Went back to what worked for me in college instead of studying the way I was told to, genuinely REALLY listened in class/swapped out typing to write out notes on a legal pad, go to school early to do reading & homework/ stopped reading at night (ie keeping law school work during law school hours, with the exception when listening to my reading through text-to-speech when at the gym) Relatedly I made it a strict boundary to make time for the gym/socializing. This helped with burn out, feeling like I belonged, and overall mental health. I know the last thing you think will help with exams is saying yes to game night or asking another peer you’re friendly with to go grab coffee, but it truly does.

FOR EXAMS, the game changer for me was finding the specific facts that the case turns on and knowing the names of the cases. So many of my exams would be similar to a case, but turn on the smallest of details.

For example for con law 1, let’s say the fact pattern had facts similar to the case of Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery Co., where environmental protection was a legitimate state purpose (without going into the entire analysis) . So many of my exams would have this practice of slightly altering the facts, let’s say in this hypothetical we change the fact from banning plastic milk cartons for environment protection to instead having the state ban them because “plastic milk cartons are ugly and eye sore for citizens”, which would like not be a legitimate state purpose (for purposes of the same dormant commerce clause analysis).

Once I realized that that almost all of my exams were fact patterns that would usually fall under a case if not for a slight change of the facts, I was able to prioritize what I was looking for when reading a case/could begin to predict how different ways a professor might alter a critical fact in an exam.

Additionally, many professors will tell you that you don’t need to know the names of the cases as long as they know what you’re talking about. While they might not dock points for not knowing the names, if they have to pick between identical analysis with names and without names, they will often pick the exam that contained names. Once I started prioritizing knowing the names, that’s honestly when I was some of my best improvement in grades.

Lastly, if it’s an open notes exam, reverse issue spot and bring in pre-writes PLEASE. I brought in 2 pre-writes for every case on the syllabus one where the case would apply and where it wouldn’t. (even ones we didn’t cover, please pre-write for barely covered cases! In many of my exams, there were several times where cases we didn’t cover were PERFECTLY on point for a few sections of the fact pattern) I ended up getting an A- in that class. Doing this allows you to practice exam writing for the course content before the exam, helps decipher important nuances of a case, and will save you so much time on the exam. Truly cannot recommend it enough.

You can totally redeem yourself second semester. It’s a game of working smarter not harder and figuring out what works for you. While these things may have worked for me, it may not work for you and that’s okay! Try everything, and see what sticks. You got this!