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Written by Jason R. Wolfe
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Sunday, 10 February 2008 08:59 |
 By list_dj from Flickr
Take the study group for instance. You may have been told that study groups are a good way to learn the material for law school as well as to forge some bonds with fellow students, or that a good study group can be the difference between enjoying law school and simply attending law school. Perhaps those are true however there are few points to consider before you reserve the large study room and order the pizzas.
First, try to keep the group to a manageable number of people, I would suggest four to six but no more than eight. In my opinion a group too large suffers from what economists call the law of diminishing returns. Simply put, too much of a good thing can actually decrease the amount of value gained. Yes by adding more and more of your friends to the group you are certain to get the diverse opinions and insights into various legal theories however it will also be more difficult to keep the group on track and you are more likely to be discussing the latest Hollywood gossip rather than your Constitutional Law outlines.
Second, make sure that you learn the material well prior to entering into any discussion of it. This may sound counterintuitive but it makes sense. If you do not have a working understanding of the topics your group will be discussing you are setting yourself up for confusion. A room full of people talking about the “Three Part Lemon Test” for determining if a law violates the establishment clause of the first amendment will have many different opinions and it is important that you have it firmly in your head before talking it through with somebody else who may have a different idea, or no idea at all.
Third, try to pick individuals for your study group that you can trust will come prepared and contribute. The temptation is to set one up with your friends and again you may be more likely to discuss your fantasy football team than the material. Choose your study partners from those people who are as willing to put the time in to learn the material as you are, remember you are member of a study group not a tutor of one.
Finally, don’t feel compelled to set up study groups. They can be useful tools to help drive home legal theories and concepts but they are not the only way to do so. As I have mentioned in previous articles, there are few substitutions for hard work and if you dedicate yourself to learning the material you will learn it. Attend class, pay attention, do the reading and be prepared and good things will happen and if at the end of all that, you want to sit down with some fellow students to hash out some of the details that would do no harm.
Be cautious however of attending a study group as a substitution for attending class and keeping up with the assigned work. A study group can provide some additional clarification on difficult points of law, it is always beneficial to hear other opinions and views on a subject but do not assume that simply attending a study group will make a positive difference.
I worked with two study groups in my first year of law school and after that I ceased doing so because the discussions became less about the material we were trying to learn and more about other topics that were not going to be on the final exam however interesting they may have been, so I flew solo for the rest of my legal education and have no regrets. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to play baseball by myself…
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