It’s Almost That Time Again: Exam Study Strategies
The exam schedule for Spring Semester is published, you
can access it here. Start planning your reading week and exam study schedule
now so that you can stick to it when the time arrives (it’s a short 4 weeks
away). Start making a plan to ensure that you have ample time to study for each
exam without cramming everything in at the last minute. Also, don’t wait until
reading week to start outlining for your courses.
As I said last semester, 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
II, Torts II, Property II, and Rules, so I finished outlines in the reverse
order Rules, Property II, Torts II, and Contracts II. This way when my
Contracts II exam was over I could just pick up my study materials for Torts II
and not have to worry about finishing other outlines during those two days
between exams.
During
the Spring Semester the reading week is a bit more complete, there are four
full days without classes. But, there are still only four days, so make sure
you don’t leave all of your studying until the last minute (especially
outlining for Rules). From the published exam schedule referenced above, it
looks like Rules is the first exam, so make sure you start your outline early
because it is a lot of detailed material to cover in one week (or four days).
Making a study schedule and keeping on top of your outlines early will help you
to not look like a zombie the day of your exam.
Spring
Semester finals seemed to me to be less intimidating because I had already
taken exams the first semester and I knew a little bit of what to expect. Make
sure you don’t rely on this aspect too much, because the exams may not look
anything like Fall Semester’s, even if the professor is the same person. Also,
don’t neglect your final LRW paper, make sure you spend a good amount of time
and brainpower making your it great. It
will help you to get a job (by using it as a writing sample), be a better
attorney (by learning an invaluable skill), and may land you a spot on law
review for next year (by being one of the top two students in the writing
class).
