Top Five Suggestions For Taking Law School Exams

Having survived the process three times now, I feel it is my responsibility to share what I've learned about taking law school exams with those of you who are embarking on the process for the first time, or who wish to refine their skills and improve their performance. This advice is admittedly tailored to students at Harvard Law School, since first-year exams are taken in January and most professors allow all books, notes, and computer files to be used during the exam.

1. Know what your professor wants
Certain professors want different things. Some take cases as gospel law, others require you to justify the application of case law through policy analysis, other want you to spout doctrine without reference to a case. Find out in advance what your professor is looking for. Also, look at the past exams from that professor, since professors usually remain consistent in the types of questions they ask and the way they format their exams.

2. Make an outline you can actually use
Law students have a tendency to make gargantuan, all-encompassing outlines for use during exams. In my opinion, the larger the outline, the less worthwhile it is. Boil down cases to their basic holding. Spend no more than one sentence recounting the facts, and even then, include just enough to jog your memory as to what the case concerned. Organize it incredibly well so you can find what you need to know in a split second. The process of making the outline helps you review and digest the course material, which is why a self-made outline is preferable to a pre-packaged commercial outline. Additionally, each professor teaches the course a certain way, so chances are, a commercial outline won't completely represent what you learned.

3. Practice, baby, practice
In my opinion, the best way to prepare for a law school exam is to take prior year's exams under simulated exam conditions. Set yourself up with the materials you will have at your disposal during the actual exam, ensure you will not be disturbed for three hours, and have a go at it. Not only will you acclimate yourself to the time pressure so that the actual will feel like something you've done before, you will prove to yourself that you can survive one of these things and actually command and manipulate the material. What inevitably happens is that when the real exam comes around, you find yourself rewriting the same stock phrases that you used all throughout your practice exams.

4. Pace yourself
The advice to pace yourself involves both preparation for the exam and the actual taking of the exam. There will be a lot of material you need to familiarize yourself with (though not necessarily memorize). You cannot wait until the last minute the way you might have done in high school or even college. Look ahead, try to estimate how much time you need for each course, plan your time accordingly, and stick to your schedule (though you should fell free to adjust as appropriate). Hopefully, you will have some time between each exam, but keep in mind that if you're anything like me, you'll need the rest of the day (or at least a few hours) after each exam for mental recovery. Once you're taking the exam, know that you should divide your time among each questions roughly according to how they are weighted. Don't leave yourself half an hour or less for the final question if it counts for one third of your grade.

5. Be concise and organized
When two sets of exam answers say the exact same thing, professors will give the higher grade to the person who can say it in the least number of words. Tailor your answers to the facts of the case. Do not, I repeat, do not, pre-write passages that you will cut and paste for certain issues. Professors can sniff out such passages in their sleep. Once you get to law school, professors know that you can memorize doctrine. What they test is your ability to apply the doctrine to the facts of the exam. Writing from scratch is actually less time consuming than trying to adapt pre-packaged materials to the specific case. You can also waste a lot of time preparing analysis for issues that don't show up on the exam. Reading 80 exams is a mind-numbing exercise for many professors, so do them a favor and make sure your arguments are spelled out with clear topic sentences and a logical process for addressing certain issues. Don't make the professor hunt for your analysis -- serve it to them on a silver platter. It will make their job easier, and they will reward you for it.