College Student Success – Page 3 – Law School & Bar Exam Success

The Power of Peers: Network with those who are a year or two ahead of you.

In school, it can be most helpful to talk with –and network with– those who are just a year or two ahead of you in school. For juniors or seniors in college, and for 2L and 3L law students, talking to recent graduates can give you a leg up on what to expect, and how best to prepare for success. If someone survived freshman year successfully, they may have great advice for you who are now in your first year.

Why? There’s a good chance, you are not the first person to struggle with whatever challenges you are currently facing. And, a peer who is just a slight bit ahead of you may seem more credible than a professor who may have been where you are decades prior. (I happen to believe that with age comes wisdom and thus seeking advice from those who are much older can be tremendously valuable. But I do understand that many of my students find recent graduates particularly credible.)

I sponsor an Alumni Speaker Series in a number of my classes, hosting recent graduates to come back and share their bar exam and professional challenges, and wisdom. Their stories help current students see what troubles may be lurking and provides advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and potholes in the road just ahead.

Recent graduates empower current students to believe that they too can navigate the rough waters and prevail.

If your have formal opportunities to meet and network with recent graduates seize them. Ask questions! Make your own plans based on what you hear worked and did not work for others. Do adjust the advice of others to fit your own needs. (“One size does not fit all” in life, law, or college.) But, do listen. Why repeat mistakes that just spending a few minutes hearing someone else might help you avoid?

If there are no formal opportunities, go on your own and seek out recent graduates or students in classes ahead of you. Ask your ASP faculty or your favorite professor or Dean for the names of recent graduates they would recommend you talk with. Ask a former leader of an organization you belong to, to sit and share his/her experiences. Talk with someone who has just started working in a field that interests you.

And, be sure to send a Thank You after meeting with someone. You will be surprised at how your networking opportunities expand your current successes and your potential for success in the future!

Time Management Tip of the Day: Study Before Taking that “Time off”

How many times have you said: “I’ll just stop by that party for a couple of hours, then I’ll study.” Or, “I’ll study after work.” Or, just generally, “I’ll study tonight.” Then, when the time comes to pull out the books, you are too tired to focus well and end up either not studying at all or not studying effectively. (Ever read that same sentence six times only to realize you still don’t know what you are reading?)

I have worked with hundreds of students who re-claim control over their study schedules by a pointed strategy to start studying earlier, before partying, before work, or before the day takes its toll and makes us too tired to absorb what we are studying.

“Work before play.” Sounds like just another old person lecturing at you, right? Well, don’t view it that way! Consider it as a power tool strategy to do more of what you want, effectively.

It’s one thing to “do it all” then see mediocre results. It’s another thing to “do it all,” do it well, and have fun!

Note that at some points in time, you simply cannot “do it all.” There are legitimate “crunch times,” for example during midterms, finals, or while studying for the bar exam, where everything but studying must take a back seat. More on times when you must “hibernate” and do nothing but study in another Time Management Tip post. But, for much of the academic year, a more strategic balance of study and extra-curricular, and more strategic timing, can propel you to achieve greater success and enjoy the process!

If you are in school, college or law school, you likely want to succeed. Let’s make that assumption! You want to get high grades on papers and exams, you want to do the reading and come to class prepared. You also want to party with your friends, to go to all the organization events you care about, and you likely need to work (paid jobs and internships).

So, try this for a bit. Try putting in at least an hour of studying first thing in the morning, right when you wake up. Try also studying at or around noon. (While others may be eating, just grab a quick (healthy) meal and head to the Library for a couple of hours.) And, then, after your day time commitments, before any evening activity starts, find a quiet place and study for an hour or two more. Even if you get there a few minutes late, you will enjoy yourself much more at an evening event, party, or socializing with friends if you arrive after having finished a concentrated study block, and after having completed whatever is due the next day.

The other way around, trying to work late at night after the evening activities is often a no win: you go out feeling at least a little guilty about the fact that you did not complete your work. Result? You don’t get your work done and you don’t have as much fun.

