Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/109031
BY MARK CARDWELL the art of With exams just around the corner, law professors and students offer advice on how to best prepare. studying W hen he was a student a decade ago at the law school where he now teaches, Dalhousie assistant professor Graham Reynolds says his favourite place to study was the library at Dal-affiliated King's College. "I loved the big tables and the natural light there," he recalls in a recent phone interview from his campus office in Halifax. "And sometimes it was fun to be around other people." He adds, however, that studying effectively in such a busy public place required the ability to shut out ambient noises. That wasn't a problem for Reynolds, a Winnipeg native who went on to do graduate work at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and a clerkship with Chief Justice Lance Finch of the British Columbia Court of Appeal before being called to the bar and joining 26 Spring 2013 CANADIAN his alma mater as a faculty member in 2008. Shutting out noise was a challenge for other students, however, like the one Reynolds says always wore giant yellow headphones around the library. "To me that seemed a bit extreme, but studying is such a personal thing. You have to do Erin Smith, a top student who graduated in 2012 from Queen's University Faculty of Law and swept every major academic and achievement award during her time there, believes the essential and key element in the art of studying is rigorous planning. "Begin with an end Begin with an end in mind. Your goal shouldn't be to make the best summary of your notes, but rather to create the best tool. eRIn sMItH whatever it is that works best for you." Having a good place to study is just one of a potpourri of study tips and strategies law professors and students from across Canada say have helped them prepare for — and in many cases ace — any and all law school exams. L a w y e r 4 students in mind," she says from Regina, where she is serving as a judicial law clerk for the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal this year — and the Supreme Court of Canada next year. "Your goal shouldn't be to make the best summary of your notes, but rather to create the best tool."