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Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams
Professors Fischl and Paul explain law school exams in ways no one has before, all with an eye toward improving the reader's performance. The book begins by describing the difference between educational cultures that praise students for "right answers" and the law school culture that rewards nuanced analysis of ambiguous situations in which more than one approach may be correct. Enormous care is devoted to explaining precisely how and why legal analysis frequently produces such perplexing situations.
But the authors don't stop with mere description. Instead, Getting to Maybe teaches how to excel on law school exams by showing the reader how legal analysis can be brought to bear on examination problems. The book contains hints on studying and preparation that go well beyond conventional advice. The authors also illustrate how to argue both sides of a legal issue without appearing wishy-washy or indecisive. Above all, the book explains why exam questions may generate feelings of uncertainty or doubt about correct legal outcomes and how the student can turn these feelings to his or her advantage.
In sum, although the authors believe that no exam guide can substitute for a firm grasp of substantive material, readers who devote the necessary time to learning the law will find this book an invaluable guide to translating learning into better exam performance.
348 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
497 people are currently reading
2369 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
April 4, 2010
This is probably the best book out there on how to do well on law school exams. The problem is the topic is incredibly lame. Who really cares about this when there are fascinating facts to learn and stories to ponder? My complaint is not with the information, the authors, or the style. Again, it is very helpful and probably achieves the goal it sought. My complaint is simply with the topic.
The authors will show you how to "answer" a law school question, which is actually not answering it at all but rather just giving qualified, spineless explanations of why the question can as easily be answered in exactly opposite ways or not answered at all. You should ultimately address every question with something weak and half-assed like: while A, B, and C are true, X, Y, and Z are also true and cut against A, B, and C. In the end, X, Y, and Z should win out for reasons J, K, and L.
This is rarely profundity or nuanced brilliance grappling with complex reality, rather it's simple and formulaic self-aggrandizing masquerading as those things. Law school professors and students harp on needless complexities in an attempt to obfuscate obvious truths, impress the laymen, draw big salaries, and justify their parasitic existence. For example, New York's rules for civil procedure are intentionally convoluted and nonsensical in order to prevent non-New York lawyers from practicing there. It's exactly this kind of economic inefficiency that squanders scarce resources and lowers the standard of living for everyone. Medical school, engineering school, and even vo-tech schools are better than law school in the sense that at least you have a definable skill at the end, such as the ability to save lives or add numbers. What do law students have? The ability to find complexity where none need exist and answer every question in a timid manner with the word "maybe." Other words come to mind: pathetic, wasteful.
That this book exists and is praised by so many bothers me. The question is not how should we apply countless arbitrary laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act, but rather should we have these laws in the first place? Should we increase government involvement in medical care with the 2,000+ page bills going through Congress currently? Is all this nonsense making anyone's life better? The correct, non-Getting to Maybe answer is: absolutely not. It's all just a giant political scam that hurts more people than it helps, but the powers that be will always feather their own nests. Legal complexity, whether in the tax code or in entire fields like labor law, exists solely because the collective action problem is insurmountable. This is the answer everyone knows from common sense and experience and which law school and other forms of higher education try to "reeducate" you away from. The answer that Getting to Maybe will teach you to type will be designed to completely avoid this simple truth and drone on for pages and pages about "social justice," "conflicting policies," and other bullshit excuses for thievery.
Of course, I'm just bitter for not doing as well as I'd have liked in law school. Maybe.
The authors will show you how to "answer" a law school question, which is actually not answering it at all but rather just giving qualified, spineless explanations of why the question can as easily be answered in exactly opposite ways or not answered at all. You should ultimately address every question with something weak and half-assed like: while A, B, and C are true, X, Y, and Z are also true and cut against A, B, and C. In the end, X, Y, and Z should win out for reasons J, K, and L.
