How to Create a Law School Final Exam Study Schedule

Insider Tip: Make a list of everything you need to do for each class to get ready for finals and spread the tasks across the days leading up to each exam to stay organized and reduce stress.

Challenge Yourself: It's mid-November--have you thought about what specific steps you need to tackle before finals? 

I can already picture it—you're feeling a little burned out from a long semester, but the finals workload is looming, and it’s real. The good news? There's a way to simplify studying for final exams.

Here's a sample final exam study calendar for four classes:

Let's make this really easy.  

Start with a list of tasks you need to finish:

1. Wrap up reading, briefing, and outlining every class topic for each class.
2. Finish creating your topic approaches for every class (some call these "pre-writes"—think of them as guides for how you'll write each class topic on the final. It doesnt matter if you create a grpah, flowchart, or write it on a napkin.  What matters is that when you memorize it, you there is no question about how you'll write the topic on the final, complete with headings, sub-headings, umbrella rules, etc.). 
3. Write practice hypos/essays for every topic in each class.
4. Complete practice MBE sets for every topic in each class.

Now that you’ve got your task list, let’s set up your finals schedule:

1. Mark your exam dates on the calendar.
2. Mark your last class of the semester and set a deadline for the completion of your outlining, reading and briefing of each topic in every class (be specific--decide if you need one, two or three days per class to do finsish the work).  
3. Decide when your topic approaches will be complete for each class.  
4. Count the days from when you finish your topic approaches to your first exam. Let’s say it’s 12 days.

Now, get tactical:

• Allocate 3 days (of the 12) to memorize topic approaches per class.
  

  • If you have 9 topic approaches in a class, try memorizing three topics each day over three days—nice and balanced.

  • For a class with 5 topic approaches, you could memorize two each on the first and second days, saving the hardest one for the final day.

• On each day after you memorize the topics you allocated, add 1-3 practice hypos and MBE sets to cement what you've learned.
• Start with your hardest class, then the easiest, then the next hardest—give your brain some variety!

If you have breaks between finals, use that time to refresh your memorization for each class just before its final.

And, by all means, if you feel like you can’t spend an entire day focusing on just one class, feel free to split it up!

With a clear plan for each day, you can exhale. The only thing left is execution. You can do anything for four weeks!

When motivation dips, ask yourself: “In four weeks, will I regret not giving this my all?”

I think you know the answer to that one. 😊

Cheers to your success and happiness always,

P.S. My dearest LSI subscribers, my father passed away suddenly in early October and I have been grieiving this massive hole in my heart ever since. Please excuse that I did not send out the last two LSI newsletters and that I've been sparse in my regular LinkedIn posts and responses.  Getting back into the swing of things here, with a renewed gratitiude for this great life we share. I appreciate you, and your support, always.

That's all for this week, thanks so much for being part of my incredible community, and see you again in two weeks!  

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