Law School Academic Support Blog

Tips for Memorizing Enough Law for Bar Exam

I am seeing more students the last couple weeks with one major question. How will I memorize all this law?  My short answer to them, you won't.  I know that answer terrifies many students, especially high achieving students.  The vast majority of students walked into final exams with precise knowledge of individual subjects.  No one feels that comfortable with the bar material.  One big piece of advice is, you can’t remember everything and should focus on what is most likely tested.  While true, the most likely tested material still covers over 20 subjects.  

Clear techniques from research can increase most people's memory.  Everyone has varying degrees of innate ability to remember items, but nearly everyone can use a few simple techniques to remember vast quantities of information.  Joshua Foer wrote a book (Moonwalking with Einstein) discussing this particular topic.  He studied and entered a memory competition after only practicing the techniques for 1 year.  After that 1 year, he won the competition.  Here is a 20 minute Ted talk discussing his experience.  

I highly encourage students to watch the video.  This is a Ted talk, so it is a little difficult to understand how it will apply to law school.  Here are a few tips created from his talk:

1. Create Visuals for Information – Notice how it was easy for him to remember his speech due to the silly visual.  This is exactly what you should do for concepts and rules.  It is much easier to remember a very specific image of a tort happening or contract negotiation than it will be to remember the exact words of the rule.  Images, stories, anecdotes, etc.  All of that will help remember concepts.
2. Structure – Inherent throughout his discussion of memory palaces is structuring information.  Foer talks about how we remember structured ideas.  It is easier to memorize items that are structured.  Your structure may be different, but you still need structure.  This is one of the reasons making an outline in law school was so important.  It is easier to understand how everything relates to each other if you create the structure.  Make sure to understand how everything fits together.  That will all improve memorization.  The great news is expertise helps create structure.  Getting a J.D. is the expertise necessary to pass the bar exam.
3. Pay Attention – Memorization can only occur when someone is focused.  The brain needs to import the information into memory.  Focus on the task at hand.  Put away phones and email.  While in the lecture, create a structure as the lecture progresses.  When studying, focus on memorizing.  Take breaks every hour to prevent burn out.  The key is to pay attention.
4. Spacing – In a separate interview he did about his book, he criticized the education system for failing at this concept.  The idea is people lose information immediately after studying it.  The way to retain the information is to periodically review it throughout the process.  For instance, reviewing outlines throughout the semester helps final exam performance.  The same is true for the bar exam.  Space periodic review all the subjects.  That is included on most companies bar prep schedules, but if you feel like you are forgetting a particular subject, then do a quick review.
5. Chunking – In the same separate interview (which isn’t online anymore), Foer states that our working memory only has 7 chunks (+ or – 2).  We can only really put 7 things in and try to remember it.  I believe he is mainly discussing short term working memory, but the idea is still helpful for bar prep.  He says individuals can chunk (or categorize) items to remember more information.  The basic idea is that it would be difficult to remember a 20 digit number (ie – 28947503782305905367), but remembering a combination of 3 digit numbers is much easier (ie – 289, 475, 037, 823, 059, 053, 67).  Associating numbers with images or other information can increase retention (for me, I could remember 28, 94, 75, 03, 78, 23, 05, 90, 53, 67 easier by associating them with football player numbers).  This is huge for the bar exam.  It will be extremely difficult to remember all the rules individually, but chunking information can increase retention. 
6. Lastly, Grit – Foer says memorizing is hard work.  It won’t be easy, but those who work through the obstacles can make it.  The same is true for the bar exam.  You can be successful with hard work.  

(Steven Foster)

Pace Yourself

Running a leg of a marathon relay team is fun each year.  I get excited on race day and can't wait until my turn.  That is a problem though.  I get the race chip and take off.  My pace is faster than it should be, and I tire out much faster than during training.  Excitement and momentum is great, but we should all remember, the tortoise wins the race.

OCU hired a new dean last year, and he is outstanding.  We had a meeting recently where he reemphasized pacing.  He called it sustainable momentum.  The idea is that many people within the law school have great ideas and help students in many ways.  However, each person can only keep increasing responsibility to a point.  Momentum is great to improve and make changes, but the improvement goes away when everyone tires out.

I believe ASPers are very susceptible to this problem.  We conduct numerous workshops, reviews, and individual meetings while also serving on numerous committees and teaching classes.  Students have needs within the school, so we try to solve them.  Many of the new solutions require another workshop, individual meeting, or class.  I believe most of us do a great job with our new activities.  The additional work has immediate impacts, so the energy keeps us going a while longer.  Bar pass rates improve, so we are energized further.  We continue to do everything we can to help students.

Unfortunately, the energy and momentum won't last forever.  Great rates, even if they keep coming, won't always fully energize us.  Continually adding more programs is unsustainable.  I know that most ASPers intellectually understand this idea.  I also know that many of us say we won't let our commitments get beyond our abilities.  I know those things because I said them to myself many times over the past few years.  One program won't be too hard, but after a few years, the scope of our jobs can be enormous.  

One of the best suggestions is to evaluate the range of programs each year.  Evaluation is difficult with everything else going on, but the time spent prioritizing what works will have a tremendous effect on the balance we all strive to achieve.

As everyone finishes this year and planning next year, I encourage everyone to be a tortoise.  Keep building high quality and sustainable departments to serve students for the long term.

(Steven Foster) 

 

Bar Exam Prep and the "Misery Olympics"

Lisa DelaTorre from Thurgood Marshall School of Law volunteered to write a post this week about her experiences with summer bar prep students.  I think her experience is something all our students need.

 

-Definition

Misery Olympics- where hard-working, driven people get sucked into competing to see if they can do more than those around them, resulting in every participant being tired, overwhelmed, and miserable. This phenomenon can spread like a virus during periods when intense academic focus is required. See also “doing the most,” “overwhelmed Olympics,” and “no-sleep Olympics.”

