Reason Magazine
· collected 2026-09-06 · by Orin S. Kerr
The author of the Volokh Conspiracy blog post from 2007 has written an updated essay on how to excel on law school exams. The essay provides guidance on what law professors look for in exam answers, using a hypothetical question with four different responses graded accordingly. It's still a first draft and the author is seeking feedback from law students and professors to improve it further.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-06,
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Story summary
Orin S. Kerr, a law professor and contributor to The Volokh Conspiracy, has written an essay on how to excel on law school exams. This is not the first time he has addressed this topic, as he had previously posted about it in 2007. The new essay, which can be found on SSRN, aims to provide guidance to students on what constitutes a strong performance on law school essay exams. The essay uses a hypothetical exam question and answers to illustrate key points, but it is still a draft and Kerr welcomes feedback from others, particularly law professors.
Written for “Law School Exam Prep Tips” on 2026-09-07,
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Back in 2007, here at the Volokh Conspiracy, I had a post on how to excel on law school exams.
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I → have → exams
I have heard that the post is still read among law students, so I decided to expand on that post and turn it into a more helpful essay for today's students to read.
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students → hear → essay
I finally finished the draft, and I posted it on SSRN yesterday.
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I → finish → SSRN
You can read it here: How to Excel on Law School Essay Exams: A Guide for Students.
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You → read → Students
It begins:
This Essay offers guidance on how law students can earn high grades on law school essay exams.
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students → begin → exams
It starts with the goals law professors have when writing exams, which then frames what counts as a poor or strong performance.
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what → start → performance
The essay then presents a hypothetical exam question with four answers, and it grades the answers to help explain what makes the different answers better or worse.
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answers → present → answers
This is just a first draft, and I plan to improve it over the semester, so please send specific suggestions for improvement to me at okerr at law dot standord dot edu.
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I → plan → edu
I'm particularly interested in feedback from other law professors, as I'm trying to capture how grading looks from the faculty perspective, all to help students do their best.
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students → try → best
I see this essay as a companion piece to my 2007 essay, How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students, and also last year's video, So You're About to Start Law School: A Guide to the First Month.
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You → see → Month
The goal of all three has been to share the insider knowledge that connected people have with everyone else, so that students without connections start off on more equal footing and law school on the whole is more fair.
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school → share → whole