Law Students

Ding, dong, exam time is here.  This is the sixth round of law school exams for me.  I guess that would make me a law exam veteran, would it not?

There are lots of ways you could study for exams.  Some people prefer Crunch Time.  Others prefer Law Summaries.  And then there are those who believe in the good old flash cards.  

I have tried all of the above for different subjects.  And I have to say, for me, the best way to prepare an exam, is to construct a simple outline.

By simple, I do mean simple. I do a quick assessment of what subtopics the professor is likely to test and the major rules and analytical steps.  Once I finish the outline, I create a table of contents so I could easily search the rules while taking an open book exam.

I find it helpful to come up with hypothetical questions that the professor might ask.  Then I run through my outline (my “rule book”) and see if I could locate the rules and go through the steps required for that particular legal analysis.  If the professor like a particular legal phrase, I try to incorporate those quotes directly into my notes lest I forget.

Studying for the closed book exam is a different matter.  Since the professor cannot possibly test on every single detail, the key is to make an educated guess as to the major rules that will most likely appear on the exam, and run through the archived exams.  The more practice problems you do, the better you understand how to apply the rules.

Good luck, everyone.