Exam Horror Stories

I'm sure everyone has a law school exam horror story.  RawLaw tells us about hers here.  Tell me about yours in the comments section.

I have two exam stories.  My first comes from my last semester of law school, where I overstudied for Taxation of Business Entities.  My brain would not allow me to analyze fact patterns I had deftly dealt with the day before.  Thus, a very bad grade.  Which was a real bummer because I had done well with the same professor in Business Planning and Corporations.  My second story is also horrible, but at least it has a happening ending.

I was 2 hours and 40 minutes into my 3-hour con law exam when I realized that I was done.  Smugly, I chuckled to myself, "I bet no one saw the hidden Ex parte Young issue.  And who knows Chadha the way I do?"  I went back through to embolden my subject headings and to proofread the answer.  I refined a few rule statements and cited decisions.  Ten minutes to go.

"Do I get up and leave, or look at it once more," I asked myself.  "Sure, just read the facts once more, to make sure that you used all of them in your answer."  I skimmed through them an saw an administrative regulation that I had not scratched out.  (My exam method was to cross off every fact I used in the exam hypo, to make sure I incorporated every fact into my final answer).  Gasp!

"Oh shoot, this regulation is screaming, 'preemption!'"  I hurriedly typed everything I knew about preemption for the next ten minutes, and was sweating as the proctor called, "Time!"

That preemption issue I almost missed was worth 30 of 100 possible points.  I would have received a 72 had I not stuck around for those last ten minutes.

I never left an exam - or any project - early after that.  And I quit being cocky.  Ten minutes separated me from a C- and the much better grade I received.  Who can be arrogant when the big difference in the grades was determined by such a small amount of time?  I think life is a lot like that.  The difference between poverty and wealth might be one mere accident of birth.  Or one bad choice.  Or ten minutes pondering one decision.

Comments

[Infidel]

I don't believe my story is unique or horrific, but it certainly depressed me. It happened recently in my first-year Torts final. I finished the multiple-choice part and felt very confident. Then I took a break and then sat down again. I read the essay question.

It was as if the entire essay flooded into my head at once. I nearly passed out. I started to outline, writing furiously until I fortunately checked my watch. I had 29 minutes to go. I started to write the essay, but, just as the information poured in, it poured right out.

I started debating with myself about the issues again. I feared I could not finish. Finally, I just didn't feel I could write the essay. I started mechanically copying my notes on the paper, but I never finished.

I've never flet like that before in any test, particularly the other law finals. I usually start very slow and then write furiously right until the end. And, I never write for long, because I actually write slow--a lot of wasted motion generally. its sort of like a gesticulation for every stroke of the pen.

[Aaron]

A first year grade made no sense, so I decided to bite the bullet and talk to the professor. He flipped through the exam. "Ah," he declared, "You missed this issue". "No, I didn't," I replied, pointing out where I had covered it. "Ah", he added, "But you missed *this* other issue". "No, I didn't," I repiled, again pointing out where I had covered the issue. Two or three more rounds of this, and he said, "Please stand on the other side of my desk". (As in, "So you can't look at the exam, and point out where you covered the issues.)

So I went to the other side of his desk. "Ah," he declared. "You missed *this* issue." I replied, "It's on the last page." He looked up and declared, "You know, I'm not going to change your grade."

Every time we passed in the halls after that, he conspicuously avoided eye contact - preferring the wall, his shoes, or whatever else he could pretend to look at. Yes, he did that for the rest of first year, second year, and third year. What a man.

Second worst story - a six hour exam where the professor said, "feel free to bring some food". Somebody seated almost directly behind me brought in a large bag of what sounded like particularly crunchy potato chips.

[David Giacalone]

I'm not at all sure what this says about my psyche three decades ago (was I attempting to perform an abortion on my fetal legal career?), but I turned virtually every law exam after the first 1L semester into a horror story. (Please, don't do this at home, or at law school.) Basically, without planning to do so, I made each exam a game of chicken with the clock -- perfecting both procrastination and deadline crises management as tools for handling workloads.

