PRACTICE EXAMS

THESE ARE IMPORTANT TIPS

You MUST practice taking an exam in the course you’re studying. Reserve at least one day of studying for writing only. You should know the material by now, but now you have to learn how to put it down on paper.

When you’re taking your exam at 9:00 on a Monday morning IT MUST NOT BE THE FIRST TIME YOU TAKE THAT EXAM.

o Of course, you won’t have that exact exam before exam day, but you have to get a feel for the issues that will be on the exam.

o If you can analyze the law in one exam for particular course, you can analyze the law in any exam for that course.

o Get an old exam, preferably from the professor who taught the course.

o If your professor does not have old exams, try other professors, commercial exams, or go online to a commercial database or other web page (such as www.geocities.com/dagreeq) and see if there are any practice exams available.

I should caution you. Sometimes you take a practice exam that is so damn hard you think you will fail the course. Don’t worry. That just means that the course was taught differently. This actually works to your benefit because you practice taking that impossible exam, and the actual exam turns out to be pretty reasonable. This happens to me every semester.

o It really doesn’t matter if you take the same exam over and over again. Remember, you're practicing your exam-taking skills as well as your knowledge of the material.

First, take the practice exam with your outline in front of you and don’t time yourself.

As you get more comfortable, start timing yourself, but keep the outline in front of you.

Then, get rid of the outline. Take the exam as if you were taking the real exam.

a. If you can’t answer part of your practice exam, then you know that you're shaky on that material. Go back, rethink it, and practice writing some more.

PROOFREAD YOUR PRACTICE EXAM. Yes, proofread it. If it sounds like drivel, then you have to go back and figure out what’s wrong. Would you rather have your professor decide that you cannot formulate a sentence with a subject and a verb when he or she is grading five-thousand essays that all say pretty much the same thing? I think not.

If possible, compare your answers with model answers. If there are model answers, read them. Read the “A’s” and the “D’s” if available. Learn what to do and what not to do.

I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s true. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. As cheesy as that sounds, its true. Don’t underestimate these tips. They work. Just don’t be lazy. Put in the effort, do the work, practice, and I guarantee you’ll be fine.