Law school exams are unlike exams you’ve taken before.
Knowing what to expect will help ease your anxiety and lower your stress so that you can approach the exams with confidence.
To be successful in a law school exam, you will be expected to apply your knowledge, not simply regurgitate it.
Most law schools divide students into different sections during their first year. So, there might be two or three different sections, and although every section takes the same classes, they usually have different professors, and each professor will prepare a different exam. Those exams will likely have a combination of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and a long essay question.
Usually, an essay fact pattern will be one to three pages long. The fact pattern is basically a story in which a lot happens, and a lot of legal issues will be found within the story.
In answering a long essay question, you are expected to identify as many of the relevant issues as possible, accurately state the law for those issues, apply the law to the facts, and reach a well-reasoned conclusion.
Many law school exams are open book, which can provide a sense of comfort, this doesn’t mean you can rely on your outline or notes too much. You shouldn’t think that if an exam is open book you don’t have to memorize the law and the best way to prepare for this kind of exam is still to practice.
Law school exams are generally three to four hours long and require you to be physically as well as mentally prepared. Doing practice exams ahead of time will help you get used to sitting and taking an exam for this lengthy period of time and you should make sure you have everything you need to write the exam on the day.
Most law schools divide students into different sections during their first year. So, there might be two or three different sections, and although every section takes the same classes, they usually have different professors, and each professor will prepare a different exam. Those exams will likely have a combination of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and a long essay question.
Usually, an essay fact pattern will be one to three pages long. The fact pattern is basically a story in which a lot happens, and a lot of legal issues will be found within the story.
In answering a long essay question, you are expected to identify as many of the relevant issues as possible, accurately state the law for those issues, apply the law to the facts, and reach a well-reasoned conclusion.
Many law school exams are open book, which can provide a sense of comfort, this doesn’t mean you can rely on your outline or notes too much. You shouldn’t think that if an exam is open book you don’t have to memorize the law and the best way to prepare for this kind of exam is still to practice.
Law school exams are generally three to four hours long and require you to be physically as well as mentally prepared. Doing practice exams ahead of time will help you get used to sitting and taking an exam for this lengthy period of time and you should make sure you have everything you need to write the exam on the day.
Preparing for Law School Exams
Make your outlines.
In order to learn how to answer law school exams and before you attempt to answer the law school exam questions you must first have outlines that you have made and that you are familiar enough with to know what your outlines include.
From the start of each semester, you should set aside time to review your class notes and case briefs and prepare outlines from that material. This will require discipline and patience but remember that there is little point in making case briefs and taking notes if you’re not going to review and use them. If you regularly take the time to review your notes and briefs and prepare outlines, you will be going a long way to helping yourself succeed in preparing for and taking exams. By taking the time to do an outline each week, by the time it comes to study for your exams you will already have a complete outline of the course material.
Learn your outlines.
Creating your outlines is one important step. Learning them is the next step. Before you answer any exam question, you need to know the law, as every exam question will ask you to apply the law to a fact pattern that you are given.
After all, if you don’t know the law, you can’t apply it. There is no strategy, tool, or tip that will help you succeed on a law school exam if you don’t take the time to thoroughly know the law you are being examined on.
Even with open book exams, those who do the best will rarely even refer to their outlines, which are only there as security if you really get stuck – which you won’t if you know your outlines, and therefore know the law. Getting to know your outline on a regular basis will help you prepare and use your outlines properly.
Organise your outlines to use on Exam Day.
Make sure that you take the time to organise your outlines so that they are as user-friendly as possible in the event you do need to refer to them.
Law school exams are written so that they should take you the majority of time to answer the questions. There is little, if any time, for you to flip through your outline and if you need to do so in order to determine how you will answer each question you’re going to run out of time.
If your outline is tabbed or has a table of contents you will be able use your outline quickly and efficiently during the exam. You can also tab your outline or prepare a table of contents during the process of learning and quizzing yourself on your outline.
Practice exams
If you prepare and learn your outlines, you will have time to do practice exams and practice exams are important. With open book exams, professors will expect more than basic statements of legal rules or principles. They will be looking for answers that show full and appropriate analysis.
Completing a practice exam is only the first step. The second step is to review your answer against the model answer which has (hopefully) been provided. and/or grading rubric.
The second step will help you determine if you have trouble with organization, timing, issue spotting, and/or aspects of the substantive law. Then you can work on solving any of these problem areas that you have identified.
Doing practice exams can help you avoid any feelings of panic or that you didn’t study enough on exam day. If you take the time to find and complete past exams from your professors, you should be able to write those exams barely referring to your outlines. When you can do that, you will be ready to write your final exams when you find that paper in front of you on exam day and the exam proctor tells you to begin.
