Civil Procedure: the 1L exam guide.

Civ Pro punishes imprecision more than any other 1L subject. Its doctrines are multi-step tests tied to specific rules and statutes — personal jurisdiction runs through minimum contacts, purposeful availment, and fairness; subject-matter jurisdiction splits into federal question and diversity with an amount-in-controversy threshold. A vague gesture at 'jurisdiction' earns little; the points come from walking each prong of the right test in order.

The signature trap is the Erie doctrine: in a diversity case, does the federal court apply state or federal law? It forces you to sort substance from procedure and to work through the Rules Enabling Act and the Hanna analysis. Civ Pro exams also frequently use short-answer or multiple-choice sections, which reward cold rule recall over argument — so memorizing the tests cleanly matters as much as applying them well.