Help - Law School Exam Question
As I mentioned in one of my long, rambling posts this weekend, I have a take-home midterm due tomorrow (ungraded but mandatory). It has several fact patterns, each with 2-4 questions. One of the things I’ve been struggling with is how much to write. I think that I made this mistake of not writing enough on my Civil Procedure exam (although I was rushing to finish!). While I got a relatively good grade, it wasn’t high enough and I think this might be why. Having worked as an editor for so long, I’m used to cutting text down to the bare minimum. In my exam responses, I’m covering all the points asked for in the question, plus alternatives, but I’m writing maybe two paragraphs per question. Does that seem right? On one of these fact patterns, I’m barely coming up with a paragraph per question. Should I be discussing the background of the law on this topic and how it developed or just getting straight to the point? How much do you deviate outside the boundaries of what is asked for in the question? Help!
October 14th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Sadly, I do think some profs are biased towards less writing–i.e, they figure the less you write, the less thoroughly you have covered the issues. But if it’s well-written, complete, and editorially tight, I think it’s OK to have a shorter answer. That being said, try to put your inner editor to sleep during exams–I often find mine causes me to spend too much time tightening language and not enough time looking for other issues to discuss.
October 14th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I still struggle with the same thing. In my graduate program, because it’s geared towards professional writing, less is better (otherwise people get bored and stop reading). Going from that to law school was tough!
As long as you’ve covered all the issues, and addressed them in-depth, you should be good. I had the problem at first of being way too vague and not explaining the “obvious.”
October 14th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I had the same problem when I started law school. After having been a radio and TV journalist for ten years, I thought the point was, Make the point and move on. I found out the hard way (grades) that at least at the law school I attended, it was really — hmmm, not so much.
After the first two semesters, I tried to write well organized essays, but did a brain dump with every possible relevant point. My grades went up exponentially. It’s sad, but it’s learning the system. Good luck!