Get in touch with the Academic Support staff early and often. They are invested in helping you thrive. Loyola Law has an office of Academic Support & Curriculum Counseling, whose staff can guide you through choosing and registering for classes, and an office of Academic Success & Bar Passage, whose staff can provide tailored support for any students who are struggling with a class or bar preparation. In addition to running workshops and reaching out to students with helpful information throughout the year, these teams will:
It is also good practice to attend your professors' office hours and to take advantage of class tutors. Developing a personal connection with your instructors has many potential benefits, beyond improving class performance, including fostering a sense of affiliation and a positive academic self-concept. Sachar, C.O.. Office Hours: Why Students Need to Show Up, Inside Higher Educ., May 13, 2019.
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Molly Bishop Shadel, Finding Your Voice in Law School : Mastering Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews, and Other Verbal Challenges (2013). KF 283 .S52 2013 |
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Ruth Ann McKinney, Reading like a Lawyer : Mastering the Art of Reading Law like an Expert (3rd ed. 2022). KF 283 .M398 2022 |
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Patricia Grande Montana, Navigating Law School’s Waters : A Guide to Success (2014). KF 283 .M65 2014 |
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John C. Dernbach, Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School (Not Just to Survive) (4th ed. 2014). KF 283 .D47 2014 |
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Isaac Mamaysky, Letter to a One L Friend : A Little Guide to Seeing the Big Picture and Succeeding in Law School (2019). KF 283 .M36 2019 |
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Walter A. Effross, Keeping Your Own Counsel : Simple Strategies and Secrets for Success in Law School (2023). KF 283 .E447 2023 |
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Richard Michael Fischl & Jeremy Paul, Getting to Maybe : How to Excel on Law School Exams (1999). KF283 .F57 1999 |
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Steven R. Sedberry, Law School Labyrinth : A Guide to Making the Most of Your Legal Education (2nd ed. 2011). KF 283 .S43 2011 |
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Barry Friedman & John C.P. Goldberg, Open Book : The inside Track to Law School Success (2nd ed. 2016). KF283 .F75 2016 |
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Paul Bergman, Patrick Goodman & Thomas Holm, Cracking the Case Method : Legal Analysis for Law School Success (2012). KF 283 .B47 2012 *This title can also be accessed online via Loyola's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
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Leah M. Christensen, Learning Outside the Box : A Handbook for Law Students Who Learn Differently (2011). KF 283 .C48 2011 |
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Helene S. Shapo & Marshall S. Shapo, Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success (2009). *This book can be accessed via Loyola Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
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Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, Mastering the Law School Exam (2023). *This book can be accessed via Loyola Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
Loyola is committed to providing support for students requiring academic accommodations. Please contact the Student Accessibility Center or speak to Law School Student Services staff to discuss your needs and work together with an accessibility specialist to identify and initiate accommodations.
The Law Library staff are all enthusiastic information seekers and love connecting students with the resources they need. Please come to us if you: 1) Have any sort of information need; 2) Are not sure what you need, 3) Are not sure if we can help you, 4) Are curious about what we do or have in the library, or 5) Need a quiet corner.
The Law Library also publishes resource guides, called LibGuides or Research Guides, that can be a helpful reference. As a new student, you may find the following particularly useful:
Study aids are really wonderful. They can help you get and stay organized, provide a framework for what you are learning, increase your efficiency, guide practice for exams, and help you figure out the gist of a reading when it feels like the gist is being purposely obscured BUT.....they are not everything.
Once you are a professional your job description is unlikely to be "identify the one governing rule and implement the obviously correct answer." For the most part, you and your peers are preparing for a career of persuading others to adopt a course of action or agree on an outcome in reference to a particular set of circumstances. To become adept at that, you have to practice reading the cases carefully, noticing the details, considering the context, and tracing the court's logic in addition to distilling the principle.
All this to say, there exists the possibility of over-prioritizing efficiency at the cost of learning. Take stock of your goals, your strengths, and where you struggle, THEN explore the Study Aids available to you and use the ones you think can help you in effective ways. [Pro Tip: memory and learning are better supported by taking handwritten notes instead of typing.]
