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Law exam tips

I am a first year undergraduate student and I feel there's far more to remember for law exams than GCSEs or A levels and I just wanted to know if anyone has any tips for remembering the vast volume of cases and doctrines. I keep forgetting everything I've read before and though I've been revising for 2,3 weeks I feel I've gained very little.

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Reply 1

Venom123

I'd also be interested in this - I'm only in A-levels but having to hold large sums of info seems a problem for me for some reason

Reply 2

jacketpotato

Focus on principle/understanding first, then cases - not the other way around

Reply 3

Ad-Alta

I'd echo what jacketpotato said - you will always be taught, and there will always be, more cases than it is (in my opinion) possible to learn. So long as you have the concepts down (i.e. you know how to approach a problem and can make a good bash at it) and the *key* cases (these will be apparant for each area of law) then you should do OK.

OP, I can sympathise with you entirely -- this is a subject where there are vast swathes of information to memorise, with no particularly easy way to go about it... I too have also been working through the material for a month or so, and don't feel as if I can particularly recall anything 'off pat'. My only advice would be, continue immersing yourself in your notes and writing and re-writing them, and it will go in. If all else fails, this is your first year, which means that so long as you pass it should have no effect on your final degree - take it as an opportunity to learn from your 'mistakes'.

I can already see that next year I will start looking and creating notes a term earlier than I did this year, so I am just trying to be positive, do my best, and take whatever comes as a learning experience.

Reply 4

Over_The_Odds

Yea definitely what the guys above me said. If you think of a way to learn case names, you will probably end up with a list of over 200 cases which are not a lot more than names. Instead concentrate on "knowing" the law behind them, in exam you need to be able to state what is likely to happen in a given situation, so if you work through past questions you will pick up a lot of the cases without knowing you are. And you will think "the law states this, because of this case" just out of habit.

If you do wish to learn cases specifically, you may wish to draw a picture! Sounds weird, but it worked for me - I can list about 20 Pure Economic Loss cases just from remembering a stupid picture I drew with books on floors, a cow wearing a West Brom shirt, my dad putting petrol into his car. You could try that?

Reply 5

anonymouz

I was thinking of starting a thread similar to this. Thanks for the answers so far. I am in a similar situation (First year - doing LLB law).

Also, if I have all the content in a good format (e.g. for Contract) - I have a lot of notes of my own.. and Uni material too. Whats a good way of digesting them and going over them.

I have only started revising this past week (and done a few hours only too). From tomorrow, I am planning on starting properly.. spending all day, every day on revising law.

How should I break up my day/week? I have three different modules left to do exams on (Contract/ Con & Ad / EU Law). Should I spend 2 hours each on each module per day.. or a whole day per module and go over each module twice per week (for a whole day each time)?

So far I have done a few hours of Contract (just the beginning 2/3 Units). I have been re-writing my notes and trying to remember them too + re-doing the basic tutorial questions. I am planning on doing an essay/exam style problem question on each unit too. Any extra tips?

I think i'm going to find it much harder to revise Con&Ad.. and will need a lot of help with this.. again, any ideas?

Really sorry about the **** load of questions, but any help/guidance in the right direction will be appreciated.

A final question, my first exam is in the middle of may.. am I too late?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 6

iamorgan

It's interesting -I am a first year LLB UG too and it seems that no-one really knows what they are doing. Revising for law is just alien to anything I've ever really studied before.

What I'm doing, if it helps anyone (and this is just me, I don't know if it will work, only time will tell) is going through my lecture notes and pulling the key concepts out with the cases. Putting these onto A3 paper. I've just finished all lectures from public law and have nearly finished this stage for all other subjects. I then have about 15 pieces of A3 to memorise before my exam, but it is just a bit less mind-boggling than pages and pages of notes. Once I've got the concepts, I intend to go on to cases, and then just keep working until the exam. I've reached the decision that knowing everything is not possible -so I will focus on knowing some areas better than others.

My problem is the volume of knowledge! I feel that I have wasted 3 weeks going through my lectures, as I have only really memorised the key concepts -it's taken this long just to summarise everything to key concept level -my question now is how, in the next 3 weeks do I 'flesh out' those concepts into cases and some proper & meaningful knowledge?

I feel that this year has been a steep learning curve -my notes from semester 2 are streets ahead of my sem 1 notes.

What do you need to do to fail -my tort lecturer told us that out of 300 candidates last year, about 60 failed tort.

