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Just wondering when people generally begin working through practice hypos as a best practice. Started last weekend myself; planning to spend most of the time until the finals (mid-December) doing just that.

Too early? Late? About right?

Is there such thing as too early? Potential problems I see is not retaining the information, running out of questions, and burning out. Any input helps.

You're fine with that approach. I started them well before exam time (like a month out) during 1L, best thing you can do IMO. What I found on burnout, I broke it up per question. Meaning I would not do an entire law school exam every time I sat down to do one. I found it more helpful to do one long essay at a time, then go over it and make sure it is good. Make sure you do them timed though, nothing like producing the time constraints to practice.

Thanks for the reply. That was another thing I wanted to mention. Right now I'm taking them untimed. You need to learn to walk before you can run, right? It seemingly worked on the the LSAT.

Anyway, I plan to start timing myself soon. Vast majority of the questions that I have do not have suggested times. Should I just rush through them as fast as I can?

No I think that is a bad approach just to rush. If there is no suggested time frame I would not rush it. If you are getting these questions from your Professor, ask for a suggested time limit. If these are ones you found on line, compare the length to questions that do have a time length. In sum, don't just rush to simulate conditions, that is useless. It is better to focus on mastering the questions before the time. So in that sense I agree with learning to walk before you crawl, but if you can get your paws on some questions that have a time limit, you will be surprised at how helpful it is to go into an exam generally comfortable knowing how much time you can allocate to an essay and how to approach that.

Started 2 weeks ago. I do one 40 minutes question per session. Feel pretty good about everything so far and like the approach because it gives me ample time to outline and do the class work while still getting practice in.

After a day of class, it is hard to have the energy to take an entire exam. I started this week, my exams start Dec. 1. I feel like I don't have time to memorize and then practice applying like I did on my midterm though, so i guess the practice applying IS the memorization this time around?

Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

kazu wrote:

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

EPIC FAIL

jdubb990 wrote:After a day of class, it is hard to have the energy to take an entire exam. I started this week, my exams start Dec. 1. I feel like I don't have time to memorize and then practice applying like I did on my midterm though, so i guess the practice applying IS the memorization this time around?

Thanksgiving break is gonna be serious PT time for me. I have only two classes with published PTs though, and one's a fairly new class so I think there only may be 3-4.

uvauvauva wrote:

kazu wrote:

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

EPIC FAIL

LOLOLOL

uvauvauva wrote:

kazu wrote:

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

EPIC FAIL

Maybe I should have clarified. But I thought calling them "exams" and putting the thread in the Forum for Law School Students would suffice.

Something else I wanted to mention that I'm finding helpful: working through hypos for a single class for 3-4 days at a time before moving on to the next subject. My order also happened the be the order in which I take the respective exams.

Most likely the week after Thanksgiving break... Trying to finish my outlines for Torts and Civ Pro first ... Luckily, I don't have a "Final" in Contracts... We have just had 6 midterms spread through the semester, and this last one will be on the final date, 10 questions multiple choice.

GoodToBeTheKing wrote:Most likely the week after Thanksgiving break... Trying to finish my outlines for Torts and Civ Pro first ... Luckily, I don't have a "Final" in Contracts... We have just had 6 midterms spread through the semester, and this last one will be on the final date, 10 questions multiple choice.

Also, this weekend's last written. Way more worried about that then I thought I'd be.

GoodToBeTheKing wrote:Most likely the week after Thanksgiving break... Trying to finish my outlines for Torts and Civ Pro first ... Luckily, I don't have a "Final" in Contracts... We have just had 6 midterms spread through the semester, and this last one will be on the final date, 10 questions multiple choice.

6 midterms and a 10 question multiple choice final midterm? That sounds wonderful. My contracts final is one of those 150 issues, last years top grade only found 75. Rewarded for fast typing so it looks like my test prep will be Mavis Beacon teaches typing.

christmas mouse wrote:

GoodToBeTheKing wrote:Most likely the week after Thanksgiving break... Trying to finish my outlines for Torts and Civ Pro first ... Luckily, I don't have a "Final" in Contracts... We have just had 6 midterms spread through the semester, and this last one will be on the final date, 10 questions multiple choice.

6 midterms and a 10 question multiple choice final midterm? That sounds wonderful. My contracts final is one of those 150 issues, last years top grade only found 75. Rewarded for fast typing so it looks like my test prep will be Mavis Beacon teaches typing.

There are pros and cons to it. Part of me would almost prefer a giant issue-spotter that focuses on how fast you can type.

dpk711 wrote:

uvauvauva wrote:

kazu wrote:

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

EPIC FAIL

LOLOLOL

This is the best thing I've seen on TLS in a while.

DeSimone wrote:

uvauvauva wrote:

kazu wrote:

s0ph1e2007 wrote:Ha I started taking PTs like 6 months before my exam.

OP is a 1L and talking about law school practice exams. Not the LSAT.

EPIC FAIL

Maybe I should have clarified. But I thought calling them "exams" and putting the thread in the Forum for Law School Students would suffice.

It did.

I've taken a few, but come this weekend it's time to get my ass in gear.

I'm playing around with hypo's from past exams. I first outline for class. Then I spend a few days working hypo's, updating outline.

Last year I got started a little earlier, but this year has been a little more hectic with writing assignments (LR Note + final paper). I'm 90% done with outlining, so I'm planning on starting practice exams on Monday, after taking this weekend to finish my outlines and my final Note assignment of the semester. That still gives me 2.5 weeks until my first final, and almost a month until my last. I THINK I'm in a pretty good spot, so we'll see how the grades shake out. I'll start earlier next semester, I think. I'm less comfortable with my preparation this semester, overall, but I still have time to correct it.

I've taken a few, but it's hard to find the time.

Everyone: How many are you planning on taking for each subject?

Tangerine Gleam wrote:I've taken a few, but it's hard to find the time.

Everyone: How many are you planning on taking for each subject?

Torts: 3-5
Property: 2
Civpro: 2

+ hypos from past exams

I've taken a few, but it's hard to find the time.

Everyone: How many are you planning on taking for each subject?

Con Law: 3 - Would have been 4, but I went in-depth through the answers of the earliest one available without thinking about the fact that I might want to save it for actual practice...something to remember for next semester. But it's an eight-hour take home, and when I actually did a practice one I managed to spot all the issues in about an hour, so I'm feeling (falsely) confident.

Torts: 6 - His exams are all composed of eleven short answer questions, and I've looked at/done three exams already. He basically keeps the same answer format for each and there have been a few questions with the same answer as a past exam. Basically, thank god for open hard-drive tests with all the past exam answers in an easily Ctrl-F word document.

Civ Pro: 2 - The one class I get nervous about, and he's said he'll only provide answers for the two most recent exams (even though there are ten on file, and I know he provided answers to those past classes). I'm doing about a hypo every 1-2 days, but his exam style is different from the exams I've been able to find answers to so I don't know how well the skills will translate.

Also, I know it probably goes without saying, but if your prof doesn't hold an exam-taking info class, try to get his own words on what he wants. There was a rumor going around my Torts class that the model answers provided were deliberately incomplete and past classes got screwed from not arguing both sides (the model answers are all about one side's complete argument), but when I actually asked my prof he shot down the incomplete answer rumor literally said "If you argue both sides you will only succeed in pissing me off." It definitely can't hurt to ask.