3 Common Essay Writing Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Big Picture:  Writing a practice essay and improving your analysis is Step 8A of the 9 step study process I teach in my flagship course, The Law School Operating System. 

Since teaching in 2009, I’ve graded an average of 300 to 400 essay midterms and finals every semester. That means I’ve given feedback on well over 10,000 essay exams in my career, which doesn’t include the thousands of practice essay exams I give feedback on regularly. 

Here are the top three mistakes I see law students make on essay exams and how to fix them:

MISTAKE #1:  Disorganization

A disorganized exam is the easiest way to frustrate your professor when grading exams.  They won't award you points if they can’t follow your train of thought. 

Disorganization typically shows up in an exam like this:

• One long continuous paragraph with no breaks that combines every issue into one analysis.
• Partially present one issue, move on to another and then return to the first issue.
• No use of roadmap or connector sentences (if your professors like these sentences). 
• Sentences that include a partial rule, random facts without explaining the fact's significance, and conclusions. 

You can avoid writing a disorganized essay by doing these simple things:

• Before the exam, ask your professor about their preferred exam format (IRAC, CREAC, CREEAC, or none of these). 
• Bold and underline headings for the main topic and each of its sub-topics (if your professors like headings).  
• Create an approach for writing every topic, then take practice hypos to get comfortable writing and memorizing each topic. 
• Take practice exams to your professor for feedback on your organization of every topic. 
• Review your essay before submitting it to ensure each sentence has a clear purpose. 

MISTAKE #2:  Missing Topics (and Thus Missing Points on the Exam)

The quickest way to lower your midterm or final score is by missing points for not raising or spotting a topic (or "issues") on the exam.

You can avoid missing topics on your essay exam by doing these easy things:

• At the beginning of the semester, use your syllabi to create a one-page checklist of all the topics you are responsible for learning in each class.  Practice writing the checklist every week so you are able to write it in 30-60 seconds (even if it looks like chicken scratch and only makes sense to you).  
• Before writing any practice essay, midterm, or final, take 30 seconds to jot down your one-page checklist for the subject. Then, run the fact pattern through the checklist several times. 
• Try to use every fact in the fact pattern. Your professor carefully crafted each fact for a specific purpose, and it’s uncommon for a fact not to raise a topic or be a red herring. 
• When you prepare each topic for exams, include facts from the cases (and class discussions), so you start recognizing patterns and situations in how the topic is raised/tested. 

MISTAKE #3:  Not Answering the Call of the Question

I know it sounds crazy that you might not answer the question's call. But this mistake surfaces enough to make it to my top three list of exam mistakes. 

You can avoid not answering the call by doing these two things:

• If you’re placed in a role, understand what that person does (a clerk advising a judge or partner, a prosecutor developing the strongest arguments against the defendant, a mediator settling a case).
• Understand the phrasing of the call to know whether you need to come to a definite conclusion (discuss why the motion should be granted), present both sides (help the judge understand the City and the challenger’s argument) and how to organize it (gather facts against the defendant first, then discuss defenses).  

These common exam mistakes can be avoided by having a consistent study system for every topic you learn that incorporates writing practice exams, assessing your performance, and getting feedback.