Dear 1L: Spend Less Time Studying for Class

Dear 1L, You should stop spending so much time preparing for class and start spending more time after class synthesizing what you’ve learned.

🔷 Don’t worry about cold calls. You should be beyond that worry, by now.

—Your course grade is the same, whether you answer brilliantly or pass.

🔷 Skim and book-brief quickly. After class, read answers to sample essay questions. You should start trying to write out answers to practice essay problems.

—Certainly, start answering practice problems no later than November.

—Unless you have a very long reading period, you will not have time in that period to both study, outline, and do enough practice problems to ensure that you ace your exams.

🔷 You will also get VERY busy writing the final memo.

—Last year during final memo preparation, 1Ls found there was a full week or more when they had zero time even to prepare for class (if they attended class at all).

—They had no time to finalize synthesize, outline, continue memorizing, or do practice problems.

❌ Don’t get caught creating your outlines and starting practice tests during reading week.

🔷 Map out time blocks devoted to outlining and exam prep for the remaining weeks in the semester, skipping the week you’re finalizing your memo.

—That way, you won’t have to decide what course, or what type of studying, you will do during each time block.

🔸 Decision fatigue is real. The more daily decision points you can remove, the less fatigued you will feel. (And this is not a semester where anyone can take on any unnecessary, additional sources of fatigue.)

🔸 As to what to put in those study blocks, my main message is this: you must pick only highly-efficient ways of studying. Preparing for class may give you comfort, but it’s highly inefficient.
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⭐️ Being unprepared for class takes courage, but this idea is not new. It is the conventional wisdom everywhere at this point in the semester.

—The approach may cause you short-term unease, but there is no way to do everything. There simply are not enough hours in the day. You need to pick your spots.

—Everything you do should be efficient. Preparing for class is not.

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I hear you. I am here for you. I welcome your thoughts and questions. The remaining time in October is precious time that you won’t get back. Make every moment count!

Fondly,

💌 Amanda