Strategies for Tackling Law School Final Exams

Strategies for Tackling

Law School Final Exams

By: Joseph Odegaard

Winter is fast approaching. Stress levels are higher, libraries are crowded, and students are more on edge at law schools across the country. That’s right: finals season is nearly upon us! The end of the semester is a stressful time, especially for 1Ls taking their first law school exams. But don’t fear! PracticePro has you covered with the tips and strategies you’ll need to confidently tackle exams.

What is a Law School Exam?

Before diving into the tips and tricks of exam preparation, let’s address a threshold question: What is a law school exam? The format and style vary by professor; exams can have multiple choice questions, short hypotheticals, and long essays. As I discuss below, it’s important that you understand your professor’s style and expectations. That being said, the typical exam has one or more fact patterns and asks you to discuss the legal claims and argue for both sides. Therefore, a traditional exam has two components: issue spotting and legal reasoning.

Issue spotting entails identifying the legal claims and applicable doctrines in the fact pattern. For example, a contracts exam might have a fact pattern that raises a possible breach of contract claim involving a question of interpretation. Legal reasoning is the application of the legal rules and doctrines to the facts. In our contracts example, you would use the legal rules and point to facts, such as the language and prior dealings between the parties, to argue for each side’s interpretation. A fact pattern may raise more than one legal cause of action, each involving several issues, and each issue requiring arguments.

Create Outlines

You’re probably aware that outlines are essential for exam preparation. Law school outlines are likely different from those you may have used for undergraduate exams. They are not summaries of your case briefs or class notes. Instead, outlines are tools to help you master legal rules and apply them on exams. Therefore, you should organize them around the legal doctrines and rules. Your syllabus is a good guide for the outline’s overall organization. You can then organize rules, tests, and factors under each heading. For example, under breach of duty in negligence, you would list the various ways to demonstrate breach, such as per se negligence and res ipsa loquitur. You may need to cite cases as the source of the rules, so make sure to include them, along with a succinct description of the facts and holding. Cases are also applications of the rules that you can analogize to and distinguish from when discussing facts on the exam.

Creating outlines is a great way to learn the material, but you can make the process easier by using old outlines from previous classes as templates. Reach out to your student mentors and other 2Ls and 3Ls for old outlines. These outlines can fill in gaps and provide a structure, but make sure to correct any mistakes and focus on the topics your professor emphasized. If you’re unsure if something on an old outline is correct, check with your professor.

Tips for Practice Questions and Exams: Purpose & Substance

Outlining is a great way to learn the legal rules and doctrines, but practice questions and exams are essential for mastering issue spotting and legal reasoning. I’m focusing primarily on practice exams, but practice questions and short hypotheticals that focus on a specific issue can sharpen your understanding of the applicable legal doctrine and allow you to practice making arguments. Therefore, you may find them helpful if you are struggling with a particular topic. Unlike practice questions, exams require issue spotting. Missing an entire issue on an exam will cost you a lot of points, so you want to have plenty of practice with this skill before test day.

Time limits and possibly word counts will constrain you on exams, so it’s important to practice writing balanced answers. First, you should balance issue spotting and legal reasoning. You want to address every issue without providing shallow, conclusory arguments. On the issue-spotting side, provide a deeper analysis of the major issues in the fact pattern; minor issues can receive briefer treatment. For legal reasoning, focus on the strongest arguments, and keep in mind that adding more arguments for one issue has diminishing marginal returns. Briefly outlining your answer before writing can help you strike that balance.

Second, make sure you balance the quality of your responses across questions. Much of this comes down to time. If you have a four-hour exam with two questions of equal length and weight, spend two hours on each question. You’re likely to score more points with two mostly complete answers than if one is fully complete and the other is underdeveloped. Of course, questions that are more complex or worth more points deserve more time. Adjust the amount of time you spend outlining based on the time limit. Similarly, if your exam is open book, practice using your outline sparingly. You don’t want to waste time on the exam reviewing your outline, so get in the habit of checking it quickly and only when necessary to confirm your knowledge of the material.

After doing a practice question or exam, you should review your response and revise your outline. If you have an explanation or model answer, make sure you understand it and note the skills you need to practice. If not, ask your professor if they would be willing to go over your answer. When reviewing responses with your peers, keep in mind that they are likely not in a better position than you to judge the strength of an answer. However, they can help you identify any points of disagreement, which you can then raise to your professor. With a clearer understanding of the question or exam, your final task is to revise your outline. Correct any errors, clarify issues, delete or synthesize information, and reorganize as needed to make it a better reference tool.

Tips for Practice Questions and Exams: Logistics

Now that we’ve discussed the purpose and use of practice questions and exams, let’s address the logistics. First, you need to locate them. You can often find practice questions in casebooks and supplements like Examples & Explanations. Professors often provide exams with explanations or model answers from past years. Your school library might maintain a collection of old exams or provide access to supplements with exams, like Quimbee. Of course, your professor’s exams are the most useful.

You’ve learned most of the topics in your classes at this point in the semester, so now is a good time to take practice exams. You still have time in the next few weeks to meet with professors during office hours to go over responses and ask questions, which is key to getting the most out of the exams. However, if you have a limited supply from your professor, I recommend saving one or two to take and review in the days before the exam to acclimate yourself to the professor’s style. You also need to spend time working on your outlines with class notes for the rest of the semester, so keep that in mind when deciding on how many exams to take. Practice questions are good for less time-intensive studying.

Depending on your supply of exams, you may want to take the first one or two informally to acquaint yourself with their format and style and practice learning the legal rules and using your outlines. However, you should simulate the testing conditions as soon as possible. Make sure to follow the time limit and word count. For in-person exams, you may want to practice in the library. Libraries have mostly quiet environments, with mild distractions from other students working around you. This should give a good estimation of test day. If your exam is closed book, take practice exams without your outline, at least as the exam date approaches.

Know Your Audience

Law school exams come in a variety of formats, so it’s important to know your audience, i.e., your professor. Even within the traditional format, professors have different expectations. Some may want case citations and full rule explanations, while others only look for rule applications. The best way to clarify your professor’s expectations is to review practice exams with them during office hours. This will also give you a glimpse into their preferences for the finer points of exam-writing, like style and organization. If your professor has a policy against reviewing student responses, they may be willing to answer questions about practice exams.

Another, more subtle way to tailor your responses to your professor is to pay attention to the legal doctrines or disputes they are most passionate about. You can learn their legal interests from class discussions, their scholarship, and office hours, and weave these ideas into your exam answer if possible. This should not be the focus of your studying, but it might strengthen your answer.

Conclusion

I hope you find these tips helpful as you prepare for exams. However, you know your learning style and what works for you; don’t abandon the study habits and strategies that got you to law school. And don’t psych yourself out! Exams are intimidating and meant to be difficult. As most professors will tell you, the exams with the highest grades are far from perfect, so don’t get discouraged if you struggle with exam preparation. If you focus on what’s in your control by studying and working with your professor, you’ll be well-prepared to take on finals season!