Law School Preparation

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Blog Posts

February 13, 2025
Start with the End in Mind: Preparing for 1L Exams from Day One

So much of your success in 1L is tethered to your performance on the final exam. It makes good sense to focus on those exams as early as possible. Here are our best tips.

January 22, 2024
Four Tips to Excel in Your 1L Year

A year ago, our Pre-L advisors Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino wrote a blog for us on their best tips for 1L success. After another busy cycle of Pre-L advising and 1L Success Coaching, they've reflected on the last year and have one more piece of advice to add!

January 16, 2024
Now Accepting Reservations for Pre-L (One-on-One 1L Success Coaching)

So you’ve applied—now what? Want to hit the ground running once you finally get to law school? Check out our Pre-L program, which just opened its registration for the 2024 cycle.

August 21, 2023
Three Tips for Brand New 1Ls (+ 1L Success Coaching)

Congrats to those of you launching your law school careers this month! As you navigate orientation and the heady first few days of classes, we thought it’d be a good time to share some advice—and an opportunity—from our Pre-L/1L Success team.

December 12, 2022
3 Tips for 1L Success (+ Opening Pre-L Course Registration)

We get asked a lot for advice on how to get ready for law school, so we’ve asked the Pre-L coaches on our team to share a few habits and mindsets to adopt to succeed as a 1L.

December 14, 2020
Prepare for 1L with Our One-on-One Pre-L Classes

To help get a jumpstart on what law school actually entails and on 1L preparation, we are launching our seventh year of Pre-L packages for applicants starting next Fall.

June 21, 2018
Time Management, Self-Care, and Motivation

Advice on handling anxiety and stress in law school.

May 27, 2017
Admissions Consulting and Pre-L Capacity/New Hires

A few Spivey Consulting announcements regarding our programs.

March 7, 2017
Now Accepting Spots for our Pre-L Program

Job well done on getting into law school. Guess what? The challenge has just begun.

Podcasts

February 3, 2023
How to Crush the Second Half of the Law School Admissions Cycle

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike gives an update on 2022-2023 cycle data and discusses admissions strategies for the second half of the application cycle: waitlists and letters of continued interest, tips for asking for scholarship reconsideration, and handling the waiting/anxiety. (It may surprise you how impactful that last item can be to your outcomes!)

Mike recorded this episode before final January 2023 LSAT data was out—you can find the latest update on our Twitter, here. A few other Status Check episodes are mentioned in this podcast as well:

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

January 23, 2023
What Triggers Admit Waves?

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the different factors that precipitate waves of law school admissions decisions being released, especially late in the cycle/during waitlist season.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

April 28, 2023
“Everything”

In this short episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about the widespread notion that, even beyond whatever specific and concrete challenges we each may be facing, there is an added factor of "everything" (in today's society, in life) that can sometimes feel crushing. Then he gives some advice.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.

February 23, 2023
When Should You Reach Out to an Admissions Office, and How Should You Do It?

In this short episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses a question that tends to come up frequently this time of year—“Should I contact x law school's admissions office to ask for an update since I haven't heard back yet?”—then talks generally about when it can be advantageous to reach out to admissions, why, and how you should do it.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

February 10, 2023
The Rules of Reddit

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike talks about how online law school admissions discussion can affect (or not affect) your outcomes. Are adcoms on Reddit? Will they Google you? What sorts of online conduct can turn an admit into a waitlist or deny? Mike gives his thoughts on these questions and more from 15+ years following law school message boards.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

March 1, 2023
Why Is This Cycle So Slow—& What You Can Do About It

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses the factors that have led to this historically slow-moving cycle—and how you can strategically leverage that knowledge to your advantage.

Mike references two of our other episodes in this podcast:

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.