100% Extra Time Accommodation on Exams but made C+ — How to approach? Forum

[Mike Carlil]

All,

I’ll keep this brief. I have a number of cognitive and psychological disoorders and so I receive 6 hours for my exams — 100% extra time.

Despite this, I did not too well at all this semester. In fact I made a C+ in a class. When a took the exam I did an “outline dump” and basically put my my entire outline 150+ pages into the exam. I now realize this was a MASSIVE mistake. How can I remedy this going forward and leverage the 6 hours that I have to getting better grades? Please advise. Any help is much appreciated.

[cavalier1138]

Well, start by not doing what you did.

Your job on an exam isn't to regurgitate everything you know. Figure out the call of the question, and spend most of your time analyzing it. In general, if you're doing IRAC, you should spend one sentence on I, a few sentences on R, multiple paragraphs on A, and one sentence on C. If there are multiple issues, use headers to subdivide your answer.

Exams aren't about showing the professor that you know the rules. They're about showing the professor that you know how to apply the rules to gray areas and argue both sides of a particular issue. But always pay attention to what the question is asking. If the exam asks you to evaluate someone's due process claim, don't waste time discussing equal protection issues. If it's a policy question, make sure you're actually answering the policy question instead of haring off into unrelated territory. Answer the question the professor gives you, not the one you wish they had asked.

[objctnyrhnr]

Yeah I mean try taking the exam as if you don’t have extra time and then just do a very thorough job on the issues that you do, in fact, spot