This Week's 1L Life Hack!

Exam Strategy: Make a Plan for Exam Week

Don’t get caught without a plan when reading week starts. Make a plan to study so that you are able to study effectively and get rest in between finals. That way you will have less stress (if that is possible) and you will be able to power through to the end of finals.

            The school normally gives approximately 48 hours between finals during your first year. The rule is that you must have 24 hours between exams, this means 24 hours from start time to start time. During those last hours before the exam, you will naturally be studying only for the next exam.  Make a plan to fit in studying for the other exams during reading week and over Thanksgiving break. 

            My strategy was to work on my last exam first during reading week.  I finished my outline for each class in the reverse order of exams.  For example, my exam schedule was Contracts, Torts, Property, and Criminal Law, so I finished outlines in the reverse order Criminal, Property, Torts, and Contracts. This way when my Contracts exam was over I could just pick up my study materials for Torts and not have to worry about finishing other outlines during those two days between exams.

            The reading week for fall exams is really only two days, Thursday 12/3 and Friday 12/4, so make sure you get ahead of the game by studying and finishing outlines over the Thanksgiving break. Two days is not enough time (for most people) to write an outline and get ready for an exam!

            Don’t forget to think about little things like where you are going to sit during the exam beforehand (Do you need to be facing the clock? Is the exam in a different room than your normal classroom? Are you going to type or write the exam?). Make sure you get to the exam room early so that you can set up in the seat that you want and get comfortable before the exam starts.  The last thing that anyone needs is to be late to an exam!