Three Most Common Mistakes on Law School Exams
Writing the exam you imagine, not the one you have.
A hypothetical is an imaginary world created by the professor. When grading, for fairness sake if nothing else, a professor must grade based on the imaginary world that she created. Not the one that each student imagines. In other words, it is extremely important to avoid speculation. When you speculate, you create facts or even causes of action that don’t exist within the hypothetical world.
If you need key information (like the level of an injury or the change in a property value), state the missing information and move on. Don’t speculate as to how that information could impact the analysis. If you are missing multiple pieces of key information that you need to complete an analysis, consider whether you are analyzing the correct issue. Maybe you are looking for a trespass when there isn’t a trespass there, etc.
Strategy:
If you can’t notice that you are doing this as you write, try word searches. Look for
if
possibly
might
could be
could have
These are good indicators that you are speculating.
2. Writing a torts exam in property class (or vice versa)
When you take the bar, it will not matter. Hypotheticals mix together issues from different subjects. One hypothetical might have a murder, a breach of a contract, and a will. But in law school, you need to write the exam for right class. A hypothetical for criminal law might have an agreement between co-conspirators to commit a murder. Make sure you analyze the murder and the conspiracy, not the breach of contract when one guy backs out at the last minute. If you analyze a breach of contract during your criminal law exam you will waste time or part of your maximum word count (or both).
Strategy:
Be aware of the potential issues for each class and memorize them in groups. Use the groups to help you stick to the correct subject on the exam. For example, for groups divide property into common law causes of action related to personalty, common law causes of action related to realty, issues related to mortgages, issues related to deeds and wills, etc. Remembering the issues as groups will help you to spot all the relevant issues on an exam and can also help you avoid accidentally slipping into contracts in the criminal law exam.
3. Not following restrictions or questions
Professors often share stories of the rather astonishing ways that students either ignore or forget the most basic of instructions. I suspect that it often happens because students are nervous and worried about time limitations and therefore read questions quickly. Or by an hour later, the student has, frankly, forgotten what the hypothetical question actually said.
If the question asks you to apply a statute, make sure you apply a statute not a common law cause of action. If the exam says not consider common law causes of action for a particular question, find applicable statutes rather than writing about nuisance and trespass.
If the hypothetical ends with a question or multiple questions, answer those questions and not others. For example, a question might direct you to discuss potential remedies for nuisance. If that is the question, then focus on the different types of damages and equitable remedies such as injunctions that may be available. Don’t focus on proving the prima facie nuisance case.
Strategy:
Read the hypothetical question very carefully. It is worth spending a few extra minutes here. Read it twice if not three times. Highlight specific questions or hard limitations given by the professor. If you have an hour or more to answer the question, go back and re-read the hypothetical question roughly half-way through the allocated time. You can check to make sure you are complying with the relevant restrictions, answering the right questions, and also not imagining issues that aren’t there!
Best of luck during exams season!
If you need more direction for writing a good law school exam, see the new book!