How I did well at a T6
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:10 pm
My 1L fall, I was roughly median.
I ended up around top 5%
I changed a lot b/w 1L fall and the rest of law school. Here's what I learned. Take it for what it's worth. It all worked for me. Most of it, I think, would work for everyone. Some of it may only work for certain types of learners. Anyways, in no particular order.
------------------------------------------------
(1) In-class notes are the single most important thing in LS, and comprise 95% of the material on LS exams.
The single most important thing to remember: the exam you are taking is "professor X's class on X". What does this mean? It means, with very few exceptions (see below) that to do well on a law school exam you must know what is taught in class, and ONLY THAT.
How I used this: I never briefed, and by 3L year, didn't even highlight or make any reading notes at all. However, I took COPIOUS in-class notes and turned them, at the end of the term, into an outline which was quasi-memorized. (By this I mean: I didn't know every detail, but I knew what was in there, so if I saw a prompt on an exam I knew that I had that info and could go find it quickly.)
I can't emphasize this enough. I had friends who busted ass doing reading, then screwed around on gchat in class. THIS IS WRONG. The time AWAY from class is basically irrelevant, until you get within the window where the details you learn will stick in your head on exam day. MAKING GOOD, COMPREHENSIVE NOTES IS ESSENTIAL. 95%+ of exam questions will come from that material. THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM THAT PROFESSORS TALK ABOUT B.S. IN CLASS AND THEN SURPRISE YOU WITH BLACKLETTER LAW ON THE EXAM IS WRONG. WHAT YOU SEE (in class) IS WHAT YOU GET (on the exam).
(2) Make your own outline, alone, even if it's objectively worse than the outline others are using.
Learning the amount of material you need to know for a law exam is very much facilitated by making your outline on your own. When you make your own outline, the info is stuck in your head, you know where it is, and it's written the way you think. Even if you have access to someone else's uber-outline, use this outline to make your own outline. Your B+ outline is better than someone else's A outline, unless you have the time to do enough practice tests with the A outline so that you "make it yours".
(3) Hornbooks are of very limited value.
Hornbooks are good for one thing, and one thing only: clearing up a point that you are unclear on in your notes. Because your exams is not on, "contracts", but is on, "the material relating to contracts that Professor X taught you", hornbooks contain a ton of information you don't need to know and, frankly, the professor doesn't give points for on the exam.
Law school sucks. Regurgitation of what you were told in class, wins. Synthesis, or a deep understanding of the topic, adds nothing.
Come to terms with this. Don't mess around with hornbooks or other tools for "better understanding".
(4) Do the reading and talk in class.
Best advice I received in LS came from a dean who told me the following: "Do you know how class participation works? Every professor sits down before they grade exams and takes the class of, say, 100 people, and thinks 'these are the 10 people I'm bumping; these are the 10 people I'm dinging- everyone else, the exam grade is the final grade.' There is no excuse for not being in the 10 people who are bumped."
If you (1) do the reading (not every single f---ing page every night; but you generally keep up), (2) show up to every class and (3) RAISE YOUR HAND JUDICIOUSLY (not gunning, just more than your most of your friends) then there is no reason why you cannot get the "bump".
The "NO GUNNERZ" culture is fine as far as it goes, but LS isn't a popularity contest.
(5) Always have friends in your class with whom you can exchange exam scuttlebutt.
Information always leaks out. Someone goes in for office hours and the prof lets something slip. Someone knows a 3L who took the class last year and remembers details from the unpublished exam. There's always gossip flying around, and you need to know it. This is the primary purpose of "study groups", which are otherwise useless. Make sure you have good info flow, even you're an introvert or prefer to study alone.
NB: Gossip is also how you will find out if the prof tends to test something outside the material you went over in class- this happened to me once in 3 years of LS, but it did happen, and you need to be aware of it.
(6) Do every publicly available practice exam.
This is cliched advice, of course, but you must do every question on every old exam the professor makes available.
On the other hand, doing exams from other classes taught by different profs, or from E&E's/hornbooks, is actually detrimental. Do not do these. Never forget the golden rule: you are not learning Contracts, you are learning Contracts as taught by Professor X.
(8) Read firm memos about recent cases in the field. These cases are the sources for many exam questions.
Professors use major recent cases in the field to inspire exam questions. Firms publish "memos" whenever major cases come down summarizing the cases and implications. They are available (and searchable) at martindale or lexology.
When preparing for an exam, take a few minutes, find a firm memo summarizing the recent trends in [topic X], and brush up. There's no better feeling on an exam than seeing a hypothetical that you recognize from "real life". It happens more often than you'd think, if you prepare.
(9) During most of the term, you don't need to work that hard. During the 3 weeks or so before exams, you turn into an fierce, gunner beast.
You won't remember s--- you learned in September anyways. Get your drinking out of the way, then when exam time comes, turn into an anti-social, exam-killing machine.
(10) There are no points for writing artistically on exams. Be clear and straightforward.
I wrote this post like I write my exams. Short paragraphs. Short sentences. I'm not a good writer, but that doesn't matter for exams. You don't get points for polished phrases.
Short paragraphs will also help you check-over your exam if you have a few extra minutes at the end. They will also help you ensure that you don't forget to include a necessary point.
