Word Count on Exams
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:47 pm
So I'm pretty much feeling like crap after my midterm. I'm pretty confident I spotted all the issues and did a good job overall, but there was a strict 800 word count limit, and i exceeded it (846 words). I don't know why, but I panicked as I was running out of time, and was trying to delete random words here and there, and when there was a few seconds left before time was called, I just hit submit, even though I was still at 846 by that point.
In hindsight, I probably should have deleted those last 46 words (which were basically an entire issue) since they probably won't even be read my teacher anyway for going over. But I guess it's hard to think clear under those conditions. Now I'm just worried that my teacher is going to look unfavorably at my submission (although anonymous) as the one paper who failed to follow instructions.
I really hate the word limits, because I was being as concise as possible and it still wasn't enough. My teacher even SPECIFICALLY stated that he wants strict following of IRAC. Is he aware that eats up a lot of unnecessary words? In some instances, I ended up having to resort to combining the rule and application into one statement, or combining the issue and application into one, or issue and conclusion (if any of that makes sense), just to lower my word count. And now I'm EVEN MORE PISSED wondering if I will get points docked off. Even though I clearly showed that I had knowledge of the issue, rule , application and conclusion, that I won't get credit for having an official issue statement, detailed vomiting of the rule statement etc.
I hate law school.
In hindsight, I probably should have deleted those last 46 words (which were basically an entire issue) since they probably won't even be read my teacher anyway for going over. But I guess it's hard to think clear under those conditions. Now I'm just worried that my teacher is going to look unfavorably at my submission (although anonymous) as the one paper who failed to follow instructions.
I really hate the word limits, because I was being as concise as possible and it still wasn't enough. My teacher even SPECIFICALLY stated that he wants strict following of IRAC. Is he aware that eats up a lot of unnecessary words? In some instances, I ended up having to resort to combining the rule and application into one statement, or combining the issue and application into one, or issue and conclusion (if any of that makes sense), just to lower my word count. And now I'm EVEN MORE PISSED wondering if I will get points docked off. Even though I clearly showed that I had knowledge of the issue, rule , application and conclusion, that I won't get credit for having an official issue statement, detailed vomiting of the rule statement etc.
I hate law school.