Best Way to Prepare for Closed Book Exams Forum

[ArmyOfficer]

First closed book exam at the end of this semester (civ pro)

From the begining of the semester, what is the best way to prepare?

What works and what doesn't.

[Gorki]

It was really not that much different for me. Because this is CivPro I assume its an essay and not MC. right? On my one closed book essay exam I would spot issues and prioritize them on how important they seemed as well as how much I believed I could write a solid response... That way the exam got to portions that I knew the least about last, and I could worry about it at the end of the exam versus writing a horrendous and vague gigantic response for most of the exam time on a prompt I KNEW I was ill equipped to dominate.

[ClubberLang]

Prepare an outline as you normally would, then convert the outline to flashcards and start memorizing.

[3|ink]

Prepare an outline as you normally would, then convert the outline to flashcards and start memorizing.

I came here to post this.

[odoylerulez]

Don't trap yourself by going nuts over the rules. The analysis will still be the most important to almost any professor. On something that's 10 points, for example, you're only going to get 1 or 2 points out of reciting the rule.

Know the rules, but don't memorize every single one word-for-word unless you just have a lot of extra time (you won't). If you can apply the rules without looking at them, then you probably know enough. You can reverse-engineer an IRAC that way. Start with the analysis and work backward.

I think a lot of students really hurt themselves here by freaking out trying to make sure they had every rule down cold. In reality, preparing for a closed-book exam shouldn't be THAT much different than preparing for an open-book exam.