How To: Tackle Finals

For those who are done with their law school finals, CONGRATS! For those who are still taking them, keep pushing, YOU ARE ALMOST THERE! For pre-law students reading this, save this link because you will want to read this in about 10 or 11 months. Now that I have one law school finals season under my belt, I want to share some tricks that I learned to help tackle finals.

Take practice exams: You should take at least one practice exam before the actual exam, and you should take it under timed conditions. This gives you a pretty good idea what to expect and what kinds of questions your teacher will ask. If you think you don't have the time to take a full practice exam, make sure to look at them and outline your answers if you can. This will also give you practice and will show you what to expect.

Study, study, study: Even if your exam is open notes/book/everything, make sure you study. Read over your outlines and outlines from older students. Watch videos explaining topics that you don't get. Make note cards to memorize and test yourself over terms.

Take a break: If you need to, take a study break. Also, don't plan on doing much the day of an exam. After you take your exam, you will not want to study. Some things I did directly after an exam to get my mind of off school were: getting my nails done, going to lunch with a friend, and taking a nap.

Don't let your health go: To do your best on finals, you have to be healthy. I'm not going to talk too much about this here, as I already posted about mental and physical health during finals. Check that post out here!

Once an exam is over, move on: This is much easier said than done, but is very beneficial. There is no point dwelling on past exams and wondering "Oh, should I have said that about battery, or should I have mentioned something else?" All this will do is cause you to worry and distract you from focusing on the next exam.

Have a plan of attack: It will be so tempting to sleep in on the days when you don't have finals or anything to do besides studying. However, if you have a plan including what you want to get done that day, what time you want to start and stop, and where you want to study, you will be much more effective than if you sleep in, and just go to the library without a game plan.

Any other tips for tackling finals? Leave them in the comments!

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