You certainly don’t need every perspective on the matter, but the more the merrier. Second, you’ll be able to use that knowledge to focus your keystrokes come exam time on those sentences and thought processes that you know GET YOU POINTS in advance. Read it at least twice during the semester, don’t expect to get anything out of it if you read it before school starts except fun and a little direction for studying. Policy questions on law school exams. Read on for strategies for the making the most of your exam prep time, dealing with different types of exams, handling the pressure of the exam period, and much more! I could have taken a million exams and done terribly anyway. Here are some ways your final exam may have gone awry. For bonus points, actually try to grade them. Most students spend inordinate amounts of time learning more and more rules, and very little time practicing the skill of applying the fundamental rules to new facts. Big Tip to Do Well on Law School Exams: Sleep By William Vogeler, Esq. (2) Do not write at length about the law without referencing the facts. Analyzing, arguing, showing the strength of both sides, and the evaluating the strengths of those sides – eventually favoring one over the other. Taking Law School Exams: Ask the Right Questions, Don't Worry About the "Right" Answer This one’s really deep in the weeds — it walks thorough how I’d analyze a sample law school exam question. I’ll let a law professor sum it up for me: Eric E. Johnson, on PrawfsBlawg, wrote: “Here’s my boiled-down counsel to law-exam newbies: Unsurprisingly, it’s mostly variations on a familiar theme: apply the law to the facts. I want to talk about the process of teaching yourself the skill, rather than laying down precisely what I think the skill should be. Law school grades matter. Others sort into piles. In fact, in exams where you do well, you will find that you aren't even referring to your outline at all during the exam. Other strong sources are out there, including many linked below. To take a law school exam, you must apply law to fact. Remember, your teachers want you to do well. The key isn’t necessarily just reading the words over and over. How and why do law professors write such challenging exams? The moment you finish writing the exam your work has just begun. The abilities to write well, fluently, and under time constraints are essential in order to pass a law school exam. A far from exhaustive list of helpful TLS posters with a rich history of providing solid advice: TTT-LS, steve_nash, edcrane, BradyToMoss, ToTransferOrNot, PKSebben, and the above mentioned ‘guide-writers’ (Arrow, Xeoh85, Wahoo1L, JayCutler'sCombover). In law school, however, when the gates open, the first-year students charge out of their cages and spray out in any number of directions in a zealous but aimless charge. Note: In March 2020, we published another medical student’s recommendations for building shelf exam study schedules and succeeding in your third year of med school. Worse yet, many of them end up bombing their first-semester exams, and their dismal results hang on their necks like albatrosses for the rest of their law school careers.”. Crossing out what I remember on the second time I go through the outline and repeat until I've crossed out everything. How could it be better? There's not really any one piece of wisdom that I could impart that is going to instantly make someone do well in law school. NEXT ARTICLE. Law Professors, Law Schools. Prong 2D: Sources for learning about law school examsmanship, Arrow’s nearly legendary advice: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77628, Xeoh85's Advice on Success in Law School viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36635, Wahoo1L's Advice for doing well at a T10 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=78769, JayCutler'sCombover's blog / advice viewtopic.php?f=11&t=77498, TLS article about success in law school (unique perspective): http://www.top-law-schools.com/success-in-law-school.html. I didn't do well on my first exam either...The worst part was I took path of "do nothing extracurricular wise, just focus on your grades and adjusting to school". Your success in law school is the first and most important factor in your success as a lawyer. 4. It'll get you good grades. How to Do Well in Exams. 4. Check out our helpful free content, podcasts, courses and one-on-one tutoring. Law Degree Exams Tip 2: Practice Makes Perfect The best way to improve your chances of getting a first in your exams is to practice answering exam questions. Sleep. What WON’T help you learn how to take a good law school exam? If you can write a good exam without IRAC, then you should absolutely forget about it. Practice tests are great but I found them useless my first semester since I was taking the exams “wrong” anyway. Still, the best way to get points is to APPLY LAW TO FACTS. When you take your practice exams, keep the mindset of doing all of the ‘right’ things. A constant problem is that a lot of advice out there focuses on detailed descriptions of individual studying; the time spent doing it, methods of briefing, methods of note taking, which hornbooks were or were not found useful, etc. ", (1) Do not make moral arguments. And legal analysis is what you must do on the exam. Law school is a skills test, and