Professor Delaney's Advice on How to Succeed in Law School

FREQUENT LAW EXAM BLUNDERS TO AVOID 1 Hi, I’m Professor John Delaney. I’ve graded thousands of law-exam papers over thirty years of teaching at the NYULS and the CUNYLS.  I’ve seen what all law professors see: the identical exam blunders semester after semester. In this posting, I will begin to identify these blunders, one by [...]

An Example of a Standout ‘A’ Law-Exam Argument Last year, a Columbia University Law student contacted me because he had prepared conscientiously for his law exams, but all his first-semester grades were B+ thereby slotting him in the middle of his class. In a class of very able test-takers, the approach we took in coaching [...]

Outlining with rules and examples method From learning rules to outlining your course As you know from a previous post, learning rules and their elements with iconic examples is foundational to all your learning and exam preparation. (see my 2/9/12 blog: What can I do differently this semester to improve my law exam performance? Try learning [...]

Prepare for the law exam problems you will actually see Identify the exam problem type(s) given by each professor Law professors often present different types of essay exam problems and have different expectations for awarding A’ grades. Identify and concentrate on their choices from their old exams, especially any model answers or examples of ‘A’ [...]

What can I do differently this semester to improve my law school exam performance? Try learning rules with iconic examples. Don’t learn rules abstractly — they have no meaning without facts. Why? Rules are meant to apply only to a limited range of fact situations. They are fact specific. Your iconic fact examples should therefore [...]

Improve your first-semester law-school exam grades First semester grades are not your destiny in the Spring exams. I know: I’ve seen students substantially, even dramatically, improve their grades during my three decades of law teaching at two law schools, the NYULS and the CUNYLS. Your first step is to identify your strengths and weaknesses in [...]

Law Exam Choices — Arguing one or two ways on law exams? Do you always argue two ways on law school exams? There is persistent confusing advice about whether a student on a law exam should always argue two or more ways. Much of the “expert” advice is inaccurate and misleading, catapulting partial truths into [...]

Law Exams – Best arguments or just “getting to maybe”? Law exams that require students to make the best arguments best prepare them for practice As a law school exercise, “getting to maybe” problems and arguments are justifiable as a professorial pedagogical choice. Indeed, in my book, How To Do Your Best On Law School [...]

Hate crime is not a thought crime Critics of hate crime legislation espouse a mistaken view of the criminal law. To illustrate, one critic argues as follows: The idea of a “hate crime “asserts that hatred itself is criminal and deserving of punishment. But our criminal law does not single out any mental state at [...]

Refusing To Listen Shouting down speakers and disrupting meetings on public issues is profoundly anti-American because such behavior violates two fundamental First Amendment rights. The first is the iconic right to free speech, a right of all Americans to robustly express their ideas, opinions and criticisms. Indeed, the sweep of the First Amendment even protects speech [...]