No old exams from my professors this semester... Forum

[Alyosha]

Last year I had a ton of practice exams with model answers from my professors. This year, I have one (with one professor promising to post one, but it won't have model answers and I'm not convinced he will ever get around to it anyway).

I am curious about how people studied for classes without practice exams from your professors? Last year, it was great because I could pick up patterns in the exams, and compare my answers with the models. I won't be able to do any of that this year. Is there a good study aid for practicing contracts/conlaw/crim essay exams? Was it helpful to do other professors' exams?

Thanks for any help.

[caoyun]

Because of the joys of the curve, it doesn't really matter if there are no old exams, because none of the students will have access to old exams. Just study how you normally would. Review notes, read supplements, practice hypos, etc. It's hardly a big deal.

[gatorlion]

Because of the joys of the curve, it doesn't really matter if there are no old exams, because none of the students will have access to old exams. Just study how you normally would. Review notes, read supplements, practice hypos, etc. It's hardly a big deal.

+1 Especially since old exams may not be indicative whatsoever of your upcoming exam!

[Aeroplane]

Definitely try to find exams with model answers. The exams you find won't be from your professor, but after half the semester you should be able to understand what kinds of things your prof cares/doesn't care about, and which topics will be covered. You can pick & choose exam questions from other exams to practice on (for example I used some contracts exams that had great issue spotters, but also had some quirky "draft your own K" questions that I knew my professor would never ask and therefore ignored).

Do NOT content yourself with short answer questions and E&E practice hypos unless your professor tells you that the exam will be a completely short answer or multiple choice format. The reason is that issues are artificially easy to spot in such "short" problems, and much trickier to spot in a full exam-length hypo. They're also trickier to analyze well in a full-length hypo because you have to not only analyze the immediate issue, but understand how it may affect decisions on other issues that arise later in the hypo.

Edit: also see the stickied 1L exams thread in the Law Students Forum.