CALI Resources
CALI has several lessons for exam success. Here are a few suggestions.
Advanced Exam Writing: Using Cases on Final Exams: This lesson helps students understand where cases fit in a final exam answer and develop arguments based on cases. Students' exam arguments should improve using this lesson's techniques. This lesson also includes video commentary from the author that expands on the material in the lesson.
Attacking Exams: This lesson will teach you the best ways to prepare for exams, and the best ways to organize your response on the day of your exam.
Legal Writing v. Exam Writing: This lesson explains some key differences between legal writing and exam writing. First, the lesson demonstrates the relationship between legal writing and exam writing. Next, the lesson explains the differences between legal writing and exam writing. After you complete this lesson you will be able to transfer writing and analysis skills learned in your legal writing course to your final exams.
CALI's Director of Curriculum Development, Deb Quentel, spoke with six law professors about outlines, studying for class, preparing for exams, time management, and how professors grade exams. The conversations were recorded as podcasts. While these podcasts are not intended to take the place of a conversation with your professor, the professors hope that these podcasts give law students additional insight into the exam process.
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students--Panel 1
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students--Panel 2
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students--Panel 3
West Academic Study Aids
How to Write Law Exams by ISBN: 9781647080990Publication Date: 2020-09-14Written for every law student who ever wondered how to get better grades in law school, How to Write Law Exams: IRAC Perfected provides students of all levels with a detailed, comprehensive, and practical guide to success on law school exams. What’s more, How to Write Law Exams applies equally to all subject matters, making this text an ideal supplement for every law school course.
Focuses on law school and bar exams rather than the kind of assignments seen in legal writing class. As such, the book helps students improve their grades in all of their substantive courses, not just in their first year legal writing class.
Provides readers with a proven and easy-to-implement means of maximizing points on a law school exam. Rather than repeating vague generalities about grammar and style or providing simple bullet-point lists as other writing guides do, this text breaks the well-known IRAC method of legal writing into comprehensible segments and gives students the tools needed to master their law exams.
Provides readers with detailed student-written examples of the IRAC method in action. Annotated with line-by-line critiques, these sample essays show readers exactly what can go wrong in a law school exam and how to fix those problems before they appear on a graded paper.
Mastering the Law School Exam by ISBN: 9781634592253Publication Date: 2023-01-18Mastering the Law School Exam is designed to provide students with a knowledgeable, reasonable, and rational voice to navigate the intricacies of law school exams. This book is practical rather than theoretical where the emphasis is on providing the type of detailed examples necessary to show students precisely “how to do it” and “how to write it.”
Books From the Library Catalog
Law School Exams by Call Number: UM Law Stacks KF283 .S335 2022ISBN: 9781531023751Publication Date: 2022-01-01"Law School Exams: A Guide to Better Grades is the complete handbook for students seeking to improve their performance in law school. This book offers a concise and practical strategy that can be applied to almost any law school exam, regardless of topic or level. Alex Schimel is a Lecturer-in-Law at the University of Miami and a leading expert on law school academic success. The new edition offers unique insights by reducing the exam format to a series of repeatable steps. It also teaches students how to "prepare for exams, instead of preparing for class," with proven time-management and outlining techniques"-- Provided by publisher
Open Book by Call Number: UMLAW Reserve KF283 .F75 2011ISBN: 9781454806073Publication Date: 2011-07-26Contents The what and why of exams -- The pinball method of exam-taking -- IRAC : a framework for analysis -- Issue spotting and issue sorting -- Rules -- Application -- Conclusions -- Make your lists, check them twice : scoring on irac exams -- Tackling other exam formats -- Practice (exams) makes perfect -- Exam trouble : how to avoid it, what to do about it -- Outlining for exam success -- What's class got to do with it?
Writing Essay Exams to Succeed (Not Just to Survive) by Call Number: UMLAW Reserve KF283 .D47 2007ISBN: 0735562822Publication Date: 2006-08-01Contents Your reader -- Scoring and grading -- Beginning the process -- From process to writing -- Explaining your answer -- Organization, signposting, and writing style -- Getting ready