I ended up around top 5%
I changed a lot b/w 1L fall and the rest of law school. Here's what I learned. Take it for what it's worth. It all worked for me. Most of it, I think, would work for everyone. Some of it may only work for certain types of learners. Anyways, in no particular order.
------------------------------------------------
(1) In-class notes are the single most important thing in LS, and comprise 95% of the material on LS exams.
The single most important thing to remember: the exam you are taking is "professor X's class on X". What does this mean? It means, with very few exceptions (see below) that to do well on a law school exam you must know what is taught in class, and ONLY THAT.
How I used this: I never briefed, and by 3L year, didn't even highlight or make any reading notes at all. However, I took COPIOUS in-class notes and turned them, at the end of the term, into an outline which was quasi-memorized. (By this I mean: I didn't know every detail, but I knew what was in there, so if I saw a prompt on an exam I knew that I had that info and could go find it quickly.)
I can't emphasize this enough. I had friends who busted ass doing reading, then screwed around on gchat in class. THIS IS WRONG. The time AWAY from class is basically irrelevant, until you get within the window where the details you learn will stick in your head on exam day. MAKING GOOD, COMPREHENSIVE NOTES IS ESSENTIAL. 95%+ of exam questions will come from that material. THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM THAT PROFESSORS TALK ABOUT B.S. IN CLASS AND THEN SURPRISE YOU WITH BLACKLETTER LAW ON THE EXAM IS WRONG. WHAT YOU SEE (in class) IS WHAT YOU GET (on the exam).
(2) Make your own outline, alone, even if it's objectively worse than the outline others are using.
Learning the amount of material you need to know for a law exam is very much facilitated by making your outline on your own. When you make your own outline, the info is stuck in your head, you know where it is, and it's written the way you think. Even if you have access to someone else's uber-outline, use this outline to make your own outline. Your B+ outline is better than someone else's A outline, unless you have the time to do enough practice tests with the A outline so that you "make it yours".
(3) Hornbooks are of very limited value.
Hornbooks are good for one thing, and one thing only: clearing up a point that you are unclear on in your notes. Because your exams is not on, "contracts", but is on, "the material relating to contracts that Professor X taught you", hornbooks contain a ton of information you don't need to know and, frankly, the professor doesn't give points for on the exam.
Law school sucks. Regurgitation of what you were told in class, wins. Synthesis, or a deep understanding of the topic, adds nothing.
Come to terms with this. Don't mess around with hornbooks or other tools for "better understanding".
(4) Do the reading and talk in class.
Best advice I received in LS came from a dean who told me the following: "Do you know how class participation works? Every professor sits down before they grade exams and takes the class of, say, 100 people, and thinks 'these are the 10 people I'm bumping; these are the 10 people I'm dinging- everyone else, the exam grade is the final grade.' There is no excuse for not being in the 10 people who are bumped."
If you (1) do the reading (not every single f---ing page every night; but you generally keep up), (2) show up to every class and (3) RAISE YOUR HAND JUDICIOUSLY (not gunning, just more than your most of your friends) then there is no reason why you cannot get the "bump".
The "NO GUNNERZ" culture is fine as far as it goes, but LS isn't a popularity contest.
(5) Always have friends in your class with whom you can exchange exam scuttlebutt.
Information always leaks out. Someone goes in for office hours and the prof lets something slip. Someone knows a 3L who took the class last year and remembers details from the unpublished exam. There's always gossip flying around, and you need to know it. This is the primary purpose of "study groups", which are otherwise useless. Make sure you have good info flow, even you're an introvert or prefer to study alone.
NB: Gossip is also how you will find out if the prof tends to test something outside the material you went over in class- this happened to me once in 3 years of LS, but it did happen, and you need to be aware of it.
(6) Do every publicly available practice exam.
This is cliched advice, of course, but you must do every question on every old exam the professor makes available.
On the other hand, doing exams from other classes taught by different profs, or from E&E's/hornbooks, is actually detrimental. Do not do these. Never forget the golden rule: you are not learning Contracts, you are learning Contracts as taught by Professor X.
(8) Read firm memos about recent cases in the field. These cases are the sources for many exam questions.
Professors use major recent cases in the field to inspire exam questions. Firms publish "memos" whenever major cases come down summarizing the cases and implications. They are available (and searchable) at martindale or lexology.
When preparing for an exam, take a few minutes, find a firm memo summarizing the recent trends in [topic X], and brush up. There's no better feeling on an exam than seeing a hypothetical that you recognize from "real life". It happens more often than you'd think, if you prepare.
(9) During most of the term, you don't need to work that hard. During the 3 weeks or so before exams, you turn into an fierce, gunner beast.
You won't remember s--- you learned in September anyways. Get your drinking out of the way, then when exam time comes, turn into an anti-social, exam-killing machine.
(10) There are no points for writing artistically on exams. Be clear and straightforward.
I wrote this post like I write my exams. Short paragraphs. Short sentences. I'm not a good writer, but that doesn't matter for exams. You don't get points for polished phrases.
Short paragraphs will also help you check-over your exam if you have a few extra minutes at the end. They will also help you ensure that you don't forget to include a necessary point.
