Different Exams Call for Different Preps

While a general objective of all exams is to test your knowledge of the substantive law, certain exam formats emphasize some skills over others. For example, essay exams focus heavily on reading comprehension and writing skills. Long, involved fact patterns with multiple parties test organizational abilities in addition to the other skills. Single-issue essays seek to determine your responsiveness to the question which is another means of testing your ability to follow directions and maintain focus. Finally, multiple-choice questions test your knowledge of the substantive law, reading comprehension skills, and legal reasoning skills.

1. Essay exams

Essays test your ability to identify legal issues, engage in legal reasoning, and write in a logical, lawyer-like manner. The ability to think and write critically is a fundamental lawyering skill and heavily tested on law school exams and the bar exam. There is no escape from having to demonstrate your competency in this area.

Law school essay exams vary in length, style, and format but essentially fall into two categories: the hypothetical with multiple issues and/or parties and the short answer question. The former tests your ability to organize and the latter your ability to focus.

You should practice answering hypotheticals on individual topics as soon as you’ve covered them in class and integrated them into your outline. Never wait until you’ve completed the course and you’re studying for the final exam. Working with rules as you learn them by applying them in the context of new factual situations is the most effective way to find out whether you truly understand them while you still have time to find answers to questions that naturally arise as you learn new material.

One purpose of taking practice exams is to make the whole process of reading and answering the questions so automatic that you’ll follow it instinctively on exam day. Another purpose of practicing exam questions — lots and lots of them — is so that you’ll over-prepare. By doing everything you can possibly do to learn and over-learn the material, you’ll approach the exam in the optimum position for success. Not only does it help to minimize anxiety to know that you’ve done everything you can to prepare, but it pretty much assures that you’ve seen how most if not all of the issues are likely to arise.

2. Multiple-choice exams

In addition to testing your knowledge of the substantive law, multiple-choice exams test your reading comprehension and reasoning skills, ability to work quickly and efficiently, and capacity to remain focused and in control as you move from one question to the next.

Studying for objective style questions is not the same as studying for other types of exams. It requires not only that you memorize the rules of law but that you fully understand them. If you don’t know the rules with precision and specificity and truly comprehend how they fit together, you won’t be able to find the issue in the facts, apply the rule, and select the best answer from among the answer choices in the short amount of time you’re given.

There are significant differences in law school multiple-choice questions and as you may have guessed by now, the differences are pretty much professor-specific. Once again, your plan must be to incorporate plenty of practice questions into your study routine to get a sense of what they are like. After you’ve completed an area of the law and reviewed your notes, you’re ready to go to work on answering multiple-choice questions.