Law school final exams the toughest part of every semester.
And for a lot of law schools, your final exams are 100% of your grades.
So everything you've been putting in these last four months, long nights and
weekends and time away from family and friends boils down to this one test.
So we wanna make sure that we are doing everything we can to put ourselves
in the best possible position to feel calm and confident and in control when
we walk into that final exam room.
So that's what we.
Walkthrough in today's video is the system and the framework that I teach my students
inside of my signature one L coaching program, so that you guys can absolutely
go in and crush these final exam.
Step one is to make a final exam study calendar.
And this is so crazy important because the amount of time between
the last day of class and your first final exam is minimal.
I know that for a lot of us, we think, well, if we've spent the last four
months learning all of this material, for sure, they're going to give us time to
study it, and that is just not the case.
You were probably gonna have about three to four exam study.
Per doctrinal exam, and that's gonna be the maximum that I see in
a lot of my students' schedules.
And that's okay.
We'll take it, we'll use it, but we just wanna be really intentional about
siphoning off those days because those days in particular are going to be the
most powerful for what we're going to do.
The other thing that we wanna really make sure we're doing is dividing out those
days so that they don't clump together.
Meaning we're not just studying three to four days before every single final.
Most of us can't do that because of the way that our final exams are
allocated, but more importantly, we wanna make sure that we are capitalizing.
On the beginning of that final exam study period equally for all of our
exams, because what tends to happen is that final exam period is about two to
three weeks long, and it is exhausting.
Your brain is going to get more and more fatigued as you make your way
through that two to three week period.
And so what we wanna do is make sure that we're giving equal love and
attention to all of our doctrinal.
When our brain is the freshest, the strongest, we have the most
energy and the most motivation.
And what tends to happen is that if we are not really intentional about
how we're allocating study days for each of our final exams, at the
beginning of that study period, we're gonna default into just studying for
whatever exam is first on the list.
And so that exam is gonna get so much more of our mental energy and attention.
And the ones that come after it are gonna be totally neglected, and they're
gonna get whatever time is left.
So we wanna avoid that trap and be really, really specific in allocating those three
to four final exam study days per final exam in alternating order, starting at
the beginning of the final exam period.
Step two, now that we have our final exam calendar in place, the next
step is to finish our outlines.
Now the deadline by which we wanna do this will be literally the day before we start
our designated final exam study period.
And how realistic that is will depend on how early in the semester
you started your outlines, how.
Consistent, you were week to week and getting them done
and making progress on them.
So if you are at all weren't wondering about or curious about the outlining
process, definitely check out this video here where I walk through the process
of how to build out those outlines.
But if you're finding yourself in triage mode where this is just not feeling
possible, then you definitely can use a two L three L outline as a base or found.
To fill in the gaps that you don't have time to fill in with your own outline.
It will always be more powerful for you to build them out from zero.
But again, we need to get through this outlining process so we
can move on to the next step.
So as you're finishing up your outlines, whether that's you creating
them from your reading notes and class notes, or using a two L or
three L outline, Or a mixture of both.
One thing to keep in mind is that we're no longer prioritizing reading for class.
We are doing literally everything we can to, to limit the amount of time that
we're reading slash not read at all.
Whether that's using quimby, whether that's using somebody else's two or
three outline before you get into class, whether that's fumbling your way
through cold calls, all of the above.
Reading is no longer the priority.
Once we have shifted our focus to getting prepared for final exams and finishing
these outlines so we can move on to the.
Step three, studying for final exams.
And the million dollar question is how do we actually study
for a law school final exam?
Because in college studying kind of looked like rereading the textbook
and maybe creating flashcards and staying up till 2:00 AM sort of
quizzing each other back and forth.
And in law school, it's going to look different because the style
of the final exam is different.
And so yes, there are an unlimited number of ways you could potentially
study for final exams in law.
, but my absolute favorite way is creating what are called canned answers.
So let's talk about them.
So canned answers you may have heard referred to as
pre-write or rule statements.
And essentially what we're doing is we're taking our outline and we're condensing
and organizing it one more time.
And when we do that, what we're highlighting.
Are the important rule statements, the situation specific rules, the
factor analyses and the case facts.
So all of these little pieces that we can actually use to form
arguments on the day of the exam.
And what I see a lot of law students doing in place of a creation step like that
is rereading and rereading and rereading the outline that they've already.
And there's a big difference between a creation step that really helps you
internalize the information and a passive learning step, like rereading a document,
you've already created another benefit to creating a document like canned
answers, rather than just rereading.
What you've created in your outline is that you are also organizing and
formatting the information in an extremely accessible way because when it comes
to law school final exams, it's not just about knowing the law, it's not
just about understanding the material.
