today we're gonna talk about the two
keys to getting A's in law school and
why most students miss the single most
important opportunity that they have so
if you're law student you think you're
in law school but actually you're in SA
school
that's because almost all of your final
grades will be based on issue spotting
exam essays so what are the things that
you need to do in order to ace your
issue spotting essay exams well I think
there are two things that you should do
the first thing is the one that everyone
does it's the most obvious thing that
you can do in law school and that's
master the law everybody knows this if
you go to law school you have to master
the law if you go into a contracts class
you need to master the law of contracts
if you go into a property class you need
to master the law of property learning
the substantive law is the table stakes
in law school it's necessary but not
sufficient and to most people surprise
the person who knows the most law is not
necessarily the person that's going to
get the best grade on the exam in fact
far from it the person who studies the
hardest and works the hardest is not
necessarily the person that's going to
get the best grade in fact they almost
never do everyone is going to have to
learn the law but learning the law
itself is not enough that'll get you
through the door but that won't get you
an a on the exam the second thing that
you have to do in order to ace your law
school exam is the thing that so few
people do and that's that you have to
master the test in other words you have
to learn how to write a good law school
essay learning how to take a law school
essay exam is not a dark art there is a
science to it it's a skill and any skill
can be learned over time just like
learning the piano or playing guitar
you'll get better the more you do it and
there are strategies that will allow you
to learn how to do it faster
the worst thing that you can possibly do
in law school is to never take a
practice test until the day of your
first final exam now first let me issue
a disclaimer many people say that it is
impossible
to improve your skills on a law-school
final exam now to those people I say
good luck
it's so odd to me that the same people
that spend $2,000 on an LSAT prep course
and learn how to take the LSAT turn
round and say that it's impossible to
get better at law school exams there are
so many people myself included who
learned the strategies for logic games
and reading comprehension on the LSAT
and improve their LSAT scores
dramatically and it's the same in law
school personally I would take the
person who has practiced the hell out of
issue spotting exams over the person who
has memorized every law in contracts or
torts or property and the hidden benefit
of learning the strategies of how to
take a law school essay exam is that it
shapes the way that you study throughout
the entire semester you study the right
things the things that are going to be
on the test
because you get a feeling for what can
be tested and it's strange but not
everything you learn in class can be
tested for example issue spotting exams
tend to test causes of actions in
lawsuits so they're not well suited for
testing the philosophy of law or
questions of policy now plus you learn
the law better through application if
you had enough practice test you could
conceivably learn an entire class
through the answers to those tests
without actually having to study believe
me once you miss a question on a
practice test you're not likely to miss
that question again when you see it on
the next test and maybe that next test
is your final exam so that raises the
question why don't more people do this
why do so many people focus on the law
only and miss out on the second key to
acing their exam well most people think
law school essays are just like
undergrad essays if you put off taking
practice exams and at least looking at a
sample law school exam you might not
even know that a law school exam is very
very different from an undergrad essay
and if you don't know that it's
different you might not even know that
it's a skill that is worth honing
overtime and of course let's not forget
that there is so much information about
the substantive law that you're learning
every semester you're probably in three
core classes and each one of those
classes is teaching the things that
you've never heard before so there is
always more time to study the law itself
and it is far too easy to just put off
practice tests and put off learning the
strategies of essays until much much
later in the semester for a lot of
people perfect is the enemy of good and
they keep trying to get perfect at
knowing the substantive law without even
even trying to learn the basics of
writing issue spotting exams as a result
they never learn how to spot the issues
and they never learn how to write those
good essays the ones that will get A's
on the exam
but don't be like those other students
know that there are two keys to getting
a's on your final exam one is of course
learning the substantive law but the
other is learning to master the test
itself and another video will explain
the tactics for how you can start taking
practice exams months before the finals
and the strategies that go into spotting
issues and writing those a worthy exams
so if you like this video please click
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crushing tips and also don't forget to
download the free checklist below that
will help you crush your exams thanks
for stopping
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