Below you will find a quick overview of the free study aids you can access online as a Loyola Law student. For a deeper dive, check out our Study Aids, Study Skills, & Exam Preparation Resource Guide: Surviving and Succeeding in Law School.
| Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction | Aspen |
LexisNexis Digital Library |
West Academic |
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CALI offers more than 1000 computer-based interactive tutorials that cover narrow topics in the law. CALI lessons are organized by subject and lesson, and cover most law school courses. The lessons are guided and provide immediate feedback. You can access CALI on- or off-campus after registering your account. The registration code is distributed to all first year Loyola Law students at the beginning of the year. |
Aspen provides on- or off-campus access (with current Loyola Law ID and Password) access to hundreds of study aids including Examples & Explanations (these include hypotheticals with detailed responses), the Complete Emanuel Law Outlines (some titles are aligned with specific casebooks), the Crunchtime Series (these offer a succinct review/overview and practice questions), and Casenote Legal Briefs (these are all aligned with specific casebooks. |
The LexisNexis Digital Library provides access to the latest e-book versions of Lexis study aids, including titles from the Understanding series, the Mastering series, and the Questions & Answers series. A current Loyola Law School ID and password is necessary to access the Digital Library and also allows you to customize your experience by saving favorite titles and highlighting and annotating content. |
West's Academic provides online access to hundreds of West publications, including all current Hornbooks & Nutshells (these aids will summarize and explain the law in a subject area), Black Letter Outlines, Gilbert Law Summaries, Exam Pro titles, High Court Case Summaries (these are keyed to specific textbooks), Audio lectures and much more. Registering for a free West Academic account will allow you to highlight text or take notes online. For a brief video introduction to and overview of the West Academic Study Aids collection, click here. |
You can find a repository of past Loyola Law School exams, organized by faculty name, on TWEN (Loyola Law students only). The repository only includes previous exams faculty have chosen to share.
You may notice, as you skim through past exams, that many law school exams are open book. You can generally count on NOT being permitted to use commercial sources beyond your textbook and supplements, but quite often you will be allowed to consult notes, outlines, and/or class materials during exams.
With a valid Loyola ID, law students have access to libraries and other university buildings on each of Loyola's campuses.
The Corboy Building, where the law school is housed, has two libraries: The Law Library (3rd floor entrance) and Lewis Library (6th floor entrance). Loyola law students can use both libraries.
The Law Library consists of 3 floors, the top two of which are quiet floors intended for individual study. The Law Library's 10 study rooms, available only to law students, seat up to 4 individuals and can be reserved online for up to 3 hours at a time.
Lewis Library has 11 study rooms which can also be reserved online. Some of these study rooms are larger and can accommodate up to 8 students but Lewis Library study rooms can only be booked for 2 hours per day, with a max of 6 hours per week per student.
The Lakeshore Campus has two libraries: Cudahy Library and Information Commons. Study rooms can be reserved at both of these locations.
Study rooms are NOT SOUNDPROOF so please keep voices down in consideration for others. If any students are making excessive noise please alert someone at the circulation desk.
As an attorney you will have an ethical (in some instances also a fiduciary) duty to both courts and clients. You will be expected to act with integrity, transparency, accountability, and fairness. Any academic misconduct will reflect poorly on your ability to meet the standards expected of you in your chosen profession. Instances of academic dishonestly may also interfere with professional licensing, preventing or delaying your ability to sit for the bar exam and practice law.
Please make sure you are thoroughly familiar with Loyola Law's Code Of Conduct and Plagiarism Policy and scrupulously comply with policies regarding the use of artificial intelligence.
Intermittent citing (acknowledging the source for an idea or analysis at the end of a paragraph or section) may be accepted in other graduate and professional settings but is insufficient at Loyola Law and in professional practice. Every sentence that is not an original thought must be cited and quotes must be used when drawing language directly from a source. You must always provide attribution, even when you have adopted an idea as your own and phrased it in your own words.
