Every law school student knows that without good grades, one has little chance of winning a job with a top-tier law firm. In fact, a mediocre academic record can lead one into the ranks of the unemployed. It is no wonder then that students experience gut-churning anxiety when it comes to taking exams. Any grade less than a B+ is a ticket to remorse, guilt, and a sense of failure.

Jeffrey Batoff, a brilliant law school student and now a highly successful litigator with a prestigious Philadelphia law firm, has written a book which is a text of “law school secrets.” It is entitled Outlining for Exam Success: A Step-by-step Approach for Achieving Great Grades on Law School Exams! The book is published by the prestigious publisher of law school texts: West Law, a division of Thomson Reuters. Mr. Batoff was motivated to write the book because one of his sons has just entered law school. And like most fathers, Mr. Batoff would like to see his son achieve the highest possible degree of success and not to suffer the way he did when he was a student. “A certain amount of anxiety is a necessary and important motivating force,” said Mr. Batoff, “but one doesn’t have to develop gastro-intestinal afflictions in order to be an A student. My book will prove more effective than tranquilizers and stimulants.”

The book answers the most asked questions of first, second, and third year law students, which is divided into two sections. Included in the “Exam Preparation” section are complete explanations of the following essential topics:

How long should my outline be?

What should I include in my outlines? What secondary sources should I use? Are study groups effective? Should I swap outlines with other students? How do I prepare for open and closed book exams? What is the best way to read the exam questions?

Included in the second section, “Writing the Exam,” are complete explanations of the following topics:

What is the best way to read the exam questions? How do I schedule my time? How do I organize my answer? When do I need to assume fact? How do I impress the professor?

Jeffrey Batoff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Order of the Coif Legal Honor Society. He had transferred to the University of Pennsylvania from Temple Law School, where he had won two American Jurisprudence Awards for having written the best exams in Torts and Contract Remedies. He is currently a senior partner with Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel (www.obermayer.com) in Philadelphia, where he serves as Vice Chairman of the Litigation Department and Chairman of the Intellectual Property Litigation Group.