3L and the City: Preparing for exams

By Maria Vasos
Chicago-Kent College of Law

Recently, to my excitement and pleasure, the editor of the magazine informed me that I have at least one reader, because a request for this month’s topic for my column was made to him. Apparently, my reader would like some advice on preparing for exams; essentially, my reader would like me to share wisdom on studying that I wish I had known then, when I was beginning law school, but I know now, as I prepare to graduate.

Not wanting to disappoint, here goes nothing — One thing that I did not know is that seemingly there is a 1L trend of going and asking your professors for test-taking help. I did not know this until my second semester, and even then I foolishly only went once to my property professor for assistance, but I probably would have gone to others too, if I had to do it all over again.

It is my understanding that many professors will give you a problem or part of an old exam to do on your own, and then in a follow-up meeting, they will grade your answer that you have written up and tell you how to better hone your work for the exam.

Another added benefit of your getting some face time with your professor, is that when push comes to shove at grading time, and you are borderline between say a B+ and an A-, the professor remembers working with you, knows your understanding of the material, and will give you the benefit of the doubt and bump you up, (above someone who he or she does not know).

Additionally, meeting with your particular professor cannot be substituted with meeting with your T.A. Your teaching assistant is great if you are confused on a point of law or a case’s holding, but your professor is the one that grades the exams. Your professor is the gatekeeper to your A. I cannot stress this enough.

On a related note, some law school libraries have an electronic database of old exams that professors have allowed to be stored and downloaded for studying. Some professors may include sample answers, but most do not. Obviously, the tests with answers are more helpful for studying and the ones without are only useful to get a feel for the test’s formatting and organization. Do not rely only on past exams though, because exams change too.

Anyhow, as far as efficient studying goes, I am of the camp that believes study groups are bad. To me, the cons far outweigh the pros. When students group together, often times you just get people complaining together, getting off task, distracting one another, or, worse, confusing each other, and the whole time in group session is wasted because you’re in no better position than when you started. I suggest studying alone.

If you’ve attended your classes and taken notes, then you have all of the information that you need to adequately prepare. This also avoids all of the mental warfare and head games that go down right before finals when students try to better their position by psyching others out with offhanded comments like: ”I have a 154-page, color-coded outline that is cross-referenced by subtopic,” or, ”I have been outlining for 14 hours a day for the last two months.” People lie to others and to themselves, and even if their comments are true, it does not mean that they will do any better on the exam than you will. So, you need to distance yourself from those additional stressors and stay focused on your own.

Similarly, my last piece of advice is to not make friends with people in your year. Make friends with people older than you, or higher up in law school years. People your year do not know any more than you do about classes, exams, professors, etc. As noted above, people in your year will just psych you out, corral you into joining study groups, and then distract you and waste your precious time. 2Ls and 3Ls are quite possibly the most important resource available to 1Ls. Students who have been in your position already and have made it through can tell you from experience what each professor’s exams are like and how to do well, or avoid doing badly, on them.

Want to know what the best supplement is to your casebook? It’s not Gilbert’s or Legalines. It’s an outline from a person who took the class your professor taught last year and got an A. It has exactly what you need to know, and leaves out everything you do not and it’s free for the most part, except you may need to take the student out for couple of drinks, which is my going rate for an outline.

More experienced students can tell you which professors are easier graders and, conversely, which professors you should avoid at all costs. Last, but not least, 2Ls and 3Ls leave a wake of opportunities in their path that need to be filled by up-and-coming younger students. They can recommend and sometimes even hand-select their successors to clerkships, externships, student organization executive boards, and even associate positions. So, my best advice is to make friends with someone who you would honestly want to follow in their footsteps grade-wise, career-wise, and life-wise, because he or she can give you better guidance than any columnist could ever provide.