I still remember the circumstances surrounding the start of my law school experience like it was yesterday. I finished the last day of classes for my undergraduate degree on Tuesday, then immediately packed up my wife and two kids, drove more than 2,000 miles, moved into our new apartment, and started law school on the following Monday. Despite being physically and mentally exhausted from the move, I was excited for the beginning of a new era in my life. I was early to class on the first day, sitting there all nervous and jittery, and I couldn’t wait to meet my classmates, my professor, and get down to the business of studying law.
As it turns out, everyone had already gotten down to business.
“Please open your books to Johnson v. M’Intosh, which I trust all of you have read and briefed.” The professor said, curtly, and called on one of my classmates to give a summary of the facts. To my surprise, that classmate started restating the facts of the case, which, until a few seconds before, I’d never even seen. And then we got to the next case, and the next case, and the next case, until we’d gone through 6 or 7 cases, learned some surprisingly complex legal theories, and thoroughly bludgeoned my brain.
I stopped one of my classmates at the end of the hour and asked how everyone knew which cases to read, and that person (who later became one of my closest friends in law school) told me about the reading assignments we’d received by email. I knew that my face paled at that moment because I could literally feel the blood draining from my body as I realized that in all the fuss from moving across the country, I’d failed to check my email. I was frozen in place as everyone filed out of the classroom and into the next.
I had three classes that day, and none of them went very well. I stayed in the law library until very late that night to read all the cases I should have read, and then the cases that were assigned for the next day. After getting a few hours of sleep, I was back again in the same seat I’d been in the day before. I was prepared to answer questions, but I was already feeling the first tinges of burn-out. Over the following weeks, the feeling that I was drowning became more and more a part of my life. And it wasn’t just me. Most of my classmates were struggling not only with the work load, but with the task of absorbing many difficult concepts each day, and transferring that information into a manageable system of study to prepare for the quickly approaching exams.
I couldn’t figure out why I was struggling so much. I had read several law school prep books, and I had spoken to many lawyers and law students about how to manage the work load, but I was missing something. Whatever I was doing wasn’t working, but there had to be a trick, or something, because I knew that law students eventually figured it out to the point where they were bored during the third year. I didn’t want to wait for the third year to know what was going on, so I sat down and made a list of everything that I was doing each day.
The list grew and grew, until I realized that I was doing too much. I needed to be more efficient with everything I did each day. I didn’t have a choice, because I was going crazy.
In order to become more efficient and effective, I made a list of what needed to happen or not happen each day. I stuck to that list until they became habits, and before long, it was working. I was getting what I needed to get out of law school, and I was enjoying life. Developing a set of habits worked for me, so I thought: why not share it with others? The result was my first book to be traditionally published: Law School Fast Track.
I put everything that worked into this book, and left out all the fluff that didn’t work. The finished product was a short, easily digestible book that contained only the stuff that would help a student become a better, more efficient student and ultimately find success. I purposely left it very short in order to maintain the quality of the advice.
I applied the same principles in my follow-up book, College Fast Track. I felt then, and still feel very strongly now, that the college (and law school) experience is something to enjoy. It is also a springboard for your future, so it is important that the experience is not squandered. You’ve got to have fun, you’ve got to enjoy college and law school for what they are, but you’ve also got to set a successful future in motion. You can do that with the advice found in these books.
Now, I didn’t write these books because it was super fun for me. Contrary to popular belief, writing about study techniques is not the roller coaster it seems to be. No, I wrote these books because the advice and suggestions in these books worked. I found success as a student with the stuff found here, and I know that you can to. If you don’t want to take my word for it, follow these links to hear what others have said: LSFT, CFT.
So if you are smack in the middle of college or law school, or are about to start, give these books a try. If you know someone in college or law school, these books will make great gifts. You can find them wherever books are sold and on your Amazon Kindle. Follow this link for more options.
Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to hear from you, either in the comments below, or you can find me on Facebook or Twitter. You can also find more information about law school and college on twitter with: @EDUfasttrack
