Taking a law exam can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be! The following tips will help you do well on your law school exams.

1. Practice spotting legal issues. In general, there are four parts to a law exam: problem, rule, analysis/application, and conclusion (IRAC). Learning to spot legal problems is probably the most important thing you can do. After all, if you don’t know the problems, you won’t be able to write the rules, analysis, or conclusion!

How do you learn to detect legal problems? You know those weird fact patterns (hypotheses) you read about in law school? Well, reading them over and over again will help you spot legal trouble! In fact, the more hypotheticals you read, the better you’ll be at spotting legal problems, and when you only have an hour or less to write an essay, you need to be able to spot problems fast!

Remember, you will earn points for every problem you spot. To practice spotting legal problems, read fact patterns (hypotheses) and guess potential problems. Do this repeatedly until you can spot problems quickly.

two. memorize the rules. You have spotted the problems, now you need to establish the black-letter rules/law. You only have an hour or less to write each essay, so there’s no time to waste. Just like troubleshooting, you’ll earn points for setting the rules, so you want to set as many rules as possible. This is where memorizing the rules comes into play!

To pass your law school exams, you need to set the rules quickly, and to do so, you absolutely need to have the rules memorized! Study the rules consistently throughout the semester, and start memorizing the rules about two weeks before your exam.

3. Take practice tests. You’ve spotted the issues and set the rules, now you need to write a legal analysis and conclusion. The conclusion will be a piece of cake, but the analysis is a bit more complicated. legal analysis is why section of your essay, in other words, why would D (the defendant) be liable for assault?

The best way to learn how to write a good analysis is to take practice tests. Taking practice tests will not only help you write a good essay, but it will also give you an idea of ​​the kinds of questions you might find on your law school exam. Check your law library for past exams.