-Illustration

Let’s say you hear from a classmate that he is studying several hours more than you every day, and sleeping several hours less. Now, because bar study can be so intense, this conversation makes you afraid you are not doing enough. And so, acting on that fear, you pile on more study hours daily, even doing more each day than your classmate, to catch up to all the hours he was doing each day before you had the conversation. This additional workload makes you miserable, cutting into your sleep, family commitments, and downtime.

A few days after you have started this more intense routine, once the misery is thickly swirling around you, you speak to another classmate. In your effort to feel better about your dismal situation you talk it up proudly. You wear your lack of sleep like a badge of honor. Now she starts to worry and feels compelled to add more hours of study to her day, thinking, “If I’m having dinner with my partner every day, and sleeping seven straight hours each night, I must not be doing enough!”

-How to protect yourself from being an inadvertent competitor in the Misery Olympics

Avoid judging your schedule against what a classmate is doing. Put another way, although you should have a healthy respect for the bar exam, and maybe even a little fear, your planning and preparation should be based on your confident self-reflection, not fear. (An aside: Have you seen the Disney movie Frozen? One of the truest lines ever written into a Disney movie is in the song “Fixer-Upper” where the trolls sing, “People make bad choices when they’re mad or scared or stressed!” Don’t recreate your study schedule based on fear.)

-What can you do instead?

First, have confidence. Remember that you have been through periods of intense study before, and by now you know what has worked for you in the past. You can do this. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Second, remember to be good to yourself. You need sleep, plenty of water, and a healthy, varied diet to fuel your brain and feel your best.

Third, be a force for good for others. If you see your classmate spiraling into misery, check in. “How are you doing? I heard you say you’ve scheduled yourself for 18 hour days for the next six weeks; are you still finding time to take care of yourself? I am thinking of making an appointment with Academic Success to have them look over my study schedule, to see if it needs any tweaks. Why don’t you come with me? We can do a practice essay together after.” If you have family locally and have the benefit of a healthy home-cooked meal, check in with the cook and see if you can bring a classmate to Sunday dinner with you. That simple act of caring might be the re-charge your classmate needs to power through the next few weeks.

-What if you need help?

If you look at your study schedule and you genuinely wonder whether you are doing enough—whether you have scheduled too much down time or not enough, or whether it really is ok to take all day every Sunday off from studying—it is OK if you’re not sure you have a good schedule! Bar exam study is different in some ways than any other academic pursuit you have experienced so far. If you want a second set of experienced eyes to take a look at your schedule, make an appointment with Academic Success and we would be happy to sit down with you and talk through it. If travel to the school is a hurdle, we can also speak by email and/or phone. We will help with every resource available to us.

An important component of living a good life, personally and professionally, is learning to distinguish between problems you need to resolve on your own, and those that can be resolved far more efficiently when you take advantage of the resources available to you. There’s a very good chance that studying more might make you miserable, but studying better will make you successful. If you think there is room for you to learn how to study better, come talk to us. And bring a friend!

(Lisa DelaTorre)

The "Other" Academic Support Educators

Echoing what Amy Jarmon said in her farewell blog post, the ASP community is awesome. We encourage each other, share ideas and materials, and lift each other up. Sometimes, though, it can feel a little lonely just communicating by phone or e-mail and getting together at the occasional conference.  Although I am blessed to have two terrific ASP colleagues at my law school, they work 300 miles away from the campus where I'm located. And notwithstanding my wonderful local colleagues in this shared endeavor of legal education -- first-rate professionals in legal writing and career development and clinical education and building maintenance and library science and admissions and legal doctrine and every facet of administration -- sometimes an ASPer just wants to get together with other academic support educators who speak the same language and can give insights into common or novel problems. What's a solo ASPer to do?  

Maybe realize that law school academic support educators aren't the only ASPers around.

Today I had the pleasure of a long visit with an academic support educator for undergraduates at my university. After hearing first-hand stories from several friends about the rigors and stresses of law school, and being unaware that law schools offered academic support, he reached out to the law school to see if he could offer assistance to our law students and ultimately connected with me. As we shared our experiences of supporting undergraduate and law students, we realized how many issues we had in common -- helping students manage their time effectively, overcome the fear of stigma, learn critical reading skills, understand the efficacy and desirability of intellectual struggle, and appreciate that seeking assistance is not a sign of weakness but of professionalism.  Our discussion made me realize how much I could learn from (and maybe also contribute to) the University's many academic support professionals outside the law school -- educators helping first generation students, persons with disabilities, non-traditional students, underrepresented minorities, students with current or past trauma, and the economically disadvantaged, as well as those simply insightful enough to recognize they could better reach their potential if they learned how to learn more effectively. While legal education comes with a unique set of challenges, at least half my work involves issues that are not unique to law school. So my new (academic) year's resolution is to become more involved with academic support educators of all ilks, helping all types of students in higher education. I fully expect the "other" academic support educators will be as awesome as my AASE colleagues. (Nancy Luebbert)

 

If Other Tests Were Like the Bar Exam

Now that my law school’s most recent graduates are well into their preparations for the bar examination, I have noticed some of them exhibiting a kind of exasperated relief when they come to talk with me about how their studies are going.  They are still feeling a good deal of anxiety about the test, and they are starting to show signs of that deep weariness that comes from focusing intently on a huge task during most of their waking hours.  But they are in good spirits, because at long last they are starting to make sense of the Contracts, Property, and Torts classes they took more than two years ago.

“You know,” one of them told me recently, “they are finally just telling me, ‘This is the rule, this is when you use it, this is how you use it.’  All the rules, so I don’t have to extract them or look them up anywhere! I wish that my professor had just done this in my 1L year.  That class would have made so much more sense.”

