Guide for First-Year Law Students: Exams

Your law school experience is about to change; Preparation for exam writing; Taking the actual exam; The finishing touches; Working throughout the semester; Six critical tips; The big mistakes; Final thoughts

Overview: a recipe for success in law school; Overview: types of examinations; Getting ready for law school; Class preparation and participation; Reviewing class notes and synthesizing cases; Outlining course material; Know your audience; Getting primed for the task; Techniques common to all essay questions; Fact-based essay questions with uncertain answers; Essay questions of a different kind; Objective questions.

Introduction; Preparing to enter law school; The American legal system; What do lawyers do?; The study of law; First-year curriculum; Finding your way around the law library; Preparing for class; Classroom experience; Learning after class; Study aids; Exams; Other activities during the first year; Beyond the first year; Sample exam questions and answers

The what and why of exams; The pinball method of exam-taking; IRAC : a framework for analysis; Issue spotting and issue sorting; Rules; Application; Conclusions; Make your lists, check them twice : scoring on IRAC exams; Tackling other exam formats; Practice (exams) makes perfect; Exam trouble : how to avoid it, what to do about it; Outlining for exam success; What's class got to do with it?
openbooklaw.com has additional information.

Introduction ; The mind-set of success; Drawing a bead on your professor; Studying and class preparation; Note-taking and the classroom experience; Outlining; Test preparation; Test-taking

Your reader; Scoring and grading; Beginning the process; From process to writing; Explaining your answer; Organization, signposting, and writing style; Getting ready; How essay exams resemble real life

Podcast from CALI

Podcast from CALI.

Podcast from CALI.

Discusses the different aspects of a multiple choice question: the stimulus, options, key, and distracters. Additionally, Prof. Burnham discusses the different types of multiple choice questions such as questions that test a student’s ability to recall information, those that draw on materials discussed in class, and those that require analysis. Students are taught how to respond to the call of a question, apply IRAC to multiple choice questions, as well as different tactics for eliminating options in a question.