Issue Spotting. Help! Forum

[mr.hands]

So I've done all the readings, been listening to barbri lectures and using supplements. I thought I was on the right track. Then I took my midterm last Wednesday.

In my midterm I just panicked because there was so much info and only a couple hours. I wasn't sure which things i should talk about and which to leave. Spotting the issues is basic but if I don't improve that for finals I'm screwed.

How can I do this better/practice recognizing the most important issues on an exam?

[thesealocust]

When you outline, you should be focusing on breaking the course down into a small set of testable subjects. A lot of the material you're up against - facts in cases, random philosophical screeds by your professors, tangentially related cases / case notes, etc. aren't going to be useful tools on an exam. The more your outline represents a concise and organized "toolbox" of rules of law and major topics covered, the better you will be able to look at a fact pattern and see all of the implicated issues.

If you want a physical exercise, you can create a one page checklist of all the "major" issues / topics that you covered. After or while you read the question, just mark a check / circle any time an issue is implicated - it will force you to ask the right questions about the fact pattern ("could this be unconscionable? could this be a lack of consideration? could this contract have multiple interpretations?) before diving into your anlysis.

[Raiden]

When you outline, you should be focusing on breaking the course down into a small set of testable subjects. A lot of the material you're up against - facts in cases, random philosophical screeds by your professors, tangentially related cases / case notes, etc. aren't going to be useful tools on an exam. The more your outline represents a concise and organized "toolbox" of rules of law and major topics covered, the better you will be able to look at a fact pattern and see all of the implicated issues.

If you want a physical exercise, you can create a one page checklist of all the "major" issues / topics that you covered. After or while you read the question, just mark a check / circle any time an issue is implicated - it will force you to ask the right questions about the fact pattern ("could this be unconscionable? could this be a lack of consideration? could this contract have multiple interpretations?) before diving into your anlysis.

Ah, I have just been hearing the LEEWS audio recently, and that seems to be what LEEWS chimed about as well.

This may help simplify things:

1. Determine the parties and their purposes (usually pretty obvious, but there could be some hidden ones)
2. Find the relevant law that would support one of the party's claims ---> this is where you create an issue


When you find the relevant law (LEEWS calls it a premise) then you can just focus on the facts that are useful for that law. After you flesh out both sides, you can move on to another law (another issue) and look at the relevant facts. It may be easier to think of them as just a different problems, but its your job to make the distinctions.

Though I am only a 1L so take my advice with a grain a salt...

[swimmer11]

I had a mid-term review today, and although I spotted a lot of the main issues I missed some of the more subtle ones. This goes to show that the only way that you are ever going to get good at spotting the nuanced issues on a law school exam is to take lots of practice tests and do a lot of practice problems. I honestly believe knowing the law is about 30-40% of the game, the rest is being able to spot the nuanced details, and that is done through extensive practice.

[AllDangle]

Tag

[uvabro]

Where are these leew audios? Ihave sone commercial outlines but theyre not so useful.

[NotMyRealName09]

8 secrets to top law school exam performance. The Book. Get it.

It will tell you how to prepare for and take an exam. Part of issue spotting is understanding the universe of issues that might get tested. Proper preparation should allow you to narrow that universe, and once narrowed, you'll begin to see there are only so many issues that can be tested in any subject.

[Raiden]

Where are these leew audios? Ihave sone commercial outlines but theyre not so useful.

It's their program, I just listen to it in my car and haven't looked at the primer...You can get the whole thing on their website or amazon or something.