How to Study for Law School Finals with Practice Essays

Well we're at that weird point in the year where it feels like school just started and yet people are already talking about tests. Even though my professors aren't giving any midterms this semester, we've already started getting ready for finals by going over practice essays. Practice essays in law school are probably as much hand holding as you'll get from a professor. What's great is that they'll usually just give you a question from a previous test and then you know what to expect when your professor goes over them. 

If your professor never gives any practice essays, you might stop by his office hours about a month before class ends and ask if he has old test questions that you could practice with or has a recommended source where you could find similar practice questions. These are super helpful for during your 1L year because you'll feel a lot more prepared if you know what to expect. So, here's what I do with mine!

Timing the essay

Your professor might tell you a recommended time that you spend on your practice essay, but at least for your first effort I wouldn't worry about timing yourself. It's better to get really good at answering these and then picking up your speed rather than trying to do both at once. Another thing I wouldn't worry about on your first attempt is that you have to use your notes to answer it. By this point in the semester you should be making outlines to help your rate of learning exceed your rate of forgetting, but it's not quite time to be pushing yourself to have all of the rules and definitions memorized. 

Spotting the issues

A practice essay will almost certainly be an issue spotter problem because those are by far the most common questions on a law school test. What this means is that you'll probably get a couple of paragraphs over a series of unfortunate events. The hard part actually isn't spotting the issue, the professors practically throw those at you. The hard part is properly analyzing each issue. As I read through the fact pattern the first time, I'll underline each issue that I come across and in the margins make a little note about what issue I think it's talking about. 

Organizing the issues

The essay will most likely not just be one issue, but probably 3-5 related issues. If you don't stay on top of organizing your issues, on test day they're going to get all jumbled together because you get sloppier when you're on a time crunch. Once you have separated your issues out, then it's time to analyze them. There's different ways to decide what order you go in: the order they were presented, grouped by each person and their issue(s), grouped by similar issues, or in the order of your attack outline. It doesn't matter what order you go in, just as long as you pick some form of organization. 

Discussing the issues and rules

This is actually where most 1Ls have the hardest time when they first start out because they overlook obvious points. The easiest way to do this is through, again, organization. Know what's a great way to organize your analysis in a what that your professor will recognize and maybe even prefer? IRAC, my friends!! 

This is super helpful because, for example, it's easy to get in a rush and forget that you need to state the issue because you assume that because the professor wrote the essay that you don't need to restate the obvious, but you do because that's where you can get extra points.

Your professor probably won't be expecting big elaborate introductory and transitional sentences like if this was an essay that you had weeks to do. You literally can just say "The issue here is whether Joe voided his employment contract" and that will be good enough. Then you can go on to the rule by simply saying, "The rule for a voided contract is..." 

Analyzing the issues and rules

This leads you right in to the analysis where you can connect the rule to your fact pattern like,  "A contract is formed when there is offer, acceptance, and consideration. Offer definition/rules... X was the offer in Joe's contract because..." and repeat for the rest of the elements. Then you can mention any exceptions, majority/minority rules, or anything else. 

This is where the attack outline can really help you rake in a lot of easy points. If you get in a rush, you might miss the points that are available because you didn't talk about what's required for a contract before diving in to the issue of was the contract voided. But in my attack outline, I had the elements of a contract so when I used that as a checklist to see what I could put in my analysis, I saw that it was relevant and could throw that in. 

I don't spend too much time trying to include my attack outline into my analysis, but instead use it as a guide/reminder. If I finish the test and have extra time, I'll go back through to see if there are any legal concepts that could be relevant to an issue and I will try to work in a quick discussion about that. 

This might seem like a lot of information to discuss in not a lot of time. That's why it's better to be concise and to-the-point rather than using a bunch of big words trying to sound smart. The more relevant information you can talk about, the more points you'll get. Simple as that. What that means for the curve is that you and the girl next to you could have gotten the same right answers, but if you discussed more you'll most likely get a better grade than her.

Conclusion

The conclusion is usually the least important part of the essay. You still have to have one, but usually the problem is structured so that it goes either way. If it truly could go either way, then you could say something like "If... then Joe did void his employment contract; but, if... then Joe did not void his employment contract." If it's not, then you get to pretend that you're a judge and based on the facts and law that you have, make a decision on which way you sway and explain why. Again this can be as short and sweet as, "Because X Y Z, Joe did void his employment contract." And then you can repeat the IRAC process for the next issue and move on down the line.

