Effective Use of Reading Week

1
What Do I Do Now?

• Effective Use of Reading Week
• and Preparing for Exams

2
What We Will Accomplish This Hour

• (1) How to Best Prepare for Exams
• (2) Lifestyle Suggestions for Exam Period
• (3) General Study Tips
• (4) Questions???

3
What Do I Do Now?

• Preliminary Statement
• There are many different roads on the way to
  success. Successful law students achieve their
  success through many different avenues so dont
  think my advice and suggestions are the only way
  to study and prepare for exams, but take the
  advice as merely a guideline and use what works
  for you

4
Preparing For Exams What am I trying to
accomplish?

• Focus on what a law school exam is trying to test
• Analysis - Issue Spotting
• Knowledge and Understanding- Knowing the Rule and
  why it Applies
• Application - Applying the Rule to the Facts of
  the Hypothetical
• Focus on what type of exam you are going to be
  taking
• i.e. open or close book
• Focus on what your Professor wants from you on an
  exam
• How does the professor like an exam to be
  structured and written?
• What substantive topic did we spend the most time
  on this semester?
• Does the Professor seems to stress policy and
  theory or black letter law

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Preparing For Exams Study Aids

• (1) Glannons Examples and Explanation
• (2) Emanuel's Crunch Time
• (3) Flash Cards Law In A Flash
• (4) Audio Tapes
• Good for Multiple Choice
• (1) Lexis Nexis Questions Answers
• (2) Glannon Guide Learning Through Multiple
• Choice

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Preparing For Exams Study Aids

• Where to Get them? ? ?
• The Book Exchange On the Law School Campus
• Room 208 Open Monday
  Thursday
• Campus Book Store At the UM Campus Center
• Book Horizon - Across from UM Campus on US 1
• INTERNET
• Half.com Cheapest and Often Lest Marked Up
• Amonzon.com
• Cali.org Great for a first semester law student
  
• (Rule Against Perpetuities)

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Preparing For Exams The Outline

• Stephanie Good Law School 101
• Outlines are essential for successful exam
  taking. The size of the law school workload is
  such that there is no possible way to study the
  hundreds of pages of readings when exam time
  nears
• True, But
• The outline itself is important, but how you
  obtain it is up to you

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Preparing For Exams The Outline

• Creating your own outline
• - A Good Starting Point Your Class Notes
• - A Good Structure - Casebook Table of Contents
• - Condense down to the bare essentials - Max 70
  Pages
• The Commercial Outline
• - Emanuel's, Gilberts, Black letter Outlines
• - Pros and Cons
• The Old Outline
• - Great as long as the source is reliable
• - Phi Alpha Delta, 2Ls 3Ls, MiamiLaw.Org
• Hybrid creating your own outline from all three
  sources

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Preparing For Exams THE ISSUE OUTLINE

• What is an issue outline ? It is a very broad
  barebones outline of the course
• The causes of action or doctrine in each of the
  major sections that have been covered in bullet
  point form
• The defenses to the cause of action or some
  counter-arguments to the doctrinal principles
  stated
• Try to keep it to one page
• Keep it bare dont include cases, policy or
  even the elements
• This type of outline is most helpful for the
  classes that have a lot of causes of action and
  elements- Property, Contract, Torts

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Preparing For Exams THE ISSUE OUTLINE

• Intentional Torts
• A. Intent
• B. Causes of Action
• 1. Battery
• 2. Assault
• 3. False Imprisonment
• 4. Intentional infliction of
• emotional distress
• 5. Trespass to Land and
• Chattels

• C. Defenses
• 1. Defense of Self or Others
• 2. Justification
• 3. Consent
• 4. Necessity
• 5. Privilege
• 6. Mistake

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Preparing For Exams THE ISSUE OUTLINE

• Cause of Action in Negligence
• (1) Duty
• (2) Breech
• (3) Causation
• (A) But For
• (B) Proximate Cause
• (4) Damages
• Defenses
• (1) Contributory Negligence
• (2) Comparative Fault
• (3) Assumption of the risk

• Cause of Action Strict Liability
• (1) Strict Liability Duty
• (2) Cause
• (3) Damages
• Defenses
• (1) Comparative fault
• (2) Assumption of Risk
• (3) Misuse

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Preparing For Exams MAP IT OUT

• For your other classes that dont necessarily
  have a lot of different causes of action or
  elements, but have cases that build on each other
  (Elements) or a lot of rules (Civil Procedure) it
  can be helpful to map the course out.
• Mapping out the course out or mapping out a
  specific area that you are having trouble with is
  a great way to interact with the material
  because even through reading and reviewing your
  outline is important it is not the only
  beneficial type of review
• This is an especially good strategy for visual
  people

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Preparing For Exams MAP IT OUT
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Preparing For Exams Reading Week

• TIME TO GO SOLO
• Consider Studying off Campus, but not at home
  Under Graduate Library is a good option
• Gather, Create, Review Your Outlines
• Jeff Deaver The Complete Law School
  Companion
• The study process can be stated in three words
  Read your outline. Read it dont skim it, dont
  memorize it, but read it. Then reread itRead
  your outline over and over until your sick of it.
  At first it could take hours. But subsequent
  readings will take less time and you will become
  comfortable with the material and more
  knowledgeable.

