Law school resources
Okay, 2Ls, 3Ls and graduates. Please send me your tips and tricks for law school success. Today I spent a good part of the day doing practice exam questions from other law schools online databases with a classmate (our prof doesn’t have any old exams up and the other profs who do don’t have model answers posted). We did okay but not as well as I would have liked. We might have done better if we’d concentrated and written answers out instead of verbally going through issues. We missed some key parts of the model answers and I was disappointed. Which resources did you use to prepare for exams?
What about supplemental reading? I keep hearing about people who read the textbook, use a study aid and also read hornbooks to fully round out their knowledge of the subject. That seems really excessive to me! My summer associate recommends High Court Case Briefs. I found out yesterday that Westlaw has an e-book service that will allow you to download the cases you want individually for $1.99. I think that could be helpful. I’d like to hear what other people have found useful and whether it’s really just a crapshoot or whether only the overachievers using CDs, three study aids and a hornbook will get good grades.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Like everything, prepping for exams vastly depends on your own personality, ability, and preferences. 1L year I was thrown into a tizzy by all the hype about how hard law school exams are and how much you have to study- both things are true, but I let myself too worked up about it. I doubted the study techniques that had gotten me through college with great grades (all of which involved waiting until close to the last minute to begin studying- and all my fellow 1Ls started studying so early it freaked me out into joining them) and worked like crazy only to end up with mediocre grades. 2L year I took a more relaxed approach and did great with much less stress. So that little story aside, here’s what I usually do:
(1) I always read before class and brief each case (and any intros and notes to cases) on my laptop. Then once in class I add in that day’s notes in any random color next to the relevant points of my brief- it’s really helps me when I make my outline later to see what is text from the case itself and what is professor or student commentary.
(2) I don’t outline until a week before the exam. For some people this seems crazy, but it works for me. My notes are very comprehensive and well-organized, so my outlines are very short- more of a road map to work through questions (and then know what to find in my notes if I need more detail). I find it takes longer to really think about the class and write a 2 page road map/checklist type outline than to come up with a 90 page behemouth of an outline. The short outline also helps a lot more on the final (btw, our exams are all open note, so this “advice” comes purely from my experience with those).
(3) I read through the old exams and answers (both are posted on our library’s website). I think working through exam questions would be incredibly helpful but I never leave enough time to do it. At a bare minimum understand how to break down a question to address the various points of law at play.
(4) I don’t use them study guides, treatises, hornbooks, etc. I’m sure they would be helpful, but I never have enough time. There are a few classes where I’ve turned to them towards the beginning to help me get an understanding of the course as a whole and I’ve looked up particularly confusing cases to get a general idea of what they are and why they matter (this happened a lot in the jurisdiction part of civ pro).
I’m not sure how helpful that is, but my biggest piece of advice is to stick with what is comfortable to you and trust yourself. If your classmats are studying 60 hours and you feel like you have a good mastery of the subject after 20, just stop. I think if you do too much you can get too worked up and stressed and that’s no way to walk into an exam. Good luck!!
July 5th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Hey there. Here’s a few tips.
1. My biggest thing - after you do an outline (which mine tended to be detailed), THEN do a “case map” where you outline a flow of what the “questions” you ask at each point in your analysis are. E.g. for contracts, you have different sub-areas - was there consideration? if yes, was it more than nominal? was there an offer? was there acceptance? if no, was the offer closed? , etc. — basically you should have something that you can memorize so that, come exam time, you can hit every issue. I did mine in powerpoint with funky-colored boxes, but paper is good too.
2. definitely, definitely work COMPLETE exams under exam situations. i found talking about exams unhelpful for the reasons you mentioned. i had to turn off internet, unplug my phone, and pretend like i was in the real test. working up speed - e.g. being able to type 5,300 words in 4 hours - is key. it also helps you figure out what you already know versus need to study more (e.g. if you find yourself thinking, “i KNOW there’s a rule on this. i just can’t think of what it is.” — study that).
3. i read every case but did not brief. i found it a waste of time, mostly because it takes SO long. i was of the “laptop transcriber” school, and it made outlining easier.
4. buy “law school confidential.” follow its tips. seriously. i was in search of some method - any method - and i seized on having one provided for me. it worked really well for me.
5. gilberts is my favorite. as for hornbooks generally, if there is one that is WRITTEN by the casebook author (e.g. Eisenberg writes one of the most popular contracts casebooks, and he writes Gilberts), use that one. The hornbook will necessarily say what the cases are wanting you to know.
6. find out in advance your professor’s exam preferences. i cannot emphasize enough how much that helped - knowing that a particular prof was ALL ABOUT citing specific cases versus DIDNT EVEN LIKE case citations (only UCC sections). studying is in large part about learning to prioritize, so it’s helpful to have your evaulator tell you.
Good luck!