PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012 Forum

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SportsFan

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by SportsFan » Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:13 pm

This wait is killing me. Last few days I've really been second guessing my exam answers a lot, wondering if I even answered the questions correctly. Ugh.

minnbills

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by minnbills » Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:45 pm

I more or less forgot about grades over the last week or so, I've been having such a good time skiing. Now that I know tomorrow is the day, the anxiety has roared back. My stomach is in a fucking knot.

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manofjustice

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by manofjustice » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:42 pm

JamMasterJ wrote:
Doorkeeper wrote:
JamMasterJ wrote:
thesealocust wrote:

A prof once blogged about the statistical analysis and found that abnormally short exams (like bottom 10% shortest?) got disproportionately poor grades, but that there was no positive correlation between long exams and grade.

Apparently many people ramble. Obviously you'd rather type quickly than slowly, but it's very much over-hyped on TLS.
Pretty much every four hour model I've read was between 5500 and 6500 words, which I can generally hit with my 65 wpm, so I tend to agree.
I saw multiple model answers for my classes at around 1800-2200 words.

It's all about what the individual professor wants. Some of mine wanted word vomit, but some wanted a streamlined and cogent analysis.
My point was that 5500 really isn't a huge number of words
TIC. I noticed that what counts as "a lot of words" seems somewhat to be a function of the level of school...just a flash impression I got from reading these boards.

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Blessedassurance

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blessedassurance » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:52 pm

manofjustice wrote: TIC. I noticed that what counts as "a lot of words" seems somewhat to be a function of the level of school...just a flash impression I got from reading these boards.
go on...

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manofjustice

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by manofjustice » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:58 pm

Blessedassurance wrote:
manofjustice wrote: TIC. I noticed that what counts as "a lot of words" seems somewhat to be a function of the level of school...just a flash impression I got from reading these boards.
go on...
That's it. It seems like 5000 is a lot at a lower ranked school and 7000 might be the minimum at Harvard.

In before corrected by T5 student.

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uvabro

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by uvabro » Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:58 pm

SportsFan wrote:This wait is killing me. Last few days I've really been second guessing my exam answers a lot, wondering if I even answered the questions correctly. Ugh.
try reading them in an unsober state. real confidence booster. i'm starting to realize it's more like fantasy football than real nfl talent level anyway. just about the system, and not your answer. wes welker would be law review, and larry fitzgerald would be unemployed.

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Blessedassurance

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blessedassurance » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:01 pm

manofjustice wrote:That's it. It seems like 5000 is a lot at a lower ranked school and 7000 might be the minimum at Harvard.
the opposite is probably true. the guy that made the comment about model answers being under 3000 words goes to harvard...they try to take the barbarism out of law school exams to the extent feasible

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manofjustice

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by manofjustice » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:03 pm

Blessedassurance wrote:
manofjustice wrote:That's it. It seems like 5000 is a lot at a lower ranked school and 7000 might be the minimum at Harvard.
the opposite is probably true. the guy that made the comment about model answers being under 3000 words goes to harvard...
But it would seem at higher-ranked schools there'd be longer fact patterns and students would be creative enough to make more arguments in A.

I would think most model answers would be shorter because prof's don't want to encourage longer answers.

SportsFan

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by SportsFan » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:15 pm

uvabro wrote:
SportsFan wrote:This wait is killing me. Last few days I've really been second guessing my exam answers a lot, wondering if I even answered the questions correctly. Ugh.
try reading them in an unsober state. real confidence booster. i'm starting to realize it's more like fantasy football than real nfl talent level anyway. just about the system, and not your answer. wes welker would be law review, and larry fitzgerald would be unemployed.
Haha I haven't been rereading them, I don't even know if I could (we use SofTest). I just remember the general ideas of what I wrote.
manofjustice wrote:
Blessedassurance wrote:
manofjustice wrote:That's it. It seems like 5000 is a lot at a lower ranked school and 7000 might be the minimum at Harvard.
the opposite is probably true. the guy that made the comment about model answers being under 3000 words goes to harvard...
But it would seem at higher-ranked schools there'd be longer fact patterns and students would be creative enough to make more arguments in A.