This is rarely profundity or nuanced brilliance grappling with complex reality, rather it's simple and formulaic self-aggrandizing masquerading as those things. Law school professors and students harp on needless complexities in an attempt to obfuscate obvious truths, impress the laymen, draw big salaries, and justify their parasitic existence. For example, New York's rules for civil procedure are intentionally convoluted and nonsensical in order to prevent non-New York lawyers from practicing there. It's exactly this kind of economic inefficiency that squanders scarce resources and lowers the standard of living for everyone. Medical school, engineering school, and even vo-tech schools are better than law school in the sense that at least you have a definable skill at the end, such as the ability to save lives or add numbers. What do law students have? The ability to find complexity where none need exist and answer every question in a timid manner with the word "maybe." Other words come to mind: pathetic, wasteful.
That this book exists and is praised by so many bothers me. The question is not how should we apply countless arbitrary laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act, but rather should we have these laws in the first place? Should we increase government involvement in medical care with the 2,000+ page bills going through Congress currently? Is all this nonsense making anyone's life better? The correct, non-Getting to Maybe answer is: absolutely not. It's all just a giant political scam that hurts more people than it helps, but the powers that be will always feather their own nests. Legal complexity, whether in the tax code or in entire fields like labor law, exists solely because the collective action problem is insurmountable. This is the answer everyone knows from common sense and experience and which law school and other forms of higher education try to "reeducate" you away from. The answer that Getting to Maybe will teach you to type will be designed to completely avoid this simple truth and drone on for pages and pages about "social justice," "conflicting policies," and other bullshit excuses for thievery.
Of course, I'm just bitter for not doing as well as I'd have liked in law school. Maybe.
July 6, 2015
Great book. Really opens up your eyes to the world of what law exams are supposedly like. In short (like *really* short), the strategy with any law exam question is:
1. Spot the issue. Identify all the legal questions which arise out of the hypothetical fact pattern given by the professor.
2. Identify the number of ways in which each issue can be addressed. Sometimes, there will be a "fork in the law." For example, should the common law apply? Or should a statute apply? Should the court consult a more traditional rendition of a rule pertaining to, say, torts, or should it look to the modern Restatement? Other times, there are "forks in the facts." Can a list of phone numbers of potential customers really be considered a "good" under relevant commercial regulation statutes or is it more of a service? Most of the time, these factual and legal forks will be intertwined.
3. Argue a side. Argue the way in which you think the case should be resolved under the relevant law. Which side of each of the forks has the most compelling arguments in its favor?
4. Don't stop there, however. GET TO MAYBE! Present the shortcomings of your chosen argument and the difficult aspects of the problem which will have to be resolved.
5. Address the policy implications of any answer/approach you take.
This is not necessarily a step-by-step procedure, but this is the general gist of how one should supposedly approach law exam questions. In short, there is "right answer" to law school exams. There is only maybe. Get to it. Get to maybe.
A
1. Spot the issue. Identify all the legal questions which arise out of the hypothetical fact pattern given by the professor.
2. Identify the number of ways in which each issue can be addressed. Sometimes, there will be a "fork in the law." For example, should the common law apply? Or should a statute apply? Should the court consult a more traditional rendition of a rule pertaining to, say, torts, or should it look to the modern Restatement? Other times, there are "forks in the facts." Can a list of phone numbers of potential customers really be considered a "good" under relevant commercial regulation statutes or is it more of a service? Most of the time, these factual and legal forks will be intertwined.
3. Argue a side. Argue the way in which you think the case should be resolved under the relevant law. Which side of each of the forks has the most compelling arguments in its favor?
4. Don't stop there, however. GET TO MAYBE! Present the shortcomings of your chosen argument and the difficult aspects of the problem which will have to be resolved.
5. Address the policy implications of any answer/approach you take.
This is not necessarily a step-by-step procedure, but this is the general gist of how one should supposedly approach law exam questions. In short, there is "right answer" to law school exams. There is only maybe. Get to it. Get to maybe.
A
November 14, 2018
Maybe I shouldn't rate this book because I haven't yet taken my finals, but I found Getting to Maybe to be very, very helpful while studying for exams.
