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Helpful Tips for Taking Legal Exams

published July 30, 2013

By Author - LawCrossing
Published By
( 3 votes, average: 4.3 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Before you head off to take the exam, make sure that you have a few key items. To ensure that you have everything you need, you can even make yourself a checklist. First and foremost, if your school uses a numbering system for exams or requires identification cards, remember to bring your exam identification number and/or identification card. Second, if you have not eaten, bring a snack. The snack should not be a full meal, but just enough to keep you energized. A granola bar, bagel, or even a candy bar is perfect. The other items on your checklist could include: extra pens and pencils; watch/clock that has a second hand; bottled water; and tissues (in case you or a neighbor has the sniffles).

Some students highly recommend earplugs, which can greatly improve your ability to concentrate during a law school exam. Even though you thought ahead to bring water and tissues, many of your ill-prepared classmates probably will not. As noted several times, a critical factor to success on a law school exam is concentration. It is impossible to concentrate and think clearly when you are distracted by the noise of dozens of other stressed-out law school students.


I will never forget my first law school exam. There were 125 of us packed into a room, I took a deep breath and tried to relax as I began. No more than five minutes into the exam, however, the woman to my right began sniffling-something she continued to do for the full three hours of the exam. Shortly thereafter, the man to my left started coughing. An unidentified person in front of me began wilting with what I imagine was a lead pencil but sounded like a cat scratching wildly on a post. Needless to say, my concentration faltered. After that terrible experience, I never took an exam without wearing earplugs. -JODI GOLINSKY, BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL

My first year, second semester, I came down with a terrible cold a few days before my Constitutional Law exam. I was terrified, because often when I get sick, the cold clogs my brain as well as my sinuses, and I stare slack-jawed at people and the written, word-hardly an ideal state in which to take an exam. As it turned out, however, my brain did me the favor of staying clear. The same could not be said of my nose and throat. I coughed, hacked, sneezed, gulped juice, and sniffed throughout the four hows of the exam. In between minor explosions and frenzied scrambles for tissues, not to mention labored breathing, I noticed the hapless souls around me looking equally miserable-not because they were also sick, but because I was making such an incredible racket. I felt very sorry for them, but there wasn't a lot I could do about it. I ended up doing fine. Of course, I had earplugs, and therefore the noise, at least, wasn't disrupting my concentration. My neighbors probably ended up worse off than I did; not only did they have to listen to me, but they also probably caught the cold. -ELIZABETH MACDONALD, STANFORD LAW SCHOOL

1. MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY.

Because law school exams are timed, a law school student's first instinct upon receiving the exam is to get started. While it is important to get going as soon as possible, there are two simple things you should do before getting started that will only take a few minutes-time worth spending. As soon as you get the exam, check to make sure you have the entire exam and that no pages or questions are missing. Although not a common occurrence, it is certainly possible that the person who stapled the exams together may have missed a page or two. Once you are sure you have the whole exam, see how many questions there are and apportion your time accordingly. Usually, the professor will indicate how much time you should spend on each question. Make a notation on each question when your time is up for that question. Pace yourself accordingly, even if it means leaving some questions before you feel you have finished them entirely. The worst thing you can do is spend so much time on certain questions that you do not have enough time to finish the entire exam. Writing down the time at which you must move on keeps you focused up front and conscious of your time constraints. Remember that the professor will only allot a certain number of points for each question. Getting full credit for one question and no credit for the others is not as good as two-thirds credit for each!

If possible, try to allot some time (about 10 to 15 minutes) for a quick reread at the end of an exam. Final rereads will allow you to make the necessary grammatical improvements. Moreover, flashes of brilliance on one question often come after you have finished working on the others.

Second year, first semester, I finished my Civil Procedure II exam right on time (I thought) and waited for the registrar to come and pick it up. No one came. I looked at the clock; it was five minutes past what I thought marked the end of the exam, and still no registrar. The other students were still working, which should have told me something, but I was rather slow that day. I began to idly leaf through the exam, twiddling my thumbs. As I heard the registrar's steps begin to come up the stairs, I realized I had missed the call of the question. I also realized that the exam had not been over, and instead of staring stupidly at the other students, I should have been answering the damn question right in the 10 minutes I had. Standing over my paper, I scrawled something illegible-to this day I don't know how the professor read it. And now I check the time that the exam ends very carefully. Being squeezed at the end of an exam is nothing new, but it shouldn't be because you can't tell time. -ELIZABETH MACDONALD, STANFORD LAW SCHOOL

2. USE IRAC.

A "good" answer on a law school exam inevitably contains a clear articulation of the issue and the rules or laws that apply to that issue, a detailed analysis and application of the facts at hand to the issue and rule, and, finally, a conclusion. This type of answer-one that contains the issue, rule, application/analysis, and conclusion- is called the "IRAC" method. Most professors subscribe to IRAC, and it is a useful way of thinking about what is important to cover in an answer. In a typical fact pattern on an exam, you will spot many, many issues-you would use the IRAC method to discuss each of these issues, usually in the order in which they appear.

The "issue" piece of IRAC is important because it demonstrates your ability to read a fact pattern and see what legal implications arise from the fact pattern. Being able to spot the correct issues in a complex set of facts is half the battle on a law school exam. Once you know the legal issue, the rules/laws that apply to that issue should be clear to you (after all that studying and memorizing). Applying and analyzing the law you know to the facts and issues in the exam is the most rigorous part of the examination process because it is something for which you do not have the answer ahead of time. Although the cases and materials discussed and studied in class will be relevant, it is highly unlikely that you will be working with a scenario on an exam that is an exact replica of anything you have thus far examined. You simply must go through your own analysis of the facts and circumstances and arrive at a logical and reasonable conclusion. Many students obsess about getting the answer "right" on a law school exam. Focusing on the correctness of an answer misses the point. Indeed, in most cases there is no single correct answer.

Your grade will depend on how many issues you spotted and how well you analyzed those issues, not so much on the conclusions reached.

published July 30, 2013

By Author - LawCrossing
( 3 votes, average: 4.3 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.