Some advice...take it our leave it

[yupster567]

Things that worked for me first semester...any other thoughts/tips would be greatly appreciated....

I took LEEWS.  Although I never really used it strictly for any of my exams, it was very helpful.  If anything, it boosts your confidence going into the exams.

I never "briefed" a single case. I book briefed and only took about a half of page of notes per class per day.

My final outlines were 25-40 pages long.  They were about 60 pages long in week 12 and I managed to boil them down in the last couple weeks. 

I went to every class and I never used a laptop.  Laptops in my opinion are way too distracting.  If you read, take notes by hand, then take notes by hand in class, then take all those handwritten notes and plug them into your computer later you are seeing the notes twice, or three times whereas laptop users are usually seeing them only once and simply copying and pasting for organizational purposes when it comes to doing outlines.

Every Saturday I spent about 3-4 hours just reading supplements and joting down notes I did not already have.  Sunday was devoted to doing the reading for the entire week.  Just read through it once, fairly cursory.  Do not take notes; find a comfy chair.  It sounds like it would take a long time, but it really doesn't.  And hey, in a few weeks there won't be any NFL games on anyways.

I did 1 or 2 exams per week with a couple of friends.  Usually we did this on Friday then went out right afterwards.

Do not study around lots of law students.  I really devote a large amount of success to studying at home.  Some schools may have great study areas, but at my school people are constantly talking to each other and not really focused on doing good, quality studying.  Go to an undergrad library or a public library; a place that is quiet but not law school oriented.

Find something to do everyday for about an hour that is completely un-law-related.  The easiest thing would be working out.  It really helps you manage your time and get some anxious energy out before sitting down before studying at night.

Well, that's about all I can say.  I finished the semester with a 3.572 and am well into the top 10% of my class.  The above worked for me and hopefully you will find some of it helpful.

[worried]

Thanks a lot for the advice.  Just out of curiosity, where were you able to find that many practice exams? 

[yupster567]

Yeah if you go online you can find plenty of practice exams from other schools.  We worked on just extracting the issues and usually spent about 3 hours arguing; which was beneficial.  I guess the only thing I regret is not actually writing an exam every once in a while.  We literally just read them and talked about them.

[sarbinson1]

Things that worked for me first semester...any other thoughts/tips would be greatly appreciated....

I took LEEWS.  Although I never really used it strictly for any of my exams, it was very helpful.  If anything, it boosts your confidence going into the exams.

I never "briefed" a single case. I book briefed and only took about a half of page of notes per class per day.

My final outlines were 25-40 pages long.  They were about 60 pages long in week 12 and I managed to boil them down in the last couple weeks. 

I went to every class and I never used a laptop.  Laptops in my opinion are way too distracting.  If you read, take notes by hand, then take notes by hand in class, then take all those handwritten notes and plug them into your computer later you are seeing the notes twice, or three times whereas laptop users are usually seeing them only once and simply copying and pasting for organizational purposes when it comes to doing outlines.

Every Saturday I spent about 3-4 hours just reading supplements and joting down notes I did not already have.  Sunday was devoted to doing the reading for the entire week.  Just read through it once, fairly cursory.  Do not take notes; find a comfy chair.  It sounds like it would take a long time, but it really doesn't.  And hey, in a few weeks there won't be any NFL games on anyways.

I did 1 or 2 exams per week with a couple of friends.  Usually we did this on Friday then went out right afterwards.

Do not study around lots of law students.  I really devote a large amount of success to studying at home.  Some schools may have great study areas, but at my school people are constantly talking to each other and not really focused on doing good, quality studying.  Go to an undergrad library or a public library; a place that is quiet but not law school oriented.

Find something to do everyday for about an hour that is completely un-law-related.  The easiest thing would be working out.  It really helps you manage your time and get some anxious energy out before sitting down before studying at night.

Well, that's about all I can say.  I finished the semester with a 3.572 and am well into the top 10% of my class.  The above worked for me and hopefully you will find some of it helpful.

Which Loyola do you attend?

[UHLAW09]

you did tests right away?I want to do this, but I dont see how I can spot the issues when I don't really know what hte issues should be....

[brewha]

you did tests right away?I want to do this, but I dont see how I can spot the issues when I don't really know what hte issues should be....

All you can really expect to do is spot the issues you have covered thus far in the course.  While some issues will certainly be unknown to you, it is still extremely beneficial to cover the ones you do know.

[UHLAW09]

Well, that's the plan for now. Any websites out there that hoard law school exams to download?

[jacy85]

harvard has a pretty large exam bank online.

[TDJD84]

how soon into the semester do you recommend starting to outline/ taking practice exams?

[jacy85]

If you want to keep up to date, try outlining after each class or every week.  I usually start mid-way through the semester and I'm up-to-date before classes end.

I never started doing practice problems early on in the semester.  I started around Thanksgiving first semester of 1L;  second semester I started probably about 3 weeks before exams.  Some start earlier, but for me, I think it's a better use of my time to wait until my outline is almost done and/or I've had a little time to start reviewing/learning the material.