Law school exams are quite different from undergraduate-level exams. It really doesn't matter if you know all the laws and rules; it only matters that you can apply them to a hypothetical situation on exam day. I'll have to write a more detailed review AFTER my exams, but right now I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Law school exams are quite different from undergraduate-level exams. It really doesn't matter if you know all the laws and rules; it only matters that you can apply them to a hypothetical situation on exam day. I'll have to write a more detailed review AFTER my exams, but right now I can't recommend this book highly enough.
August 20, 2009
four stars, to be adjusted up or down depending on class rank.
April 8, 2023
Very upset that I didn't read this book sooner. Would've been a great help last semester.
Read
August 6, 2024I’ll review it well if I get an A lmao
August 14, 2020
*I started this book a few days ago and just forgot to post on Goodreads.*
It takes a patient mind to figure out what this book is saying. The writing, in my opinion, can get pretty convoluted, especially toward the end in the example answers. Once you *finally* figure out what advice this book is trying to give you, you will realize that it's actually pretty sound advice! I definitely think I will keep its tips and overall mentality in mind.
However, this isn't enough for me to give it a high rating. As a PREP book (which is what it is marketed as), this book is terrible. Like I said earlier, the writing can get convoluted, but what's worse is that it clarifies its claims through examples that pre-law students/0Ls cannot possibly understand! It utilizes examples only someone who has finished their first semester would understand. How can you write a law school exam prep/general prep book if it's designed for students who have already finished part of law school? Aren't prep and guidebooks supposed to be read BEFORE one takes on the task one seeks advice on? This huge discrepancy made the reading process close to miserable for me. The book has loads of flags in it not so I can review what key points I read, but so I can read, for what would feel like the first time, the book's claims. It's as though this book is designed to be read in the crunch time between the last day of class and finals, and like any student would know, those few days are used for studying content, not for reading a prep book. Disappointing.
It takes a patient mind to figure out what this book is saying. The writing, in my opinion, can get pretty convoluted, especially toward the end in the example answers. Once you *finally* figure out what advice this book is trying to give you, you will realize that it's actually pretty sound advice! I definitely think I will keep its tips and overall mentality in mind.
However, this isn't enough for me to give it a high rating. As a PREP book (which is what it is marketed as), this book is terrible. Like I said earlier, the writing can get convoluted, but what's worse is that it clarifies its claims through examples that pre-law students/0Ls cannot possibly understand! It utilizes examples only someone who has finished their first semester would understand. How can you write a law school exam prep/general prep book if it's designed for students who have already finished part of law school? Aren't prep and guidebooks supposed to be read BEFORE one takes on the task one seeks advice on? This huge discrepancy made the reading process close to miserable for me. The book has loads of flags in it not so I can review what key points I read, but so I can read, for what would feel like the first time, the book's claims. It's as though this book is designed to be read in the crunch time between the last day of class and finals, and like any student would know, those few days are used for studying content, not for reading a prep book. Disappointing.
June 29, 2018
I start law school in 2 months and I had this book recommended to me by an advisor and my tailor, who is also about to start his 1L.
It’s really boring and the first 2/3 is especially difficult to get through because the material is really dense. But it’s a book about arguably the most tedious and nightmarish aspect of any professional school, a freaking law school final exam so it’s not supposed to be all sunshine and puppies. Props to the writers though because they did make the difficult and dull material engaging and everything boring about this book has less to do with their writing and more to do with the nature of the material itself.
I can’t say for certain how helpful this book is, as I have never set foot in a law school classroom and am about 6 months away from finals. It’s also difficult to grasp the context of some of the lessons within this book because I’ve never seen a case, statute, or law school lecture. I realized not to get bogged down with the details though and just tried to take in the general advice. I did make a detailed outline of the book to practice my outlining skills and also to make the information readily available for me to use once class starts.
This book isn’t the easiest read but it’s easy to read all things considered but I do think it helps get you in the right mindset about law school exams.
It’s really boring and the first 2/3 is especially difficult to get through because the material is really dense. But it’s a book about arguably the most tedious and nightmarish aspect of any professional school, a freaking law school final exam so it’s not supposed to be all sunshine and puppies. Props to the writers though because they did make the difficult and dull material engaging and everything boring about this book has less to do with their writing and more to do with the nature of the material itself.
