If you are taking a traditional law school class, your final exam may determine your entire grade, and you will likely not get that grade back until January. This can be stressful because, for much of the semester, you may feel like you have no idea whether your study strategy is actually effective.
Fortunately, you do not have to wait until grades come out to find out. You can evaluate your study strategy and modify it accordingly, well before final exam grades come back.
Here is a simple three-step method for evaluating your study strategy and adjusting before finals.
First, acquire practice exams.
The best way to tell if your study strategy is working is to access one of your professor’s past exams. Many professors make past exams available to law students, yet this is often an underutilized resource.
If possible, also get your professor’s model answer, sample answer or a high-scoring student answer. This will give you something concrete to compare your own work against.
If your professor does not make past exams available, or does not provide model or sample answers, look online. Many law schools make old exams publicly available, so a quick Google search for something like “contracts exam with model answer” should yield useful results. Before diving in, review the exam and answer briefly to make sure they cover the same topics you are learning in class.
If you are doing this very early in the semester and have not covered enough material to take a portion of a practice exam, use a supplement such as Examples & Explanations. You can work through problems by topic and focus only on material you have already covered.
Second, answer the questions.
Start with the first problem on the exam and attempt to answer it. Make sure you actually write down your answer rather than simply thinking through it.
Then compare your answer with the model or sample answer.
Ask yourself:
- Did I identify the issue?
- Did I state the rule(s) correctly?
- Did I apply the law in a lawyerly fashion, usually by arguing both sides?
- Did I reach the correct conclusion, or at least a reasonable conclusion supported by the law and facts?
The goal is not simply to see whether your answer was “right” or “wrong.” The goal is to figure out exactly where your weaknesses are.
If you struggle with issue-spotting, you may need to organize your outline more effectively and learn the material better.
If you struggle to state the rule accurately, dedicate time each week to actively reviewing and recalling the law you are learning.
If your analysis is weak, determine why. It may be because you do not understand or remember the rule well enough. Or it may be because you are not yet comfortable arguing both sides or connecting specific facts to the law.
If your conclusion is incorrect, figure out what caused the mistake. Did you misunderstand the rule? Misread a fact? Miss an issue? The more precisely you can identify the problem, the more effectively you can adjust your studying.
Third, tailor your study strategy.
By working through your professor’s past exams and comparing your answers with model or sample answers, you are practicing the exact type of task you will ultimately be graded on.
You can then tailor your study strategy to your own strengths and weaknesses.
You will likely find that success on law school exams requires a good outline, strong understanding and recall of the rules, and the ability to apply those rules to unfamiliar facts in a lawyerly fashion. Your study time should reflect that. Dedicate sufficient time to outlining, learning your outlines and completing practice exams.
You may also discover that some activities are taking up a lot of time without improving your exam performance. For example, endlessly briefing cases or overpreparing for class may not translate into additional points on a practice exam. If that is the case, look for ways to make those tasks more efficient so you can spend more time on activities that directly improve your exam skills.
Most importantly, build practice questions and exams into your regular study routine. That way, you are not simply studying and hoping that your approach is working. You are testing yourself, evaluating your performance, identifying your weaknesses and making informed decisions about where to spend your time.
That is one of the best ways to know, well before final grades come out, whether your law school study strategy is actually working.
