In all the time I’ve written for this blog, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that my husband is an environmental lawyer. His main area of work is clean air and climate change. He works for an environmental non-profit (and for those of you doing the math, that does make us the lowest paid attorney couple in all of Massachusetts) where he spends a lot of time discussing global warming (and no, my nickname is not Tipper).
Anyway, as a result of being married to "Captain Environment" (which is what I call him when my pleas for a minivan are rejected), we are big recyclers. We are the people who drain the juice boxes and put them in our recycling bin. I’ve tried looking for the recycling symbol on the little straws too, but so far no luck. Anyway, to do my part in reducing global warming, I am recycling an older blog entry (or as the Car Talk guys put it, "an encore presentation") on exam writing. Why? Not because my brain is empty (although my "fill brain" light did go on recently), but rather because I find that I am printing this entry out for students at least twice a day.
So here it is, just in time for spring exams:
Exam Writing is Different:
Exam
writing is different from first year legal writing because, while the usual 1L
legal writing class teaches writing as a craft, exam writing is a skill. What
does this mean? Legal writing for class is something that students have
more time to work on; in addition, almost the entire exercise is about
students’ organizing their thoughts and choosing their words carefully. Exam
writing, on the other hand, is a formulaic way for students to show their
professors that they not only understand the material but can also use it.
If
legal writing is a painting, exam writing is a photograph. Exam writing
must be done quickly and accurately; and while it must also be done with some
creativity and is worth the same 1000 words as a painting, it has to be more
stark and realistic. Some of the best 1L legal writers will not do well on
their exams because they cannot leave an answer in its raw form. Rather, they
need to hone their thoughts and organization until the answer is perfect; and
frankly, they do not have the time to do it, so their grades do not reflect
their knowledge of the subject or their writing ability.
So how do we prepare students to let the raw answer be and move on to the
next question? I do the math with students, trying to make the point that one
fabulous answer on a four part exam is still unsatisfactory, while four
reasonably complete and cogent (but imperfect) answers will suffice.
I teach them the exam mantra: "the issue is…the rule
is….here we have….therefore…, next." I think I hear
students muttering this during exam week, or I’d like to think that’s what they
are saying as they pass me in the hall….
I also advise taking old exams under exam conditions (timed without notes
and books) so students can figure out their ideal ratio of time to organize vs.
time to write (usually about 20%/80%). I talk about organizing answers by party
(good for torts, not civil procedure) or by transaction (excellent for
contracts, but not for torts), etc. I give the old tennis analogy (you still
need to follow through after you’ve hit the ball) as a way of reminding
students to include counterarguments and defenses. I, personally, had to write
the word DEFENSES at the top of every exam in law school lest I forget to
include them.
After
working in academic support for a while, I have concluded that a student’s
performance in the first year legal writing class may not be an indicator of
how well that student will perform on exams. Oddly, only about half of the
students I see find this comforting. (ezs)
