Prepare for exams
In this course, we explore criminal law with focus upon the California Penal Code. Our exams test your recall of those subjects. This study guide is here to help you to focus your studies.
Midterm exam (16-week course only) – up to 50 questions, covering the first half of our textbook in 90 minutes
Final exam – up to 50 questions, covering our entire textbook in 90 minutes
Our exams are timed, open notes (open book for online courses), and structured much like our chapter quizzes, offering issue spotting scenarios, multiple choice(s), matching and/or true/false questions.
Maximize recall with active learning
Use the SQSTR Method to actively seek information as you explore course materials, taking notes that summarize, organize, and centralize important information:
Survey: First, skim each assigned reading, paying special attention to chapter objectives and summaries, and any information that is highlighted or called out, e.g., charts and tables.
Question: Create questions about the content of the reading, such as: What are its key points? What will I be expected to learn from these materials?
Seek: Actively read the materials, seeking answers to the questions you formulated in Step 2, along with an overall understanding. Immediately consult a dictionary for any unfamiliar terms.
Teach: Upon completing a reading, write a summary that explains it in simple terms, as if you were teaching it to a student who is new to this topic.
Review your notes regularly: Quiz yourself on the questions you created, plus any publisher-provided questions. If you have study partners, quiz each other.
Study: Textbook > Slides > Quizzes + Cases = Notes
Refine your studies as follows, adding highlights to your notes at each step:
Review the textbook, paying special attention to chapter objectives, chapter summaries, vocabulary, featured text (bulleted, bold, etc.), and questions posed by the author
Review our Slideshows, noting featured information
Quizzes - note the question types and topics covered, and focus on questions you missed
Cases - make/review an alphabetical list of each case we covered, with its name and rule
Regularly review and refine your notes
What to expect on our exams
Our exams typically include the following:
Vocabulary, including legal/professional terms, Latin
The Bill of Rights, including its history and development, and incorporation, with focus upon the application of the following amendments to criminal justice: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments
Scenarios that require you to apply statutory and/or case law rules to fact patterns. List each case we have covered with its rule, so that you can quickly locate it and apply its rule to scenario questions.
Questions relating to our Student Learning Outcomes
Describe and analyze criminal violations of California law
Compare and contrast crimes, including their underlying elements
Assess levels of severity and defenses to crime
Questions relating to our Course Objectives
Identify various dangerous weapons control laws
Describe homicide laws
Identify laws pertaining to false imprisonment and restraint
Assess public safety and vice laws
Define and analyze burglary and the related crime of theft
Differentiate between robbery and extortion
Contrast theft and embezzlement
Identify various controlled substance and alcohol abuse crimes
Identify and define miscellaneous offenses such as forgery, arson, invasion of privacy, destroying jail property, and cruelty to animals
Examine various ABC laws
Identify and define manslaughter
Identify and define justifiable homicide by law enforcement and private persons