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Hi everyone!

My con law prof decided it would be a good idea to give a 3.5h in-class exam with a word limit (per question I assume). Does anyone have any experience with this? Any tips on how to apportion time - how much time spend planning, writing, editing down?

Thanks in advance!

Lauraaaa wrote:Hi everyone!

My con law prof decided it would be a good idea to give a 3.5h in-class exam with a word limit (per question I assume). Does anyone have any experience with this? Any tips on how to apportion time - how much time spend planning, writing, editing down?

Thanks in advance!

In-class word limited exams are tough, since you don't have much time to go back and edit it down, if any. I would say, don't plan to be able to go back and edit it down (though in a 3.5 hour exam you might have some time to go back; my in class exams have all been 3 hours). Probably read it through, figure out the main issues (equal protection issue, due process issue, etc.) and figure most of your words are going to go there with some peripheral issues taking up some words.

IMO that's a very user specific question. Do you usually struggle with time? Are you a fast typer? Can you organize your thoughts w/o first outlining and planning them out?
If there's a word limit I assume your professor prefers well typed out answers, so I would try to find a balance between getting down as many well reasoned arguments as you can with typing them well.

Do a few practice tests to see what works best for you

Thanks for the tips!

I don't usually struggle with time. In my last in-class exams I finished pretty much exactly in the given 3h time period - but I always wrote 27-31 pages. That's def not going to work this time So yes, I guess better planning at the beginning is the way to go.

Lauraaaa wrote:Thanks for the tips!

I don't usually struggle with time. In my last in-class exams I finished pretty much exactly in the given 3h time period - but I always wrote 27-31 pages. That's def not going to work this time So yes, I guess better planning at the beginning is the way to go.

How many words is 27-31 pages?

Around 6,500 to 7,000 probably?

Lauraaaa wrote:Around 6,500 to 7,000 probably?

I think 2,000 words is 6 double spaced pages, 12 point font, Times New Roman. So ~30 pages would be ~10,000 words. That's pretty solid for a 3.5 hour exam.

27-31 pages? You're one of those....

transferror wrote:27-31 pages? You're one of those....

One of those ... people who is thorough and complete on their law exams.

Shit that's a high word count for a three hour exam.

arklaw13 wrote:Shit that's a high word count for a three hour exam.

I think OP said 3.5 hour exam, but yeah it's pretty impressive.

ph14 wrote:

transferror wrote:27-31 pages? You're one of those....

One of those ... people who is thorough and complete on their law exams.

IMHO, there is nothing you can say in 30 pages that you couldn't have said in 15-18 pages of concise writing (at least in the context of a 3-hour exam). More time outlining and a short, concise essay > word vomit.

transferror wrote:

ph14 wrote:

transferror wrote:27-31 pages? You're one of those....

One of those ... people who is thorough and complete on their law exams.

IMHO, there is nothing you can say in 30 pages that you couldn't have said in 15-18 pages of concise writing (at least in the context of a 3-hour exam). More time outlining and a short, concise essay > word vomit.

I might agree if we were talking an 8 hour exam. A 3 hour exam doesn't usually give you a lot of time to be cool and collected.

ph14 wrote:

arklaw13 wrote:Shit that's a high word count for a three hour exam.

I think OP said 3.5 hour exam, but yeah it's pretty impressive.

Sheeeeet. I think I had 4300 on my civpro exam (only one without a word limit last semester) and I think it was a 4 hour exam.

OP: did your prof tell you the word limit? For my three hour exams last semester I think we were given 3k or 3.5k. Was plenty of space for the most important arguments.

Lauraaaa wrote:Hi everyone!

My con law prof decided it would be a good idea to give a 3.5h in-class exam with a word limit (per question I assume). Does anyone have any experience with this? Any tips on how to apportion time - how much time spend planning, writing, editing down?

Thanks in advance!

We had a 4 hour in class con law exam with a 2400 TOTAL word limit.

I am normally a concise writer, but it was still a struggle. It was also my worst exam grade. My tip would be to hyphen as many words as possible because the exam software counts those as a single word, and be choppy in writing in order to hit as many buzzwords as possible.

