“If you don’t practice the Evidence Boilerplate, you are EMBRACING FAILURE!”

Both law school and the California Bar Examination pose many challenges for students to overcome.

One is rarely disclosed: you’ll need to write 250-300% of the same number of issues in the same amount of time to succeed on your Evidence final or an Evidence essay on the California Bar Examination.

Say what?

Yup, you read that correctly. Most essays on law school finals or the California Bar Examination require you to write 7-9 issues in an hour.

Evidence, on the other hand…first one to 20 issues wins! (It’s both a marathon and a sprint!)

Now, this conundrum should be common knowledge. The problem is, no one talks about it. Well, no one except me.

Evidence Essays Are Different

One of the most important secrets behind your law school final in Evidence or your California Bar Examination if one of your essays is an Evidence essay. It is, by far, the most demanding essay in all of the California Bar.

No, this essay won’t be confused for a depth question in Civ Pro, Con Law, or Torts. And it’s not a typical exam question. This is the most extreme shotgun-type essay question. 20+ issues.

You can’t linger on an Evidence question. There’s no time to “settle in”. You have to bring it early and often. And especially in the COVID testing area, you best believe you need to finish that exam on time!

“But I can’t transfer the skills I used on my Torts final or my Con Law final or my Bus Ass final. What should I do?”

How to Prep For an Evidence Essay

I invented the Evidence Boilerplate on June 28, 2003, while grading several evidence essays for Barbri in my apartment in Oakland, CA.

I was struck by a realization that, in most subjects, there are several different types of questions. For example, in torts, there are five types of questions:

1. Malicious prosecution/abuse of process,
2. Products liability,
3. Defamation,
4. Negligence, and
5. Intentional torts.

How you approach each of those question types is pretty important, since if you wrote a negligence response to a defamation question, you’d fail the question.

Same with Civ Pro: you wouldn’t dare write a res judicata/collateral estoppel response to a personal jurisdiction question, would you? Or a 10(b)(5)/16(b) response to a duty of care/business judgment rule/duty of loyalty question? Of course not.

You need an attack plan for each type of question, in each subject, because all the questions are different.

Except when it comes to Evidence.

Sure, there are two different types of evidence questions: narrative fact patterns (i.e. the regular fact patterns like you see in the other subjects), and transcripts (i.e. the question/answer) fact patterns.

In the narrative fact pattern, what do you write? Logical relevance, legal relevance rel, personal knowledge, hearsay, exceptions, right? Absolutely. And what of the transcript? Yup, you guessed it: Logical relevance, legal relevance, personal knowledge, hearsay, exceptions! The same thing!

So I wondered how to take advantage of this realization that evidence fact patterns are generally the same, no matter what. I reviewed several bar exam questions and whadda ya know…the issues were almost always the same!

As it turns out, you can predict evidence questions to a remarkable degree of accuracy!

But why are there so many more issues in evidence questions than in other subjects?

Well, I don’t know why, but you’ve noted a very serious consideration. The average evidence question has at least 20 issues. Most other exams have 5-7. So how can you “speed up” your exam time? Or to put it another way, even if you know all 20 issues, how can you increase your output of issues by 250-300% in the same amount of time?

The Answer: The Evidence Boilerplate

On June 28, 2003, I thought about both of these critical questions:

1. To a degree of 80-90% accuracy, what are the issues on all evidence exams?
2. Even if you know all 20 issues, how can you increase your output of issues by 250-300% in the same amount of time?

On that fateful day, I figured out the answers to both those questions in what has become known as the Evidence Boilerplate.

Does it work? Sure has. Undefeated in 18 years of testing at the law school and the Cal Bar Exam level.

Some students have even received awards for the top grade in their Evidence class. And one Evidence professor was so impressed with the Evidence Boilerplate that he told his students, “If you don’t practice the Evidence Boilerplate, you are EMBRACING FAILURE!”

When Do I Start?

That’s the beauty of the Evidence Boilerplate.

You can start writing it on the first day of the semester. That’s right: you don’t have to know ANYTHING about Evidence law to start generating points on your final! In fact, you can start writing even before the first day of classes if you wanted to.

Draft the Evidence Boilerplate once a week, for 30 minutes a week, and you’re good to go. Be sure to use The Trigger List to see how to implicate each issue on an Evidence Essay.

Click here to get the correct answer now.

What if I am reading this a month into the semester and I need to prepare for my midterms?

No problem.

Write the Evidence Boilerplate once a week until 10 days before your midterm. Then write the Evidence Boilerplate once a day until your midterm. Then write the Evidence Boilerplate once a week until the last day of classes, and be sure to use The Trigger List to see how to implicate each issue on an Evidence Essay!

(It also couldn’t hurt to sign up for my next free webinar.)

Click here to get the correct answer now.

And if you’re reading this at the end of classes? Again, no problem!