15
Preparing For Exams Reading Week

• When reading your outline during reading week
  make note of the concepts, doctrines or
  particular cases that you having the most
  difficulty with.
• Then when you have read through you outline a
  couple of times go back and focus on those parts
  that you noted earlier
• - Go back and consult the text book so see it
  the notes following the case clear up any
  confusion
• - Consult other commercial study aids
• - Discuss those particular areas with your
  study group

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Preparing For Exams Your First Exam

• Time to come out of seclusion Get With A Study
  Group
• After you have read over your outline enough
  times and consulted with other study aids so that
  you feel relatively comfortable with the material
  it is time to test yourself
• How Many People should be in my study
  group?
• Get with a study Group and Get the Old Exams that
  your Professor has on reserve at the Law Library.
  
• Set up shop in a Classroom, Library Study Room or
  Off Campus and Practice Practice Practice. Then
  Practice

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Preparing For Exams Your First Exam

• At first when you have a hypothetical that
  suggests an hour have your group sit quietly and
  simply outline the answer for about 20 minutes
• (1) Then have one person read thought the
  issues that they saw and how they dealt with
  those issues
• (2) Then one at a time have each person in
  the group add any issues that the previous
  person missed and if how they dealt with the
  issues the previously person differently
• (3) Then if people are having difficulty with a
  particular idea have
• the group hash it out before moving on
• After you have repeated this process a few time
  changes it slightly so that you actually write
  out an answer as you would if you were taking the
  exam then run through (1) (3) above

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Preparing For Exams Your First Exam

• When you have run through the previous exam
  questions it will highlight for you the areas
  that you need work focus on these areas
• But My Professor Doesnt have any old Exams on
  Reserve ???
• - Run through any hypotheticals that the
  Professor has mentioned in class
• - Many of the Study Aids, Emanuels for example,
  have questions at the end of each chapter that
  are helpful to Answer in your group
• - Also there are some good exam questions that
  can be found on the Internet

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Lifestyle for Exams

• How taking a break from studying can improve your
  exam performance

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ONE L by Scott TUROW

• I feel the first treads of exam anxiety
  weaving through me last night and did not get
  much sleep I put myself on a sixteen hour a day
  schedule the day before the Torts exam I was too
  keyed up to study anymore at night I paced and
  muttered and stared frozen at my notes until
  about ten oclock, when I decided I should go to
  bed. The most important thing, I knew, was to get
  a good nights sleep when I went to bed I took a
  sleeping pill at midnight I was still awake. I
  got up and had a drink. It didnt seem to do
  much At one-thirtyI rolled out and began to
  flail at the mattress Sometime after three I
  finally fell a sleep in the morning I felt
  horrible. Id had about three hours sleep and
  now the sedatives had taken hold after exams he
  writes I feel rotten. I feel wasted, I have
  finished my first term at law school.

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Lifestyle for Exams Your Schedule

• Law School is a Marathon Your first semester,
  your first exam period, your second semester,
  your second exam period, your second year, your
  third year Dont burn yourself out
• - Get enough sleep
• - Make Sure to Structure your day
• - Take a hour of your day to do something
  else
• - Cut out the 1 ½ hour lunch, chatting on
  the bricks, checking your email, Facebook,
  IM, ESPN.COM
• - Positive Attitude is crucial

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Lifestyle for Exams Your Schedule
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Preparing For Exams Your Schedule
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Lifestyle for Exams Your Schedule
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Lifestyle for Exams Your Schedule
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General Exam Tips
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General Exam Tips

• Open Book v. Closed Book Examination
• Outline your Answer before you write
• 60 Minute Question 10 Min Outlining /45 Min
  Writing/ 5 Min reviewing your answer
• Mention every Issue even if the result is
  ambiguous
• Carry out your analysis In Contracts if you have
  a question in which you dont think there is an
  offer, you should still analyze whether there was
  an acceptance. There are usually no absolute
  answers on exams, so dont cut off your analysis
  based on a possibly incorrect conclusion
• If you make assumptions to answer ambiguous
  situation make it clear that you are assuming
  assuming that Jon intended to lock the door
  there might be an action for false imprisonment

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General Exam Tips Mistakes to Avoid

• Not Answering the Question that is asked of you
  And Answering questions that you are not asked
• Everything but the Kitchen Sink regurgitating
  FACTS and LAW on to the paper
• Failing to Allocate Time effectively on the Exam
  The first goal is simply making sure that you
  answer all the questions
• Failing to Acknowledge Counterarguments
• Make sure that you used every fact given to you
  cross out facts as you use them
• When the Exam is over it is over - dont talk
  about it, just simply refocus on your next task

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General Exam Tips Mistakes to Avoid

• Failing to Read the Exam Instructions
• For example (1) If there is a word limit or
  character limit stick to it
• (2) The Professor might want a new ExamSoft
  page for every question
• (3) Check the time allotment for the whole test
  and see how much each question is worth
• Avoid Long Dense Paragraphs
• (1) Use Head lines
• (2) Use short sentences that get right to
  the point and are easy to
• read
• (3) Dont repeat yourself if the same analysis
  can be use refer back
• to the previous analysis

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QUESTIONS ???
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QUESTIONS???

• What do I do if time is running short ?
• What do I do if I am totally panicked by the
  question ?
• What do I do if I have extra time at the end of
  the Exam ?
• Im thinking of writing my Exams by hand what
  do you think?
• Which Question should I start with on the Exam?
• YOUR QUESTIONS???

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Tomorrow At 1245 Room 309

• A PROFESSORS PERSPECTIVE  What do Mobius
  strips and gift wrap have to do with law school
  exams?
• Presented by Professor Marc Fajer
• What do law professors expect from
  student-written exams?  Practical dos and
  donts will be discussed.

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Thanksgiving Break

• Make sometime for yourself during the break to
  spend time with your friends and family and
  recharge your batteries, And then return ready to
  work hard so you can go into the exam with
  confidence.