Finals Time

Believe it or not, December is here.  That means finals are right around the corner.  We do our best to help our students out during finals time.  Here are some resources and services we hope will make this time a little less stressful.

Sample Exams – The Law Library has a number of sample exams for BYU Law professors and courses.  These sample exams are available electronically and can be found here or through the “For Law Students” section of our webpage.  BYU Law students with a current BYU Net ID and password can access these exams.  Sample exams can be browsed by professor or by class.  We currently have sample exams for Professors Augustine-Adams, Backman, Benson, Brinton, Durham, Fee, Ferrin, Lee, Mangelson, Rasband, Scharffs, Thomas, Todd/Nydegger/Richards, Wardle, and Wilkins.  If your professor doesn’t appear on this list, you will still likely be able to find sample exams for the class that you are taking on the sample exams page.

Flash Cards – One of the popular study helps we offer are flash cards by Law in a Flash.  Near finals time it’s tough to keep these puppies on the shelf.  You can check them out for 2 hours at a time at the circulation desk.  We currently have the following sets of flash cards: Civil Procedure (parts 1 & 2), Con Law (parts 1 & 2), Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law, Crim. Pro., Evidence, Fed Tax, Future Interests, Professional Responsibility (parts 1 & 2), Real Property, Sales, Secured Transactions, Torts, and Wills and Trusts.

CALI – The Law Library’s subscription to CALI, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, provides BYU law students with access to nearly 900 internet-based lessons on 35 different legal topics.  Lessons range from core 1L courses to many different 2L/3L courses.  In addition to being web-based, CALI lessons are often interactive–asking you questions to test your knowledge as you go along.  Not only does this help you retain things better, but it can help add some variety to your study techniques.  If you don’t have a username and password already, email me at neverss@law.byu.edu and I can get you our authorization code.

Study Guides – We collect a number of study guides that may be useful as you brush up for finals.  They are available in the Reserve Library and can be found by browsing  or by searching the library catalog.  The best way to find them is to search for your subject in the library search box and then when the results come up, you will see a place to narrow the search to “study guides.”  Here’s an example for torts.  Study Guides in the Reserve Library are available for 2 hour checkout to law students.

Extended Hours – As of Monday, December 1, the Law Library is now open until 1am Monday-Friday until finals end.  We will continue to close at 11pm on Saturday.

Study Rooms – The law library is home to 13 group study rooms that are especially popular during finals.  Law students can reserve study rooms online in 2 hour blocks.  We ask that you please be respectful of others as groups transition between study rooms.

Quiet Reading Room – The Quiet Reading Room in the northeast portion of the library’s main floor is also available for study.  This room is for law students only (so bring your ID card to swipe in) and quiet study will be enforced.  We ask that you help us keep the noise down in there.

Good luck getting through finals!