Top Law Schools

Okay, so I've been grappling with one class where the professor has a word limit of 2,000 on the issue spotter. On practice exams I've been inconsistent in my strategy: sometimes I will try to at least name every issue I can spot and try to squeeze in the analysis, and sometimes I sacrifice the number of issues for more detailed analysis. I can't seem to figure out where the balance is - and I can't ask my professor because she refuses to discuss practice exam responses. And she doesn't provide check lists for the practice exams.

So the game is to spot most number of issues and analyze in depth - but on a word limit, I can't figure out where to draw the line at the number of issues and where to start analyzing in more depth. The time limit is shitty too: 3 hours for 2 essays.

Anyone else have word limits? What worked for you?

My torts test has a word limit. There are 3-4 fact patterns and each question has a word limit. I dislike it in that sometimes I go over because I'm kind of a verbose writer but its kind of nice because it sort of indicates just how many issues there are. Also, it indicates that there are certain important issues that your prof absolutely wants you to hit. We are lucky...or unlucky...in that our teacher does not want a rule statement. He wants us to get to the point quickly and concisely. It is closed book so that's fabulous-ish. 2k for each essay doesn't seem bad depending on your fact patterns. I know some of ours are around 500 for each question but they're pretty directed questions. To cope, I suggest practice tests. That's the easiest way to see if you are fitting in what needs to be said in as few words as possible. Hopefully you guys have a rubric and some sassy model answers to compare to. Take what I say with a grain of salt though because, like you, I'm a first semester 1L. Good luck!

That's exactly what we had on our Torts exam, and it was NOT pretty. I had the most unfamiliar uneasy feeling after completing the exam that I've ever had taking LS exams. 3k word limit and I hit 2877. I'm used to banging out three times that! It just felt weird!