Some readers may be thinking, “I don’t feel guilty. I just do ‘all nighters’ after going out. Studying all night may be something one must do on occasion, but hopefully it is not a habit. Even occasional all nighters are typically not as productive as regular study blocks at times when you are most wide awake and alert. And repeated all nighters take an eventual toll on your health as well as your productivity. (They can be especially dangerous for students who commute and drive to and from school on no sleep.)

Instead, try fitting studying in earlier in the day. See what happens. I often meet with students who tell me their dedicated study time is between 9pm-midnight. I ask them to just *try* for one month studying at least one hour in the morning, one hour at noon, and one hour between 5-7pm. Almost always, people come back at tell me that they feel more in control, and they retain what they are studying much more effectively. Give it a try!

What is your Time Management Tip of the day?

Success is built by slow and steady hard work, not miracles.

Yesterday, I posted about the tortoise and the hare in connection with bar exam study and success. (http://www.passlaw.com/taking-the-july-2016-bar-exam-think-tortoise-and-hare/). Today, thinking about how that bar exam advice applies in so many other places. Here are just a few:

-Mastering a sport, or an artistic talent. Sure, natural ability helps. But ask any determined, successful athlete or actor just how many times he or she made a mistake, got back up, and built their success, slowly and steadily, and you will find that nature was greatly assisted with practice. This Michael Jordan quote comes to mind, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

-Getting into a good college. This is a process –slow and steady. For many people, it involves years of building a background worthy of being accepted into a great university: years of studying for classes and pursuing good grades; years of participating in (and serving as a leader in) student groups; months if not years of studying for admissions tests; weeks if not more of working to write effective entrance essays and complete complex applications.

-Building a Successful Professional Identity. This does not happen the day you get your first job, or the day you become a college graduate or a lawyer. This involves years of proving oneself, showing colleagues by coming through day in and day out successfully, proving that you are reliable and smart, networking, publishing, speaking or otherwise publicly demonstrating your skills or ideas, and much more.

-Raising children. This is surely a slow and steady endeavor, with a need to be there, every day –strong and consistent, to provide, nurture, and support.

There is no shortcut for most great things in life. Pete Seeger’s Maple Syrup Song perhaps sums it up best: “Everything worthwhile takes a little time….”

Seven Simple Success Steps for Improving Reading Comprehension and Effective Writing.

The following are steps you can take without any special tools, without spending any money, and without enormous amounts of time. Learn to fit at least some of these into your regular study routine. They will help build your success foundation.

Read opinion pieces in the editorial section of a national national newspaper and summarize in one-three sentences. (Log in at the same time each day and read at least one editorial. Gives you practice reading on a variety of topics because people editorialize about every subject under the sun.) This is not only a great life habit but a tremendously useful way to prepare for standardized tests that involve reading comprehension sections.
Write a letter each week. Fine to email but may be even better to slow down and handwrite at least once a month. Include at least 3-5 short paragraphs in each letter you write. The extra added benefit is that if you actually send these to people, you will build your network (and maybe make your mom smile!).
After reading each page of your homework (your cases in law school, and your textbooks in college), stop and put into your own words what you just read. (This sounds much more time-consuming than it is. It may take time at first but you will get practiced at it and be able to do it in less than a minute.)
Look up the meaning of words you don’t understand, or do not see why they are in this particular context. (Maybe they have more than one meaning.)
Read difficult passages with three senses: eyes, ears and hands. Do this by touching each word as you read it aloud (or mumble it quietly under your breath if you are studying in the library.). Law students: this technique is a must for reading statutes.
Exchange your written work regularly with a friend (a first draft of something, a case brief, etc.) and critique each other’s work. (Of course, be attentive to do this in such a way as not to violate any honor codes about work sharing. You can even show someone your weekly letter and see if you are conveying your thoughts accurately, or exchange a resume or cover letter, or some other extra-curricular document.)
Read a novel. Try to read one every month, but at least read one each semester. (If you don’t like fiction, read non-fiction.)

Bottom line: the more you read, the sharper your understanding of what you read will be. The more you write, the easier it will be for your words to flow in a clear and articulate manner.

Do you have a five-year plan? A one-year plan?

In Chapter 2 of PASS The Bar Exam: A Practical Guide to Achieving Academic & Professional Goals, I wrote about developing your Plan for Success. That plan for success, I said, starts with looking at the timeline of what must happen between where you are now and your goal in order to achieve what you desire.

