Mastering the Law School Exam is designed to provide students with a knowledgeable, reasonable, and rational voice to navigate the intricacies of law school exams. This book is practical rather than theoretical where the emphasis is on providing the type of detailed examples necessary to show students precisely "how to do it" and "how to write it." By working with numerous illustrations in the context of substantive law, students learn to: Fill the gap between what the professor refers to as learning to "think like a lawyer" and the actual means for doing so. Create a successful path from note-taking--to outlining--to exam writing. Identify the basic skills that exams seek to test and the precise manner in which they are tested. Become familiar with the general types of law school exams through examples and detailed analyses of sample answers. Use the language of the law in the writing of issues, statements of the rule, and analysis of the facts. Draw appropriate inferences from the facts. Improve close reading skills as well as writing skills. Be pro-active by taking formative assessments in a variety of subject areas and formats. Simulate exam conditions by writing exams under timed conditions. Target assessments according to identified learning objectives. Self-assess by following detailed grading rubrics. Use formative assessment to improve learning through identified feedback mechanisms. Draw appropriate inferences from the facts. Organize their thoughts to write an organized analysis. Develop a facility with adapting the "IRAC" structure of legal analysis to answer multiple-choice questions, write essay answers, and address varying performance test tasks.

Open Book: The Inside Track to Law School Success, 2E is a book that every JD and LLM law student needs to read, either before classes start or as they get going in their 1L year. Now in an expanded second edition, the book explains in a clear and easygoing, conversational manner what law professors expect from their students both in classes and exams. The authors, award-winning teachers with a wealth of classroom experience, give students an inside look at law school by explaining how, despite appearances to the contrary, classes connect to exams and exams connect to the practice of law. Open Book introduces them to the basic structure of our legal system and to the distinctive features of legal reasoning. To prepare students for exams, the book explains in clear and careful detail what exams are designed to test. It then devotes a single, clearly written chapter to each step of the process of answering exams. It also contains a wealth of material, both in the book and digitally, on preparing for exams. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Open Book comes with a free suite of 18 actual law school exams in Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property and Torts, written and administered by law professors. These exams include not only questions, but: (1) annotations from the professors explaining what they were looking for; (2) model answers written by the professors themselves; and (3) actual student answers, with professor comments that explain why certain answers were stronger of weaker. As Open Book explains, there is no better way to prepare for exams than by practicing, and these unique materials will enable students to get the most out of their pre-exam practice.

Law School Exams: A Guide to Better Grades is the complete handbook for students seeking to improve their performance in law school. This book offers a concise and practical strategy that can be applied to almost any law school exam, regardless of topic or level. Alex Schimel is a Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Miami and a leading expert on law school academic success. The new edition offers unique insights by reducing the exam format to a series of repeatable steps. It also teaches students how to ¿prepare for exams, instead of preparing for class,¿ with proven time-management and outlining techniques.

Darrow-Kleinhaus' Mastering the Law School Exam is designed to provide students with a knowledgeable, reasonable, and rational voice to navigate the intricacies of law school exams. The text offers a practical rather than theoretical approach, by including examples that show students precisely "how to do it" and "how to write it." It examines each type of law school exam, providing examples with detailed analysis of sample answers. Numerous illustrations in the context of substantive law are included to help students learn to: Fill the gap between what the professor refers to as learning to "think like a lawyer" and the actual means for doing so Create a successful path from note-taking, to outlining, to exam writing Tailor individualized study programs Much more

Based on the latest research, this entertaining, practical guide offers law students a formula for success in school, on the bar exam, and as a practicing attorney. Mastering the law, either as a law student or in practice, becomes much easier if one has a working knowledge of the brain's basic habits. Before you can learn to think like a lawyer, you have to have some idea about how the brain thinks. The first part of this book translates the technical research, explaining learning strategies that work for the brain in law school specifically, and calling out other tactics that are useless (though often popular lures for the misinformed). This book is unique in explaining the science behind the advice and will save you from pursuing tempting shortcuts that will take you in the wrong direction. The second part explores the brain's decision-making processes and cognitive biases. These biases affect the ability to persuade, a necessary skill of the successful lawyer. The book talks about the art and science of framing, the seductive lure of the confirmation and egocentric biases, and the egocentricity of the availability bias. This book uses easily recognizable examples from both law and life to illustrate the potential of these biases to draw humans to mistaken judgments. Understanding these biases is critical to becoming a successful attorney and gaining proficiency in fashioning arguments that appeal to the sometimes quirky processing of the human brain. This book is part of the Context and Practice Series, edited by Michael Hunter Schwartz, Professor of Law and Dean of the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Your Brain and Law School was a finalist in the Best Published Self-Help and Psychology category of the 2015 San Diego Book Awards