I can’t say for certain how helpful this book is, as I have never set foot in a law school classroom and am about 6 months away from finals. It’s also difficult to grasp the context of some of the lessons within this book because I’ve never seen a case, statute, or law school lecture. I realized not to get bogged down with the details though and just tried to take in the general advice. I did make a detailed outline of the book to practice my outlining skills and also to make the information readily available for me to use once class starts.
This book isn’t the easiest read but it’s easy to read all things considered but I do think it helps get you in the right mindset about law school exams.
August 3, 2007
Sigh....
Update: Well, it's a classic for a reason. I won't be able to say for sure how helpful it is until I get to exams next Christmas, but it certainly shed some light on the subject. Pretty engaging, considering the subject matter.
Update: Well, it's a classic for a reason. I won't be able to say for sure how helpful it is until I get to exams next Christmas, but it certainly shed some light on the subject. Pretty engaging, considering the subject matter.
August 27, 2014
I'd rank the thrills contained herein as somewhere between watching paint dry and staring at a kettle incapable of boiling, but the material is (or seems) effective. As the only available option for in-depth exam strategy, you'd be foolish as a 1L not to read it. Here's hoping it helps.
July 14, 2021
great book to help me get ready for law school this fall!! feeling very excited and only a little nervous 🥴🥴 ah!!
April 18, 2025
Definitely not a waste of time to read but I didn’t feel like I learned anything that my professors hadn’t already told me… will confirm when I get my grades back tho!
June 20, 2025
Listened to this through an actually quite annoying Speechify’d free audiobook on YouTube, which oftentimes made frustrating mistakes regarding punctuation and really gave me a steel ear. The content is good generally I think, never taken a law school exam though.
I still actually have two chapters but I’ll listen to those on my drive up to law school
I still actually have two chapters but I’ll listen to those on my drive up to law school
June 20, 2025
This is not a quick read. It's dense. It's about law school exams. Nobody wants to be reading this. However, I would say that the tips in the book are helpful and one of the more useful books on the topic.
dnf-did-not-finish-or-never-read
July 25, 2023laughing at the silliness of william from over 2.5 years ago. but also beaming love to past william for finding his own way through first 2 years of law school.
May 13, 2024
Jury is still out on if I learned anything
December 17, 2024
Actually helpful, thanks Professor Surden
May 7, 2025
My rating is subject to change depending on how I do on Property.
December 8, 2022
Lol not me having this book the whole semester but not finishing it until the night before my first exam!!
April 28, 2020
I read Getting to Maybe midway through first semester of 1L and it helped me with my Legal Research and Writing papers and finals. It is best to read Getting To Maybe during (as opposed to before) law school, when you will be analyzing facts for your class memos and practicing for finals. Otherwise, you do not practice what you read and everything is just in the abstract.
September 21, 2009
Professors Fischl and Paul explain law school exams in ways no one has before, all with an eye toward improving the reader's performance. The book begins by describing the difference between educational cultures that praise students for 'right answers,' and the law school culture that rewards nuanced analysis of ambiguous situations in which more than one approach may be correct. Enormous care is devoted to explaining precisely how and why legal analysis frequently produces such perplexing situations.
But the authors don't stop with mere description. Instead, Getting to Maybe teaches how to excel on law school exams by showing the reader how legal analysis can be brought to bear on examination problems. The book contains hints on studying and preparation that go well beyond conventional advice. The authors also illustrate how to argue both sides of a legal issue without appearing wishy-washy or indecisive. Above all, the book explains why exam questions may generate feelings of uncertainty or doubt about correct legal outcomes and how the student can turn these feelings to his or her advantage.
