Read the instructions!  This is the most obvious advice imaginable, but every exam period several students will, for example, answer 3 short exam questions, only to discover that the instructions said “provide an answer to 1 of the following 3 hypotheticals.”  Most students get flustered at the start of an exam, so this type of mistake is more common than you might imagine.  When the exam starts, take a deep breath, slow yourself down, and read the instructions.  Adapted from Succeeding in Law School by Herbert N. Ramy.

Massage therapists from Advanced Massage Therapeutics will be offering chair massages for law students on two days during finals - Monday, November 30 and Monday, December 7.  Massages will be offered in the Washer Lounge from noon to 6:00 p.m. each day.  Students are encouraged to sign-up for an appointment time.  Sign-up sheets are posted in the Washer Lounge.  This service is sponsored by your Student Bar Association and the Academic Success Office.

You will be nervous when the examination proctor says “Begin,” so the worst thing you can do is to start writing out your answer immediately.  Instead, consider writing out your skeletal outline as soon as the exam begins.  A skeletal outline is merely an organized list of principles and issues, created by you, which relates to a given area of the law.  Think about the outline you have been creating all semester, but now reduce it down to a page or two – this is your skeletal outline.  Writing out this list will give a few moments to compose your thoughts before digging into the exam.  (Adapted from Succeeding in Law School by Herbert N. Ramy.)

The confirmation e-mail has been sent to all students who successfully submitted an Exam4 practice test before the 6:00 PM deadline on Friday, November 20.  Students who did not receive the confirmation e-mail will be refused technical assistance with Exam4 during finals should they attempt to use it and experience difficulties.

Decide how you need to balance your play and study time over the holiday.  What family commitments do you have?  Are your outlines complete?  Where are you in your review for exams?  Here are some tips to consider:

• Be realistic about your ability to study over the holiday.  Do not expect to accomplish six weeks of work in 5 days.  Enjoy Thanksgiving Day with family or friends.  Block out times when you can realistically study during the remainder of the vacation.
• Make a priority list of tasks.  Work on tasks in the order of priority.
• Break tasks into smaller steps.  It is easier to motivate yourself to outline one topic or read two cases or rewrite one section of a paper.  You will not be motivated by too large of a task.  
• Consider productive ways that you can use travel time:  listen to Sum and Substance CDs or a homemade tape of your outline while driving back and forth; review an outline sitting in the airport; quiz yourself with flashcards instead of watching an in-flight movie; if traveling with a classmate, consider answering practice questions together during the trip.
• Consider whether you can include your family or friends in helping you study: quizzing you from flashcards or quizzing you on your outlines, for example.  You get to study, and they get to participate.
• And, most importantly, have safe and healthy traveling and holiday celebrations.

The law library will open from 8AM-11PM Monday, 11/23 and Tuesday, 11/24. It will be closed on Wednesday, 11/25 and Thursday, 11/26 for the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be open 9AM-5PM on Friday, 11/27, 9AM-6PM Saturday, 11/28 and 1PM-11PM Sunday, 11/29.

• Library Hours

Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint.  It is attractive to skip meals, skip sleep, and skip exercise to get more hours to study.  Make sure you get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep.  Eat balanced meals and not junk food.  Get three thirty-minute exercise periods a week.  Do not neglect yourself during finals. 

If you submitted an Exam4 practice test under one of these names (below), you must submit a NEW ONE using your UofL user name (e.g. ldbran01), if you have not already done so, by 6:00 PM EST, Friday, November 20th.  The user name allows us to send a confirmation e-mail.  Anything else makes doing so somewhat impossible.

• ABELL
• ANDREAVETTER
• JENNYWHITE