Saturday, September 24, 2011

I haven't had any graded assignments yet, so I don't know how well I'm doing...

Is that what you're thinking? Are you the type of student who tracks his or her progress through assignments from the teacher? If you are, law school must be driving you nuts now. We are one month into the semester. And some students have midterms in the next few weeks. If you want to track your progress you've got to take the initiative and do it yourself. The best way to do that is to get a hold of past exams!

Past exams are helpful in many ways. Past exams from your professors tell you what they're exam style is, which allows you to start writing and thinking in that style. Past exams are also great practice tools. Just because you know the elements to battery or assault does not necessarily mean you know how to apply those elements to a new fact pattern. It's very important in law school to practice your analysis. If you can't express yourself well to another person then it doesn't matter what you know.

And where can you find past exams? The library has a collection of past papers sorted by professors. Look under the Quick Links column and you'll see it. Professor Zusman from the Academic Achievement Program also has pass exams. And of course, ask your professors! They are there to help you as best as they can. They want you to succeed.

After you've taken a past exam, take note of which parts you had problems with. Go to your professor and ask him or her to look it over. I cannot stress how important it is to get teacher-feedback! These are the people who are grading your work. You want to know what they want from you.

Well, I hope this has been helpful! If there are any questions you want us to tackle, contact us.

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