It is a curious system that has evolved in this country: We spend 140-odd weeks getting our students to think creatively, abstractly, and expansively about the practice of law, then push them to spend 10 weeks efficiently and mechanically cramming the specific material required to test into that practice.  Imagine if we prepared for other tests in the same way:

Driver’s License Road Test: Students spend three months watching The Road Warrior, Cannonball Run I & II, Smokey and the Bandit I, II, & III, and the entire The Fast and the Furious series. Along the way, they discuss questions like, “Should speed limits always be obeyed, even in a post-apocalyptic world?”, “How is it possible that Burt Reynolds’s license has never been revoked?”, and “Suppose Blackchassis, who is too fast, arrives at an intersection at exactly the same time as Whitechassis, who is too furious.  Who has the right of way?”  Three days before the scheduled road test, students are permitted for the first time to sit in the driver’s seat, where they discover the existence of turn signals.  (Former professors explain that they had not had time to discuss turn signals in class, and in any case, students could look them up in the owner's manual if they ever needed to know about them.)

Test of English as a Foreign Language: Assigned reading includes Infinite Jest, Ulysses, House of Leaves, and Code of Federal Regulations, Title 26.  Students are required to write a brief summary of each chapter read; it must be written in iambic pentameter.  One week before the TOEFL, the class begins watching “Schoolhouse Rock” and somebody finally explains that a noun is a person, place, or thing.

Presidential Fitness Test: Middle-school students spend the first half of the semester exploring ways to build bulk, stamina, and flexibility in their left gastrocnemius.  They learn that the gastrocnemius wasn’t even considered a muscle in early 17^th-century England, but had achieved muscular status in both the U.K. and the U.S. by the mid-19^th century.  There is also extensive discussion about the current treatment of the gastrocnemius as a flexor in most states, but as an extensor in a substantial minority, mostly in the South and New England.  In the second half of the semester, the teacher races through the superficial conditioning of most of the major muscle groups of the body, frequently referring back to the gastrocnemius as a model.  In the last week before Christmas break, a new gym teacher takes the class outside to run wind sprints in the snow while carrying barbells.  She never once mentions the word “gastrocnemius”.

Rorschach Inkblot Test: For ten weeks, the professor requires the students each night to spend three or four hours examining a seemingly random formation of ink on paper.  Each day, students come to class asking the professor to explain what they had tried to understand the night before, but the professor only responds with, “Well, what do *you* think it means?”  [Wait a minute . . .]

Okay, it's easy to tease our academy for its idiosyncratic way of inculcating an understanding of the law in its students.  But most of those students who seem gratified to finally receive concrete and particularized lists of rules to memorize and apply are not wholly frustrated that they had not received them in the first place.  They recognize that they would not have known what to do with such a bare-bones framework of legal rules if they had never gone through the mental boot camp of their 1L year, or if they had never explored as much of the range and depth of our jurisprudence as they did in their 2L and 3L years.  There are a few students who get hung up on the rote memorization and mechanical application that can, honestly, appear to take up most of the work done in bar preparation.  It is always helpful to remind those students that the bar examination is not merely a test of technical ability, like a driver's license test or the TOEFL.  It is also a test of judgment, and that, hopefully, is what they have developed, and can tap into, from those three sometimes dizzying years of law school.

[Bill MacDonald]

Following Our Own Advice

I have a hard time following my own advice. – Alice Vuong

Imposter syndrome is a term coined in the late 1970’s by clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes. According to Psychology Today, the term is commonly known to describe a pattern of behavior where people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. I’ve seen, and shared with my students, articles addressing imposter syndrome. You may have done the same.

We work to instill confidence into students who enter law school with modest credentials. Whether we categorize these students as “at-risk” or not at all, I insist that with a productive study routine and regular practice that they can perform as well as, or better than, students who enter law school with many more perceived advantages.

Those of us who work primarily or exclusively in academic support very likely entered the legal academy via a non-traditional path. And so much like the diverse student body that we support, our non-traditional entryway has no bearing on our competency, effectiveness, and right to be included in the law school academic community. Notwithstanding the rapid growth of ASP, we face status issues within the academy. Very few academic support professionals hold tenured or tenure-track positions. At a number of schools, our titles and contract-year terms vary substantially from those of our doctrinal colleagues. In some circles, we may fight an uphill battle to earn the recognition we deserve for scholarship that is categorized as pedagogical and often dismissed.

What a mistake it would be to create a self-perception based on external influences that we cannot control? We cannot afford to allow an imposter mindset to take root into our psyche. It matters not how we entered the legal academy. What matters is the impact of our presence. The student success, the improved or sustained bar passage rates, and the post-graduation thank you notes recognizing our contributions are both real and earned. We must heed our own advice about avoiding the perilous self-doubt of imposter syndrome. While we focus so much on the success of our students, we must also learn to internalize our own successes and acknowledge that we are where we genuinely belong.

(Marsha Griggs)

Diversity, Inclusion, and Expansion

The phrase “diversity and inclusion” has become a societal and aspirational maxim. I fear the day that these words are said in such rote repetition that their mission and meaning will have become lost on society. I applaud the AASE Diversity Committee’s broad definition of diversity that includes, without limitation, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, national origin, ethnicity, physical or mental disability, and socio-economic status. Today’s law faculty, administrators, and certainly academic support professionals, are committed to the mission of diversity and inclusion in legal education and in the practice of law.

Our law schools and our communities are filled with students who use household terms without recognizing their pejorative origins; professors who unknowingly misgender their students by using limiting pronouns; administrators who mistakenly call one person of color by the name of another. The list goes on and on and does not ever stop. These mistakes are not born of malintent, but of misunderstanding and misperception. Yet, it is not the mistakes or misjudgments that color us. Rather, it is how we deal with them when they inevitably arise that will shape us in our professional lives.

Although I consider myself to be particularly “woke” and egalitarian, an experience this week reminded me that in order to be truly diverse and inclusive, we must also expand our thinking and self-perceptions. Expansive thinking allows us to welcome viewpoints and historical realities of others of which we would not be otherwise aware. An involved and respected colleague shared, “it is important for us to assume that we will all miss stuff or get it wrong sometimes, but we want to learn to limit that as much as we can.”

