| Topic Name: |
What does it take to get in top 15%? |
| Message Name: |
Success |
| Date Posted: |
10/25/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I agree with prior posters that taking as many practice exams, preferably old exams from the same professor, is absolutely key. I have had several exams where professors gave virtually the same questions. If they also have old answers available, that is also good. I also have to say, I did brief every case my first year, although never after that. And I did do my own outlines, just because it's a great review of class notes, then compared the outline with old outlines, to see if I missed anything, which I usually did. :) However, I have to say, if you were so low in your class, it seems like there may be some study skills issues that just taking practice exams won't completely fix. Or it could be that you needed time to learn how to take law school exams. In either case, you should see if there is any academic assistance available to you from the school; they have an interest in their students doing well. Also, I might go back to my professors and ask them specifically to tell me what I did wrong on the exam. That can be very helpful too. Good luck. |
| Message: |
One thing I have to add (btw I also finished my first year within top 5% of my class) is that you should talk to students who did well--by that I mean top 1-2 students in your professor's class (even if they did not necessarily make law review--every professor is different--you want to learn each's nuances--ant these people are the ones who clearly knew what the professor wanted in the exam). You'd be surprised how many top 5 or 10% of the students in your class got a B in the particular class you're taking, or by luck just made it in that class because other people might have messed up (or it might even be strategic--i.e., why kill yourself for a 3 credit class, when you can get an A in a 6 credit class if you study twice as hard for that class)--and I believe despite their credentials, they can't really help you. Getting model answers from the professor might help, but everyone will have them, and they don't tend to be very detailed--rememvber that even if a professor distributes a student's answer, the student was under exam pressure, so even if you hit all the same points in a practice exam, there's no guarantee you'll hit them with the exam pressure. Get real answers from these people--don't settle for "study hard, know the material, and you'll do well!"--It's not that simple. Many upperclass(wo)men are extremely helpful and will agree to review your practice exam answer with you and recommend how to tailor your answers to a particular professor.
Besides that--I did brief every case and outlined the notes cases (many of my professors claimed they didn't care for case names--but when reviewing my graded finals, I saw they did and citing note cases scored me many brownie points)--but this isn't true for all professors--the key is: find out early and gear your study methods toward that goal!!! Remember, no one cares after your first year how well you know contracts--they want to know how well you did on your exam!
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