Eduardo
Caution!
Individual study aids may not test you on EVERY issue you need to know. They'll test your understanding of major issues for your course generally, but make sure to make note of the topics your professor focuses in on.
Testing Your Knowledge
After you've spent time with the course materials and feel like you have a good understanding of the legal concepts, it is time to test your depth of knowledge. The best way to confirm your level of understanding is to answer practice questions on the topics you've studied.
The study aid series below contain questions and answers to legal topics to help you confirm which topics you have a strong understanding of and which areas you may want to dedicate more study time to. If you run out of questions to test your knowledge, please note that some of the guides on the Strategizing Issue Analysis tab of this guide have more multiple choice and short-answer questions.
Resources
What differentiates these series is the types of questions and how narrow the topics are divided. Use the chart below to determine which study aid will be most helpful when you've finished a single sub-issue, an entire unit, or the entire course.
You can find the print resources in the library's study aid collection on the fourth floor. Click here to request free access to CALI.
| Study Aid Series | Description | Print or Digital |
|---|---|---|
| Examples & Explanations | These books contain topic-based legal questions, like those you'd face in class or on an exam, with detailed explanations of the correct answers. E&Es are broken down into fairly narrow sub-issues within a topic, so they're a good way to test your knowledge on a single aspect of the law before you've finished an entire unit. | |
| CALI Lessons | CALI hosts over 1,000 interactive lessons on various legal subjects, with multiple choice questions throughout. A good number of CALI lessons are on a single sub-issue within a major topic (ex. duty within negligence), meaning they're a good way to test your knowledge on a single aspect of the law before you've finished an entire unit. | Digital |
| Q&A Series | These books consist of short answer, multiple choice, and essay exam questions (and explanations of the correct answers) divided by legal topic. Chapters of questions and answers in the Q&A Series are divided by important issues and sub-issues, so they're generally best when you've completed an entire unit of your course. | |
| CrunchTime Series | Along with capsule summaries and flow charts, these books contain sample exams and essay questions with model answers. These practice questions are best when you've finished the entire course, as questions on different issues from the course are mixed together. |
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Tips
How can you power up your use of this type of study aid?
1) For multiple choice questions, don't just write down the answer you think is correct. Jot down a short explanation of why it's the correct answer and why each wrong answer is incorrect. Many of these study aids will explain why each answer is right or wrong; if you've written down your reasoning, this will confirm that your right answers were for the right reason!
2) Be wary of re-reading as a way of confirming your understanding. Our brains often register re-reading information as familiar, even when we have lingering misconceptions or confusion about a topic. It can trick us into feeling confident that we know what we're reading. The only way to know for sure that you understand is to practice pulling your knowledge of the issues out of your brain with practice questions.
3) Do your practice questions without relying on your notes/outline—even for open note exams. Getting questions wrong is a huge help in getting you to remember correctly next time! That little bit of frustration you may feel at getting something wrong--partnered with reviewing the correct answer and making sure you understand where you went wrong--will help trigger the correct answer next time you come across a question drawing on the same concept.
4) Re-test yourself over time. Scientific evidence shows that we retain learning when we space out retrieving knowledge from our long-term memory at regular intervals. Even when you're getting every answer right for a particular topic, regular practice will help ensure that you remember the concepts in the long term.