To everyone else, after Halloween marks the start of winter and the holiday season. 

But in the law school world, sorry to say…it means we’re gearing up towards finals. Whether this is your first law school finals season or your fifth, here are some tips for success for finals preparation AND well-being these next few weeks. 

Outlining

 If you haven’t started outlining yet, take a breather. It’ll be OK. But I’d say now is a good time to start. An outline is a compilation of your assigned readings, class notes, class recordings, handouts, and other relevant material that may come up on the exam. It’s a cheat sheet to help you with your exam prep and on the day of. 

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to outlining. Some like to build their own outline from scratch, whereas others will use an existing outline and sprinkle in their notes. If you fall in the latter department, Routline, created by a former BC Law student, is a tremendous resource for finding old outlines. Many student orgs and mentorship programs have outline banks with a number of tried-and-true outlines. 

For me, I like to build my own and use an old outline as a guide to fill in things I may have missed. I personally just prefer having things written down in my own words. Closer to the exam, I’ll start preparing an attack outline which distills everything even further. On exam day, this is where I turn first before looking to my bigger outline for greater detail or clarification.  

Practice Exams

But for me, and most other law students, outlining alone may not be enough. Here come the past practice exams. These may have already been haunting you on your course Canvas page from the beginning, but once again, breathe. They are really meant for the end of the semester after you’ve covered the bulk of the class material and are wrapping up your outline. Some people may not even get to the practice questions in time for the exam and that’s OK too. Once again, it’s whatever works best for you. 

I like to finish my outline on the earlier side so I have enough time to attempt the practice exams. For me, it’s been useful for identifying gaps in my knowledge and in my outline. On the day of the exam, I’ll bring some of these exam questions and my responses with me. The questions are good for noticing patterns in issue spotters, and my responses are like pre-writes that help in a time crunch. 

Mental Health

I didn’t forget about the well-being part. You will likely feel strapped for time throughout finals season and that means making a choice: studying or self-care. The reality is you may not choose self-care every time during finals. But make it a priority. That means stepping outside or going for a walk in between study sessions, making sure you have snacks and water around you, and getting a good night’s sleep. Just like with studying, there is no perfect approach to self-care. But taking care of yourself during this time will only help your finals performance, not hinder it. And you’ll be grateful that you did.

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Sangeeta Kishore is a third-year student at BC Law and president of the Impact blog. Contact her at kishorsa@bc.edu.