Don’t Let the Fear of Essay Exams Cloud Your Better Judgment

How you learn is just as important as what you learn. 

Adopting a proven study strategy will generate better grades than just hard work and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, law students don’t know any better. Why should they? Nobody ever trained them in learning techniques. It didn’t really matter until now.

Law School, however, is a unique challenge. Learning to “think and write like a lawyer” requires more than memorizing rules of law. And we’re not talking about motivation or study stamina. Instead, lawyering skills develop when students practice the rules taught in doctrinal classes.

This advice is not new. Everyone agrees that working smarter is better than working harder. But law students don’t take well to altering study strategies that have worked for them in the past. And that’s too bad, because those who adapt to the challenge of essay exams will win the competition for top grades. 

Decide for yourself. Spend some time surfing the web. Talk with upper class students and professors. Visit Lawrite’s Blog posts and Resource page to move you in the right direction.

Exams are only scary if you’re not well prepared.