussed throughout the course. (Just as an aside, check out this article on how Supreme Court justices write their opinions). So step number one during class is to figure out the rule that your professor will test you on. Over a typical one and a half hour classroom session, you might have, at most, half a page of notes dedicated to the rules needed for exam purposes. Keep in mind that each case usually represents one rule and you only need a sentence or two for each rule.

Policy Rationale

Second, a few professors might want you to provide them with policy rationales on an exam. If your professor is going to test you on policy rationales, then yes, capture the policy rationales when they come up in class. If your professor makes past exams available, the best way to find out if he or she tests on policy rationale is by getting an exam from a previous semester, along with the best student answer. Remember, few professors actually want this information on an exam. And even the few that do will not usually assign too many points to policy rationales. So don’t lose too much sleep over policy! In most cases, you can create your own policy rationale, rather than providing the exact policies that were covered in class.

Professor Clues

Third, anytime your professor tells you that something is important, write it down. This is a major clue that you are likely going to see it on the final. For example, when I teach Torts, I tell students that they will see a products liability question on the final. Also, your professor may say something like “this is very important, so listen.” Again, a clue that you are going to be tested on this. If you have to, place a star or some mark by this in your notes.

Themes

Fourth, listen for recurring words and themes the professor keeps coming back to. These may be important in helping you determine what he or she might place on the test. Also, if your professor is an expert in an area that they teach, prepare for some of that to appear on your exam.

Writes on Board

Fifth, if the professor writes on the board, put that information in your notes. This is especially true if the professor rarely writes on the board. If the professor is writing too quickly, see if you’re allowed to make a picture of the board with your smart phone. However, if your professor writes lots of information on the board, they might be doing it for discussion and not exam purporses.

Don’t Do

Now let’s discuss what NOT to write down. Not everything your professor says or asks needs to go into your notes. Most of a classroom discussion is directed at getting you to understand the facts and law from a particular case. Do not write down facts from a case to help you understand the case better. Unless this is a constitutional law class, you will never need to know the facts from that case again. For example, if you read Pennoyer v. Neff in your Civil Procedure class, you might be tempted to write down some additional facts that the professor provides to help you understand the case. Don’t write those facts down as they are completely useless for exam purposes.

Also, don’t write down what your classmates say. Unless the professor tells you that the colleague just articulated a correct rule of law, much of what your colleagues say is irrelevant. The purpose of the Socratic Method is to get students to get to the right answer. But along the way, there will be dialogue that is just not necessary.

Taking notes is important, so make sure to primarily rely on YOUR law school notes, and not on what you find in study aids. As I explain in more detail in this video on study aids, there is a right way and a wrong way to use them.

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Tags law school classroom, law school notes, law school success, law school tips

Exam Preparation law school academic success Study Technique

When to Use Law School Study Aids

Post author By Beau Baez
Post date August 31, 2017
No Comments on When to Use Law School Study Aids

Person at desk with a book covering their face

Have you wondered when to use law school study aids? Perhaps you have heard some 2Ls or 3Ls talk about certain study aids that helped them get an A in a class. Maybe one of your friends bought one of those 3L’s study outlines. If you are considering using a commercial study aid, please read this first to learn how to effectively use these study aids.

Commercial Law School Study Aids

A commercial study aid is anything other than what you created. This can be outlines, hornbooks, treatises, notes from a prior year, case briefs, audio, video, anything that you did not create is what I include in the concept of a commercial study aid.

In my first week of law school, my professors told me to never ever use law school study aids. I now understand why they gave their students that advice. This was because most students use study aids that hurt their chances for success. For example, study aids used the wrong way will create a false sense a mastery that results in lower grades. I’m not telling you that you will fail law school. But you may remain a B or C student when you could be an A student.

Canned Case Briefs

The one study aid that you should never use is the case brief. A case brief is when someone else has read the case and provided you with the relevant facts, issue, and rule of law. Since this is the one study aid that I am telling you to avoid, let me tell you why. The sole purpose for reading cases is class preparation. So in all likelihood, your professor will cover the case in class. It is okay to go to class not fully understanding every case you read as long as you truly worked through it and tried to understand it before class. If you want to learn more about this, check out my video on how to brief a case.