The true nature of inclusive and expansive thinking frees us to live and work in an environment where we can readily share our perspectives to call out these human errors in others, and thoughtfully acknowledge and work to eliminate the same errors in our own acts and expressions. I am looking forward to the AASE Diversity Conference this fall to expand the limits of my own thinking and to learn from others who will purposefully address matters of diversity and barriers to inclusion.

I hope to see you all there!

(Marsha Griggs)

Associate Director of Academic Success at New York Law School

New York Law School is expanding its academic and bar success team by hiring a full-time Associate Director of Academic and Bar Success Initiatives. This person will work closely with Paulina Davis and Cynara McQuillan, Assistant Dean for Bar Success. NYLS is a close-knit community and there are many academic support minded people on its faculty, like AASE’s very own Kris Franklin!

The information with the AASE disclosure form was sent to the listserv last week.  The link to the opening online is here.

 

 

2019 AASE Diversity Conference Registration and Call for Proposals

2019 AASE Diversity Conference

DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, Illinois

Thursday, October 3, through Friday, October 4, 2019

 

To register for the conference, please use this link: https://associationofacademicsupporteducators.wufoo.com/forms/z8he2cx03wfewy/. 

Registration fee: $50

Call for proposals: Proposals must be submitted no later than Sunday, June 30, 2019 at 11:59 PM.  If you have any questions regarding the Call for Proposals, please do not hesitate to contact Marla Dickerson at [email protected].  The call for proposals is attached.

Hotels:  There are 2 hotel choices.  They are listed below with instructions for reserving your room.  The room rates are available for October 2 – 5.  The hotels are 1 ½ blocks from the conference.

Palmer House Hilton

Below is the hotel booking information for the Palmer House Hilton.  Reservations can be made today online at the Palmer House Hilton booking website link below or guests can call referencing the conference hotel block code “DLU” . Reservations can be made until September 11^th, 2019 at 4:00pm CT.  The rate is 199.00 per night excluding tax. After September 11^th the room block will be released and regular room rates will be apply. 

Palmer House Hilton

https://book.passkey.com/e/49919808

Phone-in

1-877-865-5321

Union League Club of Chicago

All participants in this year’s Academic Support Conference will also be housed at the Union League Club of Chicago. All reservations must be made by calling the Union League Club's reservation line: 800-443-0578. They  will need to refer to the code, DePaul University College of Law: Annual Academic Support Conference.  The room rate at the ULCC is 179.00 per night excluding surcharge. Reservations must be made no later than Monday September 2, 2019 after this date regular room rates will apply. The reservation line is open today.

Union League Club of Chicago

800-443-0578

If you have any issues reserving a hotel room before the rate cut-off date, please contact Jamie Kleppetsch at [email protected].

In-Between Times for Entering 1Ls

If you are starting law school in fall semester, you've entered the in-between times. The initial euphoria of being accepted into your school has worn off; Orientation and the first month of classes may feel either maddeningly distant or terrifyingly close. Even as you wrap up one phase of your life, you may be uncertain about how to prepare for the next. Here's some practical advice on bridging the gap.

Do What's Required

• Know what you have to do before classes start, and do it. Do you register for your own classes, or does the law school register you? Is Orientation mandatory or elective? What books must you buy, and when must you complete required readings? Is there any paperwork you must complete and turn in? Don't procrastinate: get these tasks done.
  
• Read all e-mails from the law school, respond as necessary, and save them in a separate, appropriately-named folder: chances are you will later have to refer back to messages that don't seem critical now. Check your junk folder regularly so you don't overlook mass mailings sent to the entire class. 
• If you receive a summer reading list from your law school, make sure you understand which readings are mandatory, which are recommended, and which are merely well-meaning suggestions for incoming students with a lot of time on their hands. If you're not sure which among a list of suggested readings would be helpful to you, contact the law school's academic support office for practical advice.
  

Learn About Law School

• The world is full of books and websites that purport to prepare you for law school. Several dozens are wonderful. But much of the advice is -- shall I be blunt? -- ineptly well-meaning at best and positively harmful at worst. Be cautious of books, websites, and courses of the "how-to-go-to-law-school" genre, especially those heavily supported by testimonials, promoted by commercial companies, or written by a random "J.D." If your law school doesn't give specific suggestions, seek materials written by law school academic support professionals, who are experts in law school learning and the process of transitioning from novice to expert law learners.
  
• Don't go overboard on devouring materials about first-year success. One well-chosen book will give you more than enough grist for your mill.
• Don't try to learn the law before you enter law school. This is a waste of your time, and it often backfires because your early superficial learning can cause you to tune out the more nuanced understanding you should acquire in law school.

Make Practical Preparations

• Put your finances in order as far as possible. Retire any debts you can, create a budget, sell unnecessary stuff, and differentiate between your "needs" and "wants." Making these adjustments before law school will reduce your financial stress in law school.
• BUT -- Accept extra expenses if they will result in a significant academic or professional payoff. A more expensive apartment closer to the law school may be a better choice than a cheap house that requires a 90-minute commute. Buying physical casebooks almost always results in deeper learning than borrowing books or settling for e-books.
• Make the physical transition to law school early. If you will be moving across town or across the country, settle into your new digs before Orientation begins. Create a mental map of the grocery, coffee shops, bookstores, bike shops, or other physical spaces that you'll need to feel grounded.
• Learn the way between your apartment and the law school, and find at least one alternate route. Ask about traffic patterns and rush hours so you don't risk coming late to class. If you drive, purchase parking passes in advance and find at least two parking lots you can use.
• Buy your books early. Thousands of law students purchasing casebooks at the same time can create bottlenecks with booksellers; plan for delays.