I wrote about how to get the most out of every step on your way to achieving your goal –sorting out what is critical and what may be distracting. The choices you make along the way can make achieving your goal much easier or much more difficult.

Then, after looking at that big-picture timeline, I recommend drilling down and looking at two months prior to achieving your goal, and taking a week-by-week snapshot. Often times where people get derailed or give up is just prior to achieving success. Those last few weeks are critical.

A mentor of mine once suggested that at all times, one should have a one-year plan (with one or more goals), and a five-year plan. I have taken this advice to heart myself and talked with many of my students about the same.

As a college student, law student or graduate student, it’s fairly easy to develop these plans around your curriculum while you are in school. At the beginning of school, when you start in your first year, your longer term plan may be to graduate from the program of study doing your very best. But, do you stop and look at each year, one year at a time?

If not, I urge you to give it a try. What do you want to accomplish each year of school? (If you are having difficulties setting these goals, picture yourself one year from now talking with someone who asks you how last year when and what you accomplished. What will make you happy to look back on and describe for that person?) Do you want to be able to say:

You got good grades,
You were accepted for a certain internship,
You volunteered for a cause you believe in,
You networked (made lifelong friends with classmates, got to know professors, met professionals in the field you intend to pursue).

Then, consider a five-year plan. Where would you like to be working? What work environment would you like to be in? What would you like your personal life to be like? Do you have health or fitness goals? Do you have community service goals?

A well-known driving safety tip is to keep your eye both on the immediate road ahead and at the same time on what is in the distance and surroundings ahead. The same principle applies in goal-setting and achieving success. Focus on today. Knock off as much as you can on today’s To Do list. But develop both a one-year and a five-year plan. Even if they change radically (which is fine as unforeseen opportunities may come into your path at any moment!) it will still help you steer the vehicle that is you safely and successfully toward your destination.

Brevity is the soul of wit!

Brevity is the soul of wit, a saying taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and adopted by many since. I grew up with brothers and was often reminded of this saying when I went on, even slightly too long, in making any sort of point at the dinner table.

A student in a recently wrote me and asked how to speak in a concise and yet powerful manner, saying, “I’ve struggled with being able to get my point across, and do so in a very basic, and simple manner. I have all of these great ideas in my head but they seem to get stuck in translation from ideas to words. Do you have any advice on how to hone those communication skills and become a more concise and eloquent speaker?”

Among the advice I shared with this student, a college student, was to: consider taking a public speaking course. I took one in college and it was not only fun but one of the most helpful classes I have ever taken. If you can’t fit in time for a class, or your school does not offer one, take a theater class (that involves performing), or join Toast Masters.

As to consolidating ideas, I suggested writing them out (in as long a form as necessary), then re-writing and condensing over and over until you have something concise that still conveys your thoughts. It may be helpful to keep a journal, and or write a blog.

For law students, speak up in class. Responding to professors’ questions in class is a superb way to gaining practice in public speaking. Go to office hours and ask your professors questions. (Even articulating your thoughts to one person will help you learn to speak concisely.) And, participate in Moot Court.

There is no doubt that speaking is an important “power tool” for any leader. Hone your skills now, while in school And, then continue working on them forever.

Goal Setting: Freeing or Oppressive

I gave a talk last week at GW University to a group of the most amazing an accomplished freshmen imaginable. I will post a series of reflections on the talk, and share some of the responses I have gotten back since then. I would like to start with this idea that goal setting can be freeing:

Reflecting on the talk…and wanted to take this as an opportunity to reach out and say thanks. I had never considered goals as freeing, they really do seem like binding contracts from the start …. Having the perspective that goals are just an opportunity to prioritize opens up your life to focus on what’s important to you not just what you think you have to do. It is so freeing!

How do you view your “goals” ??

Seven Suggestions to Avoid Study Burnout

Note: This post is relevant to everyone studying. Whether you are in high school, college, law school or any other graduate study, if you are giving it your all, you will burn out from time to time. Here’s how to re-charge!

