How to Do Your Best on Law School Exams - Softcover

Many first-year students do not know that law schools do not give college-type exams and therefore that college exam skills and LSAT skills are definitely not the skills you need to excel on law-school exams. They are also unaware that you are not systematically taught exam-taking skills in most law schools. In addition, many beginning students do not know that law exams do not flow directly from the assigned materials and classroom discussion. They are therefore surprised and in many instances dismayed when their grades are mediocre or worse.

Look at the article in the `Amapedia' section for my essay about law school exams. The "Inside the Book" section also includes Chapter One from this Exam book as well as its "Detailed Table of Contents." In addition, I have posted my responses to nine commonly asked questions about the challenging law school classroom and sixteen questions about preparing for the different and difficult law school exams in the Amapedia section of the Learning Legal Reasoning Amazon page. This Exam book helps students to learn and practice the two key skills you need to excel on these exams: issue-spotting and then the writing of succinct legal arguments to resolve each spotted issue. All three books emerge from thirty years of law school teaching at two law schools (N.Y.U. and CUNY).   

Learning Legal Reasoning, How To Do Your Best On Law School Exams and Learning Criminal Law as Advocacy Argument emerged from these decades of teaching and reflecting on what students most need to succeed and what is lacking in law school pedagogy. Professor Delaney is also the author of law review articles and the general editor of nine other books, mostly about comparative law, in the American Series of Foreign Penal Codes. Prior to teaching, Professor Delaney conducted approximately one thousand trials and he wrote and argued more than one hundred and fifty appeals. Unlike many professors and others, John blends early intensive trial and appellate practice with thirty years of law school teaching, including writing hundreds of exams and grading thousands. His books are informed by this extensive practice, teaching and grading. Now retired, John continues his teaching through his books and in continuing e-mail communication with law school students who ask him for advice, especially about exams. He is an aspiring organic gardener in the Catskill region of New York and bread baker.