A Guide to Group Study for Law Students

Article written by Sammar Masood, 3^rd year law undergraduate at City, University of London.

Law students are busy bees, there’s no doubt about it. Maintaining friendships can be difficult in between lectures, tutorials, meetings, and extra-curricular activities. Contrary to the stereotype of high-achieving law students in films, in real life success rarely comes with your head buried in readings and cases 24/7 with no breaks or sleep. Rather, whether you are introverted or extroverted, interacting with fellow law students under the same pressures and expectations as you can make you feel just that little bit better or confident about being a law student and all the extras that come with it, helping you build a more positive attitude towards your studies and performance. So, keep reading to find out how you and a group of like-minded law students can come together to be productive, supportive, and hopefully create lifelong connections.

Form a study group

We all have our favourite seat in each lecture hall, right? If so, then chances are you are seeing the same students around you each week. Maybe you’ve already developed a casual hi/bye relationship with them. This is the perfect opportunity for you to reach out and form a study group. Reaching out does not have to be as awkward as it sounds, it can simply be asking a question about the content or whether the lecture slides have been uploaded. Once you’ve started talking, given that your fellow student seems like a nice person, you can introduce the idea of getting together over some coffee and going over some content that was particularly challenging. If they are willing, great! You’ve laid the foundations for a study group. However, remember everyone is different. If your request is denied, don’t become deflated and make the decision to never interact with anyone in the lecture hall again. Instead, wait a few days and begin to approach others, you’ll find that like-minded student in no time, or even better – they will approach you!

Or maybe you’ve already got a friendship group in all your modules but studying together is something you haven’t ventured into yet. Whatever year of study you are in, now is the time to try it. Midway through the term, get your friends together and discuss between all of you what you like and dislike about a particular module, what you’re finding difficult, and any gaps in your collective knowledge. As you’ve already broken the ice in the group, sharing your study experiences should feel relatively comfortable. Furthermore, by bringing study into your regular group conversations lets everyone know about your goals for your degree and beyond, so when your friends hear about opportunities that appeal to your goals, they (hopefully) will let you know.

Group Studying and Academic Misconduct: Dos and Don’ts

Academic misconduct is a term dreaded most by university students, and whether done willingly or unwillingly, make sure to avoid these things. Firstly, do not distribute your previous summative or formative answers among your group. These answers, if completed online, are stored in databases and cross referenced against new papers for plagiarism. Even if copied accidently or unknowingly by a member of your group, the consequences are too risky.

Additionally, if you are examined by coursework assessments, upon release of the question, avoid getting together and trying to answer the question together. For official assessments, they should be 100% your work and discussing reasoning with study groups can inadvertently be a form of collusion cheating.

While toying with assessments needs to be avoided, there are plenty of other activities you can implement into your group study.  For example, choose a subtopic from your module and challenge everyone to write as much about it as they can remember in five minutes. Then, compare your answers and reflect on what you can learn from others knowledge. Another idea is to read a journal article together. Journal articles are complicated and having multiple pairs of eyes on one can really help each group member grasp its content quicker. Alternatively, assign each heading of the journal article to each member and have a discussion summarising each section. To get through your essential reading quicker, this activity can even be applied to textbook chapters! With more practical modules such as tort, contract, or land, go around the group asking each member to come up with a real-life situation of misrepresentation or tort of negligence for example. Activities can even be as simple as asking another group member to explain to you a topic you found particularly challenging.

Maximising Group Productivity

When working with friends or fellow law students, becoming distracted is a high possibility. If you want to maximise the efficiency of your study group, the following suggestions will help you achieve that. Firstly, studies show that study groups scheduled for less than one hour are not likely to be very useful. So, ensure that your group coordinates to set up a group study slot ranging from 1.5 – 3 hours, at a time and day that works for everyone. Next, make sure your venue is not in the middle of a crowded, noisy place. University libraries typically have designated spaces for group study.

Due to the long and intensive nature of studying law, your group should implement breaks in your study session, especially when it comes to longer sessions. However, these breaks should not be untimed, resulting in group members exiting at random times to grab a coffee or go to the bathroom. This can break concentration and flow in the group. Instead, scheduled breaks should be agreed by all members. For example, in a two-hour session, there can be an agreement for a 10-minute break on the hour, where each member can reset their minds. Finally, it is essential to come prepared. At the start of a session, the process of figuring out what topic or activities to focus on can take up valuable study time and minimise your productivity. Therefore, if your group hasn’t already set up one, form a WhatsApp or Teams group where the focus of an upcoming session can be agreed on well before the session. Forming a group also allows each member to gather the correct notes and documents needed for a particular session, hence ensuring most of your group time is spent studying and not stressing over the organisation.

Overall, everyone feels better after a talk with friends or seeing a familiar face. Group study is the perfect way for you to share your concerns and successes with law students who know exactly what you are going through. The sharing of ideas, the new perspectives on studying, and the university experiences of all of you, are combined to create a support, inclusive and productive environment to help support your law school journey.