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The pandemic has not been easy on any of us, and it definitely has not made law school easier. It’s not hard, to lose focus when you have to stay home and attend lectures online.
When you’re in college, surrounded by your peers writing down every word that the professors are dictating, the professors supervising your overall environment of the classroom, gives you motivation to at least try and study – that is the boon of regular offline learning.
Online learning makes it hard to focus and the environment of your home with all its distractions like the TV shows, news, your family reminding you to do chores, the near-constant banter with your siblings, the frequent notifications on your phone, or just about anything that you might find to be more interesting than the ongoing lecture, like the blank wall in front of you. We get it, remote law school is tough. But here’s how you can make it just a teeny tiny bit easier:
Multitask
One of the reasons why students lose focus is that there is no supervision. It’s easy for you to scroll through social media or watch your favorite series or just turn off the camera and go back to sleep, because the teacher cannot supervise you efficiently in an online class. Hence, if you want to focus, you need to supervise yourself and make sure that if you are attending the lecture, you are only doing that one thing. Turn off notifications on your phone for the duration of your classes might help for sure.
Engage with the teacher
If you are keeping your video off for the entire lecture even when there are instructions to keep it on, then you’re definitely attending online lectures the wrong way. From personal experience, when you keep your video ON, you will automatically feel that you are in a proctored environment and when you interact with the teachers and try to answer questions and raise doubts, you are making the most out of online lectures. Just by looking at the light adjacent to the camera will make you self-conscious.
Stay engaged with your classmates
Your classmates can be your greatest resource and your support system during law school, and remote learning has the potential to isolate you if you don’t take active steps to stay engaged. Brainstorm ways to maintain your meetings remotely. There are all kinds of resources out there Google-Meet, ZOOM, Skype, etc. reach out periodically to check with your college friends on updates or simply ask them to tell something exciting about Law/Judgments.
Make your own space
When you attend online classes, try to attend them in your room with no disturbances or in a place in the house where you can sit for hours on end without any disturbances. This will help improve your focus and limit any distractions.
Take notes
Taking notes of what is being taught will help you retain it and in the long run you can refer to your personalized notes. When it comes to online lectures, people tend to omit note-taking, but it can create a classroom-like environment and motivated you.
Attend and participate in online events
Law school is a journey that shapes you as a personality capable of putting words into action, someone who can voice his views in an opinionated world around you. And a significant part of this is the co-curricular activities like mooting, debating, and many other competitions like ADR competitions national and international.
They not only expose you to the practicalities of law but are also an excellent way to interact and to learn the art of networking with people, a skill which can be a game-changer for your life but due to pandemic, it is going to be a tough nut to crack.
It’s hard to focus if you are not around your peers, but these competitions play an excellent part in your law school journey, so do take part in a lot of such competition as it also helps to choose specific areas of law you would want to practice after law school and the competitions will enhance and extend your skillsets. And it will also help you to understand the intricacies of being a lawyer in the real world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that a move to remote learning may require some adjustments, but taking intentional steps to maintain your studies and staying engaged with your professors and your fellow students will ensure your continued success.
