30 Ways for First Year Law Students to Achieve Success

Abstract

Law School is a scary and mysterious place and incoming students often have very little idea what to expect. Students eventually catch on to the difference between legal and undergraduate educations: fact-pattern analysis versus memorization of facts. This article is based on a series of presentations I made under the auspices of Texas Tech University School of Law’s Hispanic Law Student Association (HLSA), which offers a boot camp for incoming students and a second round of orientation after the first semester. This article provides practical advice from a Torts Professor and a successful third-year law student on how to succeed in law school. It presents information for the incoming student about what distinguishes a student who gets As from one who gets Cs. In its second part, it addresses students after they have their first semester grades and advises them on how to assess their performance and make changes if necessary.