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Are you going to take an open book exam?
Do you know the right way to prepare for one?
Stay to the end for five tips that will help you write better, and help you become more
successful.
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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to provide you with five tips for succeeding
on an open book exam.
An open book exam is one where you can bring all of your notes. Your books, your study aids,
your practice cards, flash cards, into the exam room.
When I attended law school, all of my exams were open book.
And do you know what, I didn’t get all A’s because I didn’t understand how to take
open book exams.
Here is the lie, which I believed at the time, and which many of you watching this video believe.
“Hey, its an open book exam.
I’ll have my notes, so all I have to do is look it up if I need anything to help me during the exam.”
Guess what, because of that attitude I didn’t prepare long or well enough.
Also, during an exam you really don’t have much time to look anything up.
Tip #1: treat an open book exam like a closed book exam.
If you don’t do this, you're going to let your guard down and you will get a lower grade.
By preparing for a closed book exam you will learn the material at a deeper level, which
is what you need for better grades.
Tip #2: use the three note method when preparing for your exam.
The three note method, which I covered in a prior episode, includes your notes, your
rule outline, and then a one page outline.
This third outline is what you memorize.
Memorize you say?
Why would I do that for an open book exam?
You need to do this so that you can recall the information quickly on exam day.
Otherwise, you''ll fumble around looking for through your notes, when you could have
learned the material long before exam day.
Remember, you have more time before an exam to prepare than during the examination time.
Tip #3: create flashcards using the Leitner box approach.
This approach, which I discussed in an earlier episode, is a way for you to learn the rules
better.
In a nutshell, you create three boxes, or stacks.
All your cards start in box, or stack number 1.
As you learn a card, it goes to the next stack, which you review less often.
When you review the items in stack 2, you do the same thing, moving the card up
to stack 3 or down to stack 1 if you didn't really learn the card well.
Tip #4: create your own outline.
You might be tempted to skip writing an outline since you have your notes.
But law school outlines are much more about the creation process than they are about the
content.
When you create your outline, and then revise it, you're going to begin to understand the law better.
You're going to see those connections that you missed the first time around.
Failing to write your own outline will almost certainly keep you from getting the highest
grades in the class.
Now if you’re okay with B’s or lower, grab a commercial outline or some upper classman’s
outline who aced the class.
Now keep in mind, the reason that upper classman aced the final is because he or she made their
own outline.
Tip #5: pre-write the essay exam before you show up for the final.
As I discussed a few weeks ago, a typical law school essay exam is made up of predictable
issues and sub issues.
You can create the perfect paragraph for each issue and sub-issue, and even decide in advance
how you're going to deal with a particular issue.
For instance, in a criminal procedure final create a paragraph discussing the warrant
requirement.
Then create another paragraph for each of the many exceptions to the warrant requirement.
And, since this is an open book exam you can just copy directly from this exam outline
that you created a few weeks before, which is going to save you lots of time on exam day.
That additional time can then be used on the analysis portion of your essay.
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Thanks for watching.