Most students believe they have to go into class as experts or their professor will destroy them. That may have been true years ago but today, the vast majority of professors will work with students if they are struggling with understanding a case as opposed to not having read the case at all. It is through struggling through the law that you learn, not by reading someone else’s notes. (For more information, watch my video on how law school professors operate).

Available Law School Study Aids

Now let’s look at all the resources that provide the black letter law. These resources include hornbooks, treatises, outlines, audio, and video. My recommendation is that you use these resources to help you understand the law. For most students, you should probably read one of these resources first and then read your assigned cases. That way the case will make more sense to you. After all, you learn the law better if you read a case in its legal context.

Audio resources in particular can be used very effectively. For example, you have to get to school, that means you either walked there or drove there, taking some time to get to class. Don’t waste that time! Use your time effectively. Audio can be a great way to use that down time rather than listening to the radio or something else as you’re driving into school.

How to Use Commercial Outlines

Finally, let’s discuss commercial outlines. DO NOT USE someone else’s outline, whether purchased or not, without making your own law school outline first. You are going to learn a whole lot more if you condense your notes and turn them into your own outline instead of relying on someone else’s thought process. Now, you did not hear me say to not use someone else’s outline, period. What I tell you is to struggle and make your own outline first. Once you have put your best time and effort into creating your own outline, and you are convinced that you have the best outline possible, then look at someone else’s outline to see what they have done. Then you can make changes to your own outline. Certainly you are going to miss things but you do not want to look at someone else’s outline first and then not do the hard work because then you don’t learn and you remain that B or C student.

The primary reason why most people that use law school study aids never reach their full potential is because they never struggle with the law, which is how we learn. Many students become satisfied with their grades, believing that they can’t do better because they just didn’t understand the material, the professor was too hard, or the exam wasn’t fair. While a B student will graduate law school and pass the bar exam, the best jobs and opportunities go to A students.

Tags law school, law school academic success, law school outline, law school study aid, law school tips

law school academic success Study Technique

How to Read and Outline a Book

Post author By Beau Baez
Post date August 28, 2017
No Comments on How to Read and Outline a Book

An open book with eye glasses on an open page.

Have you wondered what is the best way to read and outline a book? When most students read an assignment from a book, they pull out the book and the assignment, which says, for example, read pages 39-47. So they go and read the pages. That’s what most of us do unless you learn how to read a book better.

When you start reading the assignment on those pages, have you ever asked yourself what you are about to read? Probably not. Students will of course know the title of the course and maybe even the topic. But they probably will not have a good sense of what they will be covering for that particular assignment or even, for that matter, the course. So here are some steps to help you learn how to read books better. (If the reading is especially difficult, try out the 15 minute method video)

First, review the table of contents. This will help you understand what the book is about, where the author is going, and how the author is getting there. You need to do this so you can start developing your own schema, which will help you understand and categorize the material better.

After you review the table of contents, I strongly recommend that you then use the table as your outline. If this is new material for you, then you don’t have a starting point. Presumably the book’s author is an expert and has categorized the material in a systematic manner. If at some point during the course you find a better way of organizing the material, then by all means, make changes. But at the beginning, the table of contents is a great organizational tool to help you start your outline.

Index

Step number two is to look at the index. The index will help provide you with all sorts of great information that will give you a sense of where the author is going, what are the key terms, how much does he or she cover certain material. All of this is very valuable information that will help you learn the law better.

Chapter Summary

Step three, go to each chapter in the book and see if the author has provided a chapter summary at the beginning or ending of each chapter. Many books have this kind of summary information. Read it so you will have a sense of what the book is about.

Skim the Book

Step four, skim through the book. Read a few paragraphs here and there to get a sense of the author’s style and purpose. Also go to the end of the book and read through the last few pages since most authors summarize the book at the end.

Many of you are not convinced that this will help. So let me tell you why these steps are important by sharing a story with you.

