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Friday, March 19, 2010

Preparing for Final Exams

PrawfsBlawg has always provided good advice to law students on how they can prepare for and do well on final exams. Since it's getting to be that time of the semester -- with law schools exams just around the corner -- I thought I would toss in my own advice.  The suggestions are taken from a new book that Cristina Knolton and I have written. The book will soon be published and provides advice to students on how to do well in law school.  If you're interested, you can download a sample chapter. The book is written from the perspective of a cranky, old professor, who doesn't mince words, but dolls out hard-nosed advice in a straight-forward way.  Recognizing that professors often have different suggestions for doing well and that exams can be different, here are some basic suggestions on how to begin and then write an answer to a law school essay exam.

STARTING THE EXAM

1.  Arrive Early:  You have enough things to worry about, don't add stress by arriving late to the exam.  Be sure you know where the exam will be, get a good seat, and get settled.  Make sure you don't arrive on an empty stomach.  Be sure to eat lightly before going to the exam (drinking 5 cups of coffee or pounding ccans of Red Bull is not eating).

2.  Arrive Prepared:  A few points here.  Ensure that you have whatever you need for the exam within the limits of what your school permits (pens, pencils, highlighters, nondigital timers, earplugs, snacks etc.)  If you're typing your exam, makse sure your laptop is working properly and any exam-taking software the school requires is working well.  But also come prepared by dressing in layers so you can adapt to excessive air-conditioning, broken heaters etc.).  Don't start cramming right before the exam. Nothing read in the last few minutes will change how you're going to do on the exam, and usually cramming just results in last minute panic and stress.

3.  Read the Instructions:  Make sure you read the instructions carefully and then follow them.  If the exam says "write a memo" -- write a memo.  If the exam says, do not address an issue -- do not address that issue.  This sounds obvious, but some of the most unfortunate exam mistakes (i.e., not answering the question asked, running out of time, focusing on incorrect issues) can be traced to the failure to read the instructions carefully.

4.  Allocate Your Time:  This is critical. Make sure you flip through the exam and figure out how much time you will allocate to each question.  If the exam tells you how much time to spend on each essay question, then spend exactly that amount of time.  Don't fall into the trap of spending too much time on one question.  You must answer every question asked in the exam to do well.  An "A" grade on essay one, and an "F" grade on essay two -- is still a C grade overall.  Allocate your time and stick with it. If you have two essay questions, each worth 50%, on a two hour exam, be sure to stop writing the first question the moment the first hour is up.  You must stop and move on.  Write the answer to the second question and then if you have time, you can always return to the first question.

5.  Read the Call of the Question and the Facts:  For most essay exams, professors will have a call of the question, sometimes referred to as an interrogatory, at the end of the fact pattern.  The "call" will tell you what the professor wants you to do.  Read it carefully. You may want to read the call before reading the fact pattern.  That way when you read the fact pattern you should be able to more easily spot the significance of certain facts.  Then read the fact pattern.  Read it closely, and read it more than once.  In a one-hour essay exam, the first five to ten minutes should be spent closely reading the question.  Consider highlighting, circling, or underlining key facts in the exam. A common mistake by law students is not to discuss or use the facts enough in their exam answers.  Spending time to carefully read and understand the question's fact pattern is time well spent.

6.  Outline Your Answer:  You must spend time thinking through and organizing your answer before you start writing.  Doing so will help you spot the key issues and organize your answer.  Students who organize their answer almost always do better on exams.  A short outline (don't go crazy, just jot down the main issues that the question raises and the key facts) can also ensure that you don't forget to discuss key points.  You will feel pressure to start writing immediately.  Don't.  Even if the person next to you is madly tapping away at the keyboard, you want to force yourself to spend a few minutes organizing.  As a rule of thumb, in a 1 hour essay exam, the first 10-15 minutes of the exam generally should be spent reading the call of the question, reading the facts, and outlining an answer. 

WRITING THE EXAM

Professors may have slightly different preferences, but here's a few tips that most commonly agree on.

