Exam Preparation Resources
I. New York Law School Exam Archive on the NYLS portal
The sample and practice exam archive consists of exams released to the Library by NYLS faculty. Please note that professors are not required to release exams to the Library, and many choose not to do so. Consequently, you may not be able to find an exam for either your class or your professor.
Sample and practice exams are indexed by professor’s name and course taught.
All exams are in Adobe PDF format and are viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which has been installed on all PCs in the Library and the Electronic Research Classrooms.
Paper copies of sample and practice exams for the current semester only are kept at the Circulation Desk.
The exam archive is maintained by the Circulation Department. Questions regarding available exams should be directed to Ping Tian, Circulation Librarian at 212.431.2838 or by email: ping.tian@nyls.edu
To
access the exam archive, first login to the NYLS portal:
- On the portal home page, locate the Student Resources tab.
- In the middle column, click on the Exam Archive link.
II. Advice from Law Profs & Other Professionals
- Elizabeth Barrett, How to Approach and Take a Law School Examination
- Bill Childs, A Law Professor Shares The Top Arbitrary Number (Turns Out to be Six) of Things Not to Do on Law School Exams
- Barbara Glesner Fines, Preparing for Exams
- Amy Jarmon, Non-traditional students and exam study (Law School Academic Support Blog)
- Amy Jarmon, Tips for Exam Studying (Law School Academic Support Blog)
- John H. Langbein, Writing Law School Examinations
- Carol Nygren, Using Professors’ Old Exams To Prepare
- Carol Nygren, Confronting Your Final Exam – Torts
- Beyond IRAC: Law School Exam Taking Tips (Legal Profession blog)
- Jerry J. Phillips, Thirteen Rules for Taking Law Exams. 72 Tenn. L. Rev. 797 (2005). (Hein Online)
- A Common Law School Exam Mistake (The Volokh Conspiracy)
- John H. Scheid, De MInimis Curat Lex: Secrets to Success for 1st year Law Students, 37 Cap.U.L. Rev 631 (2008) (Heinonline)
- Daniel Solove, Law School Exam-Taking Tips (Concurring Opinions)
- Patrick Wiseman, "When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It," and Other Sage Advice for First-Time Law School Exam Takers. 22 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 653 (2006). (Hein Online)
- What
Makes a Good Law School Exam Answer? Law Profs Weigh In (WSJ Law
Blog)
III. Advice From Other Law Students
- Closed Book Law School Exam Preparation Tips (Lawyerist)
- How to Succeed on Open Book Law School Exams (Lawyerist)
- How to Succeed on Take-Home Law School Exams (Lawyerist)
- Law School Exam Prep (Law School Podcaster)
IV. CALI Lessons and Advice About Exam-Taking Skills
The CALI Library of Lessons is a collection of over 800 interactive, computer-based lessons covering 33 legal education subject areas, which will run on both your desktop computer and mobile devices. Each lesson focuses on a specific aspect of the legal topic and contains dozens of practice questions. You can either download lessons from the CALI site or pick up a lesson CD at the Reference Desk. Please note that you must register to use CALI lessons. Registration will allow you to create your own password to use the lessons. In order to register, you will need an authorization code, which can be obtained from the Library's CALI page.
To access CALI lessons about exam-taking skills, log in to
CALI, click the Lessons link on the upper right side of the
screen. Select "By Topic." Click on "1L - First Year Lesson
Topic" and scroll down to the lesson(s) of your
choice among the following:
Ronald Eades
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines,
and Advice for Law Students: Panel 1 PodCast
Ronald Brown
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and
Advice for Law Students: Panel 2 PodCast
Darryl Wilson
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and
Advice for Law Students: Panel 3 PodCast
Ronald Brown
Preparing for Your First Semester
of Law School
Scott Burnham
Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in
Law School Podcast
Jennifer Martin
Top 10 Tips for Successfully
Writing a Law School Essay
William Andersen
Writing Better Law School Exams: The
Importance of Structure
V. Exams from Other
Law Schools on the Internet
Writing answers to
professors’ old final exams is an excellent way for students to
prepare for exams. It can also be helpful to look at other law school
exams that are available online. A number of law schools/law libraries
maintain freely available collections of their school’s
exams:
- University
of Arkansas
- Creighton University
- Golden Gate University
- Pepperdine University
- University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall)
- University of Kentucky
- University of Missouri at Columbia
- University of New Hampshire
- Widener Law
VI . Books about Exams and Law School
Success
See also Law School 411: Books & Films on Law & Law School
Burkhart, Ann
M.
Law school success in a nutshell : a guide to studying law and
taking law school exams [KF283 .B87
2008]
St. Paul, Minn. : Thomson/West,
c2008.
Darrow-Kleinhaus, Suzanne.
Mastering the law school exam
: a practical blueprint for
preparing and taking law school exams
St. Paul, Minn. : Thomson/West, c2007. [KF283 .D37
2007]
Dernbach, John C.
Writing essay exams to succeed (not
just to survive) [KF283 .D47
2010]
New York, N.Y. : Aspen Publishers, c2007.
Fischl.
Richard Michael
Getting to maybe: how to excel on law school exams
[KF283 .F57
1999]
Durham, N.C. Carolina Academic Press, c1999
Walton,
Kimm Alayne
Strategies & tactics for the first year law student :
maximize your grades [KF283 .W352 1997
Reserve]
South Norwalk, Conn. : Law In a Flash,
c1990
Whitebread, Charles H.
The eight secrets of top exam
performance in law school : an easy-to-use, step-by-step program for
achieving great grades! [KF283 .W45
1995]
Chicago, Ill. : Harcourt Brace Legal & Professional
Pub., c1995
VII. Additional Resources
Examples
& Explanations study guides (Google Books)
Many of these study
guide are available via Google books. Often a large portion of the text
will be available via preview
Hornbooks and treatises, See NYLS Treatises page