Prepare Yourself Mentally

• Celebrate your reason for going to law school. Your passion is what makes the work of law school worthwhile.
• Determine what kind of person you will be during the three years of law school, both inside and outside the law building. The happiest law students maintain a positive mental attitude. They consider classmates to be collaborators rather than rivals; they feel comfortable asking for help when necessary; they maintain relationships; they practice gratitude; they "don't sweat the small stuff."
• Prepare the precious people in your life for your transition, and tell them explicitly how much they mean to you. Brainstorm in advance some ways in which you can keep your relationships vital even as you take on the challenge of law school.
  
• Tune up your brain for difficult learning ahead. One of the best ways of doing this is by hard reading -- that is, by tackling non-law books that are far outside your comfort zone. For example, an English major might plunge into tomes about physics and biology; an engineer might choose a work by a philosopher or economist. Talk back to the book as you read, and write a summary of each chapter or section as you go. 
• Open yourself to accept new methods of learning. Even if you were wildly successful in undergraduate and graduate school, chances are that you will have to adopt new ways of learning to reach your potential in law school. Your academic support professionals will work with you to help you learn most effectively in this new environment.
• Consider adding a meditation or mindfulness practice to your life, which can pay off both in reduced stress and in mental acuity.
• Cultivate regular and positive habits of sleep, exercise, healthy eating, and effective stress management, which will provide mental, physical, and academic benefits over your three-year marathon.

(Nancy Luebbert)

ASP Behind a Mask

Mask: n. a covering for all or part of the face that protects, hides, or decorates the person wearing it. – Cambridge English Dictionary

It is a common practice for high-stakes gamblers, also called “sharks”, to use a trusted acquaintance when placing a bet to keep the identity of the shark gambler unknown and preserve the odds. By concealing one’s identity, an actor may control or influence audience perception. Academic Support professionals influence the perception and actions of the students we serve. ASP behind a mask allows us to fulfill our mission of student service and advancement. Behind a mask our message is not altered or concealed, only the messenger is.

My real-life experience behind the mask looks like this. For weeks, I preached and pushed a certain commercial tool to my bar takers. I negotiated a substantial discount for their purchase. I offered weekly incentives, provided demonstrations, and all but swore a blood oath that this tool would increase their chances of passing the bar. Crickets. I asked a recent bar taker to share her experience with the tool. She made one social media post that echoed verbatim my message. Within minutes of the post, I received multiple inquiries about the tool and sign-up confirmations.

Today’s law student does not respond to the pedagogy of the past. We may tell our students what is best for them academically and make recommendations for learning tools to support their development. And we may be right. But until our students “hear us” and find credible our advice and recommendations, our words fall hallow. We can strategically use the peer learning model and employ student tutors, fellows, and former students to promote our messages by sharing what has worked for them to positively influence the actions of current students.

(Marsha Griggs)

Winter/Spring Learning Curve Edition is Out

DeShun Harris, Kevin Sherill, Sarira Sadeghi, and Nancy Reeves sent out the latest edition of the Learning Curve last week.  The articles look great with topics ranging from teaching 2L remedial courses to helping students practice mindfulness.  We have a great community sharing information.  You can access the current edition of the Learning Curve on SSRN or at the Law School Academic Success Project.  I copied the email from DeShun below for more information on submitting articles.  I hope everyone enjoys the read and thinks about submitting their own article for publication.

"The editors of The Learning Curve are pleased to publish the Winter/Spring 2019 edition which is attached. In this edition, you will find articles related to academic support work generally. We hope you will find these authors’ articles as insightful as we did as editors.

We are currently considering articles for the Summer/Fall 2019 issue, and we want to hear from you! We encourage both new and seasoned ASP professionals to submit their work.

We are publishing a general issue so we are considering all ideas related to academic support. If you have a classroom activity you would like to share, individual counseling techniques, advice for the academic support professional, and any other ideas, we want to hear from you!

Please ensure that your articles are applicable to our wide readership. Principles that apply broadly — i.e., to all teaching or support program environments — are especially welcome. While we always want to be supportive of your work, we discourage articles that focus solely on advertising for an individual school’s program.

Please send your article submission to [email protected] by no later than August 5, 2019. (Please do not send inquiries to the Gmail account, as it is not regularly monitored.) Attach your submission to your message as a Word file. Please do not send a hard-copy manuscript or paste a manuscript into the body of an email message.

Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length, with light references, if appropriate. Please include any references in a references list at the end of your manuscript, not in footnotes. (See articles in this issue for examples.)

We look forward to reading your work and learning from you!

-The Editors

 

DeShun Harris (Outgoing Executive Editor) 

Kevin Sherrill, Executive Editor

Sarira Sadeghi, Associate Editor

Nancy Reeves, Technology Editor"

4 Weeks Down, 6 to Go!!

Bar Review is a long and hard process.  Realize that working hard and completing each task is an accomplishment that will bring you closer to your goal of practicing law! 

I start receiving emails from panicked and stressed students around week 3-4.  Constant bar review lectures become overwhelming.  The amount of material is substantial, but remember, lectures don't continue up to the day of the exam.  Just like a marathon, take one step at a time, and focus on what you need to do today.

Here are a few pieces of information I tell my students right now:

1. You cannot know all the law for the exam.  The bar exam tests numerous subjects (up to 20 in some states), and the MBE tests 7 subjects in significant depth.  You cannot possibly know all the rules.  Strive to learn as much as possible before the exam, but don’t stress out over what you don’t know.  Complete the assignments and work hard.  You will know enough to get enough questions correct to succeed.
2. You can miss questions on the MBE.  I know for many type A, always correct students this concept is hard.  However, you can miss questions, and you can miss many questions.  Since the NCBE switched to 175 scored questions and they no longer provide raw data, I can't say exactly how many you can miss.  However, my guess is you can miss 50-60 questions and still be at or near the MBE passing line.  I encourage everyone to try to receive a few more correct for a little margin for error, but when you don’t know an answer, don’t stress because that is one of your 50-60.
3. Learn the best ways to manage stress.  Stress will happen during bar prep.  Figure out your way of managing it, whether it is a workout, listening to music for an hour, or any other activity.  You need mental breaks throughout the day.  Make sure to take them.  Obviously don’t take so much time that you can’t complete your work, but spend the time necessary to be mentally ready for the exam.
4. Study in 1 hour time blocks.  Attention and memory decrease significantly after 60 minutes.  After the hour, take a 5 minute break.  Don't surf the internet an hour, but 5 minute mental refreshes will improve retention.
5. If you are having problems with bar review or life in general, contact your law school.  Most schools have numerous administrators, faculty, and staff ready to help throughout the summer.  Don’t try to go through bar prep alone.