Suppose for a moment you know nothing about American history. Someone shares with you a story about some low-ranking colonial officer that served in the British colonial forces in the 1750s during the Seven Years’ War. Your initial reaction would probably be one of disdain as you wonder why you would care about some lowly colonial officer who lived some 300 years ago. But as you get more of the story, you find out that the officer’s name was George Washington. Now, without more information, that is also rather meaningless. Finally you find out that this George Washington guy went on to lead the American army during the war of independence from England and he became America’s first President. Now it all starts to make sense.

So do you see what I did there? I created context for you which helped you learn the story better. Without that context, you would have forgotten the information. But with context you were more likely to remember it because you understand where it fits in with everything else that is stored in your brain.

Non-Fiction

It’s no different with works of nonfiction. If you just start reading a book, like most of you currently do, your brain doesn’t have the place to put the new information. But your brain desperately wants to comprehend that information. So it starts working on placing that new information in categories. In effect, unless you provide some context for the new information, you’re asking your brain to do double duty. One, to create new categories for the information. And two, place that new information into those new categories. But it’s even worse than that! Because in addition to adding two steps to the process, you’re creating categories that later on may not make any sense. So you may have to forget bad categories and learn better ones.

So by following these steps, you will create context for what you will learn, which will help you learn the material faster and better than if you just jump in and read the assigned pages. To see how to take preparing your reading assignments to the next level, check out How to Prepare for Law School Classes.

If it anytime you need more help, our tutors are ready to help.

Tags law school study, law school success, law school tips, outline book, read book

Essay Exam law school academic success Study Technique

Memorization Issues: Try Leitner Boxes (Flash Cards)!

Post author By Beau Baez
Post date August 6, 2017
No Comments on Memorization Issues: Try Leitner Boxes (Flash Cards)!

Law books. Use Leitner boxes to learn law.

Have you considered using flash cards in a more focused manner? If you have worked hard to prepare for classes all semester, you probably get frustrated when you have trouble memorizing the law for final exams. This method will help you move that information from your short-term memory to long-term memory. Unless active steps are taken to remember what we learn, much of that is forgotten within the first 24 hours of learning it. (See this government publication for more information on the different types of memory.) The Leitner boxes will help you retain that information throughout the semester. Also, you will want to use the elaborative interrogation technique for deep learning.

Four Sets

For this method, you will need notecards and four boxes to hold those notecards. After you have assembled these materials, the first step is to write on the notecards. This includes all of the rule statements, definitions, etc., you will need for your final exam. All of these cards will go in box number one.

Next, memorize all of the information on each notecard perfectly. Perfectly means you can recite all of the information on the notecard without looking down at it once. You go through all of the notecards in box number one every two days. Once you have a notecard memorized, it goes in box number two.

The notecards in box number two you will go through every four days. If there is a card you cannot remember perfectly, it goes back in box number one. Once you have a card from box number two memorized perfectly it goes in box number three.

The notecards in box number three you will go through once a week. Again, if there is a card you cannot remember perfectly, it goes back to the previous box, i.e. box number two. Once you have a card from box number three memorized it goes in box number four.

The notecards in box number four you will go through every two weeks. You get the idea; if there is a card you cannot remember perfectly, it goes back to box number three. Keep reviewing these throughout the semester until the final exam.

Caution

A word of caution to those who know they will be having an open-book or open-notes exam. You still need to know and use this method to learn and remember the information. As you know, the meat of an exam essay answer comes in the analysis / application section. In this section, you link the rule of law to the set of facts provided in the exam question–watch this video on the IRAC method to learn how to to this. Your notes and textbook will not contain the answers to an application portion of an essay. You need to know the rules of law front to back so you can go right into your application section with complete confidence that you know that rule and how to apply it. If you are spending time looking for rule statements or definitions in your notes or books, this will take away time you could be spending on actually analyzing an issue. And if the exam is timed, you do not want to spend that time flipping through your book when you could be writing your answer. The Leitner box method will save you that time because you will already know the information in your notes and in the book and will be able to write it from memory.

Tags flash cards, law school essays, law school exams, law school success, law school tips, leitner box, memorization

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