BASIC SKILLS - WHY THEY ARE WEAK

The reason basic skills was such an important issue for the students who answered the question in the article Advice-Question 1 is because the basic skills tested in most educational settings and the basic skills necessary to succeed in law school are not the same.

Up until and including your undergraduate education you are being tested on a general level. Do you generally understand what the correct answer is? Furthermore, on such exams if you include unnecessary information, points are often not deducted.

In law school, and in the legal profession, your basic skills will be challenged for two reasons. First, the sheer volume of what you are being asked to do is significantly more.

A student who participated in LawBoost commented “I felt like I wrote and read more this week than in my entire undergraduate program.” While she is obviously exaggerating, her point is important. What she is really saying is the volume of what she was asked to do in a week in LawBoost was much higher than she was accustomed to doing in a week during her undergraduate education.

The second reason your basic skills will be challenged during your legal education is because in law school your answers must be much more precise. In law school everyone will be able to give a general answer that is in the ball park. The people that excel are those who give precise answers.

Furthermore, those answers need to be written as clearly and concisely as possible. When I graded law school assignments the difference between an A and a B+ was often not the content of a student's answer, but the quality of the writing. The stronger a student's basic writing ability was (the more clear and concise the student could be), the greater likelihood the student was to receive an A.

To the average person a B+ paper and an A paper may not appear to be different, but to a law professor who spends most of his or her time focusing on writing there is a difference, and the students' grades will reflect that difference.

The following are links on improving your basic skills for law school. http://www.law.ttu.edu/lawWeb/oasp/tips/TakeActionForOptimalLearning.shtm
http://www.findlaw.com/studyskills/philosophy.html

Good luck in law school!

Michael Santana

michael.santana@lawboost.com