Ex: "Lochner-era hated because court created substantive due-process right to contract to strike down legislation."

shifty_eyed wrote:

Lauraaaa wrote:Hi everyone!

My con law prof decided it would be a good idea to give a 3.5h in-class exam with a word limit (per question I assume). Does anyone have any experience with this? Any tips on how to apportion time - how much time spend planning, writing, editing down?

Thanks in advance!

We had a 4 hour in class con law exam with a 2400 TOTAL word limit.

I am normally a concise writer, but it was still a struggle. It was also my worst exam grade. My tip would be to hyphen as many words as possible because the exam software counts those as a single word, and be choppy in writing in order to hit as many buzzwords as possible.

Ex: "Lochner-era hated because court created substantive due-process right to contract to strike down legislation."

Lol, credited. I've had 8 hour exams where i've had to do similar. Also: use cases as shorthand for concepts, if you can.

Using cases instead of explaining concepts is a good idea! Not sure the abbreviation stuff will work - the prof likes polished language ... (I'm all for hyphenating though! )

He didn't say for this specific exam but based on past years, we're expecting a word limit around 3,200 total for 4-5 questions.

Lauraaaa wrote:Using cases instead of explaining concepts is a good idea! Not sure the abbreviation stuff will work - the prof likes polished language ... (I'm all for hyphenating though! )

He didn't say for this specific exam but based on past years, we're expecting a word limit around 3,200 total for 4-5 questions.

Careful, fine line between explaining the unnecessary and when you're cutting out analysis

Lauraaaa wrote:Using cases instead of explaining concepts is a good idea! Not sure the abbreviation stuff will work - the prof likes polished language ... (I'm all for hyphenating though! )

He didn't say for this specific exam but based on past years, we're expecting a word limit around 3,200 total for 4-5 questions.

I think this definitely depends on what your professor is looking for. If your professor throws in an issue-spotter type question, s/he will be checking off each point you hit. If you could throw in more concepts with the words you used on transition phrases and adjectives, you should. On the other hand, if your prof has said something like "I reward the best-written and most coherent answers," then I would be sure that my answers "sounded" good. (I haven't had a professor say anything like this though).

BelugaWhale wrote:

Lauraaaa wrote:Using cases instead of explaining concepts is a good idea! Not sure the abbreviation stuff will work - the prof likes polished language ... (I'm all for hyphenating though! )

He didn't say for this specific exam but based on past years, we're expecting a word limit around 3,200 total for 4-5 questions.

Careful, fine line between explaining the unnecessary and when you're cutting out analysis

Agree that it is a fine line and you should not cut out analysis. Maybe con law isn't the greatest class for this really, but I could still see you working it in if you proceed cautiously, perhaps after you have introduced the case or concept or whatever.

The best way for me to take law exam that has both time-limit and word-limit is to take a lot of practice exams. The more times you write about the issue (that will appear again on the exam), the clearer and shorter your writing gets.

Jchance wrote:The best way for me to take law exam that has both time-limit and word-limit is to take a lot of practice exams. The more times you write about the issue (that will appear again on the exam), the clearer and shorter your writing gets.

^ agreed.

My 1L Property final was 5 hours with a 3000 word limit, and the only reason I managed to stay within that limit (it was pretty much the most ridiculous issue-spotter I've ever had) was the fact that I did all of her practice exams, which had 3200-3400 word limits. The minute I opened up the actual exam and saw 3000 words I was like SHIT.

Staying within the word limits on a tough exam is a good tactic though because my being one of the few people who actually did so bumped my A- exam to an A (only reason I know that is because the prof told me when I talked to her about the exam).

i can usually type out 20,000+ characters in 3 hours ... and get an A. not sure how many words = 20,000 characters though .... hmmm ... math ... hmmm. idk ... hmm ...

hm..

heavoldgotjuice wrote:i can usually type out 20,000+ characters in 3 hours ... and get an A. not sure how many words = 20,000 characters though .... hmmm ... math ... hmmm. idk ... hmm ...

hm..

Around 4k words if 20k is without counting spaces.