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Hey all,

So I was wondering if those of you 2Ls and 3Ls that managed to do well 1L (or even those that didn't and learned from it) could enlighten us a bit on what you were doing this time last year.

I'm getting a bit nervous - I've basically finished outlining one class and took my first practice exam, and am starting to work on finishing up the reading and outlining for the other two. I'm trying to mix in some E&E practice problems as well. For "exam prep" I'm going over GTM again.

Any particular tips for the weeks leading up to the first exam? I feel like I've kept up pretty well all semester, but now am getting pretty nervous with the task ahead.

Started studying 4 weeks before finals. Spent 1 week per class, in reverse order (i.e., study last final first, first final last). Outlining like a madman, practice tests, E&E questions, get together with someone smarter than me and review our answers to a practice exam, watch BarBri videos, play some GTA and Battlefield, read outlines over, make them memorizable, and practice writing out some analysis.. mostly working on outlines..

Lockfast wrote:Started studying 4 weeks before finals. Spent 1 week per class, in reverse order (i.e., study last final first, first final last). Outlining like a madman, practice tests, E&E questions, get together with someone smarter than me and review our answers to a practice exam, watch BarBri videos, play some GTA and Battlefield, read outlines over, make them memorizable, and practice writing out some analysis.. mostly working on outlines..

Thanks! I'm also trying to do the 1 week/class method, although in reverse order of yours. After taking my first contracts exam, I realized my actual 30 page outline is pretty unwieldy, so I'm gonna try and make an attack outline soon.

What kind of hours were you putting in?

Above poster's approach was close to mine, and I did well first semester. I was somewhere around top 2% after my first semester. I had a poor second semester, and slipped to around top 10%.

I probably put in about 40-50 hours a week of finals prep for the month before finals. I did not study during the exam period except to read material I had already written or typed. Putting in substantially more work than that is probably overkill. Ignore anyone in your class that claims to work 80 hours. They are either lying, or are forced to do that because they've slacked all year.

I never used the BarBri videos aside from my Professional Responsibility class (the MPRE video is free, and you can also use that for your class). I've heard a few of those are good. Might be worth looking in to.

hellojd wrote:

Lockfast wrote:Started studying 4 weeks before finals. Spent 1 week per class, in reverse order (i.e., study last final first, first final last). Outlining like a madman, practice tests, E&E questions, get together with someone smarter than me and review our answers to a practice exam, watch BarBri videos, play some GTA and Battlefield, read outlines over, make them memorizable, and practice writing out some analysis.. mostly working on outlines..

Thanks! I'm also trying to do the 1 week/class method, although in reverse order of yours. After taking my first contracts exam, I realized my actual 30 page outline is pretty unwieldy, so I'm gonna try and make an attack outline soon.

What kind of hours were you putting in?

I'm unbelievably lazy, but I put in maybe 5-6 hours after classes and 9-11 hours when I didn't have classes. I finished top 5%.

People talk about E&Es but are those that useful after you finish 1L/the core classes?

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I did mostly 4-5 hour days the 3rd week before finals and once classes were over, 8-10 hours for the next 2 weeks. I spent wayyyyyy to much time making flashcards that I never used. Finally with a little under 2 weeks left I realized that making outlines was the way to go, just wish I had ditched the flash cards sooner. I also spent way too much time studying for Contracts than any other class because it was my first final and the most intimidating. I did well on it, but at the detriment of my Torts final (my 4 credit class) which dragged my GPA down a bit. That was definitely my biggest mistake.

Overall I kept my scholarship so I was happy but definitely could have done better if I was able to do the month leading up to finals all over again.

Did people ultimately feel like their longer, say 20-30 page outlines were best for the tests? Or were the 10-12 page attack outlines the way to go?

TLSaul2001 wrote:I did mostly 4-5 hour days the 3rd week before finals and once classes were over, 8-10 hours for the next 2 weeks. I spent wayyyyyy to much time making flashcards that I never used. Finally with a little under 2 weeks left I realized that making outlines was the way to go, just wish I had ditched the flash cards sooner. I also spent way too much time studying for Contracts than any other class because it was my first final and the most intimidating. I did well on it, but at the detriment of my Torts final (my 4 credit class) which dragged my GPA down a bit. That was definitely my biggest mistake.

Overall I kept my scholarship so I was happy but definitely could have done better if I was able to do the month leading up to finals all over again.

Thanks for the input. So you're saying if you were able to do the month over again, the main difference is you'd put all the emphasis on outlining?

Also general question: how many practice tests / E&E problems did you guys go through for each class? What was too little/too much?