the key to achieving success is to learn what the skill of taking a law school exam is and then learn how to properly prepare that skill. This exam post-mortem, with a focus on points, is the most important thing you can do. Law school exams, for all of their many pedagogical flaws, do have a lot to do with the fundamental work of lawyers. Professors have many different ways to grade exams. Focus on specific issues. The course is LEEWS, and it is worth every penny. Otherwise wait, listen to your professor for recommendations. Even if it doesn’t, you’ve read the case so it shouldn’t be that bad. Big Tip to Do Well on Law School Exams: Sleep By William Vogeler, Esq. Law school exams are the sort of exams that are LEAST served by cramming. It's all about the exams. PREVIOUS ARTICLE. © Top Law Schools LLC 2003-2020 all rights reserved, http://www.top-law-schools.com/success-in-law-school.html, 15 Law Schools That Get the Most Transfer Students, Top Law Schools Interview with Walter F. Mondale, Success in Law School - A Unique Perspective, How to Succeed in Law School – Student Guide #1, How to Succeed in Law School – Student Guide #2, Income-Based Repayment (IBR): An Explanation, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): An Explanation, Interview with Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, How to Learn to Do Well on a Law Shool Exam, On Self-Care in the First Year of Law School, WilmerHale (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP), Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP, Fried, Frank, Harrison, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, 6 Ways to Save Tuition Money before Beginning Law School, The Top 11 Law Schools with High Student LSAT Scores, 4 Points to Help You Understand the Socratic Method That Law Schools Use. But the kids who grade on to law review stay at the top of the class even while spending dozens of hours per week cite checking, flying around the country doing interviews, and participating in other ECs. Attorney, editor and legal writer Sally Kane shares 5 tips for crafting a successful law school exam response. Not surprisingly, after fourteen weeks barreling off in the wrong direction, many of these hapless 1Ls cross the finish line exhausted, frustrated, and completely confused. Thanks for stopping by and drop us a line if you have any questions. Most professors grade exams by awarding points for correct application of law to fact. Kent Syverud Taking Law School Exams Lecture (running time approximately 65 minutes) Watch the video here. Apply law to fact, apply law to fact, apply law to fact. Some do it holistically and apply a letter at the end. Having that special hornbook, that special outline from last year’s class, being the last person to leave the library, or taking notes in a special way. Simulate Test Day Don’t wait until the day of the test to answer exam questions for the first time. Then we turn to specific tactics for each of the major 1L subjects -- crim, torts, contracts, property, civ pro and con law. Jul 23, 2012 at 10:24 AM. Getting to Maybe, Page 3: Chapter 1 You’re Not in Kansas Anymore ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Place Where “Knowing the Material” Is Not Enough. Your goal in writing them should be to make the reader’s life easier. The rule is __… On the other hand, if some kind of structural aid is essential to get you to perform legal analysis in writing, then IRAC might help you.”. I can tell you how most law professors do things (in no small part due to the level of inbreeding in the legal academy) but I can’t tell you how YOUR law professor will do things. Feel free to try flashcards, don’t worry about the length of your outlines. Here’s something key. Eat. As exams draw near, stress levels tend to rise drastically. This is more like "learning by doing" but I think for law school it's the best technique there is. You’ll be expected to listen to the client’s story, spot the potential legal issues, identify the relevant law, and apply the law to your client’s case. But most of the issues – even those much more difficult than the [issue discussed in a prior paragraph] – involve sophisticated application of basic doctrine rather than encyclopedic knowledge of the farthest reaches of the torts landscape. You May Also Like As a result, people turn to the things they did or saw others doing more overtly - the studying of the law. Don’t argue what’s fair. The significance of this should not escape you. I read Getting to Maybe 3 times – once before law school, once a week into law school, and once just before exams. Page by page. Their grades do not suffer. Cases will not help you do well on the exam. Just like I know a lot of people who read getting to maybe only to find it was far from a panacea, I know many people who took a pile of practice exams and didn’t get a lot out of them. Exercise. You probably should) and turn to page 3. If that sounds like a lot of pressure, well, quite frankly, it is, but there's good news! I then make a master outline from their information and the info I've received from taking the class myself. Over the next few weeks, law school final exams will be in full swing at almost every law school in the country. How would you do it if you were a professor? Approach the process as rational, put in the work, and enjoy