How Law Students Can Conquer The Fear Of Exams

Law students, especially first-semester law students, often appear to be preoccupied with thoughts about examinations. Some of this preoccupation is well-founded: Law school exams are often comprehensive, challenging, and time-constrained. Moreover, unlike most college courses, your grade on just one exam often determines your grade for the entire course. On the other hand, many students' fears about law school exams are probably unnecessary. The exam-preparation and exam-taking skills that served you well in college undoubtedly provide a good base upon which to prepare for law school exams. To minimize your pre-exam anxieties, the following pages will provide insights into what you can expect law school exams to look like and suggestions for preparing yourself efficiently and effectively.

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THE FORMAT AND STRUCTURE OF LAW SCHOOL EXAMS

Law school professors administer exams in three basic formats: in-class exams, take-home exams, and extended take-home exams. In-class exams are administered during a limited time frame, such as 90 minutes or three hours. All students in the course complete the examination at the same time in the same room(s). Such exams offer the advantage of proceeding relatively quickly. However, many students find that the time constraints of in-class exams challenge their ability to formulate and organize their answers as completely as they would like. Such students might prefer the second type of exam, the take-home.

As final exams approach, I prefer to study somewhere else on campus. Most people are so nervous and are freaking out. "What page of your outline are you on?" "How long is your outline?" "Are you ready?" "I am so prepared." "It will be easy." "Oh, you are only on page 10 of your outline? That's okay. I am sure you will finish. You probably are more thorough than me. "People like that make me nervous. By avoiding those people, lam able to focus on my work and not on everyone else. -ADAM BERLIN, INDIANA UNIVERSITY - BLOOMINGTON SCHOOL OF LAW

Other students resist the temptation to buy any study aids. These students might think that the aids are not "academic" and that using them will somehow compromise the student's academic integrity. Alternatively, students might not want to spend any more money than they have already spent on their textbooks, or they might think that they can and will learn everything they need to know by reading their casebooks and attending class.

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Neither set of students has necessarily taken the most helpful course of action. Most students will find it useful (if not indispensable) to consult study aids for some of their courses. Sometimes professors will even recommend aids or, in rare instances, may assign reading from them to supplement, casebook reading. However, study aids are not meant as a substitute for assigned readings and do not purport to convey the same information. They often lack information on recent cases or statutory changes. Moreover, they convey the authors' assessment of the meaning of various cases and statutes, and the authors' assessment may be quite different from that of your casebook author or your professor. With this in mind, what are the various types of study aids, and what are the benefits of each one?

STUDENT OUTLINES

I didn't learn about the value of student outlines until my second year-one year too late, I think. If you can find a relatively recent (less than three years old), detailed student outline from the same course and same professor, you've hit gold. I bring my student outline to class and take notes on it, comparing what the professor is saying now to what he or she said. then. It is immensely helpful when preparing for a cold call and equally helpful when preparing your own outline or studying for an exam. I probably toasted an extra hour preparing each night my first year because I didn't have any student outlines. I wish somebody had told me how valuable they were. -TRUDY DEUTCH, COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL

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Student outlines, created by individual students or groups of students who have taken one of your courses during a previous semester, generally provide organized notes about the course's readings and class discussions. They may also incorporate notes from other study aids that the student outliner consulted during the course. While they can never convey all the information offered in the reading, they may help you pinpoint the most important parts of major cases or discover before going to class the professor's particular interpretation of the importance of a case.

The primary advantage of student outlines over other study aids is that they are geared toward your particular course and will therefore likely cover the same cases that you are reading and similar comments that your professor will make during class. They may also be quite inexpensive compared to commercial study aids. Student outlines may be available for purchase at your law school copy center or bookstore or may be available from student organizations or from friends who are in their second or third year of law school.

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Andy's Picks

Civil Procedure: Civil Procedure: Examples and Explanations by Joseph Glannon; Emanuel, E-Z Rules for Civil Procedure, Sum and Substance Civil Procedure audiotapes by Arthur Miller (but Andy warns that audiotapes in general are more expensive than most other study aids)

Constitutional Law: Emanuel] Laurence Tribe's Constitutional Law treatise

Contracts: Contracts by Marvin Chirelstein; E. Allan Farnsworth's Contracts treatise; Emanuel or Gilbert

Criminal Law: Understanding Criminal Law by Joshua Dressier, Emanuel or Gilbert

Criminal Procedure: Understanding Criminal Procedure by Joshua Dressier; Emanuel or Gilbert

Property: Gilbert

Torts: Prosser and Keeton on Torts (hornbook); The Law of Torts: Examples and Explanations by Joseph Glannon; Emanuel or Gilbert

General: Also consider Legalines or Casenotes for daily preparation; BarCharts for quick overall review of courses (especially for One-L courses)

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