Friday, December 14, 2007

Muddy Writing

I got some negative feedback on that last blog entry. Maybe my lack of eloquence in that post was balanced by my brilliance on my Contracts exam. Eh, doubtful.

Out of all the exams I've taken so far this semester, I'm the least confident about the contracts exam. There were about 30 multiple choice questions, which I find extremely difficult for this type of material. It was the first exam to have multiple choice questions on it.

I prefer essays because you can justify your answer in them. With multiple choice questions, you're confined to the answers that the professor proposes -- what if none of them is actually right? What if 3 of them are actually right? You're stuck having to judge between nuances in the professor's opinion, and hope that the professor writes clearly and precisely. I guess the task of judges is somewhat similar, only they're dealing with fine distinctions in the actual law. In law school exams, we're applying the law to the professor's fact pattern as represented by his or her word choices. If they write clearly, that doesn't end up being a problem, but if they use a word with several shades of meaning, it can change an answer completely.

It's done, and I'm moving on. Thank goodness.

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