I would think most model answers would be shorter because prof's don't want to encourage longer answers.
From looking at a LOT of answers from my professors old exams at my T14 last semester, it did seem like most were ~6.5k-7.5k words (assuming a 3-3.5 hour exam). I think only one of them was less than ~6k words (it was ~5k words for a 3.5 hour torts exam, though interestingly it was an exam where the professor gave 2 sample answers and the other was ~8k words).

Edit: though, FWIW, it seemed like pretty much everyone else in my section was always complaining about how they felt they could never write that much.
Last edited by SportsFan on Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Blessedassurance

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blessedassurance » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:19 pm

manofjustice wrote:But it would seem at higher-ranked schools there'd be longer fact patterns and students would be creative enough to make more arguments in A...
your hypothesis might be true at a T14 but it's definitely not true at H (and probably not at Y). On average, over half the required courses for 1L have take-home final exams. You have all day to type the stuff.

The race-horse thing is barbarism, really.

Also:

http://abovethelaw.com/2011/12/the-evid ... e-to-pass/

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by 2014 » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:28 pm

I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blumpbeef » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:30 pm

2014 wrote:I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.
I think the tests just need to be harder.

Some profs are better at making hard tests than others though. Some of the exams I did were hard for the wrong reasons.

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manofjustice

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by manofjustice » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:31 pm

2014 wrote:I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.
I feel the same way.

I also note that you go to U.Chi. Is U.Chi. a little more horse-race oriented, as the T14 goes?

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by manofjustice » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:31 pm

.
Last edited by manofjustice on Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SportsFan

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by SportsFan » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:31 pm

2014 wrote:I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.
None of mine were word limited, but this is kind of how I feel as well. One of my professors tried to limit us our "word vomit" a bit by taking into account organization and taking off points for typos (well, idk if its taking off points, but typos are being taken into account), but that feels even more arbitrary (since what is "good organization" and why should that matter, you know?).

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by swoozie » Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:42 pm

SportsFan wrote:This wait is killing me. Last few days I've really been second guessing my exam answers a lot, wondering if I even answered the questions correctly. Ugh.
Yup. I've started dreaming about getting my grades back, which makes sleeping as stressful as waking. I had to google something I put on my civ pro exam today to see if it was right or wrong.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blessedassurance » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:19 pm

2014 wrote:I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.
you're simply indicating a preference due to what you believe you have a competitive advantage in. if you were a slow typist, you'd prefer exams with word limits.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by minnbills » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:20 pm

I'm hoping the typing advantage helps, I typed a shit-ton for my torts exam.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by thelong » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:22 pm

minnbills wrote:I'm hoping the typing advantage helps, I typed a shit-ton for my torts exam.
Yyyyyeppp.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by 2014 » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:27 pm

Blessedassurance wrote:
2014 wrote:I would much prefer a horse race to word limited tests. Horse races place a premium on coming up with coherent arguments on the fly and getting them on paper in a readable manner.

Word limited tests, especially severely word limited ones, feel somewhat more arbitrary since it seems like necessarily many of the tests will come out looking roughly the same and yet the curve still must be doled out.

I see the pros and cons of each, I just would prefer the in class horse races personally. More variables in play means greater potential to differentiate yourself.
you're simply indicating a preference due to what you believe you have a competitive advantage in. if you were a slow typist, you'd prefer exams with word limits.
Agreed, but I was up front about it being my preference.

And Manofjustice our first quarter was only two exams, both of which were pretty severely word limited (8 hours just over 3k words for CivPro for example). From here on out, I think it is pretty much horse races with the potential exception of Contracts.

Not positive though. Most of our classes are split teachers, meaning one quarter teacher A, second quarter teacher B, one final graded by both of them, so the logistics are up in the air.

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Blessedassurance » Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:37 pm

uvabro wrote:just about the system, and not your answer
elaborate...

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Bronck

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by Bronck » Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:16 am

Exam # just showed up for my civ pro class. maybe my grade for that is coming soon?!?!?

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by minnbills » Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:22 am

Bronck wrote:Exam # just showed up for my civ pro class. maybe my grade for that is coming soon?!?!?
good luck to you

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by UnamSanctam » Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:05 am

No grades is still utter shit.

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jkpolk

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Re: PANIC!! 1L Fall Grade Waiting Thread - 2012

Post by jkpolk » Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:25 am

UnamSanctam wrote:No grades is still utter shit.
MAF & IR8AF

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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