Book Details:
Title Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams
Author Richard Michael Fischl, Jeremy Paul
Reviewed By Purplycookie
But the authors don't stop with mere description. Instead, Getting to Maybe teaches how to excel on law school exams by showing the reader how legal analysis can be brought to bear on examination problems. The book contains hints on studying and preparation that go well beyond conventional advice. The authors also illustrate how to argue both sides of a legal issue without appearing wishy-washy or indecisive. Above all, the book explains why exam questions may generate feelings of uncertainty or doubt about correct legal outcomes and how the student can turn these feelings to his or her advantage.
Book Details:
Title Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams
Author Richard Michael Fischl, Jeremy Paul
Reviewed By Purplycookie
July 24, 2020
I want to warn prospective law students off of this book. I read it before law school, and found most of its advice to be obvious at best, actively harmful at worst. The obvious portions refute strawmen arguments about how one should take exams (I suppose this may be the book for you if you truly think that on a law school exam you should write one-sentence answers that do not explain your reasoning). The actively harmful portions give you mock questions that, having not taken law school classes and learned the relevant law, you will be completely unprepared to answer. This may create the sensation that law school will be impossible for you. It will not be. Enjoying this book, on the other hand...
October 7, 2008
Honestly, this was really repetitive and I just skimmed through it. If I had a penny for every time "fork" or "fork in the road" was mentioned, I wouldn't have to worry about paying back my loans. =P There was some good stuff mentioned, but nothing mind-blowing or particularly difficult to grasp. Will probably read much more thoroughly around Thanksgiving, we'll see how helpful it is come exam time. =/
January 18, 2025
Helpful advice, but they straw manned the IRAC method and pretended like theirs was different and revolutionary. For example, the Rules section of IRAC does not mean there has to be one rule or even a clear and dispositive standard by which you abide. I’m quite sick of authors bringing down others and pretending like their method is better when it’s the same thing. It leads one to question the intelligence and ethicality of such authors.
3.5
3.5
May 31, 2017
Excellent! One of my professors referred me to this book. Would recommend for all incoming 1Ls. They give you wonderful tools to analyze law school exam questions- some of which I will adopt.
(However, the tips towards the end could've been condensed.)
(However, the tips towards the end could've been condensed.)
August 11, 2009
Painful as hell, but necessary for law school exams. It's what the law professors want you to say, but a lawyer would ding you on...
September 10, 2016
Don't use IRAC since it's a waste of time? Swell, except for that's how all of my professors have told me they want it written and that's what the bar exam graders in my state are looking for.
December 2, 2023
1. You will not understand one word of this if you read it BEFORE about halfway through your first semester.
2. If you do not take contracts & property your first semester, you will not understand 90% of this until you do.
3. Very generic, poorly worded, convoluted advice.
So, I bought this the month before my first semester started. People said you should wait until the end of the semester to read this, otherwise you won't understand, and that is very true. It uses purely legal jargon to explain how to take a final, which makes sense; it would be nearly impossible to tell a law school student how to take a final without using the law to explain.
HOWEVER, even waiting until a month until my finals, I couldn't understand the majority of the hypos. They were nearly ALL (99%), very specific contracts or property hypos... such as, the elements of a contract and the exceptions... the elements of real property and those who construct on it's obligations. 1Ls in my school don't take contracts & property until next semester... as far as I'm aware, that's pretty standard.
I'm really confused as to why the authors didn't use torts hypos, at the very least, because I'm pretty sure nearly EVERY law school teaches torts in the first semester. Even if they don't, torts is pretty straight forward to understand (A hit B... doctors have a duty to their patients... leaving a loaded gun on the table with children around is negligence....). What it takes to form a contract, especially all of the weird verbal vs. written stuff, and what counts as what type of property and how owners are allowed to use it are very difficult to grasp concepts with 0 context... there's a reason a ton of law school students list property/contracts as their hardest/most hated classes, so why use them as sole examples?
As for the advice itself, what I could understand anyway, it was advice I'd already heard from my school's faculty or Reddit. Argue both sides, carefully read and re-read, look for issues your prof focuses a lot of class time on, blah blah. Yeah, no duh. I suppose if someone did no research on law school exams EXCEPT for this book, AND they took contracts & property, AND they read this at the end of their first semester, it may be baseline helpful. As someone who did a ton of research on law school exams and read a lot of advice, it was simply repeating things I already knew for free from law students online.
