Foundation - What Everyone Assumes I Know

Law school will consume your life during the three or four years that you are enrolled. But that doesn’t mean that life stops. Bills still have to be paid; people still get sick; the rest of the world keeps rolling on.

There will likely be a time during your legal education when you need help with something. The good news is that there are plenty of people available to help. You are not alone. Whatever you are going through, someone else has gone through too. It’s important to reach out for help, so you can work through your problems, without hurting your academic performance.

One of the best ways to learn and remember something is to connect it to something that you already know. Once you have made that connection, it becomes easier to use the new information, because you are connecting it to something that you already understand. Making these connections is called transfer. You can transfer vertically (i.e. from one topic in criminal law to another, or from Contracts 1 to Contracts 2), or you can transfer horizontally from course to course (i.e. from contracts to criminal law).

This lesson focuses upon the concept of metacognition and teaches you how to enhance your understanding about how you learn to better improve your study, organizational, test-taking and self-assessment skills with the goal of improving your performance in law school.

The lesson should help you better understand your individual learning process and show you how to use this information to develop study and test-taking skills needed for success in law school.

You may have heard that lawyers are precise. It’s true. In law school, you will spend a lot of time discussing the meaning of a singular word or placement of a comma.

This lesson provides time management strategies for law students.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:
1. Understand the importance of effective time management.
2. Account for school and personal time commitments.
3. Create a daily, weekly, and semester time management plan.

This lesson explores one of the fundamental lawyering skills, which is to think like a lawyer, or analyze. Students will go through basic analysis exercises, so they can master this technique prior to writing exams.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:
1. Explain the concept of "thinking like a lawyer."
2. Apply analytical skills to their reading, briefing, and eventually essay writing.

A basic introduction (or refresher!) about sources of law, court structure, and precedent.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to:
1. Identify different sources of law.
2. Understand the hierarchy of authority.
3. Distinguish between binding and persuasive case law.

Whether you are new to law school or have made it through a few semesters, there are always ways to improve your process and performance. This lesson uses your answers to help you determine the best CALI Law School Success lessons to help you meet your goals and tailors the advice depending on where you are in your law school career.