Law School Diary: Final Exams

In this week's Law School Diaries column, law student "Elle Woods" takes her final exams.

Elle's Law School Diary:

Relief!  I’m officially one-fourth of the way done with this semester’s final exams - and three exams away from being done with 1L year.   Today’s final was a “self-scheduled” exam, meaning that you take it on your own anytime during the exam period.  Sounds great right?  Not really.

On the plus side, it’s definitely nice to have the flexibility to coordinate your exam schedule with how much you actually need to study for each class.  Plus, you can take it pretty much anywhere you want and aren’t restricted by being surrounded by a ton of other students taking exams.  So if you’re the type who would love to take exams while lounging around your apartment, half-dressed while chomping loudly on carrot sticks, self-scheduled exams are perfect.

I, however, am not that person.  I’m extremely picky with where I study, so of course finding the perfect spot to take an exam is a huge ordeal.  When we have actual “in-class” exams, I know that I have no choice and don’t overthink the situation.  My ideal exam-taking space, though, is one that has a proper desk, is relatively quiet, semi-formal, free from too many distractions, and with lots of natural light.  Basically, it’s a pretty tall order. Most places in the law school are susceptible to other people walking by/in whenever and resulting in inefficient and distracted exam taking.  The few study rooms are in the basement and are un-lockable (aka anytime you need to walk out to use the bathroom you risk someone stealing your laptop).  I ended up just reserving a room in the library (the place I usually try to avoid, remember?) and holing myself up there.

I was lucky in that my exam today was only 5 hours long (that’s right – 5 hours means it's among my shorter exams), because it was a close simulation to a “real” exam. The clock starts as soon you download the exam, so I had to print it in the lab and then run back up to my study room, all the while skillfully avoiding any of my friends who happened to be in the library and would want to chat. For me, the most panic-ridden part was uploading it at the eleventh hour and praying that the internet connection didn’t fail at that exact moment.

My next exam is also a self-scheduled one, but it’s 8 hours, and I’m sure it will be an even greater degree of hell than this one was.  I’m scouring my brain to think of a better place to take it, though I think it’s best that I suck it up and just head to the library yet again.  The other option is buying a printer and setting it up within the next two days and just taking the exam at home (Hey, Amazon has one-day shipping, right?). And while I may complain, I count my blessings that I didn’t register for Administrative Law because my friends in that class are tortured with a 24 hour self-scheduled exam, and rumor has it that most people sit and work on it for at least 23 of those hours.  I’ll take my 8-hour exam any day, thank you very much.

Photo by sveinhal