Reply 7

Ad-Alta

anonymouz

A final question, my first exam is in the middle of may.. am I too late?
Thanks in advance.

I don't think it's ever too late to get *some* revision in, although of course, time-constraints may mean that you aren't able to revise all you wanted to. My first exam is on the 25th of May, and I am basically allocating one week per subject (I have 5) until then.

I also don't think there's any 'right' or 'wrong' way to go about it; however, I feel that atm I might be learning stuff that is a bit extraneous, so I'm going to be making sure that I'm constantly looking at exam questions and seeing what sort of structure is required to answer them. At the same time, the requirements for problems vs. essays obviously pull in different directions as essays require a lot of othat 'extraneous' knowledge than problems, which want you to just to hit the points and then move on.

My only advice would be make sure you have a plan in your head as to how to go about things - this can be as specific or as broad as you like (i.e. mine which is just one week per subject). Like I said, there's really no way someone can tell you how to do it, as everyone learns differently.

I would also emphasize that you should not sacrifice eating, sleeping or having leisure time whilst revising (your 'all day, every day' comment). There are some people where I study who stay up until insane times - perhaps that works for them, but I am someone who goes to bed at no later than 11:30, and I may well not have even been doing revision up until then.

Reply 8

anonymouz

Ad-Alta

I would also emphasize that you should not sacrifice eating, sleeping or having leisure time whilst revising (your 'all day, every day' comment). There are some people where I study who stay up until insane times - perhaps that works for them, but I am someone who goes to bed at no later than 11:30, and I may well not have even been doing revision up until then.

Thanks for the advice. About the 'all day, every day' comment, I didn't mean it literally. I know that i need to keep a routine etc. and sleep well etc. If I don't, it would most likely have an adverse affect on my revision.

Anymore help would really be appreciated! Especially in regards to revising the Constitutional and Administrative Law module.

Reply 9

jacketpotato

It really is all about breaking it down into the requirements. If your notes just read like a list of cases and a random bunch of legal facts, you need to change them or you will fail.

For instance, this is how your notes should look for misrepresentation in contract:

For a misrepresentation you need:
- A statement
- which is incorrect
- made to the other party
- of fact
- reliance
- Material cause of C entering into the contract

Damages are always available; rescission may be available if the misrep is sufficiently serious. Even if rescission is available in principle, there are several bars to rescission, the main one being third party rights.

Add in a really really basic knowledge of two or three cases to illustrate those requirements, and apply them in a sensible manner, and you have now got yourself a 2:1 in any problem question on misrepresentation. Though you would need to read about the main controversies order to answer a essay question. Its all about breaking it down into a sensible manner - textbooks often don't do this for you, you have to do it yourself - break everything down into a list of requirements.

Reply 10

Over_The_Odds

anonymouz

Anymore help would really be appreciated! Especially in regards to revising the Constitutional and Administrative Law module.

What is it about Constitutional/Admin Law that you find particularly difficult?

Reply 11

anonymouz

Over_The_Odds

What is it about Constitutional/Admin Law that you find particularly difficult?

Earlier on today, when I posted it was the mass amounts of information primarily that was bothering me. But, i've spent the day so far going through all my notes, just reading them and trying to understand them - I think its not as hard as i first thought and if i approach it in the same manner as other modules (Just remember the principles then the authorities) it becomes slightly easier. Later on in the evening I am going to look at previous exam papers, should help me a bit more.

So yeah.. I guess my worries were a bit base less before, I was just dreading going through so much info and trying to memorise a lot of it. It turned out to be better than I expected, still not saying its easy. Got loads of work to do.

I also think the 1 week on each module method is going to work good for me. Spend 1 week going over each one, then split whatever time I have left over looking at more specific things in much more detail (stuff I think that will come up in the exam or is bound to.) This way, I'm also setting targets for myself. My aim is to have the whole of the Con&Ad module covered by Monday.

