Preparing for Exams

Student studying in library

Exams are on the horizon and the law library has a variety of resources to help.

Study Aids

The West Academic Study Aids includes the Concise Hornbook series, Hornbooks, and nutshells, Acing Series, Black Letter Outlines, Exam Pro Series, Flash Cards, Gilbert Law Summaries, and Sum and Substance Audio. Students can access titles on the Yale network or create an account to use additional features.

Aspen publishing online study aid collection including Examples & Explanations, and Emanuel Law Outlines.  You can also create an account to download titles to mobile apps.

CALI is the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. CALI includes lessons, free books, and other law-related instructional resources.

Sign up for CALI with the Yale Student Code available at the reference desk.

Past Exams


Yale Law School students can access these exams from our MORRIS catalog. Step-by-step instructions are below and attached with screenshots:

  1. Go to MORRIS
  2. Click on Previous Exams in the left column
  3. Search for the name of the professor
  4. Locate & Click on the link for the previous exam you want to access
  5. Then click on the link to view the actual PDF of the previous exam

 

Carrel Reservation and Study Spaces

Library carrels are available for short-term reservations through our new online carrel reservation system.

Carrel Reservation Policy:

  • L3 carrels are all available for use by students on a first-come-first-serve basis (no reservation required).
  • L4 houses open and closed carrels. Open carrels 401 – 444 are available to be reserved for up to 8 hours.
  • L4 closed carrels are unavailable.
  • L5 houses open carrels which are also available to be reserved, with the exception of carrels 560 – 572.
  • Carrel users with a reservation on L4 and L5 have priority over walk-in users.
  • Carrels may be reserved up to one week in advance and reservations are limited to one carrel per student per day.
  • Reservations may be canceled if the carrel is vacant 15 minutes or more after the reservation start time.
  • For security reasons do not leave personal items unattended.

Books

The library collection contains books on outlining, exam prep strategies, essay exam techniques (IRAC and others), stress relief, and time management, which can be found in the reference collection on L3 and on L5 (call number range KF 283). Some of the popular titles include: Outlining for Exam Success, A Practical Guide to Writing Law School Essay Exams, The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School, and Hard-Nosed Advice from a Cranky Law Professor.
 

Other Resources

In addition to books, here are some other resources that we recommend: