Exams
Prepare for exams
In this course, we explore the rules of evidence. Our exams test your recall, and this study guide is here to help you to focus your studies.
Our midterm exam includes up to 50 questions, covering chapters 1-7 of our textbook in 90 minutes.
Our final exam includes up to 50 questions, covering our entire textbook in 90 minutes.
Both 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 knowledge retention 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
Create an outline of the law that we have covered, so that you can see how it all works together
Regularly review your notes
Issue Spotting Scenarios
Before the Exam
Study the law, and don't be afraid to ask questions when you need help. You need to understand the law in order to be able to apply it.
Create an outline, summarizing the law so that you can see how the rules work together.
During the Exam
Carefully read each sentence of the scenario and ask why each fact is there. Be creative as you spot issues in the facts that relate to the law covered in our course. Guide
Scenario facts may be presented:
to provide background
to raise issues; or
to throw you off
Create an outline of your answer before you start writing it. Cite relevant constitutional provisions, cases, statutes, rules of evidence and jury instructions that pertain to your answer.
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
Analyze the impact of constitutional requirements, common law concepts, statutes, and court decisions upon arrest, search and seizure, and admissibility of evidence in court.
Recognize and describe rules of evidence.
Apply evidentiary rules to justify the admissibility of various types of evidence in court.
Questions relating to our Course Objectives
Identify and differentiate various types of evidence.
Define and describe key rules of evidence.
Critically evaluate and apply the rules of evidence to specific case facts.