If your last semester’s GPA wasn’t what you hoped, there’s still time to improve! Although this article is geared towards 1Ls, I’ve followed these tips throughout my law school career.

It’s true that 1L grades set the tone for summer internships and OCI, but demonstrating improvement, resilience, and an ability to learn from past mistakes can be similarly valuable in your job search. Below I’ve included some tips that helped me significantly improve my 1L GPA between my first and second semesters. Remember that at the end of the day, your best is enough!

1. Recopy Your Class Notes

This may be the most time-consuming suggestion on this list, but it’s also the most important. Particularly during 1L, it’s very easy to get lost, forget what was covered, or not fully process content during class. Regardless of whether you handwrite or type your notes, it’s worth taking time to recopy and condense your notes after each class. Not only will this help you process the main takeaways, but it will leave you with a completed, clean, master outline. I re-copied my notes after each class, but it may work better for you to set time aside in the mornings before class, in the evenings after all of your classes, or save it for the end of the week.

2. Keep a Running List of Questions

As you recopy your notes and attend classes, keep a master list of questions that arise. You will find that you’ll have both broader questions about concepts and specific clarifying questions. The broad questions will flag that you need to spend extra time on a specific area, or that you may want to recopy and review those notes first. The specific questions require a level of content mastery and may pile up as you progress through your review process. These are great for office hours or quick emails to your professors (try to batch them!) and will make you confident walking into exam day that you’ve left no loose ends.

3. Review Past Outlines before Reading

Especially during 1L, it can be difficult to know what you’re supposed to take away from different readings. Referencing past outlines, particularly for your professor, can be a great way to get a quick overview of the most important content. Make sure to take full advantage of your unlimited Routeline credits, where various BC Law outlines are stored! Additionally, different student organizations like Women’s Law Center and BLSA have organization-specific outline banks.

4. Start Your Case Chart Now

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to realize just how important the facts in cases are. At the end of the day, Professors need to base their questions on something, and it’s going to be different iterations of the facts in cases you’ve read. The most important parts of cases for studying are the key facts that the ruling turns on, and the rules established in the cases. Starting your case chart now is an excellent way to review important concepts and practice applying the law. Other categories to include in your case chart can be a quick snippet to jog your memory (Van Camp v. McAfoos, Tricycle Negligence), year decided, court, holding, and page number.

5. Label Your Class Notes with Syllabus Titles

This requires just a little bit more preparation and is a simple way to keep your notes organized and to remind you of what that day’s class will focus on. By the middle of the semester, particularly if your class is slightly off schedule, it can start to feel messy to try to keep separate concepts, separate. This will also help you when you recopy and review your notes because it will help you contextualize the main takeaways from that class.

6. Practice Past Exams

This final step often differentiates the A’s from the B’s. Be sure to save 1-2 exams (or questions if exams are limited) to practice a few days before your final exam. At this point in the semester, you can begin doing a few practice questions over the weekend. Even if it’s just 1 or 2 questions, it will force you to recognize your weaknesses and to think deeply about the content in a way that will serve you well on test day–likely not achieved by reviewing alone. The BC Law Library has a pretty large database of past exams, but your professor may provide some as well. It’s ideal to use exams from your professor, but using exams written for the same class taught by a different professor is still good practice for issue spotting.

Other Study Aids: Your professor may have a specific recommendation for their class.

7. Take Some Time for Yourself

I’m hypocritical here, and it can feel impossible during 1L. Making time to exercise one day a week, watch an episode of your favorite show, cook a new recipe, or have a law-school-free hangout with friends can make a huge difference. It can be very easy to feel disconnected from yourself as a 1L, and saving even just a little time purely for yourself can help you stay motivated.

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Reilly Doak is a third-year student at BC Law. Contact her at doaka@bc.edu.