STUDENT VOICES
What could law schools or professors do to make your life easier?
Caleb
Hayashi, 3L, University of Santa Clara School of Law
Casebook exchanges would be an improvement in student life; they would save money and allow students to avoid bookstore lines. Implementing such a system may require that professors use older editions of casebooks until there are substantial changes in the area of law, but this could probably be achieved through a dialogue between students and faculty
Hasmik
Badalian, 2L, University of San Diego School of Law
The best professor I’ve had essentially made his outline of the course available so there was no question about the black letter law and when it should/shouldn’t be applied. That way, none of us wasted time outlining the minutiae he didn’t care about and could see the forest and the trees immediately. This created an incentive for us and we all did our reading before class and looked at his outline. When we got to class, we were ready to discuss policy and make viable arguments for why things should/shouldn’t be a certain way instead of being put on the spot and having to make an argument for something we just learned about without having time to digest. By the time finals rolled around, we all knew the information inside and out and there was no stress on our part. Also, and I understand why this isn’t a popular idea at first, but classes I’ve had that tested the material frequently (not just one final!) were the ones I did the best in and understood the most thoroughly come finals. Basically, anything professors can do to minimize my ability to procrastinate and learn the information slowly as it comes up is helpful!”
Imran
Vakil, 3L, Loyola Law School
One of the things I’d really like to see, at least for later courses that are taught for future students, is a little less of the Socratic method. This game that is constantly being played between the professor and the students of constantly hiding the ball is good to an extent and it helps students to find the issues. But I think a lot of the law school experience could be improved if professors were to get down to the point and teach the students the substantive law rather than have them search for it. It’s a question of efficiency. I also think it would be nice if they could shorten the duration of the learning process.
Alyssa
McCorkle, 3L, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
I think the best methods for teaching use both auditory and visual aids. Many students either learn by listening or by watching. As you can imagine, many teachers are either auditory or visual learners and so they seem to choose one or the other methods to teach, but their students may not be the same way. And the most important thing a professor could do to make my life easier is to write each step down labeling everything.