About mid-semester, if I'm being smart, I start busting out some practice exams. But why now? Why would I start doing that before I have a full course's worth of materials to incorporate? I'll tell you why: Doing practice exams over a prolonged period of time makes your thinking and analysis on the day of the exam go very smoothly because, after all, you've done it before. Personally, the more I do, the better I tend to perform. However, this doesn't hold up as well if I wait until the last few days before the exam. I think one reason for this is because doing the exams creates a more holistic approach in terms of everyday learning in class. By the time you take the real exam, you've been so used to analyzing problems for your class a certain way that it becomes a cinch. Note: I have a very specific way that I use practice exams. I only take exams that have either model answers (by the top scoring student) or model outlines (by the professor who gave...
Beyond the "whats" of law school and law practice more generally, here, the "hows" are explained, whether you need them during law school or many years thereafter.