1L of a Blog Series: The Lead-In to Final Exams

Welcome to law school! This is a biweekly series with tips and tricks for success in law school. We’ll cover things like time management, outlining, preparing for exams, and more! Although this series covers skills and tricks that might be new to 1Ls, I hope that every member of the law school community can find something helpful here.

It seems like we just finished midterms, so you may be surprised to see the words “final exams” in this blog’s title, but it’s time to direct your attention toward the end of the semester. As you figured out from midterms, law school isn’t a place where last-minute cramming works. Instead, you need to spread your studying out over the four to six weeks before exam period.

This doesn’t mean you need to kiss your social life goodbye for the next month and a half. Instead, focus on adding one or two finals-geared activities each week leading up to the exam. Once you add an activity, you should keep it in your weekly schedule until exams. You’re building up the knowledge, understanding, and stamina you’ll need to ace your finals. Here’s a template to give you an idea of how you might approach the next few weeks.

T-Minus Six Weeks to Finals

Your primary goal this week is to make sure you’re up to date on your outlines and understanding of the material. In addition to your weekly class readings and assignments, identify a few time blocks this week where you can update each of your outlines. As you update, take notes on any pending questions you have about the material to this point. After this week, your outlines should reflect your current understanding of each course. This includes making any adjustments to reflect what you learned from reviewing your midterm exam.

Speaking of your midterm exam, this is also a good time to make sure you’ve answered all pending questions about the midterm. For each question, make sure you fully understand where you lost points and what you did well to earn points. Go meet with your professor or TA if needed.

T-Minus Five Weeks to Finals

This week you’ll be adding in professor and TA meetings. It’s time to get some answers for that list of questions you compiled while updating your outlines and reviewing your midterms. As you get closer to final exams, your professor’s office hours will get more crowded. Now is the time to resolve your backlog of questions so you can focus on memorizing that material. From here on out, you’ll be talking to your professor or TAs each week as you think of new questions, but this week is when you’re making sure your understanding of the material you’ve learned in the first eight to ten weeks of the semester is accurate.

T-Minus Four Weeks to Finals

This week you should start collecting practice materials for each course. Your professor may release practice exams, but you should also look for other representative practice material. For example, you might consult supplemental multiple choice question books for targeted practice. You may also find redoing hypotheticals from class helpful to reinforce concepts. Gather these materials for easy reference later. If you need guidance finding supplemental practice material, you should consult your professors, TAs, and academic support professionals.

T-Minus Three Weeks to Finals

You’re keeping up with your readings, updating your outlines, and collecting practice materials. Whether your exam is open or closed book, it’s time to start actively memorizing the material. There are a lot of great memorization techniques, such as flashcards and mnemonic devices. Try out some different techniques to find the one that works best with your learning style.

You should also add practice into your schedule this week. For your first practice sets, take them with your outlines. Did your outline have all the information you needed? If not, you should reevaluate your outlines and go to office hours to get advice on your depth of understanding. Your early practice sets should also be focused on information from earlier in the semester, so that you reactivate that information in your mind.

T-Minus Two Weeks to Finals

This week is a bit of a relief because it’s where you’ll mostly maintain a holding pattern. Keep reading for class. Keep updating your outlines. Keep asking questions. Keep memorizing rules. Keep completing practice sets. Your one additional activity this week is to create a list of all key areas you expect your professors to test you on in each class. Once you have that list, use your outlines to identify the key rules within each area.

It may seem impossible at this point, since there’s so much on your plate, but try to find a moment this week to do something personally fulfilling and energizing. The next few weeks will stressful. Try to plan a few easy meals and lean on family and friends in the area. You can do this!

T-Minus One Week to Finals

Your energy is almost completely devoted to final exams now. You may have reading days this week to give you the opportunity to focus your attention entirely on your exams. This is the final push before you get to show your professors everything you’ve learned this semester. Make sure you stay healthy and give yourself short breaks between study sessions to keep your mind fresh.

This week, your outlines will reach their final form. You will finish memorizing the key rules, tests, and definitions you’ll need to know on your exams. Continue to take practice exams. Write out full answers to practice essays and try to simulate exam conditions. After each practice set, make sure to fully analyze and dissect your answer. Each misstep in a practice exam is the potential to earn another point on the real thing, so take the time to examine your mistakes. You should also focus on what you’re doing well in your answers and make sure not to abandon those skills.

Final Exams

This is your victory lap. The final exam is when you show off everything you’ve learned from all those hours of reading, outlining, memorizing, and practicing. You’ve worked so hard and come so far. Take a few deep breaths and dive into those exams. You can do this!

 

(Dayna Smith)