EXAM TIPS

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think smart think smart... ... NOVEMBER: EXAM TIPS AND STRATEGIES The clock is ticking. It is already November, sixteen weeks flew right by. Two thirds of the semester is almost over and finals are creeping around the corner. Every semester is a race to the finish finish line. The evenings spent at the library get longer, the sleepless nights become more frequent, and the happy hours are sparser. The piles of paper covering almost every inch of your bedroom are a constant reminder of all the things you have yet to accomplish. The anxiety and the stress build with the feeling that there is simply never enough time. Sixteen weeks of reading long and dense cases comes down to one exam often graded on a curve. The infamous curve will leave many students feeling unsatisfied with their final grade. You try to suppress the angst by making a commitment commitme nt to working harder, naturally expecting that good grades will follow. But that is not always the case. The goal of these exam tips is to help you rethink your study strategies and to help you focus on working not only harder, but smarter.

#1

MAKE YOUR OWN OUTLINE

It is tempting to rely on outlines prepared by others particularly when time is short. As explained further below, outlines prepared by others can be an invaluable study tool. However, the process of writing your own outline is the best way to learn the legal concepts that will be tested on your exam. The course syllabus gives you a big picture of all the general concepts you are required to know. Each class syllabus should serve as the roadmap for organizing your outlines. Start your outlines by making a list of all the general concepts listed on the syllabus. But don’t stop there. Exam fact patterns usually raise issues that will require you to apply not only the general concepts but also subtler subrules. Knowing the general concepts is usually enough to get you a passing grade. Knowing the subrules and the gray areas of the law is where you can really set yourself apart from other students. Under each concept you should have a short statement of the black letter law stating “The general rule is...” or “the majority of jurisdictions follow...or there is also a minority view.” If there is a split in court authority then also include a sentence explaining explainin g the divergence. Law professors love mining these divergences and subrules for exam questions. Resist the temptation to “information dump” on your outline; by that I mean do not include every argument or case detail. Do not include all the cases from your reading in your outline. Do not make your outline a reproduction of your IRAC notes. The daily reading of cases and the taking of notes in IRAC format are important. IRAC is a mental exercise that is intended to teach you how to deconstruct the different arguments that are presented in a particular case. In a sense, the daily reading of cases is a preview of the analysis you will be required to do on the final exam. When it comes to your outlines, however, the concepts are much more important than the actual cases and their details. In fact, unless your professor has indicated otherwise, you will not be expected to cite specific cases in your exam answers. Founded in 2010. Two recent U.C. Hastings graduates envisioned a project that would provide applicants, law students, and graduates with modern strategies to maximize their opportunities. The Law School Project is Project is a one stop hub for “hustlin'” that includes insider tips, tools, and references for all things law school.

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As crunch time approaches you will quickly realize your brain has a limited memory capacity. The problem with the sixty-page outline that will result if you add every case is that when you sit down to review you will have added the extra task of separating the important from the extraneous and irrelevant. An outline is also a good place to highlight the concepts you recall experiencing experienci ng difficulty understanding so that later when you are preparing your study schedule you can allocate more time to those concepts. Short and concise statements are key to remembering and reciting legal concepts correctly. The straightforward task of stating the law correctly, before you even begin your analysis, can give you about a third of the points available on your exam so make sure your outline reflects that.

a. Calendar it Time is a limited and valuable resource especially during exam study periods. The best way to ensure the best use of your time during exam crunch time is to make a study schedule, put it in a calendar and stick to that calendar. A complete study schedule lists the topics that you will review each day throughout your study study period. Be as detailed and realistic realistic as possible when making your study schedule. This will help you to not only stay on schedule but to resist the temptation of spending all day on one topic or issue. Allocate more time for your weakest areas so that you can spend more time understanding that material. Getting the upper hand on the areas where you are weakest will ease your anxiety and make your time reviewing less troublesome concepts more productive. Allocate a specific amount of time each day to a particular course and build in facebook time, lunch breaks, email checks, and other distractions into your schedule.

b. Getting Outlines Nothing beats making your own outline. However, getting an outline written for your specific course and instructor is crucial because it gives you something to refer to as you write your own outline. The easiest way to get a professor specific outline is to network and ask around. There are no written rules about how to go about obtaining an outline but common sense tells you not to randomly stake out classmates and ask them for their outlines or to engage in illegal activity. Instead, use your network of friends, facebook, and other social networks to get the word out about your need for an outline for a specific professor and class. Clubs, such as APALSA or LA RAZA, often have their own database collection of outlines they make available for members. If you are a 1L you’ll find that 2Ls and 3Ls are often more than happy to share their outlines especially if you are already a friend. Do not blindly trust any outline. I have seen errors of law in even the best of outlines. Use such outlines wisely to complement your own outline, not as a substitute. The source of the outline is an indicator of its reliability, but even if someone “swears by it,” you should not skip writing your outline and gamble on your grade.

#2

PAST EXAMS

A law school exam usually lasts three or four hours and consists of a multiple choice section and/or fact patterns. The fact patterns are short stories that will test your ability to spot issues, state the law, analyze it, and reach a conclusion. The amount of time you will spend preparing should be the



a. Exam Banks Go to the exam bank at your school. Professors are creatures of habit and past exams are evidence of their style and testing preferences. Generally, the exam bank is located on the school website under the library or other resources tab. Some exam banks catalogue past exams by professor or by the course name. Print out all the sample exams available on the website for your particular course. If there are no exams available for your professor reach out to the worldwide web and Google your professor. Hopefully your professor has taught at another law school where you may be able to access old exams. If you cannot locate any exams written by your professor then printing out exams written by other faculty teaching the same course will at least give you an idea of what to expect. Familiarize yourself with the topics your professors have tested over and over and how they frame the call of their questions. Most of the time there is at least one exam with a sample answer. The sample answer is selected by the professor to be a model of what he or she considers a good answer. Carefully examine examin e the length of the fact patterns tested. Were they long and fact intensive or were they short paragraphs that raised many issues? A good exam taker pays attention to details and reads the instructions slowly until they truly understand what they are being asked to do or not to do. Reviewing past exams will help you to focus on answering the question being asked, not the one you would like to answer.

