Familiarize yourself with the neighborhood where your law school is located. Find out where the off-campus book store, copy shops and coffee shops are located. You will barely have time for any additional activities, so you don’t want to spend an hour trying to get caffeine.
Organize your time. Like most universities, law school professors don’t care whether you have assignments or exams from other classes. In addition, the workload will be extensive, more than what you might have experienced before. Have a calendar where you schedule your numerous reading assignments, briefs writing, deadlines and others. Set reminders for yourself in your computer, personal digital assistant and any other electronic calendars.
When you read casebooks or textbooks, take notes on the important aspects of your cases. Make sure your notes have “the legal rule which governs the decision in the case, the elements of the legal rule, the specific element at issue in the case, and the reasoning behind the court's decision.” Also highlight in the pages of your book any details of each case that your professor might ask about. Professors will take notice of books that show signs of highlighting as a symbol that you did your reading assignment.
A brief should be brief. Do not need to re-write the whole case, just important information such as: “the legal theory of the case, the element of the legal theory at issue in the case, the facts relating to that element which influenced the court's decision and the reasons given for the court's decision (so that you can later use similar arguments).”
If you are randomly called in class to answer a question, give it your best shot instead of admitting you have no clue. If you have read and thought about the case, you will be able to say enough for the professor to realize that you have done your homework. Don’t be afraid of sounding silly since many others in class are likely to be confused as well. Your professor will appreciate your effort. However if you did not read the assignment, stop before making a fool of yourself. Your professor will have a field day with you if you are random guessing.
Take notes in class. Don’t write down what other students say in class; it’s the professor’s point of view that matters and will likely be on the final exam. If you are late to class or miss a class, be sure to ask a classmate for his notes.
When answering exam questions, identify and state on the exam the rule and elements you learned in your readings along with the information from the professor you learned in class. Then apply the rule and elements to the situation you are presented with in the exam and follow with an answer or conclusion to the question you are presented. Repeating the rule and the elements alone will score you half the points. Think “I-R-A-C”, Identify, Rule, Apply, Conclusion.
If you receive low grades, talk to your professors about your performance to see whether you are having problems with taking exams. However, don’t feel disappointed if one of your professors tries to discourage you from pursuing a law career. It may just be that you haven’t polished your law school exam-taking skills and need more practice.