This is Part 3 in my 4 Part series on what you should do if you fail in law school.
For those of you who missed the first part in this series I recommend you click the link and have a look. Then you should check out the second part.
- Identify the problem: Did you slack off and have no idea of the content? Did you have a medical issue going on through the semester? Did you try and learn in a way that just didn't suit you?
- Work out your game plan: You can't just try to conquer the next semester the exact same way. You will need to make some changes. What are they going to be?
- Make the changes (and be realistic about it): If you don't try to be realistic in your plan, passing will be anything but simple.
So my focus today is on working out the game plan.
Okay so if you followed Part 2 you should have either a list or a basic idea of what you need/want to improve upon. Now in a perfect world you would be able to make all the changes at once and stick to them forever. In a perfect world you probably wouldn't have any changes to make either. So unless you're totally amazing (which you very well could be) you will probably have to choose one or two things to to work on for now and come back to the rest another time. This may be next semester or even in a few weeks.
Okay so take out your list, or think about your list of things that you want to change. Pick one or two of them, depending on what they are. If you are wanting to work on time management, you're never going to succeed if you also plan to spend more time summarising your lecture notes on a weekly basis, to get involved in extra-curricular activities and to read every single word of assigned reading.
If you're going to pick something like time management, you could take that on as a whole or break it up. Personally, time management is an ongoing area of trouble for me. I always have and always will have to work on it so rather than just trying to improve, I pick an area to work on. I've worked on developing study plans and sticking to them, worked on scheduling my work and so on. This means each semester I am improving in my time management without neglecting to work on other areas. IF I were to only try and improve my time management I would never get to work on anything else!
I think time management is likely to be high on many law students lists, in some form or another. Although classes don't start for weeks, have a go at making up a rough daily schedule. Take your diary or calendar and mark in dates your assessment is due, as well as any classes that have already been set. If you have your Course Profiles (or whatever it is that your school calls the outline for each course), go through and look at the assessment page. While you may not have your assessment topics yet, break down each piece of assessment. If you do this for each subject and, depending on how nerdy you are feeling, put them up on your wall you will have a good idea of where you are heading.
The idea is to know exactly how you want this next semester to go. I once read somewhere that basketball teams run certain plays over and over again until they can do them automatically without thinking. These aren't the plays they use all the time, but when push comes to shove and they are exhausted, they can do them automatically. You need to be as prepared as possible now so when your work starts to pile up you will automatically know what to do.
Okay so take out your list, or think about your list of things that you want to change. Pick one or two of them, depending on what they are. If you are wanting to work on time management, you're never going to succeed if you also plan to spend more time summarising your lecture notes on a weekly basis, to get involved in extra-curricular activities and to read every single word of assigned reading.
If you're going to pick something like time management, you could take that on as a whole or break it up. Personally, time management is an ongoing area of trouble for me. I always have and always will have to work on it so rather than just trying to improve, I pick an area to work on. I've worked on developing study plans and sticking to them, worked on scheduling my work and so on. This means each semester I am improving in my time management without neglecting to work on other areas. IF I were to only try and improve my time management I would never get to work on anything else!
I think time management is likely to be high on many law students lists, in some form or another. Although classes don't start for weeks, have a go at making up a rough daily schedule. Take your diary or calendar and mark in dates your assessment is due, as well as any classes that have already been set. If you have your Course Profiles (or whatever it is that your school calls the outline for each course), go through and look at the assessment page. While you may not have your assessment topics yet, break down each piece of assessment. If you do this for each subject and, depending on how nerdy you are feeling, put them up on your wall you will have a good idea of where you are heading.
The idea is to know exactly how you want this next semester to go. I once read somewhere that basketball teams run certain plays over and over again until they can do them automatically without thinking. These aren't the plays they use all the time, but when push comes to shove and they are exhausted, they can do them automatically. You need to be as prepared as possible now so when your work starts to pile up you will automatically know what to do.
Return for Part 4 where I will be talking about making (and sticking) with the changes.
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