Learning Style-Understanding Yours

One thing that makes law school difficult is the amount of information you are expected to learn, understand, and provide your professors in a clear, concise, and precise manner on the exams and assignments that are graded.

Doing well in law school is not simply about intelligence-the overwhelming majority of law students are intelligent; it is more importantly about being an effective and efficient law student, and to be an effective and efficient law student you must understand how you learn best.

There are basically four learning styles. These learning styles are:

1. The Visual/Verbal Learning Style.
2. The Visual/Nonverbal Learning Style
.
3. The Tactile/Kinesthetic Learning Style .
4. The Auditory/Verbal Learning Style .

A full explanation of these learning styles is provided in the article Introduction to the DVC Learning Style Survey for College . Along with this article there is a 32-question survey you can take that informs you what your learning style is and provides suggestions for what you should do to learn most effectively and efficiently. Although this article was developed for college students, some law school academic success professors use it also. I was told about this survey by Dennis Tonsing , Dean of Students, Roger Williams University School of Law.

One additional and important thing you can do to prepare to excel in law school is become familiar with the academic support professor at your school. These professors provide individualized help that is specifically tailored to the student they are working with. I have seen academic support professors have a big impact on the academic achievement of law students they have worked with.

Other related articles on this website include Academic Support and Learning in Law School .

Good luck in law school!