An Essay on How to Get Top Grades On Law School Exams

Read the original at Reason ↗
Cite

Kerr, O. S. (2026, September 6). An Essay on How to Get Top Grades On Law School Exams. Reason. https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/03/an-essay-on-how-to-get-top-grades-on-law-school-exams/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Reason · collected 2026-09-06 · by Orin S. Kerr

Quick Summary

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 locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-06, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

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 2026-10-22, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Law School Exam Prep Tips
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
11
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 11 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
67/100
Reason's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Reason · 861 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
2026-10-02
Would a Firing Squad Have Been More 'Humane' for Christa Pike?
2026-09-26
"I Will Not Stand for Being Jerked Around … by Any Lawyer Who Practices Before Me"
2026-09-18
New Article: Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections: Bringing Clarity To The Necessary and Proper Clause
2026-09-05
Lawyers' Responsibility for Hallucinations in Briefs That They Sign

Who wrote this

Orin S. Kerr
2 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
🔮 "The border-search exception is grounded in the recognized right of the sovereign to control, subject to substantive limitations imposed by the Constitution, who and what may enter the country." Id. at 620.
2026-09-18 · assertive framing · Second Circuit Rejects Limits on Border Searches of Cell Phones
Also by Orin S. Kerr
Second Circuit Rejects Limits on Border Searches of Cell Phones
2026-09-18 · Reason
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

SSRN okerr the Volokh Conspiracy

Subjects

The Volokh Conspiracy PERSON · 2× SSRN ORG · 1× okerr ORG · 1×

Narrative

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.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-06
2026-09-06 · Reason
An Essay on How to Get Top Grades On Law School Exams · assertive framing

Claims (11 extracted, 0 hedged)

Back in 2007, here at the Volokh Conspiracy, I had a post on how to excel on law school exams. asserted
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. asserted
students → hear → essay
I finally finished the draft, and I posted it on SSRN yesterday. asserted
I → finish → SSRN
You can read it here: How to Excel on Law School Essay Exams: A Guide for Students. asserted
You → read → Students
It begins: This Essay offers guidance on how law students can earn high grades on law school essay exams. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
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. asserted
school → share → whole
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support
Terms · Privacy · beta v2.0.0
Articles to 22 Oct 2026