1. Pass Regionalistic Comments

Law School tends to represent all regions of India. That is one of the most amazing things. You will find people from Kashmir to Kerala, from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh. Now prima facie this sounds like the typical unity-in-diversity India, but then people from different regions have different habits, and you might get tempted enough to pass comments such as Bengalis have an accent or Hindi is the national language or so. One word- don’t. Just don’t do it. Doing such stuff would not only give you the permanent tag of being a regionalist and it might change the impression people have about you. Don’t do it- intentionally or innocently.

2. Lose Confidence

Law School has studs. Period. You will hear about the best schools in India like rhymes, all the time. You will hear of people who have gone for the best student exchange program outside India, have got President’s Award and so and so. I won’t say that don’t let it rub on you, because sure as hell, it will. But don’t let it affect your self-confidence. You are in the same league. You earned a law school sit as much as anyone else did. That means you are an equal. That’s it. Believe it and let other people’s success inspire you to do great things.

3. Piss Off Your Seniors and Faculty

Pissing off seniors in the initial few months of the college is quite easy. It can be anything, like retorting or trying to be over- confident. Again, the word is Don’t. They are going to be your mentors/ advisors/ notes and books giver. They probably know much more than you do about the system.You are definitely going to be at a loss by pissing them off.

Pissing off teachers is a totally new class of activity- and is a bit technical to understand and is dependent on the type of teachers. There are the strict ones, who for sure would jack you if you don’t follow the prescribed reading, while there are others who seek oodles of respect and might take it against you if you do anything that even in the slightest sense affects their dignity. Be Prudent. If you don’t want your grades to get affected or if you want any letter of recommendation in the future, you need to be on the right side of teachers. And just like students discuss merits of teachers amongst themselves, teachers do the same

4. Do Nothing

Law School sometimes takes over you. You feel tired, exhausted, burnt out. And you decide to chuck everything and get into “I’m-not-doing anything- I’m not debating/ mooting/ getting into committees” phase. The fact is you may not do these things and it would be perfectly fine. But there is a whole list of activities that you can take up- participating in competitions, writing blogs, working with start- ups. Not doing anything in law school is lethal. Even online courses are a fun way to learn and also gain credible knowledge of the line of work you’re interested in. Consider, for instance, this first ever online course on Mooting that is changing ways in which students prepare for highly respectable moots around the world. Hence, doing online courses is always a great first step. No work and no play, not only make Jack a dull boy but a dumb boy lagging far behind.

5. Study throughout the Semester

That’s a real killer- of time and joy. There are many more interesting academic and nonacademic books you can spend your time on. Reading those thick modules that you are anyway going to forget by the time end-semester exam approaches, is plain and simple stupid.

I used to read every day after coming back from class in 1st year and honestly, now when I retrospect, that was one of the most stupid thing I did in Law School, when I could have spent that time in studying stuff in areas of my interest, participating in competitions or writing blogs.

Keeping yourself engaged in various activities throughout the semester, hones your brain. I experienced that in my 2nd year when I study just before the exams and for the remaining time, I was doing many other things such as preparing materials for IMS, taking credit courses etc. That year I scored real awesome grades. But yes, this does not apply to subjects where it’s mandatory to read before going to the class!

Hope this post was helpful. Feel free to drop down your comments.