Applied Legal Concepts is a 2-credit course designed to help students improve their work in law school and their process for preparing for the bar examination. The course focuses on honing and improving students’ analytical and writing skills, with a special emphasis on the skills necessary to engage in effective self-directed study and self-assessment of learning. Students will analyze and apply core concepts using practice-oriented problems as well as bar exam essay and multiple choice questions. Students will receive extensive individual formative feedback on critical reading skills, issue identification, answer organization and structure, and time management, and they will practice techniques for crafting effective rule statements, factual analyses and conclusions. The course will review selected topics of substantive law, complementing and building on concepts studied in the first year in areas including torts, contracts and real property. The course will also explore selected concepts that are covered briefly or not at all in the introductory courses in these areas, and that students will be expected to master in preparation for high-stakes examinations. Students will have access to substantive outlines and study materials and will spend the majority of class time working on and reviewing practice problems.