You are perfectly normal if you are thinking, “Not another day of this stuff! I cannot handle any more studying. Not another lecture, paper, or practice test. I need to sleep. I need a day off. I need my life back!” You will have your life back when exams are over. But, for now, “Another day of this” is precisely what you must do. Another, and another, and another –all in high gear. You must remain totally motivated, batteries fully charged, util the last “time” is called on the last day of your last exam. For the upcoming bar exam, that is a full month away still. So you have lots of time. But you must make the most of it.

How to re-charge? How does one maintain that kind of persistent motivation? It’s not easy. I remember the first week of July when one of my classmates said, “Just bring it on already. I am so [expletive] sick of studying. I just want the test now. I’m tired.” I have to confess at the time I felt so un-ready for the Exam that I could not relate at all. I wanted every single day that remained to practice. I wanted every minute to get ready. I was happy to wait. But, I can relate now. Thousands of students later, I see how some people have just had it even by this time. Others want even more time to pull it all together. (They wish the exam were two more months later.) Wherever you fall on this spectrum, give yourself a break if you are feeling stressed and burned out. Stress and burnout are normal

Bottom line, you have no choice. You are taking this exam at the end of this month, are you better believe with all your heart, soul, and might that you going to pass! Done deal. No options. (To quote Apollo 13: “Failure is not an option.”)

What will you do on actual bar exam days? You will go in and do your very best. That is what you owe yourself. That is what must be done. So, how do you get through from now until then?

Here are 7 Tips to Prevent Bar Exam Burnout:

1) Exercise.

Most people are stressed, quite normally so. The best way to burn off the excess stress is to burn it out, with exercise.

Do something active every single day. Walking, yoga, biking, swimming, weight lifting, jogging, spinning, skating. Whatever you do, don’t skip a day. You must think of time exercising as an investment in your own success. It is never a waste of time. (If you simply cannot justify taking “time off” to exercise, then study while you are on a treadmill, or walk while playing a bar review lecture in headphones (or listening to a recording of yourself reading rule statements, see below.)

2) Pace yourself.

Take breaks. Remember even during the bar, you get close to a 2 hour lunch break between the morning and afternoon sessions. So, feel free to take long lunches now, each day. Stop fully and relax. Then get back into it. And, when you’ve put in a full day of studying, take off at night to relax before you get a good night’s sleep. And, make sure to get a good night’s sleep, each and every night.

3) Reward Yourself –daily and weekly.

Give yourself some daily reward. At the end of each evening, do something before you go to sleep that acknowledges a hard day’s work. (For some, that’s a mindless TV show. For others, a glass of wine. For others, a few minutes on social media.) And, give yourself a bigger treat to mark the end of each week of hard work. Every Sunday night, for example, go out to a really nice dinner, or watch a movie.

4) Plan (and book) an after-bar vacation. For those in college or graduate school, plan something fun for Spring break and summer!

Schedule something as soon as possible after the exam, something you really look forward to. Just thinking about that and knowing that you have something definite in August will help alleviate some of the burnout today. It can also be a great way to reward family and a significant other for letting you have time and space to study this June and July.

5) Shake up your study routine.

If you are tired of reading quietly, read aloud to yourself. One of my students found the way to keep motivated (and better retain the material) was to read aloud in a funny accent and record her voice reading rules. She played them back to herself while driving and laughed while learning.

Try charting, try flashcards, try re-typing sample answers.

Study in a different location one day. Explain the rules/theories you are most afraid will be tested on the bar exam to a lay person. (If you can explain something correctly to someone else, likely that means you have mastered it.)

Variety can go a long way to helping stop burnout before it drags you down.

6) Get comfortable with “practice test days.”

Practice days are critical. They will help you train the skills to pass. And, if your practice work has simulated the intensity of the real thing, you will be able to walk in to the actual exam with power and strength. You will have a ”been there, done that” attitude and confidence.

7) Above all, be kind to yourself.

This IS one of the hardest times in your life, one of the steepest mountains you will ever have to climb. The good news is, once you get through, it’s a lifetime license. You never have to do it again. Just pay your yearly dues and remain ethical, and you’ll keep your license for life.

PS. Be sure to eat lots of chocolate, and ice cream! It won’t add brain cells, but it should put a smile on your face!!!!!