OH! And warning; this book tells you not to use IRAC (a type of organizational style), as it makes for badly written exam answers. My school, and professors, have specifically emphasized how important IRAC is and to follow it for exam answers. So at worse, this book may actually lose you significant points if you listen to it and your professor prefers IRAC (which, as far as I know, is 99% of them).
2. If you do not take contracts & property your first semester, you will not understand 90% of this until you do.
3. Very generic, poorly worded, convoluted advice.
So, I bought this the month before my first semester started. People said you should wait until the end of the semester to read this, otherwise you won't understand, and that is very true. It uses purely legal jargon to explain how to take a final, which makes sense; it would be nearly impossible to tell a law school student how to take a final without using the law to explain.
HOWEVER, even waiting until a month until my finals, I couldn't understand the majority of the hypos. They were nearly ALL (99%), very specific contracts or property hypos... such as, the elements of a contract and the exceptions... the elements of real property and those who construct on it's obligations. 1Ls in my school don't take contracts & property until next semester... as far as I'm aware, that's pretty standard.
I'm really confused as to why the authors didn't use torts hypos, at the very least, because I'm pretty sure nearly EVERY law school teaches torts in the first semester. Even if they don't, torts is pretty straight forward to understand (A hit B... doctors have a duty to their patients... leaving a loaded gun on the table with children around is negligence....). What it takes to form a contract, especially all of the weird verbal vs. written stuff, and what counts as what type of property and how owners are allowed to use it are very difficult to grasp concepts with 0 context... there's a reason a ton of law school students list property/contracts as their hardest/most hated classes, so why use them as sole examples?
As for the advice itself, what I could understand anyway, it was advice I'd already heard from my school's faculty or Reddit. Argue both sides, carefully read and re-read, look for issues your prof focuses a lot of class time on, blah blah. Yeah, no duh. I suppose if someone did no research on law school exams EXCEPT for this book, AND they took contracts & property, AND they read this at the end of their first semester, it may be baseline helpful. As someone who did a ton of research on law school exams and read a lot of advice, it was simply repeating things I already knew for free from law students online.
OH! And warning; this book tells you not to use IRAC (a type of organizational style), as it makes for badly written exam answers. My school, and professors, have specifically emphasized how important IRAC is and to follow it for exam answers. So at worse, this book may actually lose you significant points if you listen to it and your professor prefers IRAC (which, as far as I know, is 99% of them).
June 12, 2018
Analyzing forks seems tedious and confusing, but it certainly does help grasp a basic understanding of (rather an insight into) how issues and facts diverge and trigger pertinent law discussions.
Although the book is helpful in theoretically analyzing facts, it lacks in providing a specific game-plan for tackling exam questions. I think the appeal of IRAC and LEEWS method of exam taking is the specific stages of answering an exam question. Getting to Maybe tries to do that, but doesn't really.
The value of Getting to Maybe is within how it teaches to think about exam questions, not necessarily answer them. Besides exam-taking advice, it offers some key insight into law school, too. I'd say it's a must-read.
Although the book is helpful in theoretically analyzing facts, it lacks in providing a specific game-plan for tackling exam questions. I think the appeal of IRAC and LEEWS method of exam taking is the specific stages of answering an exam question. Getting to Maybe tries to do that, but doesn't really.
The value of Getting to Maybe is within how it teaches to think about exam questions, not necessarily answer them. Besides exam-taking advice, it offers some key insight into law school, too. I'd say it's a must-read.
June 6, 2025
Overall glad I read this book. It’s very dense with countless nuanced legal examples that I struggled to fully follow as I have not yet started law school. However, reading this book in its entirety has made me feel more familiar with the structure of law exams and what is required of me to get a decent grade. There are obvious big picture themes and advice that makes this book worthwhile. If you’re in a time crunch and//or just want to read high level advice I’d suggest only checking out part III.
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