Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute Forum

(Study Tips, Dealing With Stress, Maintaining a Social Life, Financial Aid, Internships, Bar Exam, Careers in Law . . . )
Post Reply
User avatar
Geat27

New
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:26 pm

Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by Geat27 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:00 am

I am seeking calm advice about how to study comprehensively for a law school exam (Trademarks & Unfair Competition) at the last minute (i.e., I will be able to allot two days to studying).

A discouraging situation to be in, but I have to make the best of it.

During the semester, I did most of the reading and participated in class. But I have not ever reviewed any of the material or made an outline. I do not have good classroom notes.

How can I make the best of my limited time?

User avatar
NU_Jet55

Silver
Posts: 976
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:54 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by NU_Jet55 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:02 am

Geat27 wrote:I am seeking calm advice about how to study comprehensively for a law school exam (Trademarks & Unfair Competition) at the last minute (i.e., I will be able to allot two days to studying).

A discouraging situation to be in, but I have to make the best of it.

During the semester, I did most of the reading and participated in class. But I have not ever reviewed any of the material or made an outline. I do not have good classroom notes.

How can I make the best of my limited time?
--ImageRemoved--

Edited for ridiculously oversized img
Last edited by NU_Jet55 on Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:04 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Geat27

New
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:26 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by Geat27 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:04 am

Christ. That's what you do _after_ the exam, after you've made the best of it. But I appreciate the suggestion.

User avatar
clintonius

Silver
Posts: 1239
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:50 am

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by clintonius » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:10 am

I put off crim until the last minute. Reading past exams, spending a bit of time thinking about them, then reading the model answers seems to be helping the concepts gel in my mind. That won't be comprehensive, but I suppose there isn't much time to be thorough at this point.

Eco

Bronze
Posts: 325
Joined: Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:37 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by Eco » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:21 am

The best thing you can do is the following:

1) Go through an outline prepared by a former student, find out what's important.
2) Make your own outline, a "mini outline". Just put in the main elements of each rule and thats it.
3) Do a lot of practice exams.

You can get a B or something that way IMO. I mean that is what I would do.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


User avatar
onthecusp

Bronze
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:08 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by onthecusp » Thu Dec 16, 2010 1:46 am

Geat27 wrote:I am seeking calm advice about how to study comprehensively for a law school exam (Trademarks & Unfair Competition) at the last minute (i.e., I will be able to allot two days to studying).

A discouraging situation to be in, but I have to make the best of it.

During the semester, I did most of the reading and participated in class. But I have not ever reviewed any of the material or made an outline. I do not have good classroom notes.

How can I make the best of my limited time?
Some of the Barbri review lectures are really good (Civ Pro, Property), although Torts and Contracts are pretty lame.

User avatar
evilxs

Bronze
Posts: 396
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 1:21 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by evilxs » Thu Dec 16, 2010 2:36 am

old outline and solid memorization. I memorized an entire outline and wrote it down at the beginning of the final. I lost 12 minutes and had something to stare at and use to apply on every question. You can salvage the situation.

random5483

Silver
Posts: 684
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 8:17 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by random5483 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 2:54 am

Get a former students outline or a friends outline. Otherwise, use a commercial outline as a guide to quickly make a relevant outline for your class (real brief one).

Study the outline. Work on multiple choice questions. Essay practice takes time. However, multiple choice questions will give you a reference points for the rules so you understand how they work. I do practice multiple choice questions even for essay only finals because they help me understand the rules rather than just know the rules.

zizou

New
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 1:00 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by zizou » Thu Dec 16, 2010 4:52 am

I do this all the time, don't worry. I would spend the 2 days just rereading the material and making a shitty outline. Remember, your final grade was already mostly determined the first day of class (its how smart you are in comparison to your classmates).

Want to continue reading?

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?


User avatar
jdubb990

Bronze
Posts: 184
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:16 am

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by jdubb990 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 6:43 pm

Read and re-read your outline, and just be content with what is in it and quit worrying about things that you may have forgotten to put in it.

sethc

Bronze
Posts: 208
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:55 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by sethc » Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:16 pm

Not sure what you know/don't know with respect to your course.. also not sure your method of note-taking but, personally, I use MS OneNote and my strategy for crunching has been to sit down and condense everything as much as possible into 1 page that's as bare-bones as possible. I also use "buzz-words" and abbreviations that I can use to jog my memory during the exams. If you don't have anyone else's outlines or your own outlines to go off of, start with your syllabus - it'll give you a rough idea of where to start and how to proceed. Then, just go over this by reading and re-reading. Step outside for a smoke or something and try to recite as much as you can from memory. Also do the same thing with a pen/paper. It sounds repetitive and dumb, but it helped me remember.

Of course typing all this out would have helped to do prior to now.. but you can't get to everything during 1L sometimes. Of course you need to know how to apply the stuff you're reading/typing.. but I'm assuming you can do that after looking at the concepts. Good luck dude!

User avatar
themillsman22

Bronze
Posts: 135
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:37 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by themillsman22 » Thu Dec 16, 2010 9:22 pm

Just look at someone else's old outline, preferably someone else who has taken the class, as others have said. If you have time, pull the BLL from that outline and put it into yours and create a mini-outline. Don't panic; you've at least gone to class and participated, which helps (how helpful it is of course depends on how engaged you were). 2 days is plenty of time to still do well.

User avatar
wiseowl

Silver
Posts: 1070
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:38 pm

Re: Advice for studying for a law school exam at the last minute

Post by wiseowl » Fri Dec 17, 2010 12:00 pm

assuming it's not too late, "Understanding Trademark Law" is quite good.

Register now!

Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.

It's still FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Forum for Law School Students”