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As a law student, it might be your instinct to keep you head down and figure things out.

You’ve gotten this far on your own, after all.

But looking back on my first year of law school, I can say with 100-percent confidence that I only did well when I asked for help. In order to do so, I first had to admit that I was struggling, and that I wasn’t going to succeed on my own.

Even though I had a master’s degree in journalism, I got the second-lowest grade on our first writing assignment in my legal writing class. So I went to the professor, and we worked together to figure out what was missing. I ended up at the top of my class.

I was struggling in every class, and by the end of my first semester, the only classes in which I received an A were those in which  I asked for the professor’s help.

Before our first oral presentation, my friends and I were stressed out about what to wear. So, we asked our professor’s input. Knowing that we couldn’t go wrong with our outfits if we followed her advice, we didn’t need to worry about how we looked and could focus on preparing.

Knowing what I do now, if I had my first year to do over, I would have met with each professor and talked through the concepts I was missing. I know each of them would have been happy to talk with me, and I regret now that I didn’t take full advantage of that luxury.

The key to doing well your first year of law school is simple, though not easy: ask for help.