No Law Student Wants to Spend a Holiday Weekend at School

No law student wants to spend a holiday weekend at school—

—on an empty campus,
—away from family,
—eating dining hall food.

But for many, that’s the plan.

—Home is hours away.
—Exams are not far away.
—There are only so many hours in a day.

And so, students stay.

If that is you, please know that I see you;
I will be thinking of you this weekend;

👉 Here’s an exam-prep tip just for you:

Don’t just memorize outlines of rules.

Instead, read practice problems to learn and memorize the material.

Having black-and-white lists in your head isn’t enough.

You need the color of the stories for the abstract concepts to cement.

Now I’ll admit: I used to be scared of practice problems.

I’d read them, be clueless, and get defeated.

But I learned to treat them as short stories, not “gotcha” tests.

I stopped approaching them like a challenge, and started just reading and retyping the answers.

—By recopying the stories and explaining why the answer came out the way it did in your own words, you will internalize the stories.

—And by learning the stories, you will learn the material.

Doing this was a major differentiator for me.

I hope it might work for you, too.

💌 Amanda

#Dear1L

P.S. If you’re a law student who has followed “Dear 1L,” the book, today is a really good day to RE-read chapter 7 on exams!

P.P.S. Did you spend 1L Thanksgiving weekend on campus?

Any tips for current students who are trying to make it through the weekend?