Why You Should Prepare for Law School Early

About Author:

This article and its accompanying video is written by 1L success consultant Franklin Sims. If you are planning on starting law school soon or want help landing a job out of law school contact Franklin for law school success tools that work.

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Most conventional advice is for new law school students not to prepare for law school before starting. By prepare I mean actually taking the time to learn the actual legal concepts and theories.

The reason most people advise against it is because first year law school concepts are too complicated to understand without guidance. Additionally law school professor

s across law schools can be so diverse in the way they teach the same course topic that students are reluctant to learn concepts their professors may not agree with.

Having worked for more than a decade to prepare 1Ls in advance of starting law school I understand these objections. I agree that first year concepts are too complicated for even the brightest students to begin without guidance. However, I also think that several of my clients were given a competitive advantage because we started learning the complicated material before our peers started school. I also agree that law school professors’ approach to 1L courses can vary so much that early preparation can be inefficient. However, a better understanding of the American Bar Association which accredits law schools is how my clients overcome this common obstacle.

Here’s what I mean about the ABA. Honestly, it isn’t a good idea to start learning the doctrinal course information independently. The only reason my clients are able to do it is because I am able to focus them on the most important and universal topics that all 1L professors will cover in first year courses. I am not able to do this because I have a crystal ball. I simply focus on teaching my clients the areas of law that the American Bar Association requires all accredited law schools to teach. The trick about law school is that regardless of the particular research and intellectual interests that a professor has as an academic or what pet legal concept they tend to lecture on ad nauseam, when it comes to the exam the ABA has specific learning outcomes that must be tested in order for Law Schools to keep their accreditation. By studying these learning outcomes I am able to prepare students in advance for law school even before we know what law school they will attend or what professor they will be assigned.

Aside from how it is possible to prepare for law school early, the primary reason you should prepare for law early is because it helps to assure that you will earn high grades. What most students don’t understand is what makes law school difficult. But what makes law school difficult is the same thing that makes earning a high LSAT score difficult. You and I both know that if you had more time on the LSAT your score would improve. Thus, the way test makers assure that the exam is rigorous is by limiting the amount of time one has to complete the tasks. Are law school topics tough? Sure. But earning top grades wouldn’t be nearly as competitive if exams were not testing on your ability to analyze an impossible amount of issues in too little time. In fact, even before taking exams, the every day class experience of law school is the overwhelming reality that there are not enough hours in a given day to absorb the amount of reading, information and material thrown at students.

Learning the law before you begin law school is the answer it puts the clock in your favor. Think of all of the things you have done in life that took an extraordinary time to complete the first time you attempted but the second time around was far easier. It is for this reason that the most successful kindergarteners are more likely to have attended pre-school. One of the most prevalent comments I hear my clients make after their first week of law school is how because of our work in the spring and summer they are able to sit and class absorb lectures more deeply while their peers are struggling to understand material they are hearing for the first time. Aside from the relief of feeling like you understand what is being taught during class the most important benefit of early preparation is what it means for exam taking.

You see, the truth about the first year of law school is that students have such a hard time keeping up with the time demands of class preparation and writing assignments that most everyone crams for final exams. The problem with this common result is that although the final exam is usually 90 to 100% of your final grade students spend the least amount of time preparing for it. The best preparation a student can take to prepare for exams is taking practice exams, getting detailed feedback and sitting down with professors to discuss how your exam writing can be improved. However, before you can take practice exams you must finish learning the law and outlining it. Because most students don’t complete these tasks until days before the final exam practice exams are often an unrealistic luxury.

My clients avoid this fatal outcome because of the work we do over the spring and summer to learn the law. This puts us in a power position to complete outlines earlier than our peers and spend the final month of courses taking practice exams and getting valuable feedback.

The fact is that the better you perform on exams the more career opportunities you will enjoy. Whether you want to work at a top law firm, a top non-profit or in judicial chambers high exam performance is the key. Moreover, since the most desired career opportunities are limited its important to put your self at an academic advantage. Preparing for the first year of law school early is the best way to secure these opportunities.