rational results. (5) IRAC is not the Holy Grail. The takeaway message: ask the right questions, and don’t be afraid of ambiguity! Beyond that, you need to read, read, and re-read information about law school exams. Some people mistake prong two, exam taking, for raw academic horsepower. But the most overt pieces of information, especially to somebody new to law school, are study methods. What's important is to read the concepts over again as you gain experience reading cases, taking practice exams, and putting together an entire area of law. Easy money. Use LOTS of headings and subheadings. The Countdown to Law School Exams! Her advice provides some insight to students about how to demonstrate both substantive knowledge of the subject matter in written form. So if the exam question is on, say, rulemaking (Administrative Law), don't talk about other topics unless they have bearing on the question. In most instances, your grade in a course will depend entirely on one law school exam. I took a one day course for 75 bucks my first year and after exams, was at the top of my class, which then allowed me to transfer to a top 15 law school, where I applied the same techniques and graduated with honors. Hopefully this post will serve as a guide to the non-obvious task you face in law school: deciphering the concept of the law school exam. is an Immigration Attorney for Orange County, California with over 6 years of experience. Why Your Personal Statement Can Make or Break Your Law School Chances, The 5 Top Legal Internships Law Students Should Know and Pursue. Whether you want to be a corporate lawyer or a public defender, you are much more likely to achieve your goals if you do well in law school.. Law students with top grades earn top salaries in their first year out of school. Hardly every second of every day, but in the end if you can’t look yourself in the mirror and say “I’m happy to be at law school” then no amount of advice can motivate you to get the As/Hs and the opportunities that they lead to. Well, now I'm going to be walking into a very tight competition for summer jobs with almost no connections, no other law school type things to talk about, AND shitty grades. And even if that’s just one rubric from one exam, I guarantee you that it strongly resembles the methods that will get you points in other contexts. And with so many law professors basing grades on one end-of-term test, that means you'd better know how to ace 'em. Academic success in law school means one thing—success on exams. Analyzing, arguing, showing the strength of both sides, and evaluating the strengths of those sides – eventually favoring one over the other. on November 28, 2017 12:34 PM As the needles go into their arms, patients might be nervous to know that their medical internist is at the end of a 20-hour shift -- for the seventh day in a row. How any individual person studied for law school is, to be trite, only half the battle. Then we turn to specific tactics for each of the major 1L subjects -- crim, torts, contracts, property, civ pro and con law. That’s it. Law school is a skills test, and the key to achieving success is to learn what the skill of taking a law school exam … Law school exams are a whole new animal. If that sounds like a lot of pressure, well, quite frankly, it is, but there's good news! The Law School Toolbox team is here to help you through it. Guess what? Your role in the drama is to act as either a lawyer counseling one of the parties or a judge deciding the case. The person who studies the most won't get the best grades, either. The professors. Acing it is no easy accomplishment, so you should plan on completing a few months of LSAT prep, including the completion of practice tests, before your test day. In order to do well you must learn how to take a better exam. You'll get more out of it each time; the advice will become more concrete. Everyone wants to do well on law school exams, but but curve makes it tough to rise to the top. You can only do your best the first time around, and if you succeed, awesome, and if you don't, you'll have to do what I did last year - meet with your professors, figure out what you did wrong and go from there. Pen or typed notes work better, they engage your brain more fully. * Merely rehashing the facts does not show your mastery of the subject or demonstrate your analytical abilities; it therefore earns you no points. Students who do this almost always do better on exams. Law school exams are not going to give you a fact pattern that mimics an already decided case. Marvel at the insight on the top of page 191, and imagine how you too can approach an exam playfully. BEST LAW SCHOOL PREP BOOKS Getting to Maybe – A great guide on how to do well on law school exams. If there was one certain methodological way to write a law school exam that would make a “good law school exam answer,” … Become a member and get unlimited access to our massive library of law school study materials, including 801 video lessons and 5,200+ practice questions in 1L, 2L, & 3L subjects, as well as 16,500+ case briefs keyed to 223 law school casebooks. Usually, the professor casts the question in the form of a dispute between two fictional parties. Some people in your class have to get A's, so you might as well be one of them. (How did that random bit of advice about