If you’re in the thick of 1L year and wondering how you’re going to make it, rest assured, you can do this.
The first year of law school is many things, from challenging to exciting to incredibly frustrating at times. The way to conquer your day-to-day routine as you navigate classes and uncover the black letter law is through consistency. It also helps to know how to maximize your time and resources.
You may be wondering what resources are at your disposal as a 1L. There are a few, but the ultimate resource to help you dive in and build confidence with your classes and studies is BARBRI 1L Mastery.
This free resource can be used throughout 1L year when you’re:
- working to understand the black letter law established in cases,
- prepping case briefs for cold calls,
- clarifying class notes to understand covered material,
- preparing outlines for final exams,
- reviewing rules that you’re struggling to retain and/or
- practicing multiple-choice questions and essays.
Here’s how to take full advantage of 1L Mastery.
Gain context to grasp difficult concepts
For better or worse, the law is learned through inductive processes. This can add another layer of complexity when you are learning dense material and tough topics such as Promissory Estoppel. When you open the 1L outlines, you instantly gain context for every concept. You will better understand the topics than if you only reread the cases.
In your 1L classes, your professors typically expect you to come to class prepared, having read the cases and feeling ready to speak on them. If your notes and outlines don’t give you the confidence needed as you head into class, take the time to review the BARBRI material. The black letter law outlines and lectures in 1L Mastery get you organized and enable you to flesh out, synthesize and grasp the information.
Use 1L outlines for exam success
When it comes to exam time, you’ll need to showcase that you can apply the rules to factual scenarios. Outlines are a time-honored tradition of law school. The process of outlining helps you actively learn while you fuse your notes into an organized structure. You’ll then use that structure to study for your final exams.
Your best bet is to create your own outline from your class notes and case briefs, then supplement it with the 1L Mastery outlines. If your professor covered specific rule language when presenting a case in class, you’ll want to use that in your outline. Comparing the cases your professor covers to the black letter law and examples in the BARBRI outlines is a great way to gain a deeper understanding and retention of the rule as well as its application to specific facts.
Practice to gauge your knowledge
Once you have a solid understanding of the rules and have built your outline, it’s time to test your knowledge. Even if your final exams or midterms aren’t in multiple-choice format (which many final exams won’t be), utilizing practice multiple-choice questions will help you test your knowledge while also reinforcing the substantive material. You can also use practice essay questions to hone your writing skills.
The practice questions in 1L Mastery are designed to test your understanding of the black letter law for each 1L subject. As you test your knowledge, make sure you take the time to review the detailed explanations. It’s important to do this for any answers you get wrong AND for those you get right. This will help ensure you truly get the most out of your study time.
To get started, check out BARBRI 1L Mastery. Best of luck with 1L year and beyond. You’ve got this!
Interesting in reading more? Fill out the form to read the full article.