Can't wait ... :-/

Reply 12

x__Indigo_x

well im in the third year of my LLB [eeeeeeeeeeeek!]

last year
[ the dreaded land law /equity etc] i started revision about month before by reading some basic ' dumb it down' books to simply familiarise myself with the overall topic ,then chose the topics i wold focus on in the exam [ your lecturer should point out what will be examined how many questions you need to answer and check past papers for questions that come up every year] next i made some notes using my lecture notes and books trying to use about 10 cases ish per essay question and 15 per problem question [ish!!!!] For essay questions try and include 1 or 2 journal article quotes to bump up marks. once i am happy with my notes i would then condense them slightly on to coloured paper [ i dont no why but this worked for me!] then just re write them over and over. Sometimes i even recorded myself saying them then listerned to it!
i would also have a page on my wall will the list of cases and the key concept of each for each topic as you apprently learn subconsciously!?

if the exam is a seen one i would prepare as above then when the exam comes out i wrote my answer out for each then just re wrote them 20 billion times over i could even re write them in my sleep hahaha!!!come exam time i sat there and my hand just literally wrote without me thinking, was a bit of a wierd way to do it but much less stressful!

this year i have had ALOT of issues in my life which means i only properly started revision 1 week ago [ my exams begin in 11 days] this year i prepared my notes for the most difficult one first [evidence-unseen exam- i would NOT reccomend it] using the same format as above.

i have recently got my seen paper for obligations B so i am just in the process of finsihing my final answers for them which i will then re write - re write - re write :smile:

i think its important to stress that EVERYONE revises in different ways some people can just read there notes once and have photographic memory , some people [ like me] have to work extrememly hard for weeks to even remember little bits. Try not to compare your technique or 'how much have you done' to your friends as this just makes you more worried....who knows your friends could be wrong!

my top tips are
- read a ''nutshells' or textbook which dumbs the topic down first to get the overall picture
-next add key cases and there judgements in the exam part of the name and the date is usually sufficent + judge's name if quoting
- keep in mind what sort of question is [ if you have the paper] or may [ by looking at past paper] come up in order to revise what you need not waffle.
- use post it notes/coloured pens/coloured paper anything that might help
- take note of what exam has most weight ie dont spend 2 weeks revising for an exam that is worth 20% when you have an exam 2 days after that worth 70%
- try and make a revision planner ie what to revise each day and make like a checklist of what u aim to do/learn that day that way at the end of the day you feel a bit better when u are seeing how much you have actually done
-some days will be more sucessfull than others, dont beat yourself up about it.
- take time out ...you cant revise 12 hours a day! your mind will just be overloaded.

if anyone has any questions on revision techniques or specific questions about the LLB or what options they should pick or whatever just pm me :smile:

Reply 13

marietunks

Hi First Year Flexi Student We Have Our First Assessment On 12 Dec On Eeuls Which Is Mad Because We Haven't Had Enough Time To Study Properly Any Help We Can Get Would Help

Marie

Reply 14

Sakuraba

Whats really helped me is something i read in Derren Brown's book tricks of the mind, it has a large section on memory, and seen as though he studied law at uni he gives examples of how he remembered certain cases. For example.

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists Ltd [1953]
This technique works best if you have a vivid imagination. I imagine a man in a full suit, chest out, with a clear sense of authority trying to buy some socks. (authority helps me remember its a governing body, socks = society so i dont mistake it with anything like organisation.) The man hands the woman in boots a crisp £50 note, The woman, dressed in boots work attire is shaking her head and holding up 3 fingers, she wants £3 more. The man stomps away. (50+3=53 for 1953. the woman dressed in attire makes me remember boots, The fact the man walks away unable to complete the sale tells me the legal principle, displays are ITT and not a contract available for agreement.)

Its important to visualise these are vividly as you can, take in as many senses as you can, sight, smell, touch. When you create more scenarios for different cases the best way i found to remember them is with a 'memory palace.' Use a familiar place with a large number of rooms, then like your images created for cases to each of the rooms. For example, for contract law my setting is my local shopping centre, i visualise myself walking into boots and seeing the event unfold before my eyes.

Now i know lots of people dont beleive in these little tricks, neither did i before i started studying law, i figured it was just more stuff to remember, but i have actually really benefited from them.

Oh and an hour a day, everyday, is worth far more than 3 hours a day every once in a while

Reply 15

marietunks

cheers where do you study marie

Reply 16

d5e8t4d4w8r

You need to know the Law and only the Principles of cases (not the facts)....Always remember to apply them to the question as that is where you pick up marks

Reply 17

Rosaline

hi everyone, am doing LLB stage1 and ive got a unit called Public law and we have to give Portfolio in december but am struggling with USA constitution because am finding it hard to undertsand the articles. if anyone has done the articles on USA constitution please help me and show me the right direction. thanks