Top Tips When Preparing for Law Exams
General Tips for Studying
Avoid distractions and study in bright light.
Get enough sleep and take breaks while studying. Study for 45-50 minutes, give yourself a 10–15-minute break.
Start with the tough stuff and schedule the time you have left. Cramming won’t work.
General Preparation Tips
Review notes, reading and other sources to create your own outline.
Focus on filling in gaps on issues you don’t understand and refreshing your recollection of the material.
If you use a study group, set meetings for specific topics & discussions & don’t waste time.
Focus on legal analysis but don’t dwell on minor issues. Most points will be awarded for major areas and issues discussed in the course.
If you know you’re going to get a question about a specific issue, create a specific outline on that issue.
General Tips for taking Practice Exams.
The best preparation you can do is to take as many practice exams as you can.
Don’t take practice exams until your outline is up to date, at the end of the semester.
Try to do at least one timed practice exam under conditions that simulate those of an actual exam.
Taking Law School Exams
The exam is on your desk. Time has started. What do you do now?
1. Review the entire exam.
Take note of points/time allotted for each question. This will let you use your time wisely as keep an eye on the clock! Don’t take too long writing out your answer to the first portion of the exam. You will run out of time for the remainder of the questions and miss out on valuable points!
2. For each question:
Read the question word for word; do not skim. Then, read it again.
Circle important words/facts and note potential issues in the margin.
Take a few minutes to figure out who the parties are, which facts are relevant, and the issues you want to discuss as this will save you time as you begin to write your answer and prevent you from wasting time rereading the fact pattern as you analyse each issue.
Law school exams require you to spot and analyse all the relevant issues. Do not make the mistake of focusing all of your time discussing the obvious issues and failing to discuss the more challenging issues.
3. Refer to your checklist and match the facts to potential rules of law.
4. Determine the issues that need resolution.
Remember that a law school exam is not intended to test your ability to outline-dump. It is intended to test your ability to determine which issues are presented in the fact pattern, and how these issues fit into the overall issues that your professor wants you to address. Make sure that your response is focused and answers the question.
5. Organize and brainstorm before beginning your answer.
Break a long issue spotter question into sections to make it more manageable.
Then, sketch an outline before you start to write your answer.
6. Organize your answer and only answer the question asked
Answering law school exam questions using the IRAC Method
The IRAC method is a commonly used method for writing law school exam answers.
The letters in IRAC stands for the following words:
• I = issue
• R = rule
• A = analysis
• C = conclusion
To use the IRAC method is a formula in which you fill in the blanks for each issue that is spotted:
The issue is ___________.
The rule is ___________.
A court would analyse it as follows: [apply the law to the facts].
In conclusion, ___________ will likely win.
I – Issue
What is the legal problem set out in the facts?
It is important that you identify most, if not all, of the issues in your exam fact pattern. Write down the issue. Explicitly say, “The issue is whether . . ..” Remember that many times, the fact pattern will not give you any hints as to what the issues are. It will just say “Discuss the issues” or “Discuss.” Thus, it will be up to you to spot all of the issues.
R – Rule
State the rule and its elements clearly.
Use the rule to structure your analysis.
For each issue that you identify, state the rule of law that governs the issue. Make sure that you state the relevant rules of law. Some students will write down all of the rules of law that they have learned to try to impress the professor. However, you don’t get points for these and you are wasting time writing them all down.
A – Analysis
This is where most of the points are awarded.
Explain how these facts can/should be interpreted under the given rule. Explain the legal significance or consequence of each relevant fact. Use cases where appropriate.
C – Conclusion
State which party is more likely to win and explain your reasoning.
The conclusion answers the question, “Who has the better legal argument?” The conclusion that you arrive at is not as important as the analysis that you provide.
Top 10 Tips When Taking Law Exams
Good answers need to:
resolve the major issues;
argue both sides when appropriate but come to a conclusion; and,
support that conclusion through legal analysis using rules and facts
Be clear and concise. Keep paragraphs simple, direct and clear.
Don’t invent facts or “assume” issues away. “Assuming acceptance….”
Don’t simply recite the facts or the law in your answer. The only facts you should include are those that are relevant or determinative to your answer. The only law you give is law you’re going to use.
Do not exceed word limits if one is given as anything over won’t be graded.
Manage your time. Never write “out of time” on your exam. Better to jot down an outline of what you were planning to talk about.
Don’t waste time looking up/memorizing case names unless your professor is expecting them.
Read your answer when you’ve finished. Ask yourself: Did you answer the question asked?
Words like “obviously” and “clearly” appear in bad answers. You should be using “because” and “therefore.” Justify your conclusions.
Use abbreviations and headings where appropriate.