BECOMING THE BEST YOU CAN BE IN THE LEGAL CAREER.

TRUST GOD
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Prv. 3:5-6

[6]For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

[7]But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. Ps. 76:6-7

I will like to start on this note that you need to partner with God for you to be the best you can in the legal career. Your undergraduate journey as a law student is a marathon one. You are going to be on it for good five years. You cannot afford to run the race alone. you will be weary running in your strength alone …even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

There are very few(if there are) people who come into the legal field with the intention of being a mediocre. Majority start with the passion on finishing strong in their legal career but as they keep climbing high in their level of study, their passion waned and their vision and goals died out, but for you, your passion will not abate in Jesus Name.

SET GOALS FOR EACH COURSE

By extension, set goals for each level. write the vision, and make it plan upon the table ‘that he may run’ that readeth it. Habbakuk 2:2. Your vision keeps you running.
Don’t go ahead with the mindset that I just want to pass… “I shall know I will not fail” It’s a destiny sabotaging mindset, delete it from your mind.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

You can do it. I mean YOU. You can have an A in every course you take. What you don’t believe you can hardly achieve.
Perhaps this help you in believing you can, after this webinar, Google search those who have attained high feat in their undergraduate days as law student or those that are still undergrates that are performing brilliantly. See how they were able to make it despite several discouraging factors. That will boost your faith.

GUARD YOUR CIRCLE JEALOUSLY

Don’t let anyone who is not of the same mind and vision with you join you. One rotten egg can spoil several others.
Remember evil communication corrupts good manner. The association you keep determined how far you will go in the legal career.

Start Strong Start building your CGPA now!
Don’t think you have a lot of time. Take advantage of this 100L and your 200L. They the easiest levels to build your CGPA. Every B you get reduces your CGPA. So start strong.

By God’s grace, I was able to finish my 100L on a first class GP and above 4points out of 5points in my 200L. The higher you climb, the more technical it will be to score As so start strong and sustain it.

BE SMART

Remember that you will start taking predominantly law courses beginning from Part 2 till you graduate. Infact, in OAU here, you only take one outside faculty course in part 3 and from part 4 it will be solely law courses.
What calls for great attention in this is that all the law courses are all 4units. The implication of that is that you can’t afford to have anything less than A in those courses. If you had a B in a 2 or 3 unit course, the effect wouldn’t be as disadvantageous as having a B in a 4unit course.
There is no course for alarm, it’s not that hard to have an A in law courses. You just need to be shrewd, smart and serious.
Some of the tips I shall hereinafter share shall also be of no small help.

CULTIVATE THE HABIT OF MAKING INSIGHTFUL ENQUIRIES

This should be from your senior colleagues before registering your courses. Most especially the ones you know you can trust and God is helping them to make good grades in their studies.
Make enquiries about each course. How the last result and previous results have been, ask about each lecturer taking the course, how liberal or stingy they are with their marking, what they like it dislike, any danger if not attending or missing any lecture, how is the Continuous Assessment conducted, how to answer questions for each of the lecturers, ask for relevant materials inter alia.
For restricted electives (you have choices) don’t just choose a restricted elective because you love it when from your research you know that students hardly get A’s in that course whereas there are others that don’t you don’t have much penchant for, people often get A’s in it. You need to be GP conscious.

Caveat: Please don’t choose a course that you detest. There may not be drive to go for A in that course.

Also, you may consider choosing a restricted elective if goes to the foundation or backbone of the aspect you love to specialise in in the legal profession.

PRIOR PROPER PREPARATION

After making enquiries and registering your courses, start preparing for the tests and exams. You should have an idea of the course outline from the research you’ve made so start reading as there can be impromptu test. I deliberately emboldened the ‘tests and exams’ because you will see different write ups and textbooks on the topics that you will be taught. I mean much information but you just need what you will write to answer four questions within three hours or two and a half hours you will be given during exam. So streamline your reading towards answering test or exam questions. You may not decide to explore on the various aspects of law may be during your holiday.

Please, this does not mean you shouldn’t go extra mile in sourcing pieces of information from textbooks and other materials online. Try sourcing for information that will aid you in answering questions related to the topic in exams it tests. Usually, students restric themselves to materials given by lecturer. Also, usually it happens that there are just one or two texbooks the generality of the students in that course are using. Often times, the information in those textbooks look quite enough. With this, the whole class are likely to write the same thing and lead to a general score. Try sourcing information that will distinguish your work when the lecturer is marking from those textbooks or any online material.

