First Year Academic Support

(*Optional ALI Sessions held twice a week)

The study habits and skills that made you successful in undergraduate school may not be sufficient to bring you success in law school. Law school requires more than just simple reading of assignments, memorization and restating what you have memorized on exams. The First Year Academic Support Program teaches skills essential to excelling in law school including:

- time management
- efficient and effective study techniques
- critical reading
- case briefing
- outlining
- legal analysis
- taking multiple choice exams
- effectively writing law school essay exams

The First Year Academic Support Program teaches these skills to first year students through sessions led by Active Learning Instructors (“ALIs”), second and third year law class students who have been successful in law school. The sessions are called Active Learning Sessions because, rather than attending lecture type sessions where you are told what skills you need, students participate in exercises in which they actively practice the skills they need to develop.

Students in each section are assigned an ALI for each first year course taken with each professor. There are two ALI sessions per week alternating between subjects. The sessions are approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours in length and they are optional. Professor Todd P. Sullivan oversees the First Year Academic Support Program. He is also available to meet with students having academic difficulties on an individual basis.

*The First Year Academic Support Program is an optional program of ALI sessions as described above. A schedule of the dates and times of the sessions will be provided to all students by email at the beginning of the semester, to allow students to arrange their personal schedules accordingly.