Exams: In-Class or Take-Home?

Either way, not an easy time.

This past week, we had finals in two of our classes, Constitutional Law on Monday, and Legislation on Thursday. For both classes, we went to pick up the exam at 9:00-9:30 in the morning, and it was due about 24 hours later. This was my first time dealing with the take-home format in law school, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Before the first exam, I thought we would have time for a reasonable schedule-finish the exam by 11 P.M. or so, in time to get a decent night's sleep and proofread in the morning before turning in.

It did not work that way. The Con Law exam was more of a challenge than Legislation, but both were round-the-clock commitments. For a take-home, you have to spend more time making sure all sources were used, all arguments were made perfectly, and the answers were pared down to fit a specified word limit. Most of us in the class took a few breaks during the day, and I came to regret it. Even hour-long breaks for lunch and dinner led to a marathon session of typing and proofreading, interspersed with 5-10 minute spurts of hand-wringing over whether I was going to get the whole thing done on time.

Legislation was not quite 24 hours-I got a decent night's sleep before getting up an hour early to proofread before turning in. Contrary to what I expected, the Con Law exam actually took longer to write, even though the Legislation exam had longer essays and a higher word limit. I think ultimately, the time spent on a take-home depends on the number of parts, or questions (3 for Con Law, 2 for Legislation). This means less time spent issue-spotting and plotting out the answer, incidental to how much time is actually spent writing.

It was one of those sessions where you simultaneously wonder what in the world you're doing in law school, wish you could do more to show how much you know, and yet feel a real sense of pride in knowing you're one step closer to being a lawyer. As tough as pulling an all-nighter is, and as tired as I was the next day, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Easy is boring.

We have one exam left, Property on Tuesday morning. Back to the in-class format. I like the amount of time we could spend proofreading and sharpening our answers for the take-home exams, but it will be nice to finish in only two and a half hours.

Two frantic, "ohmygoshwhatistheanswerIneedtohurryandwrite" hours.

It wouldn't be law school without them.