Utilize Career Services and Bar Examination Prep early and often. In addition to running workshops and sending regular newsletters with helpful information throughout the year, they also can:
When possible, you should attend your professors' office hours and take advantage of the Dean's Fellows. Building relationships with professors is essential for the eventual recommendation letters you will need. Get to know them through their office hours or committee work (bonus points if you join a committee through SBA's application process!)
If you require accommodations please read through the Mizzou School of Law accommodation process, reach out to the current Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and/or the Mizzou Disability Center.
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Molly Bishop Shadel, Finding Your Voice in Law School : Mastering Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews, and Other Verbal Challenges (2013). MU Law Library General Collection: KF 283 .S52 2013 |
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Ruth Ann McKinney, Reading like a Lawyer : Mastering the Art of Reading Law like an Expert (2nd ed. 2012). MU Law Library General Collection: KF283 .M398 2012 |
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John C. Dernbach, Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School (Not Just to Survive) (3rd ed. 2010). MU Law Library Reserve Room: KF283 .D47 2010 |
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Richard Michael Fischl & Jeremy Paul, Getting to Maybe : How to Excel on Law School Exams (1999). MU Law Library General Collection: KF283 .F47 1999 MU Law Library Reserve Room: KF283 .F47 1999 |
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Barry Friedman & John C.P. Goldberg, Open Book : The inside Track to Law School Success (2nd ed. 2016). MU Law Library General Collection: KF283 .F75 2016 |
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Paul Bergman, Patrick Goodman & Thomas Holm, Cracking the Case Method : Legal Analysis for Law School Success (2012). MU Law Library General Collection: KF283 .B37 2012 *This title can also be accessed online via Mizzou Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
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Helene S. Shapo & Marshall S. Shapo, Law School Without Fear: Strategies for Success (2009). MU Law Library General Collection: KF386 .S44 2009 *This title can also be accessed online via Mizzou Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
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Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, Mastering the Law School Exam (2023). *This book can be accessed via Mizzou Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. An older edition is also available at the Law Library: MU Law Library General Collection: KF283 .D37 2007 |
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Batoff, Jeffrey S., Law School Secrets: Outlining for Exam Success (2012). *This book can be accessed via Mizzou Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
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*This book can be accessed via Mizzou Law School's subscription to West Academic Study Aids. |
Below you will find a quick overview of the free study aids you can access online as a MU Law student. For more information, check out Study Aids for MU Law Students.
| Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction | Aspen |
West Academic |
Prefer Print? |
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CALI lessons are organized by subject and lesson, and cover most law school courses. The lessons are guided and provide immediate feedback.
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Aspen provides access to hundreds of study aids including Examples & Explanations (these include hypotheticals with detailed responses), the Complete Emanuel Law Outlines (some titles are aligned with specific casebooks), the Crunchtime Series (these offer a succinct review/overview and practice questions), and Casenote Legal Briefs (these are all aligned with specific casebooks. |
West's Academic provides online access to hundreds of West publications, including all current Hornbooks & Nutshells (these aids will summarize and explain the law in a subject area), Black Letter Outlines, Gilbert Law Summaries, Exam Pro titles, High Court Case Summaries (these are keyed to specific textbooks), Audio lectures and much more. Registering for a free West Academic account will allow you to highlight text or take notes online. For a brief video introduction to and overview of the West Academic Study Aids collection, click here. |
To search for items in the law library and to find out if they can be checked out, search in library resources. Ask a librarian or reference/circulation assistant for help if needed. Print copies of the Lexis "Understanding Series" are kept in the reserve room of the law library and are available for checkout. |
Some Mizzou Law professors provide versions of their previous exams to help students study. This exam bank is only for Mizzou Law students, and is therefore password protected. The password is posted at the Circulation Desk in the Law Library.
Some professors may provide copies of their previous exams through alternative formats. Make sure you check with each professor to see if previous exams are available for studying.
Please make sure you are thoroughly familiar with Mizzou Law's academic and student conduct policies.
Everyone in the Law Library is happy to help you. We can help you with a variety of things wether that is to help find a study aid, print, or researching for a writing credit class; we will do our best to help! Suggestions on how the Library can better support law students are also always welcome.
The Law Library also has around 41 research guides that can be a helpful reference for resources. Here are a few LibGuides that you may find extra useful during your first year:
The Mizzou Law Library consists of 4 floors. Law students may use their valid Mizzou ID to enter the library at any time (with a few exceptions.) The Law Library has 21 study rooms, available only to law students, faculty, and staff. These rooms can be reserved online, students may reserve a room for up to ten hours per week, up to seven days in advance.
The Law Library also has hundreds of study carrels, assignment of carrels is done by the Student Bar Association (SBA). Please be patient in the first few weeks of the semester while they get everything sorted!
Ellis Library also has dozens of study rooms which can also be reserved online. Some of these study rooms are larger and can accommodate up to 12 students. Ellis Library study rooms can only be booked for 2 hours per day, students can only have one scheduled study room booking at Ellis Library at a time. These study rooms are also used frequently by undergraduate students.
Please keep in mind that study rooms are not soundproof.
Thank you to Kirsten Salchow for generously sharing original content from their First Generation Law Student Resources guide and for allowing it to be used as the foundation of this guide's formatting. The Loyola University Chicago School of Law Library has many informative legal guides which can be helpful for legal research.