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Open Book: The Inside Track to Law School Success
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 Open Book
The Inside Track to
Law School Success
Editorial Advisors

Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law
Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law
University of California, Irvine School of Law

Richard A. Epstein
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law
New York University School of Law
Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow
The Hoover Institution
Senior Lecturer in Law
The University of Chicago

Ronald J. Gilson
Charles J. Meyers Professor of Law and Business
Stanford University
Marc and Eva Stern Professor of Law and Business
Columbia Law School

James E. Krier
Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law
The University of Michigan Law School

Richard K. Neumann, Jr.

Professor of Law
Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Robert H. Sitkoff
John L. Gray Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

David Alan Sklansky

Stanley Morrison Professor of Law
Stanford Law School
Faculty Co-Director
Stanford Criminal Justice Center
 OPEN BOOK
The Inside Track to
Law School Success

BARRY FRIEDMAN
Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law
New York University

JOHN C. P. GOLDBERG
Eli Goldston Professor of Law
Harvard Law School
Copyright © 2016 Barry Friedman and John C.P. Goldberg.

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eISBN 978-1-4548-7732-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Friedman, Barry, 1958- author. | Goldberg, John C. P., 1961- author.
Title: Open book : inside track to law school success /
Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, New York University; John C.P.
Goldberg, Eli Goldston Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Description: 2nd edition. | New York : Wolters Kluwer, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000698
Subjects: LCSH: Law examinations—United States. | Law students— United States—
Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Classification: LCC KF283 .F75 2016 | DDC 340.076—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000698
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To our students, for everything they have taught us
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 12
Preface 15
Guide to the Book 17
How to Access Your Open Book Digital Materials 18
Chapter 1 - The What and Why of Exams 20
PART I - LAW SCHOOL 101: HOW CLASSES CONNECT
22
TO EXAMS
Chapter 2 - The Missing Link 23
Chapter 3 - A System of Rules 24
Chapter 4 - Legal Reasoning, the Common Law Way 27
Chapter 5 - Connecting Class and Exams 29
Chapter 6 - Getting the Most Out of Class 31
PART II - EXAMS 101: NO POINTS LEFT BEHIND 33
Chapter 7 - IRAC: A Framework for Analysis 34
Chapter 8 - The Pinball Method of Exam Taking 36
Chapter 9 - Issue Spotting and Issue Sorting 38
Chapter 10 - Rules 39
Chapter 11 - Analysis (Application) 41
Chapter 12 - Conclusions 43
PART III - EXAMS 102: PREPARING FOR AND TAKING
45
EXAMS
Chapter 13 - Outlining for Exam Success 47
Chapter 14 - Make Your Lists; Check Them Twice 50
Chapter 15 - Tackling Other Exam Formats 51
Chapter 16 - Practice (Exams) Makes Perfect 53
 Chapter 17 - Exam Trouble: How to Avoid It, What to Do About It 54
Afterword - The Zen of Law School 56
Appendix 58
Index 64