Get my books immediately. Write the Evidence Boilerplate once every day, and be sure to use The Trigger List to see how to implicate each issue on an Evidence Essay.

That will help you get your timing down on exam day AND ensure that you can spot every issue!

Click here to get the correct answer now and save your Evidence final.

Good luck to you in your Evidence class! Good luck to you on the California Bar Examination!

Even if you’re attending Zoom University, the calendar is still the same. The first couple of months in the semester are about survival. The third month is about outlining. The last weeks are about practice exams.

And at some point, your mind starts turning over the daunting task of memorizing all that material.

The problem? In law school, there’s a LOT of material.

1. Don’t Panic

First off, don’t panic about having to memorize the material for four classes.

Remember, when the bar exam rolls around, you’ll be memorizing for 15 finals on the same day. You don’t have to do that yet, so keep it all in perspective. You’re only memorizing for four finals. Here, we call that a down payment!

2. Don’t Memorize Too Early

Anything you memorize in August or September (or January and February) is worthless. There’s still a lot more material to cover and, by the time you get there, the stuff you memorized at the beginning of the semester will be long forgotten.

Another method that’s just as dangerous? Trying to memorize the material before you take a practice exam. With this method, you won’t end up taking any practice exams until Question 1 on exam day, and that’s a disastrous strategy. (Don’t be that guy!)

I recommend that you wait until the reading period to do your memorization.

If it’s done properly with the appropriately-sized outlines, you can memorize one subject in 4-8 hours the day before the exam.

3. Learn How Not to Memorize

There’s a right way—and a wrong way—to memorize material for your law final.

Drafting flashcards? That’s the wrong way. It takes up so much time that you won’t have any time left to actually memorize anything.

I once saw a student peel off a label (with a law she typed on it the night before) and place it on a hole-punched flash card that eventually went onto a gigantic ring. She wasn’t studying, just making these perfect flashcards.

What about a cram session? That stuff is out of your head the next day. Same goes for dictating your notes into the tape recorder.

So what’s the right way to memorize?

4. Summarize the Material

The key concept is synthesis.

Humans learn best in short-term memory through synthesis. Don’t just jam material into your head. It won’t stay there. Synthesizing larger and larger material into smaller and smaller parts is what will help you retain that which you are memorizing.

The process is something akin to what I learned in a History of the Vietnam War class I took at Cal in the spring of 1992 (I was a History major). One day, Professor Douglas Pike, America’s foremost expert on North Vietnam, suddenly started riffing about (of all things) memorization.

Professor Pike said, “How do you really know something?” I was immediately bewildered. This was a History class, not a Philosophy class!

Then he said, “Say you write a 100-page paper. Then you write it again in 50 pages. Then 25 pages. 10 pages. 5 pages. 3 pages. And then you synthesize that 100 page paper into 1 page. If you can do that, you know what you’re talking about.”

Fast forward seven years later, nine days before the February 2000 Bar Exam, and I’m thinking about my experience with Professor Pike. How do I put all of this material together? Fourteen subjects, seven days to memorize, then a day off, and then into the exam. How do I memorize fourteen subjects in seven days?

I utilized the synthesizing idea that Professor Pike talked about. I combined the biggest subjects with the smallest subjects. Memorization is about synthesizing, yes. But it’s also about volume. You don’t want to memorize Con Law and Property in one day—too much stuff! But when properly compiled, you can memorize 1-2 subjects a day and be ready to go for the Bar Exam.

But as 1L’s you don’t have to worry about that! Just one subject. How do you do it? Synthesizing.

How My Program Works

What about carpal tunnel? Aren’t you worried about carpal tunnel?

Nope. This memorization process I teach in my program is oral. You can write letters of mnemonics if you want. But no need to write entire subjects out.

Does it work? Remember I teach Big League memorization—15 finals on the same day. And students of all stripes have done it. 1st timers, 12th timers. 25-year-old recent grads up to students in their 60s. Learning disabled students? Check. Autistic student? Yes.

It can be done and has been done for over two decades.

My memorization plan has a mechanism to help you bring the information forward to the next day (actually the next 7-11 days) so you can recall the material when you need it most. Memorization is a temporal notion, my friends. You can’t memorize it all right before the test. You have to start early.

But whatever you memorize early, you need to bring forward. I’ve got you covered. I have done what you are trying to do and under more trying circumstances (your next final is 5-6 days later, while I was memorizing for 14 finals on the same day). And I’ve helped students like you memorize when it mattered the most.

What if you’re a universalist and you’re a top 10% student, and you’re convinced that the only way you will get through the Bar Exam is to memorize everything in sight, just like you did for your 1L finals? That can work for one final five days from now. But it won’t help you when you are memorizing for 15 finals on the same day. I have a plan for it, and you can learn how to do it too.

Or… you could learn how to practice perfectly now, for semesters on end, so doing that Big League memorizing for the Bar Exam won’t be nearly as hard.

Let’s talk about it and help you generate some points!

If you’re finding this helpful (but a little too late), don’t worry. My books, lectures, and free webinars can come in clutch when you don’t have much time left before the exam.

Some time in their first semester, law students wonder how to succeed in law school.

Actually, that’s not true. This is the question students want to know about when they attend their law school orientation. Nay, when they apply to law school. Nay, even before that, when they take their first pre-law class.

So since you’ve been thinking about this at various points in your college (or pre-college!) career, let’s talk about how to succeed in law school, month-by-month and year-by-year.

How to Succeed in Law School: 1L

In the first year of law school, I teach my Legal Writing students about the three most important parts of the critical Fall semester calendar: Survival, outlining, and practice exams.

With the right schedule (and a few helpful tools), you can ace your first year of law school.

August/September: Survival

At this stage in the game, “survival” means showing up to class every day and briefing cases (if you start falling behind, use Casebriefs or another pre-drafted set of briefs to get you through class that day).

If you want to get ahead of the game, use WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List to get a preview of how to spot issues, what rules can realistically be written during a final exam, and how to present your answer and finish on time.

What if you could get the correct answer three years early and succeed in law school? Want the correct answer? It’s right there in WINNIN’ TIME! with the foundation lecture on how to succeed in law school and the bar exam by writing strong exam answers on time.

Do you have to work hard to survive in August/September? No. Set a schedule and stick to it. Use some next-level resources like WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List to get ahead of the game and know the correct answer ahead of time.

Think of law school as a full-time job. From 8-4, 9-5, or even 8-6, you should be reading cases, briefing cases, going to class, and staying on top of assignments. And read WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List to reinforce what the correct answer is when you get to exam time.

Why not target your studies every day towards preparing for the point-generating activity at the end of the semester? This ain’t a Ph.D. orals exam, folks. You gotta learn how to take a 60-minute essay in 60 minutes, while spotting all the issues and writing analytically.

Now what if you feel that you’re starting to get in over your head in the first month of law school? Fear not! The games haven’t even begun yet! WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List are the appropriate resources to pull you back from confusion and from feeling overwhelmed. The correct answer is there. The tools you need to get back on that treadmill and keep moving on the journey? They’re all there. The best way to succeed in law school is to do a little bit every day and know what professors need on their final exams well ahead of time.

During this survival period, what about work/life balance? Well, nobody can promise you that in law school! There’s a lot of work to do. But do your job. Give yourself some incentives each day. Read those cases for Property class. Take an hour off and watch a sporting event you wanted to watch. Watch that cooking show. Then get that Contracts reading done. Same thing.

Again and again and again.

October: Outlining

This is the time to start working on your outlining. There are two types of people here, folks, and be honest with yourself: are you a procrastinator or not?

Many professors will tell you to create your own outlines. It may help you learn the material better because you typed it. But if you’re a procrastinator, you know that you won’t do all that work on your own. What do you do?

Either way, you need to get a few examples of outlines to see what they look like. Don’t try to create one without seeing how others have done it!

Some outlines are 10 pages long. Others are 40 pages. Others are 100-200 pages! YIKES! Does that sound like a recipe for success?

So, get a couple of outlines that were written by 2Ls or 3Ls who took your professor, and use WINNIN’ TIME!’s bluebook-ready rules that were tailor-made for when you’re stressed the most…on exam day! Use WINNIN’ TIME! for your Cal Bar subject finals (i.e., Torts, Contracts, Property, etc.). Professorize WINNIN’ TIME! outlines by adding things that your professor likes to emphasize in class.

Use my formatting, and add those things your professor likes, and my 8-15 page outline turns into a 15-20 page outline. Perfect for memorization purposes: not too long, and you know half of the rules already because the rules are written in the same writing structure.

Procrastinators, you already know what to do! Succeed in law school by having WINNIN’ TIME! by your side every step of the way. Someone’s already done the work for you!

November: Practice Exams

The 2-3 weeks before the reading period begins (i.e., the time between the last day of classes and the beginning of finals) is when you need to excel…NOT during the reading period (for many, that’s too late!).

Do a practice question (that’s one question, not an entire exam) every single day. If you have multiple choice and essay components on your exams, then do a practice essay and do some multiple choice questions every day.

Every. Single. Day.

“But what if I haven’t memorized the material yet? How can I take practice exams if I haven’t memorized anything yet?”

Well, friends, let’s think about that for a second. When will you have memorized the material? November 1? Nope, there’s still 3 weeks of class left. Last day of class? Nope, you still need to finish outlining from the last days of class. Day before the exam? Nope, that’s when I’m going to memorize!