taking law school exams sneak in there? Done. Abraham is teaching a first-year Torts course this fall, as well as a seminar, Tort Theory.He also teaches Torts II and courses in insurance. Many of mine were terrible. I am methodical when it comes to grading my exams. If you do it, you will put your peers to shame. Law school exams rarely test the entire semester. In the case of law … Law school exams require thoughtful analysis, so you’ll need to develop a true understanding of the material. Exam Tips. Some people in your class have to get A's, so you might as well be one of them. Here’s a quick example of how ‘points’ might be awarded on a law school exam for a particular ‘issue’: 2004 Mich. St. L. Rev. It’s way too much work and stress to do this if you’re not loving it. Whether the questions are multiple choice, problem questions or essay questions, you should practice in order to get used to applying your knowledge to exam style questions. For law school exams, I tend to find as many other students' outlines as I can. Prong one has been done to death, so I’m going to keep it short. Hopefully that cursory treatment hits home my main point: It’s the least interesting and least important part of law school. Aim to review each major topic for at least 20 minutes per day during the week before the exam. Your grades, particularly during the first year, will be determined almost exclusively by the scores you receive on your final exams. Like most of my law professor colleagues, I find writing and grading tests to be among the least pleasant aspects of what, overall, remains—notwithstanding recent stresses over the past few years—a great job. The second, how well you apply it to a novel fact pattern. Need every perspective on the top get caught up in cold call mania focus! ( 1 ) do not write at length about the law is worth every.... As rational, put them down before any of your bases how to do well on law school exams every penny below... You take your practice exams, I focus on both the preparation and the stages! Which there are many different Theories as to how to do well by not a. To think about how to approach these unique exams will be determined almost exclusively by the scores receive... School educator in the form of a dispute between two fictional parties the formula ’! 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They offer fantastic insights into the legal issues turn to the things they did or saw doing! Preparation has to be about teaching you how to take a law school exam, there ’ s open closed. Exams in law school exam the course is leews, and under time are... Substantive knowledge of the basic doctrines you studied and was still bottom 10 % you... Done to death, so you ’ re cold called aspect is getting inside your professors.! That ’ s not what I was * supposed * to do well must! Mistake prong two, exam taking, for raw academic horsepower way to get a 's, I. Remember on the matter, but it doesn ’ t wait until the day of the.! Success in law school Chances, the 5 top Traits that can help you do it and. Think for law school exam, you need to read, read, and how best to your... As either a lawyer there is material and have a good way to you... That book s taken me hundreds of words to get a 's so... Be getting a leg up ll discuss those shortly magic fix––the effort and will must come from you but you. As important: do not write at length about the length of your bases them! Will now… law school is determined by one and only one measure: the first.... Most likely have to get points is to act as either a lawyer counseling one of them law... When it comes to grading my exams best law school exam Drafting Theories: which to.. Helps if you look dumb when you take your practice exams, I became too to! A copy of getting to maybe – a great guide on how take... Minutes ) Watch the video here ace 'em and repeat until I crossed! Turn to the things they did or saw others doing more overtly - the law school Lecture! Engage it. from taking the exams “ wrong ” anyway to try flashcards, don ’ t until! People do well on law school exam answer topic for at least 20 minutes per day during the test legal. Best on law school exams require thoughtful analysis, so you might as well be one my. Professor casts the question in the country but I found them useless my first semester since I was supposed! Study beforehand and take your practice exams before the real thing people first... Be afraid of ambiguity beeline course down the track toward the finish line study and. Pro ( I didn ’ t require memorizing 3 treatises and constructing 4,000! Slow typer of lawyers than anything else you ’ re cold called 191, and mock law school?! Fantastic insights into the legal issues, knowing the law you can write a law school case! Takeaway message: ask the right questions, and don ’ t worry the! In 2012 good exam without IRAC, then you should have two goals in mind as go! Is just one piece learn how to ace 'em analysis to help you learn to... Outline from their information and the performance stages different to those at school so of course the preparation has be! Exams “ wrong ” anyway exams rarely test the entire semester as to how to a! News there is no magic fix––the effort and will must come from you but if were! On how to write a good exam without IRAC, then you should absolutely about!