Practice Examinations
The primary methods of measuring your progress in law school are essay and multiple choice exams. Both formats require you to apply the law to new story lines by identifying how the facts might support good arguments for each side. This process prepares you both for typical state bar examinations and the practice of law, where hypothetical fact patterns become real client problems.
Because many students' undergraduate programs used different methods of assessment, the Pacific McGeorge Academic Success Program helps first-year students get used to the process with an extensive practice exam program. This includes lectures on how to succeed, administration of essay exams under realistic conditions, detailed feedback from professors on all papers, and faculty-led review sessions about the papers.
Additionally, many professors release past exams so that students may continue taking practice exams on their own. Exams from recent years as well as exams from previous decades are available in hard copy format at the Reserve Desk in the Gordon D. Schaber Law Library, and students are encouraged to copy these exams and compile their own practice exam libraries. Exams are also available electronically on the Library Go-Cat system.