Con Law Exam Studying Forum

[grrrstick]

My Con Law exam will have 10-12 quotes from cases, asking us to identify their context and significance. Judging from past exams, some are famous and obvious quotes, but others are decidedly more difficult. I've taken these types of exams as an undergraduate in the past, but never with quotes that are as obscure as these are. How do you recommend studying for this part of the exam?

[20160810]

I did pretty well in conlaw and faced a similar type of thing, here's my advice:

READ THE CASES, ALL OF THEM, REALLY, REALLY CAREFULLY! I skipped cases in every other class, but not conlaw. Understand why each case was included within the course. In all probability, a quote is going to be something about what that case was about.

[BarCliff]

Make a word document on your computer, copy all the cases into it, and on test day do a CTRL+F.

[grrrstick]

Make a word document on your computer, copy all the cases into it, and on test day do a CTRL+F.

It's closed book. I wish it was that easy.

[king3780]

Make a word document on your computer, copy all the cases into it, and on test day do a CTRL+F.

QF 0L. You really think you have access to documents on your computer during a final?

[dougroberts]

Make a word document on your computer, copy all the cases into it, and on test day do a CTRL+F.

QF 0L. You really think you have access to documents on your computer during a final?

Many LS exams are open-book and even open-computer, meaning you have access to documents on your computer or even internet. But, as OP said, unfortunately this won't help!

As mentioned, there will be some type of hint(s) in each quote that show which case it may be from. Read the quotes VERY carefully and note every word that might signify which of the cases it is, or if you can tell who wrote it even (like anything with a revisionist view may be J. Thomas). If it is multiple choice, first analyze the quote so you can make a prediction as to whether the case is a federalism case or a commerce clause case, for example, then look at the choices and see which one is the topic (federalism, commerce, clause, police power, etc.) that matches which topic you picked by reading the quote. If it is open-book, then you can go and quickly scan the case to confirm your analysis.

By doing it this way, you are not scanning each case that could possibly have the quote, just the one or ones you think might have it.

[kalvano]

Many LS exams are open-book and even open-computer, meaning you have access to documents on your computer or even internet. But, as OP said, unfortunately this won't help!

Not if the school uses Examsoft, like pretty much all of them do.

I haven't taken an exam yet, but I've set up Examsoft on mine and you are completely locked out of anything but the test.

[dougroberts]

Many LS exams are open-book and even open-computer, meaning you have access to documents on your computer or even internet. But, as OP said, unfortunately this won't help!

Not if the school uses Examsoft, like pretty much all of them do.

I haven't taken an exam yet, but I've set up Examsoft on mine and you are completely locked out of anything but the test.

I know. Some exams use Examsoft-like programs, but others do not and explicitly allow you to use any information available.
I had 2 of these open-book/open-computer in-class exams 1L year and another 2 this year.