As exams approach, we want to speak to our students not just as your deans, but as former law students who remember the knot in the stomach, the late nights, and the quiet hope that all the work will be worth it.
It will.
Exams Are Where the Learning Happens
It’s easy to see exams as a verdict. But in truth, a huge amount of real learning happens while you prepare for them.
When you:
- Go back to material several times instead of cramming once;
- Close your notes and try to recall rules and cases from memory;
- Work through practice questions under time pressure;
You transform “studying for a test” into training your brain to understand, use, and keep the law. That’s the kind of learning that lasts through graduation, the bar exam, and into practice.
Today’s Exam, Tomorrow’s Bar
Every outline you build now, every practice essay you write, every multiple-choice question you work through is an early deposit in your bar exam bank.
- You’re building the doctrinal foundation that the bar will test.
- You’re practicing exactly the skills the bar demands: reading carefully, spotting issues, applying rules, and writing clearly under time pressure.
- You’re developing study habits you can scale up when it’s time to prepare for the bar.
Future-you will be grateful for the effort you put in over the next few weeks.
Grades Are Feedback, Not Destiny
We cannot emphasize this enough:
Exams matter. They are serious, they demand effort, and they can feel heavy. But they do not define your value, your character, or your ultimate potential as a lawyer. They are one important chapter in a much longer story.
Exams can tell you something about:
- Whether your current approach to exam preparation is working; and
- How much you need to change next semester or for the bar.
If a grade is lower than you hoped, the most powerful question you can ask is:
“What can I learn from this?”
That might mean starting outlines earlier, doing more practice questions, meeting with a professor, talking with Academic Support, or joining a study group.
The research is clear: if you respond to setbacks by adjusting your strategies—not by concluding “I’m just not good at this”—you can and will improve over time.
A Few Practical Tips for the Coming Days
Here are some concrete moves you can make right now:
- Plan your days. Make a simple schedule. Break your study into blocks for each course and spread them across several days. Short, repeated sessions beat one long marathon.
- Quiz yourself. Don’t just reread. Close your notes and write out rules, elements, and key cases from memory. Then check yourself and fill in the gaps.
- Practice under time. Use old exams or hypos. Any exam in the subject works fine. Set a timer, answer as if it’s the real thing, then review what went well and what didn’t.
- Mix topics. Don’t always study one narrow topic in isolation. Mix related topics so you practice choosing the right rule for the right problem.
- Ask for feedback. have a classmate look at a practice answer. Better yet, do the same practice question together and talk through your answers.
- Take care of yourself. Sleep, decent food, movement, and short breaks are not luxuries. They are part of studying. Your brain needs them to do its best work.
We Are With You
Exams matter, and it’s normal to feel stressed, tired, or uncertain. Please remember:
- You are more than your grades.
- You are not going through this alone.
- The effort and discipline you build now will serve you the rest of law school, on the bar and throughout your career.
All of us—faculty, staff, and your deans—are proud of the work you are doing and are here to support you. You are learning what it means to Learn Law. Live Justice. That is a journey, not a single test.
You’ve got this.
Warmly,
Brian and Carolyn