{"id":15829,"date":"2011-12-01T23:47:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T04:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=15829"},"modified":"2011-12-01T23:47:58","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T04:47:58","slug":"exam-preparation-advice-%e2%80%93-practice-practice-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/12\/exam-preparation-advice-%e2%80%93-practice-practice-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Exam Preparation Advice \u2013 Practice Practice Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[Editor’s Note: This month, faculty members will post\u00a0on their exam taking tips. This is the\u00a0first post in the series.]<\/em><\/p>\n

If my first year of law school was any indication, first year law students are looking ahead to final exams during the coming weeks with some trepidation.\u00a0 Undoubtedly one of the main sources of that trepidation is the fear of the unknown \u2013 specifically, what is the final exam going to look like and are students adequately prepared to take that exam?<\/p>\n

What I have learned as a law professor is that one of the best ways to reduce that fear is to try to manage it, to the extent possible.\u00a0In the case of final exams, that means, as an initial matter, studying all the legal principles and concepts learned throughout the semester to understand what their elements are, and how, when and why they apply.<\/p>\n

However, a student must not only know the \u201claw,\u201d but also be able to analyze facts in light of that law.\u00a0 That, perhaps, is the greater source of uncertainty, for there is no telling in advance what the hypothetical fact pattern on the exam will look like.\u00a0 I believe one of the best ways to reduce that kind of uncertainty is to practice the skill of legal analysis by taking practice exams.\u00a0 That does not mean passively reading over practice exam questions and answers.\u00a0 Rather, it means taking a practice exam (or\u00a0several of them) in a timed environment, possibly with one or two colleagues taking the exam at the same time in the same room.\u00a0 Only by simulating the exam-taking experience can a student identify areas for improvement, and then\u00a0 work on improving in those areas.<\/p>\n

If a professor has made any of her old exams available, as I have, those are some of the best indicia of what that professor\u2019s exam will look like (assuming she has not changed her testing method or format), and thus are one of the best exam-practicing tools.\u00a0 If not, then a student can either take exams from other professors who use the same testing method or even try to write her own exam questions (which can actually be a quite effective study technique).\u00a0 In short, to master the skills involved in taking an\u00a0exam, much like playing soccer or arguing a moot, a student needs to practice the skills over and over again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor’s Note: This month, faculty members will post\u00a0on their exam taking tips. This is the\u00a0first post in the series.] If my first year of law school was any indication, first year law students are looking ahead to final exams during the coming weeks with some trepidation.\u00a0 Undoubtedly one of the main sources of that trepidation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,48,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-education","category-marquette-law-school","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}