Yes, you read that right. Brand new 1L’s starting law school in August should immediately think about exams taking place in December. 2L’s & 3L’s are nodding their heads right now because they know I’m right. And, I have the data to prove it.

1L Orientation starts soon and can be an overwhelming information overload. Most law school orientations teach basics like IRAC, reading and briefing cases, and outlining to prepare students for the first few weeks of law school.

Too many 1L’s mistake the advice on reading and briefing cases and outlining as the only steps necessary for getting “good” grades in law school and budget their time per day or week based on how many pages in a casebook they have to read and brief. Spoiler alert: over the course of a term, you will read 100’s of cases. For each subject.

Reading and briefing cases is the barest of bare minimums. Put simply: Reading and briefing cases is studying, but is NOT learning. 

The end goal – getting an A on your law school exam – requires not just reading 100’s of individual cases, but also synthesizing how those cases fit together into complex rule structures, and how to apply those complex rule structures to brand new facts you have never seen in an organized, thoughtful manner, in the time allotted. Those steps DO NOT happen with reading alone.

Now that you know your end goal – acing your Torts exam – how do you get to your end goal over the next 3-4 months?

Plan to read and brief your cases, and immediately quiz yourself on what the case means and what your prof wants you to get out of it. If you read two cases on the same topic, quiz yourself on what the cases have in common and how they differ. Test your understanding of the cases by asking if the outcome would be different if the facts were different.

Look for “Notes & Comments” after the cases you read in your casebooks. DO NOT SKIP THEM, they are law school gold. Work through the notes and questions after you read a case or a group of cases. Will it be easy? No, it will probably suck and you will hate it. But, it is medicine and it is good for you, so do it.

Empirical research on law student study habits proves that law students who quiz and test themselves in addition to reading, briefing, and outlining are likely to have high law GPA’s, but students who spend all of their time reading, rereading, and briefing to understand individual cases without synthesizing the information or practicing applying the law are likely to have low law GPA’s.

Now, start planning to get that A.