Practicing exams... For classes that just *ended* ? Forum

[ThinkNegative]

Just finished exams for my 1st round of doctrinal classes, and the experience reinforced what I'd been told: at a certain point, additional practice at the task of applying law to facts under time pressure (and of drafting responses to policy questions) is much more valuable than additional studying. Unfortunately I was only able to finish and review about 1 practice test per class before each exam. I'll try to be faster/more efficient next time around, but who knows?

So I was thinking about using the break to take a few practice tests from classes that just ended. I already know the law for these classes, so I can focus on getting add'l experience with pure exam application.

My limited experience with both in-class and long take-home exams I just took suggests that the skill set will be similar for any doctrinal class. OTOH, maybe I'm overestimating how useful that would be, and would be better off just resting up and handling other business.

Thoughts/advice (from old hands and from other 1Ls) would be appreciated. Thanks.

[orangecup]

Sounds like a remarkable waste of time

[thesealocust]

Use the break to take a break.

Clear your mind, renew your spirit, and come out of the gates 2nd semester swinging.

[eerie_erie]

Just relax. Why not spend some time doing something creative? I think that would be a better use of your mental resources.

[apollo2015]

This sounds like a good idea, so long as you don't over do it. You probably won't have time to do so during the spring, so pick a week in which you want to do these over break, do them, and then move on from it and enjoy the rest of your Christmas vacation. I recommend limiting yourself to one test from each class you just finished, since beyond that I think you'd run into too much diminished marginal returns.

-2L

[Bildungsroman]

I think you're overestimating how useful that would be. Learning the non-class-specific mechanics of how to take an exam (budgeting time, learning the best way for you to read prompts and outline answers, etc) you should already have learned from prior practice exams and your actual 1st semester exams. Additional practice tests might be useful for learning things specific to the exam subject (e.g. your weak spots, easily missed issues) but nothing will be achieved by doing this for classes for which you've already taken the exam. Try to do something productive over beak. Or do nothing at all over break, which was my approach during 1L (and 2L and now 3L).

[bjsesq]

So I was thinking about using the break to take a few practice tests from classes that just ended.

Why not just straighten out some paper clips and shove them up your peehole while yodeling the star spangled banner?

[ThinkNegative]

Thanks for all the responses... I might try one, at most.

P.s. Eerie Erie, great handle, thanks for triggering post-traumatic stress response with that Glannon flashback

[blahblewblah]

Do LEEWS. Same kind of thing but with a good method.

[stillwater]

taking practice exams produces diminishing returns.

all you need for an exam is:

1) typing competence;
2) knowledge of the material; and
3) a game plan (how you plan to treat issues and forks with respect to different issues)

some people are just better at it than others. doing timed tests isn't going to change a lot. i would be more concerned with making sure you see the issues when you look over tests and have a game plan come actual exam time. it saves time versus taking full timed exams.

also, most importantly, break time is not exam time.

[eerie_erie]

Thanks for all the responses... I might try one, at most.

P.s. Eerie Erie, great handle, thanks for triggering post-traumatic stress response with that Glannon flashback

Only thing I remembered from Glannon.