TAKE EVERY ASSIGNMENT SERIOUSLY

Put in your best. Often times, they constitute your continuous assessment. Many students perform very well in exam because they give their best in their exams but often times, they see themselves two, three or four marks or a little lesser away from scoring A’s if you check well, they did not have a good continuous assessment. Beware.

BE TIME CONSCIOUS during tests and exams.
Usually because you have read, you will have much to write. Law exams and tests are not just meant to test how much you know but how smart you can be in presenting your answers within the limited time frame given.
That’s one of the reasons why 3hours is given to every other course in OAU here save Law of Contract(2.5 hours) which is one of the bulkiest.

SET TIME FOR EVERY QUESTION.
You don’t need to write all you know about a question. Remember virtually all the times, each question carries equal marks.
I was a victim of that in Part 2 first semester. I spent more than one hour on my Question 1 and I have three questions left to answer for the remaining time(remember contract is 2.5hours) One whole question was almost left unanswered and I had to rush through the second to the last ‘sef’ Pitiably, I ended up having a C but thank God my second semester result compensated for that(by God’s grace) I had an A.

Always go to the exam with a wrist watch our stop clock.

PREPARE FOR EACH EXAM WITH PAST QUESTIONS
From past questions, you can almost predict the questions that will come out. More so, it helps you to feel the texture of what a standard exam is on that course. You will also have a clue as to how the exam will go whether to prepare more for problem questions or essay questions.

PREPARE A DRAFT
For each course, you will be required to answer four questions. You may be taught like 10 topics in that course that semester. Prepare a draft as to how you want to answer the questions for like 7 topics questions are set on them. A draft is your hand written template on how you want to tackle a particular topic or topics which most likely going to come out in the exam from the knowledge you’ve gleaned from perusal of pastor questions and hints given by the examiner(s) during the course of the lectures.
I started my academic sojourn naive in preparing for exams. One of my roommates remarked (I think he saw me reading Abiola Sani’s Legal Methods) I will just sit down and be reading the book, little or no underlining. What just saved me then what that I’m blessed intelecutally. Nevertheless, it affected somehow.
It was later that I started understanding these techniques I’m teaching you. Learn from my mistakes.

LAW EXAMS DOESN’T SOLELY REQUIRE YOUR UNDERSTANDING
You will be required to discuss extensively, quote and cite cases. That’s why you need to read and read and read and read a particular topic before going to answer questions on it in the exam all so that you will retain most of what you read and you won’t need to start raking your brain to remember. Remember you have limited time.

TAKE ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS YOU ARE GIVEN IN THE EXAMS SERIOUSLY. Instructions are part of exams.

START BUILDING YOUR CURRICULUM VITAE (CV) NOW

Attend inaugural lectures, apply for scholarships, go for competition, join vibrant and relevant associations in your faculty such as the Moot and Mock Committee, Chambers etc. but NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF YOUR CGPA.
With the above you will learn more about the practical aspects of law, you will be exposed to current happenings and practices in the legal profession.

Caveat: Don’t join the clique of those who are so acadmically minded as to ignore God, skip fellowship meetings, become unfaithful as workers in God’s vineyard and most regrettably unserious in their relationship with God. God knows how to deal with such people. Many of them ended up chasing their dreams like those chasing shadows. That will not be your lot in Jesus Name.
By the grace, of God, I still have a strong CGPA.
No regrets serving and being passionate for the things of God.
You can be a saintly intellectual. You can be a blend of books and Bible.

KNOW THE ASPECT OF LAW YOU WANT TO BE AN AUTHORITY IN
Are you passionate about litigation, corporate, commercial aspect of law? or do you like me wants to be an academic? then you need to begin to walk towards achieving that goal now. As an academic what aspect it courses are your course of interest? As a pioneer Lord Denning MR, what are your interests? begin to walk towards that.

There is nothing you want to become in law today that someone is not currently is. Find out those people and let God guide you to who will be your role model among them.
Choose your courses in line with your areas of interest.

YOU NEED TO BE VERY PRAYERFUL TOO.
There are unexpected situations that are beyond your human or any man’s reasoning that you may encounter.
I will like to end on this note
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Prv. 3:5-6

Thanks for reading up this article.

Igbokwe Matthew
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