It's also about identifying and getting those arguments on the
page as quickly as possible.
And so when we're talking about creating a document, like canned
answers, we are making sure that we can visually access that information as.
Quickly as possible.
And so one of the questions that I get a lot from people is,
well, I have a closed book exam.
Are canned answers still a good idea?
And unequivocally, my answer is yes, because A, you're still getting that
intentional creation organization step, but B, when you create those
canned answers in a really accessible.
Format, you're going to be able to reference points and arguments and, and
material that you've learned throughout this semester in a really effective
way rather than trying to review sort of an 80 or a hundred page document.
And so that's still gonna serve you when you are doing your last minute studying
up until the day of the final exam.
Step four, practice exams.
And this is a really powerful piece to the puzzle because when we talk
about reading for class and taking class notes and creating outlines and
building out these canned answers, we're talking about internalizing the
material, which yes, is really important.
You need to know the law in order to do well on final exams.
But knowing the law is not the end of the game because what I see from
a lot of law students is they'll come to me saying, I really felt
like I knew the law and I didn't get the grade that I felt like should
have been reflected on a final exam.
And that gap between knowing the law and getting the grade that
you're really excited about.
Comes down to being able to write a really compelling final exam answer.
And that is not something natural that we can just do.
We have to practice.
And so when we are building out these practice problems, we are
practicing writing in the Iraq format.
We're practicing spotting issues.
We're practicing using those legal rules that we've learned to combine with facts
to make these really compelling arguments, and we're practicing doing it in a really,
Timeframe because when you get comfortable enough to actually set a timer, 30, 60,
90 minutes, depending on the practice problem that you're doing, then you start
to really up level your exam answer.
And not only are you writing out legal arguments, but you're doing
it and making those decisions within a really compact timeframe.
Because when we are limited on time, that's when we really have to start making
these judgment calls about which issues am I going to actually build out in Iraq?
Which issues am I gonna use a oosh analysis for?
Which issues am I going to wait and tackle until the very end, and
which ones am I going to prioritize?
And so all of those nuances and all of those sort of inherent calls
that we're making in real time, that only thing that forces you
to do that is this time pressure.
And so all of those little pieces working together is what makes you
a really strong final exam writer.
And the absolute best way to get better at that skill is to.
Step five professor office hours.
Now, I know this step is the one I get the most resistance from my students
around because it's intimidating to go into professor office hours and they seem
really knowledgeable and they seem really smart and they know all the things and
they've been teaching this for 20 years.
And I remember my first semester, I never went into professor office hours
cuz I didn't even feel like I knew the information well enough to ask a question.
But if you can stomach it, then I absolutely recommend
implementing this step.
One, we want to get the answers to our substantive questions, right?
So if there's anything that you guys have learned throughout the semester
that is not clicking, that doesn't make sense, going into your professor
office hours can really help because professors tend to explain a concept a
lot more clearly, one-on-one than they might do in a larger lecture setting.
But way more important than that is we wanna get intel in reconnaissance
from your professors on how they like their final exam answers written.
Because the reality is that, yeah, both law school professors really like the Iraq
formula issue, rule analysis, conclusion.
That's a great starting point.
But inevitably, every professor has some tweaks or personalizations or preferences
that if we can find out what those.
We can make up those extra points on a final exam.
And so a lot of professors are not gonna be forthcoming with this information.
You're going to have to ask them directly because they tend to play
their cards really close to the vest.
And so some questions that you can ask when you walk into professor
office hours after going through your substantive questions are things
like, do you like the Iraq formula?
When we are writing out final exam answers, do you prefer or have a.
With when and where we allocate the conclusion in our answer.
Do you have any strong feelings about the argument counterargument structure?
Is there anything in specific in particular that you like about bringing
in the cases When we're using our analysis, so anything that you can
use to kind of dig in a little bit about what it is they'd like to see.
And of course if they have past.
And or past exams with model answers or a answers.
Those are going to be the gold standard.
We absolutely wanna dig into those because that's them telling us what they have
actually allocated at a two, what they actually like to see in written form.
And so anything like that that we can get our hands on is incredibly,
incredibly valuable so that we can write our final exam answers to the
audience that's actually going to be giving us the grade at the end of.
All right guys.
I hope that gave you some clarity and some structure around your own
final exam preparation process.
And if you're just really in it right now and could use a boost of motivation and
good vibes, then definitely check out our Free Law School Network Facebook group.
It's filled with over 3000 people going through the exact same process
as you, and it's a really great place to be heard and just get some good
vibes, motivation and confidence.
So I hope to see you guys in there and best of luck on your final exams.