This Week's 1L Life Hack!

Don’t Get Distracted, Channel Your Studying

During these last few weeks of the semester, some people may be looking for things to do other than finish their outlines or write their LRW memos. Sometimes folding laundry or reorganizing a sock drawer can be more appealing! Another outlet for escaping the monotony of outlining is reading and writing practice exam answers.

            Capital has an exam archive that includes tests from current and previous professor that can be found here. Even if your professor is not included in the archive, look around to find questions on the same courses and rules that you can use to practice exam writing. Getting used to the length and depth of an exam questions will help you to be calm, cool, and collected when you begin your first exams in December. You can also google practice law school exams and come up with exam archives from other schools; I would exhaust the Capital resources first, as they are closest to what you will see on your exam.

            Try different techniques on highlighting and using all of the facts in the hypo and ensuring that you are arguing for both sides (if that is what the call of the question or what your professor prefers). If you come across something that you don’t understand, take the practice question to your professor or TA and ask about it. Primarily, getting the formatting and the use of all of the facts will be half of your battle when you get into the exam room. Knowing that you already have a foundation for the exam will help you to succeed when the real thing comes around.

            Practice exam writing may also help you to pick up things that you didn’t have in your outline, or things that you had but didn’t really understand well. When you find an issue like that, you can head back to your outline and make it better and more comprehensive.

            A small break to look at questions might also give your brain the break that it needed before you attack another element of your argument in an LRW memo. It can help with writer’s block and though it may be construed as procrastination, it will be a channeled distraction that is helpful in the end.