Want to get a great grade in every class? Your first step is determining what each of your professors values in a law school exam. This practical advice will help you decipher your professors’ grading criteria and succeed in law school.
Most law students come to each class completely blind to what their professors expect from them. Law school finals are very different from most exams you’ve ever seen, including the LSAT, and going into your exam with intelligence on what your professors are looking for can make all the difference in your grade.
But how do you gather that intelligence? Use the following resources.
Seek out students who previously had your professor. They went through the very same process you’re going through right now, and their insights can steer you in the right direction on how to format an exam essay and steer you away from common mistakes that happened during their time as a student.
These students will often help newer students as much as possible, and you’ll meet them through student organizations, events, and even classes. They’ll usually tell you the tendencies of each professor they had, and you can pair this insight with your knowledge of your professors.
Your professors have office hours; use them. If they also offer example questions they’ve created for previous exams, gather those and answer them as you would an exam. Then, ask for feedback on your organization and format and the specific elements they want to see in the answer to each question.
If your professor doesn’t offer example questions, check the back of your textbook or create your own example questions. This approach will not only help you clarify questions about the subject matter but also allow you to understand what your professors want to see. Some professors might want you to explain why something doesn’t apply, while others expect you to know that a legal concept doesn’t apply and don’t want you to write about that in your answer.
Not only should you use past exams as tests for yourself, but you should also use them to deconstruct how an exam was graded. Looking at the grading explanations on paper can give you a sense of the level of detail your professor wants from you, along with mistakes prior students have made.
You’ll have questions about each subject matter throughout your law school journey, and your professors will often share their insights on those issues if you simply ask. Ask your professors about the following issues.
Knowing what your professor considers “low-hanging fruit” in an exam is important. For instance, you might focus on a narrow topic during your exam. You may be correct in your analysis of that narrow topic, but your professor might give you only five points because you spent too much time on only one aspect of the question.
In addition, you may have to find the right balance between legal rules and facts to write about. To address both of these concerns, ask your professors these questions:
Another question is whether your professors can focus on the subject matter and the test format throughout the semester. If you have a midterm, it might be a good idea to ask what content is limited to the midterm and what content is fair game on the final exam.
It’s also important to give your professor an example when asking how to approach a question.
Here are some questions that can help you do that:
Another topic to focus on with your professors and peers is exam strategies. Knowing how to move efficiently through a law school exam without shortchanging your analysis is important. Here, you can also ask about organization. Usually, professors give a point or two for organization and won’t bother trying to reconstruct a broken analysis. So you’ll need to focus on that as well. Here are questions to help you find out more:
Once you’ve gained insight into how a professor conducts their tests and grading, it’s time to apply what you’ve learned. It’s time to adjust your study habits and exam preparation, whether focusing more on issue spotting, an IRAC analysis, or identifying which issues are more substantial in the test.
It’s also helpful to engage with other classmates and have study sessions applying what you’ve learned and what they may have learned. You can analyze hypothetical situations and approach each question with new methods gained from this process.
By taking the time to understand your professors’ grading criteria, you can tailor your efforts to meet their specific expectations. This approach will help you achieve better grades and a deeper understanding of the law. Remember, every professor is different, and learning what each one values will pay off in the long run.
