Law professors and bloggers Eugene and Sasha Volokh have posted torts exams at The Volokh Conspiracy for fun. Torts, if you are thinking about going to law school, is pretty much a microcosm of what law school is all about. You study for an entire semester only to spend 3+ hours so that you can parse a question like this:
On law school exam day, there is going to be a lot on your mind. Your head will already be spinning with all of the different rules, balancing tests, doctrines and cases that you have semi-memorized for that day’s exam. So it will be important to have your test day amenities squared away. Randall Ryder has covered some great points on how to prep for test day, but I thought that I would add a few more basic pointers. Here are a few of the things that you will absolutely need to have in order before your four-hour clickity-clack exam extravaganza gets underway.
As a 1L, you should focus your energies on excelling on exams. This focus should be to the exclusion of everything else except other required work. If you don’t focus on exams, you’ll have far fewer opportunities down the road. And in this job market, you can’t afford to let that happen.
The time limit on most law school exams can be one of the most difficult facets of finals. Use these tips to help make sure you’ve used your time wisely in the race against the clock.
Unlike most law students, I have a five year-old daughter. Ever since I’ve started paying her small sums for extra chores, she’s been saving up a new Disney Princesses toy, which she purchased last night. As I was roped into role play after role play (many involving requests for my rousing rendition Sebastian the Crab’s “Under the Sea)” my guilt for not studying for finals was mounting. So, I turned to the dolls scattered across the floor for inspiration.
I decided that taking a timed law school exam is a lot like Cinderella’s story: you’d better be sure you’ve danced with Prince Charming before the clock strikes midnight.
There are plenty of ways to succeed in law school. Grades, of course, are one measure of success. As exams loom on the horizon, creating an overall study plan is an excellent way to put yourself in position to excel.
Take home finals can be traps for the unsuspecting. Treat them like any other final and follow these tips to succeed.
Getting great grades is one way to succeed in law school. Lawyerist has lots of great posts on how to master exams—whether you have in-class, take-home, or multiple choice exams.
Before you sit down and start your marathon study sessions, come up with a plan for how you plan to spend your time studying.
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Flowers are blooming across the nation’s law school campuses, which means thousands of students are hunkering down for the upcoming round of spring term exams. Here is a roundup of previous Lawyerist posts on mastering different types of law school exams, from take-home to closed-book. Best of luck!
The end of each semester in law school brings a flood of emotions. We expect the relief and even glee that comes with selling, shelving, or destroying casebooks and bidding the classrooms farewell.
What is not so expected is what I half-jokingly call decompression sickness, or the stress that comes from a great decrease (or shift in focus) of stress.
For those law school students who have the option of using a computer or hand-writing an exam, here are some factors to consider before presuming that the benefits of typing outweigh those of writing by hand.
Today I took the first of my 2L exams. After traveling through a blizzard to make it to school, I was unpleasantly surprised when my computer, running ExamSoft‘s Softest application, hung on restart and deleted my test template.
Increase your chances of success on law school exams by learning to ”channel your professor.” At the most basic level, this simply means that you should write for your audience, i.e., your professor. Consider what your professor wants.
First, your professor wants you to demonstrate your knowledge and fluency of course concepts . Second, your professor wants exams to be well-organized and easy to read. Most students leave it at that. But you will be well-served by learning to craft answers using the language and methodology of your professor.
Think of it this way: most professors would give themselves an “A.” If you can figure out how the professor would approach an exam problem and mimic that approach, you increase you chances of earning an “A” yourself.
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