Bar Prep is a mental marathon.  Graduating law school demonstrates and ability to succeed on the bar.  The goal now is to apply the hard work and skills from law school to the bar.  Keep it up for the next 6 weeks.

(Steven Foster)

New Website for Bar Examiner Magazine

The NCBE announced recently the Bar Examiner magazine has a new website with the most recently publication online.  Here is the information from Tiffany Stronghart at the NCBE.

"I’m inviting you to visit the new website of the Bar Examiner, a quarterly magazine published by the National Conference of Bar Examiners providing comprehensive, authoritative information on current issues in bar admissions, legal education, and testing.

In our current issue, you’ll find

• statistics from the 2018 bar exam and 2018 bar admissions by jurisdiction;
• score distributions, examinee counts, and mean scaled scores for the MBE and the MPRE;
• a snapshot of the February 2019 MBE results; and
• a look behind the scenes at how MBE items are written, selected, and placed on test forms.

Visit our new site at www.thebarexaminer.org and subscribe to receive emails announcing new issues.

Feel free to share this message with your colleagues or others who may be interested in bar admissions!"

First Moves

If I recall correctly, the line went something like this:  "The world is filled with lonely people waiting for others to make the first move." At least, that's my recollection of the saying from the wonderful movie entitled "The Green Book," which I happened to have the opportunity to watch on my flight while traveling to the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE) Conference a few weeks back.  Little did I know at the time the tremendous impact someone would make by reaching out to me at the AASE Conference in Seattle.  

You see, it was the final day of the three-day conference.  With just a few more presentations available, I thought it best to focus my remaining time on bar prep sessions because that's my primary job.  But, while mingling in the hallways of the law school building at Seattle University, I got a friendly tug in another direction.  A person - who I had only briefly talked with at the conference - came marching and smiling right up to me and encouraged me to go to her presentation, which was set to start in a matter of moments.  The warm-hearted invitation got me.  Oh my golly, am I ever glad that I went!  Her presentation was earth-shattering.  It was the sort of talk from the heart that brought tears and promise.

Here's a brief snapshot.  

The presentation was entitled "Academic Skills Invented by Necessity - the Untapped Potential and Creativity of Disabled Learning, and Inclusive Teaching." Professor Karen Wade Cavanagh's story was featured as part of a documentary by Oprah Winfrey in 2015 entitled "Belief:"   http://www.bu.edu/law/featured-in-oprah-winfreys.

In short, Karen suffered a traumatic brain injury in a boogie boarding accident.  In her talk, Karen showed photos of her rescue. Twice Karen was brought back from the brink.  Life for Karen has since necessitated numerous surgeries and rehabilitation.  Much was starting over from scratch.  But, that hasn't stopped her (or others either).

Here's as an example...

Post-accident, while moving on a sidewalk in a wheelchair on her way to school, Karen was at an impasse.  You see, due to crumbling infractures, many of the intersections at city crosswalks were no longer graded to allow rolling back up.  Karen went down to cross the street...but couldn't get back up due to curb.  Stopped in the roadway in the crosswalk, Karen noticed joggers and walkers run and walk past her, up the curb, and back onto the sidewalk.  So, what did Karen do?  She stuck her thumb out to the next passer by.  That jogger came alongside and pushed her up and over back onto the sidewalk.  Success.  She was soon at school.

Life has tough spots for all of us.  But, as Karen's story reminds us, it's sometimes difficult for us to see the tough spots that others are facing.  

The first lesson I learned is that when I am in a tough spot, I need to just go ahead and stick my thumb out.  

The second lesson I learned is to keep my eye out for others.  Try to look at life from their perspective, not mine.  And, be ready to reach out to others.  

Life is not meant to be lived alone but rather in community with others.  To be frank, as an ASP'er, I often tend to approach the issues that my students are having from my vantage point, usually with the idea that a particular academic study tip might be of help.  But, I am often too quick to the draw with suggestions such that I miss seeing what is really going on.  That's because I am too quick to talk instead of  listen.  But, in my experience, most of the time, so-called academic issues are not academic at all.  They are life issues instead.  And, life issues requires me to open up, to be vulnerable to others, and to live within the perspective of others (and not just myself).  In short, being an ASP'er requires me to live life in "being" with others. I think that is what it means to not just be an ASP'er but truly a human being too. (Scott Johns).

P.S. Thanks Karen for making a mark that will live with me forever!

Reinventing Your Calling

Last fall I fell in love with Dire Straits. To make the process of moving my law school office less of a chore, I cranked up rock music after hours. This was, I will note, quite out of character -- I'm mostly a low-volume public radio listener, predictably tuning to folk or classical music. Indeed, except for a brief flirtation with country rock, I had listened to almost no popular music since college days.  But the process of painting, moving furniture, and lugging and arranging box after box of books called for something a little more energizing than Mozart. Die Meistersinger wasn't going to do the trick, so I started browsing for music from bands whose names sounded vaguely familiar. Quite by chance -- perhaps simply because it ran over two hours -- I clicked on what turned out to be the final concert of the Dire Straits 1986 world tour. From the moment I heard the guitar solo in "Tunnel of Love," I was hooked. I played the concert over, and over, spellbound by the virtuosity of lead guitarist/songwriter/singer Mark Knopfler. Soon I dived in, watching and listening to more concerts, then following Knopfler's solo career.

