anyone done well only writing 2200 words/ hour? Forum

[lawschool1234567]

not a flame here. fearing being outed because i've been on this site long enough that i've made posts that make obvious which school i go to.

long story short, i just took a law school exam, for my favorite class. i would say except for one other person, i probably study more than anyone else (at least that i know of) in my school. (maybe?) thanks to TLS, i knew from the gate not to waste time with briefing, etc. so that i spent all of my time learning the BLL, trying to learn and understand nuances, and the like. i began looking at (but not taking) old exams for this class from week 3, and read 4 reputable (and very good) supplements cover to cover.

Well, here's the jist of it. In the practice exams I've taken, I generally would be able to write ~7500 words in strictly timed conditions for the same amount of time during which I took the test today, and today I only wrote ~5500 words. I finished (as far as I know), but I feel as if I wrote far, far too few words. From my reading top law schools, I feel like you can't get a top score unless you write significantly more than that. However, not only do I not feel like I really could have written much more, I also took at least 10 minutes making sure my exam was well organized, by adding headings, bolding/ italicizing points I wanted to make sure the professor notices, and then double-checking my multiple choice at the very end.

I don't feel like there is one single thing more I could have done for this exam; further, I barely consulted my outline, since I had memorized it. (I did consult my checklist, to make sure I had covered every possible issue. I feel like I did, and even threw in a few "so and so could make this argument, but it would be a weak argument and this is why" sort of points for each set of parties we had to discuss.)

So, excuse how long this was, but I'm really upset. Is it completely impossible to get a good grade, considering how few words I wrote? Has anyone had an experience where they didn't type a novel and still did well?
Thanks for any advice/ anecdotes you may be able to provide me with.

ETA: the only reason I'm asking is because all of the "i did well in law school" threads on this board talk about how they wrote 10,000 words+ on exams, and I don't even know how that is possible.

[lawschool1234567]

thank you. just took my first law school exam and i'm feeling really unsure of myself, since i don't have any law school friends outside of my school and it is really not appropriate to talk to them about exams, since we're all feeling equally insecure.

[johansantana21]

You sound like you aced it bro.

[Seminole_305]

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

[johansantana21]

Also the only exam I can think of at my school which would require more than 10k works is for torts and that's cuz torts is just a filled with issues.

[lawschool1234567]

Also the only exam I can think of at my school which would require more than 10k works is for torts and that's cuz torts is just a filled with issues.

My problem is that this being my first ever law school exam, I don't have any sort of "standard" to set myself up against except for what I read here, and doing simple math 10,000- 5,500 = wow it sounds like i fucked something up

[BruceWayne]

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

Not trying to scare you but writing an exam of that length, for a typical law school exam, is very dangerous.I know from experience. There are professors who give exams where you can get a good grade with that length, but they are not the norm. This is particularly true with the customary 1L race horse issue spotter exam where an everything but the ktichen sink approach generally receives the highest grade. When you write an exam of that length you distinguish yourself from your peers, and not in a good way. Good luck with exams.

[Seminole_305]

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

Not trying to scare you but writing an exam of that length, for a typical law school exam, is very dangerous.I know from experience. There are professors who give exams where you can get a good grade with that length, but they are not the norm. This is particularly true with the customary 1L race horse issue spotter exam where an everything but the ktichen sink approach generally receives the highest grade. When you write an exam of that length you distinguish yourself from your peers, and not in a good way. Good luck with exams.

Well we haven't had a horse race exam and for the most part the professor says deal only with the call of the question. I have asked classmates how much they wrote and most said they didn't give get close to 1500.

Unless you meant I wrote to much... Not sure if I understand (studying and loafing so I can't really focus)

[johansantana21]

How long was this exam. I hope the essay was only a small part, or that the exam was like 2 hours max.

1500 words in 3-4 hours is just...

[Seminole_305]

How long was this exam. I hope the essay was only a small part, or that the exam was like 2 hours max.

1500 words in 3-4 hours is just...

Probably an hour and a half for the essay 2 hours max. The multiple choice is a killer.

[truevines]

not a flame here. fearing being outed because i've been on this site long enough that i've made posts that make obvious which school i go to.

long story short, i just took a law school exam, for my favorite class. i would say except for one other person, i probably study more than anyone else (at least that i know of) in my school. (maybe?) thanks to TLS, i knew from the gate not to waste time with briefing, etc. so that i spent all of my time learning the BLL, trying to learn and understand nuances, and the like. i began looking at (but not taking) old exams for this class from week 3, and read 4 reputable (and very good) supplements cover to cover.

Sorry, bro.

Being well prepared is necessary, but not sufficient, for good grades.

And, the length of your answer is neither necessary nor sufficient for goods grades.

[Sandro]

The model answer posted for the spring exam in one of our classes, which was a 3 hour exam, was 50 pages in a pdf.

[johansantana21]

The model answer posted for the spring exam in one of our classes, which was a 3 hour exam, was 50 pages in a pdf.

Is that a joke?

How is that even physically possible? Size 18 comic sans font?

[homestyle28]

I think this sort of thing varies by prof and one persons 7k words might be excellent but everyone I've ever talked to that did that seriously underperformed. Clarity and concision.

[lawschool1234567]

The model answer posted for the spring exam in one of our classes, which was a 3 hour exam, was 50 pages in a pdf.

the model answer given by our professor was 4.

[blurbz]

I wrote a lot 1L year on all of my exams. I found that on a typical 1L issue spotter, there were more issues than anyone could legitimately cover in the allotted time. As a result, there were two types of high-volume typers: the ones who just regurgitated their outlines and the ones who simply got to more issues than other people. The first group did not do well, the second group did well.

tl;dr: Type a lot, but make sure you're addressing issues present in the facts and not just chasing your own outline.

[Sandro]

The model answer posted for the spring exam in one of our classes, which was a 3 hour exam, was 50 pages in a pdf.

the model answer given by our professor was 4.

correction, it was a student answer. Not a professor written model answer.

[lawschool1234567]

The model answer posted for the spring exam in one of our classes, which was a 3 hour exam, was 50 pages in a pdf.

the model answer given by our professor was 4.

correction, it was a student answer. Not a professor written model answer.

sweet jesus.

[charliep]

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

That is crazy. I thought I was writing to much (2500-3000) for the entire exam.

Not trying to scare you but writing an exam of that length, for a typical law school exam, is very dangerous.I know from experience. There are professors who give exams where you can get a good grade with that length, but they are not the norm. This is particularly true with the customary 1L race horse issue spotter exam where an everything but the ktichen sink approach generally receives the highest grade. When you write an exam of that length you distinguish yourself from your peers, and not in a good way. Good luck with exams.

i dont understand. too short or too long?

[shoeshine]

Seriously....this is why I hate TLS posters.

[ben4847]

I did really really well. My first semester exams were as short as 2800 words. (3 hour exams)

[johansantana21]

We have a 1 hour essay portion.

The model answer given by our professor was less than 350 words.

[071816]

The exam's over. Stop fucking thinking about it.

[charliep]

cool. so the range seems to be 350 to 10,000. noted

[c3pO4]

The exam's over. Stop fucking thinking about it.