Getting to Maybe

Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams has been the best-selling book on law exams since its original publication in 1999. It appears on summer reading lists at countless law schools, and professors often recommend it in first-year courses. What sets it apart from its competitors is its frank recognition that law exams test legal reasoning and that legal reasoning cannot be reduced to any simple "check the boxes" template. Yet law students give it high marks because it avoids abstruse lectures and instead offers a clear, readable, and often humorous guide to how lawyers and judges deploy legal reasoning in real-world disputes and how law professors test such disputes—and the reasoning required to resolve them—on law exams.

It's therefore the best resource available for helping students successfully make the transition from undergraduate studies—where exams frequently call for "right answers"—to law school, where exams reward students for "getting to maybe" and mobilizing persuasive arguments on multiple sides of legal problems. Responding to reader feedback, the authors offer a much-anticipated second edition with new material focusing on exam preparation; drafting successful exam answers while avoiding common mistakes; and tackling multiple-choice questions.

This is the best book I have ever seen on how law students should approach exams. It is stunningly insightful and will be useful for every type of law school exam. But the book is much more than just test taking tips; it really is a wonderful guide for students on how to approach their courses in law school. Every law student will benefit from reading this book. — Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law