How to Study for the NYLE (New York Law Exam) and How I passed the NYLE

When I prepared for the New York Law Exam in December 2020, I had no idea what to expect. After answering the questions at the end of the New York Law Course videos, I wondered if the NYLE would be as simple. The practice questions BOLE provided seemed pretty simple and straight forward. On test day, however, I was unpleasantly surprised. Almost all of the questions were hypotheticals and not fill-in-the-blank from the course materials. In this article, I’m sharing how to study for the NYLE (New York Law Exam) and how I passed the NYLE. Hopefully after reading it, you won’t be in for a surprise on exam day like I was.

Tip #1: Rewatching Videos is Not Necessary

You don’t need to waste time rewatching the New York Law Course. I opened one video after I finished the course and closed it within 3 seconds. It was boring and did not help me.

Tip #2: Focus Your Energy on the Course Materials

I know, those materials are long, over 200 pages long. But, that is where the test writers make the questions from. I started reading the course materials about one month before my exam date. But I didn’t consistently read them. I started reading them consistently after I discovered Tip #3.

Tip #3: Make Your Own Questions

When I started studying, I wrote my own questions as a way to test if I understood what I read. Initially, when I read several pages at once, I found that a lot of the information didn’t stick. But when I wrote questions on what I read, I remembered the information for a long time. The down side of this study method is that it takes so long. I couldn’t finish writing questions for all of the tested topics by the time my exam date came. But I have good news.

After I took the New York Law Exam, I went back to my notes and finished creating practice questions for the NYLE. Having experienced the exam, I found it easier to create the questions. Especially because I knew the type of hypotheticals that were tested. If you’re interested in practicing with these hypothetical questions, you can practice them at Welcome Home Justice.

Tip #4: Put Pen to Paper

Write out with pen and paper what you are trying to memorize. I used this study technique to study for the bar and it helped me tremendously then too. I understand that 200+ pages is a lot, so you don’t need to write out every word if you’re in a time crunch. Just write out the important parts.

Tip #5: How to Study for the NYLE? Create an Outline!

I saved the best for last. My practice questions would have been my best tip, but I didn’t finish them on time when I took the exam. So what helped me pass the NYLE then was making a detailed outline of every topic and subtopic in the course materials. My outline structure included Part I, A, 1, i, and as far down as any topic went. I also wrote the title next to the part so that I would know where to find any question.

In addition to writing a bullet outline, I also used Adobe PDF to create bookmarks in the course materials. Since we were not allowed to search the PDF, the bookmarks helped me locate everything within the PDF quickly. While my bullet outline helped me remember the big picture.

I hope that you now know how to study for the NYLE.