For four months, you spent what feels like all of your time studying and preparing for your 1L law school final exams. While you did have a (much needed) and restful winter break, you could not ignore the worry that kept creeping into your head, How did I score on Contracts, Crim and Property? You are not alone. When I was supposed to be relaxing on my winter break, I had a nightmare that I forgot to show up for an examination.
When you finally get your grades, what should you do if the grades are lower than you had hoped? I am here to help:
1. Take a deep breath. While this is often not what you want to hear when you are stressed, often the most difficult situations present the best opportunities for growth. Also remember that your grades in your first semester of law school probably have a variety of other factors baked into them that will not be present your second time around. For example, this may have been your first time taking such a high-pressure test. In college, we had the opportunity to prove ourselves with a couple of papers, a midterm and final. In law school, we have to show what we’ve got in just three hours while typing as fast as we can. So yeah, nerves probably played a part in your score. You might have also struggled with the fact that law school exams do not consist solely of regurgitation of the facts and case law you memorized. Law school exams require a different type of thinking and the application of law to the (usually outrageous) facts presented on the exam. Again, very different from college. Taking plenty of practice exams and reading model answers, to the extent they are available, should help you adjust to this new type of test. Throughout the semester, course-specific supplements with mini- hypos and model responses can also help you reframe your approach to legal thinking.
2. Speak to your former professor in office hours. Often, 1L professors are willing to speak with students to identify what might have been missing from their exam responses. While reliving the exam may be painful, this is can be a very informative process. Professors will usually have some sort of checklist of items that they were hoping to see addressed in students’ exam responses. Even though you will not be able to apply the specific facts and law from your civil procedure exam to your future torts exam, such a session could help you take a bird’s eye view to your overall test taking strategy. Did your professor say that your responses were not well organized enough? Perhaps it would be useful to adopt the IRAC method of structuring your answer. Did you miss seemingly major issues? It might be helpful for your next exam to keep a list of the major issues discussed in your course throughout the semester. For example, consideration is almost guaranteed to be tested in your Contracts exam hypothetical. If you do not see it at first, take some time to review the hypothetical to make sure you did not miss it.
3. Improve your outlining skills. If I had a dollar for the amount of times I heard the word “outline” in law school, I would be living on a beach in Fiji right now. Outlining is so widely used and discussed for a reason, though. It is a good way to take a large volume of information and boil it down to what you really need to know. Your outline usually should not be bogged down with a multitude of facts from each case. You should focus on the legal issue, the facts that the judge relied on in reaching their decision and the black letter law. If you can get your hands on them, outlines from students who previously took the course are an excellent starting point. You should organize your outline in a manner that helps you learn and absorb the material. Finally, if using a prior outline, make sure to incorporate extra cases and policy points that the professor added for the current semester.
Remember, law school is a marathon, not a sprint!
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