What’s the solution? Forcing yourself to take practice exams BEFORE you finish the last day of classes. Schedule your day around the practice exam. Wake up, schedule your practice exam for the day. Schedule your outlining. Schedule your classes. Schedule when you brief cases. Then schedule when you eat. Etc.

How can you take practice exams if you don’t know the law yet? Use the appropriate resources, of course.

WINNIN’ TIME! is open when you take the exam. Take 10 extra minutes for each practice exam (i.e., 70 minutes for a 60-minute question, 100 minutes for a 90-minute question, etc.). And when you finish taking the question, look at the sample answer (if you’re practicing on Cal Bar questions) and see what issues you missed. How do you solve the problem of your missed issues? The Trigger List of course!

BONUS ROUND: Just Before Finals!

It’s down to the wire now. What if your grand outlining plans fall apart? What if you don’t take any practice exams? What if your plan goes to hell due to family taking over your Thanksgiving period, or a big life event unexpectedly takes place?

I have a secret for you. I didn’t write WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List for easy days, but for crisis ones!

If you only have one long day to focus before your final exam, these books can save your semester. Remember, perfection is the enemy of excellence. Be diligent. Do your job. Use next level resources designed to help you succeed when it matters most. Work smarter not harder.

That’s how to succeed in law school during 1L Fall semester.

Spring/Summer Semesters & 2L

Once you survive the first semester, take stock of what you did during finals. What worked? What didn’t? Adapt and make sure you follow the best plan you can.

Spring Break? Work on your outlines. Or get WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List and have next level resources to help you with the Holy Trinity of Law School Exam success: issue spotting, outlining your essay answer with bluebook-ready rules, and presentation.

Professorize your existing WINNIN’ TIME! outline with things your professor likes to emphasize. Go to office hours and ask questions. Prepare one-page white papers with bullet points for potential policy questions. And no matter what, on April 1, start taking practice exams instead of waiting until the day or two before the exam!

For future semesters, focus on WINNIN’ TIME!’s Essay Writing Lecture to help you get in and out of issues faster and finish your exams on time. If you’re taking Evidence, stop EVERYTHING and get WINNIN’ TIME! so you can crush your Evidence final with the undefeated, exceptional Evidence Boilerplate. First one to 20 issues wins, my friends! Or if you’re taking PR, get WINNIN’ TIME! and practice that PR Boilerplate once a week to nail down those CA distinctions, organize by conduct and succeed on exam day!

You don’t have to be smart to succeed in law school. But you need to be organized. Sometimes Socrates scores higher on exams than plumbers. But not frequently. Why?

Plumbers know what the professor is looking for. They show up every day and take all the practice exams they can find. Socrates crushes the Ph.D orals defense, but doesn’t do practice exams and writes fascinating essays about a few issues of their choosing.

Socrates doesn’t finish the essay on time—they were too busy writing really interesting stuff but not worried about introductory or tertiary issues. The plumber? Crushes the exam because they know how to take a 60 minute exam in 60 minutes and how to use The Trigger List to ensure that words and phrases are spotted, issues implicated, outlined, and written up on time.

Socrates may know 80% of the material, but if they don’t take practice exams or knows what the professor is looking for, they’re going to get crushed by the plumber who knows 20% of the law, but grinds every practice exam, knows how issues are implicated, and how to analyze the way the professor wants.

The student who succeeds in law school is the GRINDER, the one who reads WINNIN’ TIME! to learn how to take an essay and uses The Trigger List to spot all of the issues. Because if you can’t spot an issue, it doesn’t matter what you know or how well you IRAC. You’re screwed.

How to Succeed in Law School: 3L

This is crunch time, folks. It doesn’t get more serious than this.

I recommend 3L students use the same materials they will use to prepare for the Bar, as this gives you an early preview of what’s to come. Having WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List means you don’t have to draft outlines from scratch.

Briefing cases is unrealistic, and so is outlining. So get your bluebook-ready outlines with WINNIN’ TIME! in October, take some practice exams in November, blow off prep during Thanksgiving, use those two beautiful books the day or two before the exam to save your semester, and excel on exam day.

For the Cal Bar, how many Bar courses should you take in law school? I recommend all except for Community Property and Remedies. If you need either or both of those courses to graduate because you need the units, that’s fine. But if the only reason you’re taking those courses is to get ready for the Bar exam, you don’t need to do so. You can pick up those courses during the summer.

Conclusion

Now you know how to succeed in law school. Think of it as a day job. Get your work done, and then reward yourself by doing something you like. Be organized. Survive. Outline. Take practice exams early and often. Use WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List to help you thrive throughout the exam process.

And if your plans don’t quite go according to Hoyle and you’re in over your head? Fear not! WINNIN’ TIME! and The Trigger List are here to help you at any time during the semester. Especially if you have only one day to focus.

Remember: perfection is the enemy of excellence. Use the proper tools, work smarter not harder, and succeed in law school!