I've been particularly fascinated by how Knopfler has continually reinvented his professional life, staying in the music profession but always moving forward. (Music was actually Knopfler's third career, after working as a newspaper reporter and university lecturer.) Even before Dire Straits broke up, he was seeking new musical challenges. He wrote movie soundtracks (including The Princess Bride and Wag the Dog) and produced records for other artists including Bob Dylan and Randy Newman. In his solo career, he explored a wide variety of genres and collaborated with musicians as diverse as Jimmy Buffet, Emmylou Harris, and Elton John. By experimenting, pushing himself in new directions, sometimes exploring how a minimal touch could convey a message and sometimes pushing the limit of what a guitar could do, Knopfler kept his music relevant and fresh, touching the lives of listeners worldwide. 

Reinventing oneself can be intimidating. Just ask our students, who enter law school as talented individuals who face the task of learning an entirely new way of thinking and writing. Indeed, the law school academic support profession exists largely to help students make the transition. For persons who have been successful in one manner of thinking, in one way of studying, stretching themselves into a new realm is uncomfortable at best. It would be far easier to (as it were) continue performing a predictable style of rock music with an occasional change in band members. Instead, we help our students master new skills so they can take their practice of law into a variety of directions to keep themselves relevant and prepared.

Reinventing oneself can also be exhilarating, allowing for new experiences, new collaborations, and new insights. Today I had the unalloyed pleasure of sitting down with The Learning Curve (soon available on SSRN for browsing and download) the very day it came out and devouring the whole issue, cover to cover, in one sitting. Exploring the articles in the issue was rather like being a kid in a candy shop with a nonstop inner conversation.  "Oh, what a great insight!" "Would that work here?" "I'd sure like the faculty to see this." "Now, there's an idea I can put right to work." We experience the same sense of possibilities at conferences. If one message came through in the current issue of The Learning Curve, it is how reinventing how we approach our calling will invigorate our work and help us touch our students lives for the better.  (Nancy Luebbert)

Time to Change Your World

It is June 11.  Recent law school graduates, separated from the exaltation of graduation by two weeks of breakneck lectures, rote memorization, and mystifying practice questions, are increasingly conscious of the brief (and increasingly briefer) interval between now and the administration of the bar examination.  Less than 50 days to learn all this new material, to recollect even more old material, and to master the skills needed for three different testing modes!  If your students are like mine, they are still displaying a lot of grit and energy, but are beginning, after experiencing the intensity of bar preparation, to wonder if they will be able to accomplish all they need to succeed in the end.

Seven weeks does not seem like enough time to accomplish much.  Or does it?  Consider:

It is June 11.  The Second Continental Congress has been considering the Lee Resolution, a proposal that the American colonies should formally declare their independence from the British Empire.  Unable to agree without the text of an actual declaration in hand, the Congress appoints the Committee of Five – Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston – to draft a statement that all the colonies might agree upon.  The Committee of Five presents their draft document less than three weeks later.  The document is considered by the Congress as a whole, after which some changes are made on July 3.  On the morning of July 4, the Declaration of Independence, in its final form, is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

It is June 12.  A French army, led by Joan of Arc, wins its first offensive victory at the Battle of Jargeau.  After relieving the siege of Orleans earlier that spring, Joan had persuaded much of the French army to join her in opposing the English force that had occupied France and had prevented the coronation of the rightful French king, Charles VII.  After Jargeau, Joan leads this army as it takes town after town and turns the tide against the English.  After the army takes the city of Reims, the coronation of Charles VII takes place on July 17.

It is June 13.  Having received from Daniel Ellsberg copies of the top-secret Vietnam Study Task Force – a collection of original government documents supplemented with historical analysis created by the Department of Defense as a history of the Vietnam War – the New York Times begins publishing excerpts that revealed details of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam that were not previously known publicly.  These excerpts soon become known as "The Pentagon Papers."  The Nixon Administration, hoping to discourage future leaks of classified information, seeks an injunction against the Times to prevent further publication.  This action tests the limits of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press as bounded by claims of national security concerns, and it moves apace all the way to the Supreme Court.  On June 30, the Court, in a 6-3 decision, upholds the right of the New York Times to publish The Pentagon Papers.

This is a great week to begin to change the world.  Remind your students that, this summer, they have the time to change theirs.

Finding Rest in the Cycle

Take a rest. A field that has rested yields beautiful crops. – Ovid

In a profession where, by definition, we support and give so much to our students we face the risk of having not enough left to nourish ourselves. Those of us who, in addition to teaching and academic support roles, play a role in professional or supplemental bar prep programs see no end to the academic year. The graduation procession precedes exam grading and final grade submission, only to be followed immediately by a new order of coaching, providing practice essay feedback, and guiding students through the stress of bar study.  We are not immune to the stressors that we try to guide our students through. Our minds echo with resounding worry about whether our students have done enough, whether we’ve helped enough, and whether any one of our students will pass the bar. And while our student-graduates wait in angst for months to learn the results of the summer exam, those in ASP quickly progress to the next peak in the 12-month cycle with very few lulls.

The cycle is seemingly endless. After the arduous 10-week period of bar prep, we go almost immediately into orientation training, then to fall semester teaching, then again to exam grading followed by a feverish period of winter bar prep. Yet in this relentless cycle we must find time to rest and replenish ourselves. All the more so for those of us with scholarship or other additional responsibilities. Those in the throes of summer bar prep should remember that we alone cannot shoulder the weight of the bar results for our schools or for any one student. We must guiltlessly take the time off that is available to us with a sense of enjoyment and entitlement. By taking well-needed time for rest and restoration, we model balance to our students. When summer responsibilities do not allow for a full vacation, we can fit smaller periods of rest into our week by taking a three-day weekend, dedicating one day per week to work from home (if school policy permits), leaving early on a Friday or starting late on a Monday during the summers. We too are at risk of burnout and savoring a simple pleasure, like a long walk or a short drive, a call to a non-lawyer friend or a 15-minute sanity break, can rest our minds and lift our spirits.