The straightforward guide to surviving and thriving in law school Every year more than 40,000 students enter law school and at any given moment there are over 125,000 law school students in the United States. Law school’s highly pressurized, super-competitive atmosphere often leaves students stressed out and confused, especially in their first year. Balancing life and schoolwork, passing the bar, and landing a job are challenges that students often need help facing. In Law School For Dummies, former law school student Rebecca Fae Greene uses straight talk, sound advice, and gentle humor to help students sort through the swamp of coursework and focus on what’s important–all while maintaining a life. She also offers rare insight on the law school experience for women, minorities, non-traditional, and non-Ivy League students.

Law School and Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win, Third Edition is the third edition of a popular book whose first edition Bryan Garner reviewed and judged to be “the best on the market.” It combines: Clear and comprehensive explanations of study and exam techniques Numerous illustrative samples that are truly instructive Twenty in-class exercises or take-home assignments on everything from case briefs to essay and multiple-choice exam questions. Comprehensive and self-contained, the Third Edition is suitable for use as the textbook for a sophisticated Prelaw course, 1L Orientation, or a 1L Academic Success course. Alternatively, incoming freshmen can work through it independently over the summer to be optimally prepared for law school in the fall. New to the Third Edition: The latest in learning theory, including focus and engagement, spaced repetition with interleaving, and altering surroundings during study to create mental bookmarks; plus, nine topics relating to mindset, mindfulness, and well-being. Expanded sets of exercises and assignments, including new and improved essay exams and multiple-choice questions. New discussion of time management. Professors and student will benefit from: The way the book facilitates a flipped classroom: The clear and detailed explanations and illustrations will enable students to prepare well for class, permitting the professor to provide a quick summary of key points before turning to active learning through brainstorming, problem-solving, discussion, debate, and writing exercises. Clear explanations and illustrations for reading assignments and numerous exercises for in-class active learning Sample answers for all in-text exercises in the Appendix for students to check their understanding A major in-text take-home assignment separate from the other in-text materials that can be used to further gauge student’s understanding Teaching materials Include: Teacher’s Manual: Notes for teaching strategies Sample answer for the major in-text assignment Two essay exam questions with sample answers that can be administered as in-class exams for practice, or as graded exams

I have spent the better part of the last 53 years taking well over a thousand multiple choice tests. As a teenager, I struggled through high school. Armed with an average IQ and some fairly significant learning disabilities, I barely graduating with a 1.4 grade point average. However, I was smart enough to figure out early on that much of academics, and that achieving success in academics, had far more to do with the ability to master multiple choice tests than raw intellect. From there I began a 35 year study on the art and science of passing, mastering and scoring high on multiple choice tests. Despite a very substandard high school GPA, I scored high enough on the SAT and the ACT to be accepted to the University of Michigan, one of the top academic institutions in the Country. Upon graduation from college, I accepted a commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a Marine Officer, I completed dozens of military and civilian schools, including a Masters Degree from Boston University, and a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Detroit School of Law. In fact, I earned a full ride military scholarship to law school based primarily on the fact I scored so highly on the Law School Aptitude Test (98th percentile). Upon completion of law school, I passed the Michigan Bar exam on the first attempt, scoring 149 points on the multistate (the multiple choice portion of the exam), which was one question away from automatic passage (at 150 they examiners do not need to grade the essay portion). I have also taken and applied many of the Marine Corps concepts of discipline and mental toughness to the art of preparing for, taking, and passing multiple choice tests. Resigning my commission and leaving the Marine Corps in 1990, I continued both my education as well as honing my test taking skills. I currently hold 12 professional licenses and 5 professional designations, which required me to pass several comprehensive and difficult multiple choice examinations. I have also attended dozens of professional test preparation courses. From those courses I have cherry picked all of the valuable lessons and test taking tips and have included those in this book. One of the professional licenses I hold is a paramedic license. As a paramedic I have gained a much greater understanding of the anatomy and physiology of test taking. Test taking is all about the central nervous system, which of course includes the brain. However, as I explain in this book, it is clear that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems have as much to do with passing and failing multiple choice tests as does the brain. Accordingly, I have also applied many of those principals in this book.