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If this topic has been mentioned before, apologies (I haven't seen any, as far as I can tell). But what should you do if your professor has been teaching at your school for a long time but makes none of this former exams available for practice? I have a general idea of what the exam will be like (closed book, short answers with word limits). Is it even helpful to look online at other professors' exams for practice?

A little background: the class is Civ Pro. It is a bit of an unconventional class in that we don't really read cases. We do a lot of thinking about the rules and hypos that force us to learn the rules and policy purposes behind them. I've been going through the Glannon E&E guides, but I find them a bit too shallow for the class. My professor has a more in-depth approach. The professor has said he wants us to know where the rules are unclear, but it's hard for me to tell just looking at them besides what we discuss in class.

Suggestions?

I'd probably prepare using a book such as Exam Pro on Civil Procedure. It's a great resource with lots of practice questions (you can also write out essays to the multiple choice questions and compare your answers with the explanations the book provides).

Maybe get exams from other profs at your school, and if your prof is willing, review your answers with him?

Here are some old exams and model answers that may help

http://www.west.net/~smith/exams.htm

Take a look at the grading sheets to see how a professor assigns points at the following link

http://courses.washington.edu/civpro04/exams.shtml



Exam Pro is always a good choice for a supplement and you can buy used ones cheap

Exam Pro Civil Procedure

Thanks for the tips!

I haven't heard of the Exam Pro stuff before. Any reviews?

Also, thank you for those tests. Only wish they had answers..!

shock259 wrote:I haven't heard of the Exam Pro stuff before. Any reviews?

Also, thank you for those tests. Only wish they had answers..!

i have the exampro for property and i dig it

if your professor gives MC questions, this book is awesome. It's basically like E&E just with more examples.

edit:be careful with the answers though. the more and more i go through this, the more and more the answers conflict with my professor

None of my 4 professors first semester made practice exams available. Result: 3.2 GPA (median). All of my professors made practice exams available second semester. Result: 3.9 GPA. Best of luck.

If Glannon civ pro is too shallow (and there's no doubt that it is), check out Freer; it's awesome.

Why isn't anyone suggesting that you ask upperclassmen who had your professor? I have example exams for several of my professors, but insights from students have been very helpful in thinking about them. It's usually not a problem to discuss the general content and format of the exam without revealing the specific question(s).

I have generally talked with some upperclassmen students about the exam, but students haven't been very helpful. I find that students are very vague about what they did and unwilling to go into details. I'm also a little skeptical of what some students say if they didn't do really well on the example; like if they say, "All I did was this" and they got a B+, that wouldn't be helpful. I guess I just need to find that really helpful individual...

I have the Freer book already. I like how it has in-depth analysis, but I just wish it had practice problems.

LSATNightmares wrote:I have generally talked with some upperclassmen students about the exam, but students haven't been very helpful. I find that students are very vague about what they did and unwilling to go into details. I'm also a little skeptical of what some students say if they didn't do really well on the example; like if they say, "All I did was this" and they got a B+, that wouldn't be helpful. I guess I just need to find that really helpful individual...

I have the Freer book already. I like how it has in-depth analysis, but I just wish it had practice problems.

At my school all of the TAs are people who did well in the class the previous year. Additionally, you can find out who is on law review and generally assume that they know what they are talking about.