Four Tips for Beginning Law School
Matt received his JD from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2018 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2019. He finished in the top 8% of his graduating year, was a Dean’s Fellow, and offers tutoring services for Canadian law school students. You can find more about him here!
Congratulations on beginning law school! Getting into law school in Canada is an achievement you should be proud of, and you have lots to look forward to as you begin your legal studies. Beginning law school can be a daunting task because of the adjustments you’ll be making to the way you learn and study going forward. This is especially true with reliance on remote learning that will be happening this year. Here are some tips to think about as you begin law school!
Connect with your classmates: Your classmates are going to be a valuable source of support and motivation both academically and emotionally as you transition into law school. Your classmates today will be your colleagues of tomorrow, and one of the most fulfilling things about law school will be the people you meet and the experiences you have with them. Whether it is through studying together over video chat or just seeing how someone is doing, both giving and, in turn, receiving, both academic and emotional support will also be key in keeping you in a mentally healthy place. You also just might solve an issue you’ve been trying to focus on through the process of talking it out with a friend, tutor, or study group, which will be important to make sure you are understanding concepts without in-class instruction. Upper-year students and alumni are also a great source of support and knowledge too.
Don’t take on too much: It can be tempting to take on anything and everything as you enter school, but you’ll want to ensure that you don’t take on more than you can handle to the point that it affects your grades and your mental well-being. A good piece of advice I received was to focus on one extra-curricular during the first semester and then to re-evaluate during your second semester if you want to take on more. It’s difficult to have a sense early on for how long your class work will take, so by second semester you’ll have a more accurate sense for what other time commitments you can fit in while maintaining a balanced lifestyle and time for studying.
Listen to what your professors say is important: Your professors are the experts on what you should focus on in a given class and what will likely show up on an exam! There is a strong temptation in first year to go “into the weeds” and expend valuable time and effort on things that aren’t conducive to your success in a class. For example, if a professor says that a case is not important (or is bad law that you shouldn’t be citing), don’t cite it or spend tons of time briefing it at the expense of cases that are actually important. Study smart and direct your effort to the things they identify as important!
Stay confident: It can be quite daunting being among such talented classmates, but don’t let this intimidate you. A common pitfall (that I felt and later discovered many of my colleagues also thought) is suffering from imposter syndrome and assuming that everyone else is smarter. You got into law school for a reason and can absolutely succeed.
Please feel free to reach out to me to chat! I’d love to meet you and offer support or answer questions as you begin law school. You’ll find that other alumni are also very happy to help out; we all had people who were gracious with our time and helped us succeed as we went through the journey you are about the embark on.