How does everyone feel after their first exam? Forum

[onthecusp]

I feel rather pissed off about my exam experience for two reasons:

(1) A ridiculous, draconian 2500 word limit for a 3-hour torts exam. I feel like I wrote intelligently and concisely about all relevant (not tangential crap) in the first hour long issue spotter. Come to find out I was already at 1400 words . Needless to say, I tried to write even more concisely for the rest of the exam. With about 20 minutes left I had to go back and cut out over 400 words to get my exam back within the word limit. Even then, I still knew there were other relevant issues that were going to be left out. You'd think a professor in his first semester would err on the side of not having an unduly restrictive word limit. Whatever.

(2) He tested on issues that we barely covered in class, while leaving out issues that he spent the most time on. We literally had nothing on factual cause, proximate cause, and nonfeasance/special duties. Nada. We spent weeks on that stuff. I feel betrayed.

We have a 1750 word limit for our 3 hour property exam....not looking forward to it.

same for torts, 1750 words / four hours. how the hell do you distinguish yourself with such few opportunities? everyone is going to see the big stuff, and you can't waste time or space on creative/novel sub issues.

Our prof is asking one issue spotter, and the other is a philosophical question regarding the direction of intellectual property...no multiple choice, just the two essay questions.

[jas5076]

You know how everyone says you can't really fail?

You better be right.

Fuck you, Property.

lol

[futurelawyer413]

The funny thing is the following formula has always worked for me:

If you think you did bad = You did ok, solid B.
If you think you did ok (B range) = You rocked it and are likely getting an A/A-.
If you think you absolutely rocked it = Get ready for your C+/B- below-median status.

Bump this for this semester's exams, in part b/c last semester were midterms for some people, and now this semester presents final exams as opposed to midterms. You guys think that this holds true, more or less, for finals as opposed to midterms - or is it something different? I'm asking b/c I would imagine it's different since people are more competitive perhaps this semester, and thus its harder to get a B in May then it was in December?

[Cupidity]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

[Kilpatrick]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

Wait what? This was a property exam?

[mths]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

what the hell kind of exam was this

[Ty Webb]

The funny thing is the following formula has always worked for me:

If you think you did bad = You did ok, solid B.
If you think you did ok (B range) = You rocked it and are likely getting an A/A-.
If you think you absolutely rocked it = Get ready for your C+/B- below-median status.

Bump this for this semester's exams, in part b/c last semester were midterms for some people, and now this semester presents final exams as opposed to midterms. You guys think that this holds true, more or less, for finals as opposed to midterms - or is it something different? I'm asking b/c I would imagine it's different since people are more competitive perhaps this semester, and thus its harder to get a B in May then it was in December?

I've found that the opposite is true. People are less competitive this semester for a number of reasons. For us, it has to do with having one extra class, having less time between exams, everyone realizing that you don't have to go to class, people being busy with job interviews and moot court tryouts, and general apathy (those in the bottom of the class) or complacency (those in the top of the class) taking hold.

[Cupidity]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

what the hell kind of exam was this

1L Property. The worst part, 150 words total for all four of those answers. I feel like you could write a thesis about why the US doesn't look like mexico...two sentences though?

[Ty Webb]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

what the hell kind of exam was this

1L Property. The worst part, 150 words total for all four of those answers. I feel like you could write a thesis about why the US doesn't look like mexico...two sentences though?

That's a mindfuck up there with the popular 1L property legend, "Who owns the Moon? Go."

[Cupidity]

I felt like hanging myself. The first page of my exam was a satellite photo map of the U.S. Mexican border.

a) how far are points A & B (no distances given on the map)
b) what can you tell about the U.S. mexican treaty & the colorado river
c) Why doesn't the US look like Mexico
d) whats up with the land organization by the canals on the mexican side?

seriously....I spent eight hours memorizing the rules regarding covenants so that I could take an exam with questions like THAT!

what the hell kind of exam was this

1L Property. The worst part, 150 words total for all four of those answers. I feel like you could write a thesis about why the US doesn't look like mexico...two sentences though?

That's a mindfuck up there with the popular 1L property legend, "Who owns the Moon? Go."

Whose suing? This is America Bitch, Jus Tertii. Once you know that, we'll call it a baseball and go Popov v. Hayashi on it. Moon=Farae Naturae

Seriously though....the sympathy is appreciated. That exam was insane.

[Kilpatrick]

Maybe it's because I had property last semester and have forgot pretty much everything already, but I don't even know what I could possibly write for those questions that would be related to the law of property.

[kalvano]

The funny thing is the following formula has always worked for me:

If you think you did bad = You did ok, solid B.
If you think you did ok (B range) = You rocked it and are likely getting an A/A-.
If you think you absolutely rocked it = Get ready for your C+/B- below-median status.

Bump this for this semester's exams, in part b/c last semester were midterms for some people, and now this semester presents final exams as opposed to midterms. You guys think that this holds true, more or less, for finals as opposed to midterms - or is it something different? I'm asking b/c I would imagine it's different since people are more competitive perhaps this semester, and thus its harder to get a B in May then it was in December?

That statement did not apply at all to me last semester. If I thought I did OK, I did OK. If I thought I sucked at it, it was my worst grade.

[quiver]

That statement did not apply at all to me last semester.

Same. One exam I thought I did well, one I thought I did ok (slightly above median), and one I thought I bombed. Got the same grade on all three.

[Ty Webb]

That statement did not apply at all to me last semester.

Same. One exam I thought I did well, one I thought I did ok (slightly above median), and one I thought I bombed. Got the same grade on all three.

Agree with this, too.

Left my three last semester feeling:

1)Awesome
2)Terrible
3)Pretty good

All were the same grade (pretty good).