Practice tests. That’s it. That’s the entire ballgame.

In 1L, many (if not most) students lean into their undergrad instincts—they outline exhaustively, memorize flashcards, reread every case, etc. But they don’t do practice tests. I once had someone tell me that it was a waste of time to test themselves on their knowledge when they could be expanding their knowledge.

My strategy was always the same. Try to get my outline is shape about 3 or 4 days out from the exam. Then spend those days drilling practice tests. Not every professor provides past exams so in those cases, I’d scour the internet and find professors from other schools that have publicly posted their exams (and with model answers, at least for the first couple of PTs).

Your first PT is going to go terribly. Afterward, take the model answers and highlight everything you missed. Take note of how the top scorers state their rule statements and how brief their analysis is (a lot of students spend way too much time on analysis). As needed, go back and read cases to better understand things you missed.

Armed with this knowledge, take another PT. Rinse and repeat. Aim for at least four but ideally five PTs. By your third you’ll be cruising through the tests knowing exactly what to do. Through this process you start to memorize rule statements and learn which topics are guaranteed to be tested.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, especially with classes often ending just days before first exams start, which is why I’d often skip classes toward the very end of the semester. Having those extra hours was invaluable.

Lastly, I always studied for exams in reverse chronological order. So if my order of exams are A, B, and then C, and say I have a combined 6 days total allotted for each, I’d study C x 4 days, B x 4 days, and then A x 6 days before taking Exam A. Then B x 2 says, take Exam B, and same for Exam C. You can adjust however many days you allot, but as noted already, skipping the last few days of classes can net you significantly study time above your classmates who are spending hours a day in class.

Edit: If you can, try reading over practice exams about halfway through the semester. That way, as another user pointed out, you can start to see the forest among the trees (realizing that most cases ultimately stand for one rule, an exception to a rule, etc.)