(Marsha Griggs)

Flush the Defeat and Fight Again

Oklahoma suffered the worst loss in Women's College World Series Championship history last Monday night.  The worst part was OU's expectations going into the series were sky high.  They only lost 2 games all year.  They had a 41-game winning streak, the longest single season streak ever.  The team was top 5 in every major statistical category.  Some commentators thought this could be an all-time great team.  UCLA then beat them by 13 runs.  One possible response would be to give up on game 2 the following night.  In the first inning of game 2, UCLA hit 2 more home runs.  Everyone thought another rout was on, but then OU played with every ounce of grit they could muster.  They lost in the bottom of the last inning, but not before tying the game with a 2 out home run in the top of the inning.  Even in defeat, Coach Gasso said game 2 was one of the most impressive performances due to the circumstances.  Players said they flushed the defeat and fought the next game.  Law students need a similar mentality.

Spring semester grades will roll out any moment.  Some students will feel major defeat.  Defeat they never experienced before, or at least not before 1st semester grades released.  The rout could be on.  Getting down and resigning to continued struggles or frustration is a natural and easy response.  Our students have high expectations, so they could get especially down.

The OU response is informative.  Flushing the bad experience may be the best way to help our students.  Flushing it doesn't mean ignore everything that happened.  Students should still analyze study habits, determine what happened in particular classes, and make adjustments.  OU adjusted their hitting and pitching strategy for game 2.  Ignoring the result isn't the answer.  Coach Gasso talked about how they trusted the process.  Encouraging students to make adjustments and trust the process is critical.  I meet with students every semester that second guess everything.  They wonder if they should have studied differently or completed a different practice question.  Second guessing doesn't help.  They have to trust the process.  Help students work through a good plan and keep working with them to trust it.  

Difficult results are right around the corner.  Helping students flush those results and figure out the changes to fight next semester is the goal.  The summer may not be the perfect time to reach out and meet with students, but we also can't wait until the defeat is completely gone.  Help students use the experience to fight through next semester.

(Steven Foster) 

Seeking Excellence

Horst Schulze is the founder of Ritz-Carlton and recently wrote a book titled Excellence Wins.  The book speaks primarily to service industries, but I found one of his statements both obvious and interesting for law school.  While discussing workers, he stated no one wants to show up to work and do a bad job.  No one strives for mediocrity.  Everyone wants to do well.  His theory is people do poorly because they aren't given the tools to succeed.  Much of the book is how to do that with specific examples for hotels.

As I heard the statement, I immediately thought it applied to law students as well.  Law students probably don't show up to law school their first year wanting to be at the bottom of the class or receiving Cs.  They don't strive for middle of the class.  The same students worked hard to excel in undergrad and some of them achieved success in the workplace.  They may not have worked as hard to receive great undergrad grades, but they still did more work than most to receive the higher grades.  Nearly every one of our law students is an overachiever.

The last paragraph seems obvious.  Many of us say similar things in Orientation or bar prep events to both show students competition is fierce but also to illustrate that they can complete the hard task in front of them.  However, how many of us have complained that we have students that won't read directions or do the extra work.  Have we ever thought a student is lazy?  Do we think a portion of the class becomes apathetic and won't work hard?  Have we ever thought a student didn't care about what he/she should be doing?  I hope I am not the only one who gets frustrated at students.

Horst would tell us the problem may not be with the students.  Try to think of the fast food worker you interacted with recently that you think did a terrible job.  The person did the least amount of work possible while still getting paid.  Many think that person is a poor worker.  Horst argues that person wants to be excellent like the rest of the team.  That worker hasn't been equipped yet, and when equipped, they will succeed.  Chik-Fil-A is a fast food establishment but still provides excellent customer service.  They instill certain values in their workers that other chains may not.  The difference is the training.

High achieving law students don't completely change after a couple sets of grades.  I believe they develop coping mechanisms for results they didn't expect.  We may perceive apathy or indifference, but Horst is probably correct.  Those students probably do still want to excel.

Our internal dialogue and view should change because it has an impact on how we serve our students.  I don't believe any of us would purposely slack off for a student who seeks help.  However, if a student misses a meeting, we may not follow up if we think that is their personality.  If the essay they send in for feedback appears to come from less than full effort, any preconceived view of the student could affect the feedback or effort we put in.  This could easily happen during students last year or summer bar prep.  Students who spent 2-3 years creating an image in our minds could be at a disadvantage when working with us. 

Overcoming experiences is difficult.  We can start with the assumption that students really want to succeed and get better.  The reason for the missed meetings, poor essays, or lack of effort could be lack of tools to properly complete tasks, even poor time management tools.  Our first response may be to give students the benefit of the doubt.  They may prove us wrong or continue with poor habits, but assuming the best in them only has an opportunity to help.  See the students as we want them to be by creating high expectations and helping them get there.  Most of our students will want to meet those expectations.

Horst would also tell us to equip our students better.  Most of us are trying to teach our students the necessary skills to improve performance.  We may not be helping enough, which I know is hard to think about knowing how time constrained we are.  Departments at the Ritz-Carlton meet every day before each shift for 10 minutes to discuss a value of the business.  The hotel chain has 24 values.  They cover all of them in a month.  The constant repetition helps them provide remarkable service.  Our students probably don't hear our values, feedback, or advice often enough to truly embrace it.  Our workshops aren't individual enough, and most of our students don't meet with us enough.  When they do, my guess is we start discussing our feedback or purpose of the meeting.  We could spend 3-5 minutes at the beginning of each meeting discussing a value (ie - grit, spaced repetition, etc.) we find important.  When we see students in the hall, we can briefly talk about an important study skill after seeing how they are doing.  The key is repetition throughout the year.

Our students want to succeed, and as we know, some of them don't yet have the tools.  Our infrequent meetings and workshops make it difficult to completely inculcate those values.  I encourage all of us to see our students in the best light and start discussing small values when we see them.  Find times to connect with them and give them a quick tool for success.

(Steven Foster)