Final thoughts

Hopefully, your professors will give you several different practice essays throughout the semester. If you can get this writing process down, it'll help you so much on test day. Although IRAC probably won't be required of you, I do recommend doing it on your essay as a surefire way that you stay organized and talking about the relevant facts. 

As a summary to hopefully make it all clear, this is how I'd organize a practice essay.

I. Issue 1

   A. Issue

   B. Rule

   C. Analysis

      i. attack outline chapters that are relevant to this issue

   D. Conclusion 

II. Issue 2

Also, check out my Finals Posts Round Up post for more tips to help with your finals!

The Curve Giveth, and The Curve Taketh Away

This past month we had our midterms. Most of them were online and not for a grade, and one was for 20% of my grade. I personally think that they're kinda just BS, but what's really nice about them is that you get to see how professors structure their questions and where they try to trip you up. If you do have an online test, I suggest either taking a screenshot of each question or writing them down as you go. I say this because one of my professors went over the test the next day in class, but I couldn't remember what some of my answers were to correct myself.

As for my graded midterm, I got really excited about only missing 3 out of 20 because this was for Constitutional Law. My Con Law class is two hours a day, and usually by hour two I'm so bored I'm not even paying attention. I really thought it would be like last semester and I wouldn't do so hot, and was pleasantly surprised ecstatic that I didn't fail it.

That was, however, until I got an email from my professor letting everyone know that the class average was a 16/20. Although I am technically above the class average, there's a really good chance that because everyone else did so well, it's going to pull down my grade. So now the pressure is still on for me to do well on my final so that I can beat the curve, but at least this time I am starting out in the B range.

More about the curve here!

Law School Midterms

Not for a Grade (mostly)

My school requires all of my professors to give a midterm as a check up to see that the class isn't struggling. My Contracts professor gave an easy, 10-question online quiz. My Civ Pro professor gave us a dumbed down version of his multiple choice/short essay final. My Torts professor gave us an old full version of his final. Aaaand my Property professor made his midterm over future interests that was 10% of our final grade. 

Because 3/4 of these classes only had the final as the only grade in the class, it can be stressful. I mean, 100% of your grade comes from one test. That is a part of a marathon of tests. And the whole time you never know if the curve will push you down or pull you up. I think this is single-handedly the most stressful part of law school because it's such a big unknown.

Related: All about the law school curve

A Few Things

If you're unsure about how intense a test will be, look to Rate My Professor for advice from past students. Luckily, a lot of students had discussed the test style for my professors so I knew what to study for and expect.

At this point you should definitely be working on your own outline.  Every person that's ever given me advice has stressed not to waste money on a commercial outline. Both my professors and other students have said that either the outlines will make you waste time learning things that aren't on your test or will over-simplify so you don't study all of the information you would have if you studied your own. 

Related: How to make a law school outline

The best way to make an outline is basically just summarize your notes. The number one thing to remember when taking notes is to first listen and then write down. Write your notes as if you're explaining them to someone else and don't just copy word for word what your professor says.

Even if Quimbee isn't within your budget, they do offer a free week trial. There are videos within cases and addition videos with supplemental quizzes for each class. If your midterms are more influential towards your grade, you might consider using your free week now. If you like it, then you can just buy it for a month or two to help with finals. Of course, you could also wait until finals to use your free trial.

Related: Quimbee review

The Results

I did pretty great in Contracts, but no surprise because I think everything in that class in interesting.

My Civ Pro professor gave me a ":/" because I kept forgetting to refer to the federal rules that I was using to come up with my answers. 

My Torts grade ended up being spot-on for how my final grade was (more of that later). Apparently this specific professor was known for giving confusing tests and the curve ends up helping out a lot. 

As for my Property graded midterm.......not so hot. This ended up giving me some anxiety because I kept thinking that if I wasn't stellar on the midterm then I'd fall on my face during the final. But I was just forgetting that this subject was so hard that my professor purposefully removed it from the final so that we wouldn't struggle trying to learn it.