More musings (and data!) on exam length Forum

[thesealocust]

edit: n/m

[Cavalier]

You're a douche for posting this.

[thesealocust]

edit: n/m

[OperaSoprano]

My first response: Thank god. I thought 3,800 words for a three hour final was a horrible showing, thanks to TLS. Maybe I have a shot at an A?

[thesealocust]

edited

[OperaSoprano]

My first response: Thank god. I thought 3,800 words for a three hour final was a horrible showing, thanks to TLS. Maybe I have a shot at an A?

Yep. I'd say that puts you solidly in the 'no strong correlation between word count and grade' camp. Many ways to skin the law school cat, etc. 3,800 words of applying law to fact will trounce a 10,000 word outline dump that's all over the place. 10,000 words of applying law to fact is probably not getting points nearly as efficiently as 3,800 words of applying law to fact. Very zen, everybody wins, we're all on the same side here. No thunderdomes to be found!

I just want to get it back. That is all. I'm worn out waiting, and I know you are, too.

[vanwinkle]

10,000 words of applying law to fact is probably not getting points nearly as efficiently as 3,800 words of applying law to fact.

I can say this is pretty true based on my experience. I probably could've used the time a lot more wisely and gotten more points with fewer words. I didn't do badly, but I sure could've done better, of the grades I have so far.

[vanwinkle]

Now that I have all my grades back, my highest word count answer not only earned me my worst grade, it came back below median and took my GPA down with it. I have no explanation for this at all yet, though I will be attempting to find one soon enough.

[ToTransferOrNot]

I have gotten A/A+s on every exam I have written more than 20 pages for, and nothing higher than a B+ on any exam that imposed a word limit.

I no longer take classes that have word limits on the final.

Now I just need to learn how to type

[prezidentv8]

I have yet to find out, but my two exams with word limits were balls

[eth3n]

20 pages

[vanwinkle]

20 pages

The one I just did below-median on was 24.

[ToTransferOrNot]

20 pages

Er, 20 pages double-spaced, anyway.

Normally closer to 25 for a 3 hour exam

[Cavalier]

My best grade was on my longest exam.

[napolnic]

Best grade on shortest.

[kimber1028]

I received equal grades on short and long exams. FWIW, though, one of my profs said she likes longer exam answers since they tend to include more analysis. I'm guessing it comes down to preference. That being said, if someone is just verbose and takes 12,000 words to say what can be said in 4,000, I don't really see how that could translate to a high score.

[Kohinoor]

Best grade on shortest.

[RVP11]

Worst grade on the shortest and best grade on the longest. But I've generally done better than the brevity of my exam answers would indicate. I estimate that I've been bottom quarter in verbosity on most exams.

I am very curious as to what everyone was writing to get up to 6,000 words when I had 3,000 and saw nothing else to talk about.

And I have a theory that writing a 20+ page novel just pisses most profs off.

[sperry]

Worst grade on the shortest and best grade on the longest. But I've generally done better than the brevity of my exam answers would indicate. I estimate that I've been bottom quarter in verbosity on most exams.

I am very curious as to what everyone was writing to get up to 6,000 words when I had 3,000 and saw nothing else to talk about.

And I have a theory that writing a 20+ page novel just pisses most profs off.

I agree. My longest exam answer was a shade under 3,000 words, and while I may not have gotten everything, there is no way I only got half of what was required. This was a 3 hour exam, and I would guess that a really optimal answer would have been about 4,000 words.

[vamedic03]

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[Grad_Student]

Best grade on shortest.

Same here

[zizou]

Best grade on shortest.

Same here

Same. I had one 3 hour final with no word limit that I finished with about 30 minutes to spare (which really worried me at the time), and I got an A. Another final had a very severe word limit and I got an A. Last final I typed feverishly throughout the whole period and got a B+. I felt like I understood the material amongst the classes equally well, but if I had to guess my really long essay was not as well written as the other two tests.