ISBN: 9781628470444
INTRODUCTION
Before I actually get into the introduction to this short book please note that the sub-title says that the guide is quick and easy not law school. That said however law school doesn’t have to be the nightmare some students make it out to be. Read and apply what follows and you’ll be fine and do well in law school and most importantly you’ll make yourself proud.
Although I fully realize that actually getting into law school is quite an ordeal in itself, but now that you’ve made it this far it’s very important that you develop a few important habits and skills in order to ensure that you do well. After all you are investing a huge amount of money and time in this venture so you should do everything you can to make sure your investment pays off. You need to learn and apply these essential habits and skills now, before you start classes, you won’t have time to learn them as you go because, before you know it, your 1L first semester exams will come around and failure – or even doing just average – is not an option. This book will help you, read it, learn it and apply its principles and not only will you become a successful law student but you’ll also save yourself a ton of future career related heartache and misery.
You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth reading again – law school is not like undergraduate school. Attending classes is not optional and neither is studying or preparing for class. You can’t just sit in the back of the class trying to be anonymous and slide by under the radar all semester. You must appreciate that everyone in law school was one of the “smart kids” in college and, due to law school grading rules; you will be in competition with every one of them for good grades. In other words your professors will likely have only a certain number of A’s that they can dole out in each class and so you are in direct competition with your fellow students for those coveted grades.
Remember back in undergrad school how there developed, fairly early on, a very clear hierarchy among the students in terms of their academic ability or, probably more accurately, their demonstrated academic ability? A very few kids, semester in and semester out, always received the best marks, there was a large group in the middle somewhere, and then there were those whose grades were always at the bottom. Well – and it is worth repeating here – all of those smart kids are exactly the ones who are with you now in law school. All those kids at the bottom and the middle in terms of grades either dropped out graduated or are working on graduate degrees in criminal justice or psychology. After the first law school exam grades are posted you’ll be shocked at how often you’ll hear cries, literal cries, from some of your fellow classmates of things like, “but I’ve never gotten a “C” before...!”