1. Use Headings:  You want to write an exam that is easy for the professor to grade.  Make sure you use headings to break up the different issues, and subheadings to break up the different elements or key points of an issue.  Professors don't have time, and usually won't make time, to suss out every point you elude to (unclearly) in an exam.  You need to make it simple for the professor to follow your analysis.  Headings and subheadings are a must.

2.  Use IRAC:  Some professors don't require a strict IRAC format.  But almost everyone wants students to set out the key legal principles before they apply those legal rules to the facts of the question.  For each question asked in an exam, spot and identify the relevant issue, explain what law relates to those issues, and then analyze the facts in light of the law to draw a reasoned conlcusion.  You must explain why the facts show that certain elements or rules have been met or not met.

3.  Use the Facts:  Facts are critical.  Legal analysis boils down to discussing the law in the context of particular facts.  An answer that merely recited canned rules or cases is deficient.  Exams that also just state conclusions will earn a low grade too.  Rather, you must demonstrate you understand the nuances of the facts and the relevance of the details.  You must explain why you reach the legal conclusions you do.  Don't misunderstand.  Don't restate or summarize the facts.  That's worth no points.  The professor wrote the exam.  They known what they wrote.  But you must argue from the facts and show why certain facts are significant in reaching a reasoned conclusion.

4.  Use the Word Because:  This is similar to the prior point.  You must explain how you reach your conclusion.  A conclusion without a reason is worth very few points. 

5.  Argue Both Sides:  For many (but not all) issues on an exam, the professor will have made the question a "close call."  In these circumstances, you must provide the different arguments that could be made and then explain why you think one side of the argument will prevail over the other.  Too many students lose objectivity and see only one side of the issue.  Don't misunderstand.  Arguing both sides does not mean you can avoid answering the question asked.  You must tell the professor which arguments are strong and which are weak.  You don't want to write a on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand examination without reaching a conclusion.  Good lawyers exercise judgment and good exam answers should demonstrate that you can exercise judgment too. 

6. Emphasize Policy:  Law school exams are usually not designed primarily to test policy, or the other esoteric arguments about the law that you may have discussed in class.  The bread and butter of most law school exams is to apply legal rules to a set of facts.  That said, the best answers to law schools exams usually always incorporate policy considerations into the exam answer.  You want to demonstrate that you understand the subtleties of the law and that on close questions you recognize that the so-called black letter never provides a clear answer.

7.  Write in Plain English:  You must write clearly.  It's not the time for Shakespearean prose, but sloppy exams with sentence fragments, and with many typographical and grammatical errors are difficult to read.  Most professors will not grade on writing style.  But the best-written, most organized exams, usually do the best. Use plain English and write in short, declarative, easy-to-follow sentences. Don't write a law school exam as if you're "IM'ing" your BFF.  Some professors will allow some abbreviations, but an exam answer that reads like alphabet soup is likely to earn you a poor grade.

8. Write Enough:  A common mistake for students is to underestimate how much a student must write to do well.  The longest answers certainly aren't the best, but very short answers rarely are able to sufficiently address the issues raised in the exam.  [by the way, this is the reason you must go into the exam knowing the legal rules cold, and the reason why you should have written several practice exams well before the exam date.]  For most exams, if you only write 1-2 double-spaced pages in response to a 1-hour essay exam, you will almost certainly earn a poor grade.

9.  Avoid Humor and Use Common Sense:  Using humor is almost always a mistake.  The professor takes the exam seriously and so should you.  Also don't forget common sense.  Don't become an automaton, flooding your exam answer with canned nonsense.  Keep your gut instict. For example, pause and think before you conclude that the court should strike as unconstitutional some long-standing, uncontroversial and innocuous law.  You may be right, but the best students make sure they don't toss their judgment at the exam door.

 

So this was excessively truncated, and only touches on the just the very basics -- but hopefully of some use to PrawfBlawg readers.

 

Posted by Austen Parrish on March 19, 2010 at 02:02 PM | Permalink

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Comments

Austen, would you mind if I gave a copy of this to my class? Perhaps with slight modifications specific to my Business Associations class? I will of course give proper attribution to you. I really like this advice. Best, MC

Posted by: Miriam A. Cherry | Mar 25, 2010 1:34:20 AM

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