1L strategy coach Angela Vorpahl returns to Thinking LSAT to discuss five common but misguided pieces of advice for incoming law students. She explains why these conventional 1L strategies fall short and suggests more effective alternatives.

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3:08 - Class Prep vs. Exam Prep - Law professors insist that students should thoroughly read each assigned case. But reading every line of every case takes a huge amount of time. Angela advises students to invest their time in study methods that have a greater impact on their final grade.

20:15 - Note-Taking Strategies - Research suggests that students who take notes by hand might retain more information than students who type their notes. But for Angela’s preferred method of note-taking, handwriting notes simply isn’t fast enough.

33:05 - Study Supplements - Some law school traditionalists vilify study supplements like hornbooks, and they label students who use them as lazy. But these supplements aren’t shortcuts; they’re vital study tools—especially when professors routinely fail to teach the material in a straightforward way.

46:33 - Outlining Is Not Enough - A good outline may be necessary to succeed on law school exams, but it’s not sufficient. Angela describes the extra study step that students should take after outlining.

56:21 - IRAC - “Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion” (IRAC) has long been the popular structure for legal analysis in law school. But Angela argues that IRAC misses the most important part of how students score points on final exams.

1:07:28 - Intermediate Conclusions - Don’t worry too much about identifying intermediate conclusions. Focus on what the argument says.

1:16:26 - Academic Suspension - Nathan and Ben follow up on last week’s story about an applicant who wants to remove an academic suspension from their transcript.

1:18:46 - Word of the Week - Halo Top is execrable.