As the title indicates, I'm going to deviate from my schedule today (actually I do that a lot, just not intentionally). I need to find a way to write an essay here at home in one hour. At this point, I would be happy if I could somehow write one in two hours.
I sat down yesterday at noon to write the 1st essay from the July '06 CA Bar Exam. Five hours later I was still working on it. I'm real happy with the content in that it would likely get an excellent grade from one of my profs. The challenge obviously is that I would be turning it in to the cleaning people if I took that long to write in on a final exam.
Don't misunderstand me, I get good grades when I write them at school under test conditions. It's just that, being something of an anal retentive perfectionist, I'm never satisfied with the rule, it's relation to the facts, my analysis, and all of it together. These days it's the critical eyes of the Bar graders I feel peering over my shoulder. No matter what I write I imagine them scribbling a 50 on it, muttering to themselves "conclusionary", then moving on.
Does anybody have any tips on holding one's own feet to the fire regarding this issue?
I'm going to finish it this morning. The negligence analysis for Mark is almost complete so it should be clear sailing from here. But six total hours for a one hour essay is not going to cut it.
Did I say "blah"?
Or rather, as the Captain from the original 1947 version of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" would say, "Blast! Blast! Blast! Blast!"
Blast!
Hey.... that makes sense here because I'm engaged in an ultrahazardous and/or abnormally dangerous activity.
Heh... get it? "Blast"? I'm "Blast"-ing?
Okay, I apologize. It's back to work for me now.
2 comments:
Brian:
You can't afford to be anal on the exam.
Spot the issues. Give the law. MOST IMPORTANT, weave in the facts. Get to your conclusion (which is the LEAST IMPORTANT element of IRAC since there are always two sides to an argument).
I tend to agree with the school of thought that says you should find and write, even a few words, on each minor issue in the fact pattern. They're there for a reason. Ignoring them is not the reason.
If you're doing exams in an hour at ALU and getting good marks, that's your benchmark.
Kick ass...don't be one! (Lovingly suggested!)
Jonathan
PassTheBarExam.com especially if you're an ALU student!
What? Be an ass? Me? Who have you been talking to? (;-)>
I just finished it. It took me, when I don't count breaks and interruptions, probably two and half, to three hours. Of course when I'm here in my study area I make sure my rule statements are perfect and my punctuation is pristine. If I had written that answer under timed conditions I might have been able to get it down to 90 minutes because I was so completely thorough.
My answer was 6 pages. One of the released answers was 7 pages, the other 8 pages. Length apparently wasn't the issue for me on this one, speediness was my problem.
Thanks for the great advice!
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