For each three-hour exam (which inevitably consisted of three issue-spotting essays), I would read the first question and eventually the second and third, and then sit there writing nothing -- no notes, no outline, nothing -- for the first two hours, in a state of agitation. Finally, I would make myself answer Question #1, usually spending 35 to 40 minutes on it, and then spend about 15 minutes on #2 and the remaining five or so minutes on #3.

Thanks to my apparently pre-ordained spot on the HLS Bell Curve, I never received less than a B on such exams, and got B+ on most of them (no matter how much I had prepared for the exam; I did go to all classes and read all assignments throughout the semester). The most important lesson that I learned about test-taking: Answers that took up only a page and a half of a blue book scored as well or better than those that were much longer. Maybe that's why I now appreciate haiku so much.

[RawLaw]

Holy B+, Federalist, thanks for the link! These stories are a lot more fun than my Corporations outline!

[energy spatula]

OK, I have two (you have to know we're on quarters for this to make sense).

1. In my first quarter 1L Torts exam, first exam EVER of law school, my computer crashed with a half-hour left and I lost everything but two pages. I was so panic stricken I didn't even think to pick up the bluebook and continue, I just took the computer up to Academic Services where a fellow student who was a computer tech in a previous life got the first two pages back and that was all I was permitted to turn in. This exam was worth 10% of my grade.

2. Second quarter Torts 1L exam, worth OTHER 90% of my grade. Finished all 9 questions, thought I did great. Got a "C" in the course. Emailed prof and asked what was up. He said "The only student that got a "C" only answered two of the nine questions." Uhhhhh...So we emailed back and forth several times over the weekend, and on Monday he said IF Academic Services could get my disk, pull up my exam, and find the whole thing he would regrade. And sure enough, they found the disk and lo and behold all 9 questions printed right out. But almost a year later people still come up and go "OH my god, you're that girl that got a C in Torts, right?" He changed the grade, but no one ever remembers that part...except me.

3. I kind of had an exam horror story today (ummm...you mean you want me to answer the exact question you asked?) but I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

[JR]

I wrote about horrific exam here.

[Curve Chaser]

First semester in property I forgot a common law rule. I kept telling myself to remember "this" rule before the exam. However, the way the exam was phrased it just didn't click the switch in my brain. The Prof was no where in sight to clarify. So I only got half of the analysis for the main issue, which killed my exam grade. I barely passed.

Second semester in contracts I missed a big issue. I was trying to go through my mental checklist after doing the multiples. However, the person next to me was typing so furiously that I couldn't concentrate. I
got frustrated and just started writing. When I went back to look for more issues time was almost up. I didn't have time to look anymore. I missed the main issue and screwed up again. I knew the rule of the main issue like the back of my hand. However, I just got flustered and lost my cool. I should have brought ear plugs but normally noise doesn't bother me because I'm focused. So I'll never take another exam without ear plugs.

On both of those exams I realized my mistake a little later. It's a bad feeling when you know something but you just don't
recall it at the right time. However, I shook it off because I had more exams to go.

[Ann Marie Miller]

Way too much sweating going on. After classes end and before finals start, I go on a mini-vacation. I leave 1 hour into my 3 hour exams because I'm done. Of course, I study and keep up all semester.

I'm in the top 10%. Stop worrying, I think the exam horror story is that no one knows how to relax, just answer the questions, then, get up, leave. People who worry and sweat end up forgetting everything and blanking out.

[Tom]

Mike,
Mate this is not a horror story for an exam!
If you want a haorror story I know a few.
You ever heard about the kid who got so worked up in the exam room he put a pencil in his nose and slammed his head on the desk, just so he could get out.
You dropping a few marks is nothing.
Sort it out
Horror storys more like womanly worries!

[Tom]

Mike,
Mate this is not a horror story for an exam!
If you want a haorror story I know a few.
You ever heard about the kid who got so worked up in the exam room he put a pencil in his nose and slammed his head on the desk, just so he could get out.
You dropping a few marks is nothing.
Sort it out
Horror storys more like womanly worries!