#3

UNDERSTAND IRAC : Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion

IRAC is the most widely used writing formula in law school. IRAC stands for issue, rule or relevant law, analysis or application of the law, and conclusion. The majority of law school professors prefer that their students students answer exam questions questions in IRAC form. IRAC is not simply an archaic teaching method. IRAC can help you write a better exam answer. The format reduces errors in reasoning by providing you with a simple and accepted way of organizing your legal analysis. Every issue you discuss must be in the accepted IRAC format; your exam may even include multiple subrules that each need to be discussed in their own separate IRAC format. Take a look at the sample further below. The sample may not be perfect but it is intended to show you how to IRAC when you may need to provide introductory material.

a. Headings A well-organized answer has headings in bold, underline, italics, or all caps to flag issues or parties. For instance, when you are applying the same concept to multiple parties on an exam it is often best to discuss each party under a separate heading. Below, I’ll provide a sample answer for a criminal procedure exam testing the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth amendments. In such an exam you will need a short paragraph to introduce the general law before you can IRAC the specific issues raised by the exam scenario. Save time on exams by abbreviating concepts and names. Remember to introduce the entire name before you abbreviate it. Don’t assume the reader will know A stands for Albert or SOF is short for the statute of frauds. Write out the entire name or word the first time you introduce it followed by (“__”) to tell the reader that is the designated abbreviation.



SAMPLE ANSWER: 4th Amendment: Reasonable Expectation of Privacy The Supreme Court has held the 4th amendment (“amend”) right to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government is based on the right to privacy. A search is a government intrusion into an area where a person has a reasonable and and justifiable expectation of privacy. The court (“ct”) has defined the right to privacy as based on a reasonable expectation of privacy. In Katz, the ct held that wiretapping Defendant’s (“D”) phone conversations, even though they occurred in a public phone booth, constituted an unreasonable intrusion under the 4th amend because the D had a reasonable expectation of of privacy in his phone conversations. In order for the police to intrude upon people’s expectation of privacy they must first obtain a search warrant based upon probable cause. (Note: generally cases do not need to be referenced but here Katz was Katz was a key case in establishing the Fourth Amendment precedent discussed). Issue #1: Search Warrant (IRAC it!) he facts suggest there was a defect with the warrant because... ( apply the facts). facts). The ISSUE: T he warrant requirement is intended to balance the interests of people’s reasonable expectation of privacy to be free from unreasonable government intrusion and the governments need and interest in conducting their jobs. he warrant requirement is constitutionally mandated and has 3 requirements. First, the RULE: T he officers must have articuable facts that amount to probable cause. Second, a neutral judge must make an independent evaluation based solely on the facts presented before him (usually in the form of affidavits) that evidence amounts to probable cause that there is criminal activity or evidence of a crime in the place to be seized. Third, the warrant requirement is that the warrant must state with particularity the evidence to be seized and the place to be searched. The warrant requirement is intended to define and limit the scope of police intrusion and abuse. EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: In spite of the strong preference for a warrant, warrantless searches and seizures are permissible if there is 1) consent 2) evidence is in plain view or 3) exigent circumstances. APPLY THE FACTS: CONCLUSION:

there is no right or wrong answer.

a. Grading Imagine the exam is worth 100 points. You are not even given points for concluding one way or the other. The points are based on whether you spotted the issue (20 pts), concisely stated the rule of law (20 pts), and the most important part of your exam answer, your logical analysis of the problem (60 pts). The difference between an “A” and “B” answer depends on your reasoning and application of the law. Applying the law to the facts is not simply stating, “Here, the situation is X...” but also presenting both sides of the argument. For instance you would need to say “A would argue that the search warrant is valid because based on the evidence there was reliable information...On the other hand, B would argue that the evidence was obtained illegally... apply the facts.” Try to use all the facts in your fact pattern. The facts and details are not there to fill up space on the exam paper; they are there for your use in formulating your arguments.

#4

MAKE (OR MEMORIZE) TEMPLATES

When you hear the exam proctor say “Begin” and you break the seal, flip open the exam and read the first fact pattern, you want to be able to type the heading for the issues as you spot them; this saves you time. If the exam is open book, another way to save time is to bring in pre-written templates (short paragraphs) that outline general concepts of law. The process of extracting the law from your outline for the purpose of preparing templates can also serve as crucial practice in preparing for the exam. If the exam is closed book, memorizing short paragraphs of general legal concepts will allow you to



#5

PRACTICE TAKING EXAMS

Finally, practice, practice, practice. Practice under timed conditions. Build time for practice exams into your study schedule. Start by taking practice exams using your outline. Each time you use your outline you will realize its strengths and weaknesses. Be smart; incorporate into your outline the law as stated in model answers or someone else’s outline. Your outline will continuously evolve as you take more practice exams. Make a checklist of all the big topics you will be tested because it is a good way to make sure you have spotted every major issue on an exam Practice even if you have a limited number of exams or have already read through the model answers. Sitting down and taking an exam under timed conditions is good practice because the process of answering the exam in your own words is the best way to assess what you need to work on. Try to recreate the same testing conditions you will face during the actual exam. If possible find an exam partner who will sit down and take the same exam and after you have finished compare your answers.

...be prepared

EXAM TIPS

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