48 Hours
My Products Liability professor asked the class whether we’d prefer to take an in-class final or a take-home final. An in-class final, he explained, would take 3 hours; a take-home final would take 48. Seems like an easy decision to me: the in-class final is the way to go. Of course, I was the only person in the entire class who felt that way.
I just completed my exam and turned it into DePaul’s maximum-security exam drop box.
Aside from the time I spent sleeping and eating, I spent almost all of the past 48-hours writing my exam answers. I did treat myself to a brief cardio workout, though. I really spoil myself.
I did most of my work at DePaul’s mock courtroom, which is used by the advanced Trial Advocacy classes and the Moot Court team during the year. But classes and moot court are done for the semester, so nobody else was using the mock courtroom, so I commandeered it.
Because students can complete the Products Liability take-home exam during any 48-hour period between April 30th and May 11th, I can’t share my answers with you. But don’t let that ruin your day; I can share this with you:
Every now and then, to clear my head, I drew the mock courtroom’s Dry Erase board. Here are some pictures of my best work:
Time for you to play psychologist: based on my Dry Erase drawing, what can you tell me about my state of mind as I was taking the Product Liability take-home exam? Also, based on my Dry Erase drawing, what grade do you think I will receive on the exam and why? (If you guess this correctly, you’ll get a personalized congratulatory e-mail from me in a month or two!)
Technorati Tags: Final Exam, Take-Home Exam, Exam, Summer Vacation
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May 3rd, 2007 at 8:39 am
I think I have a matching drawing in a box in the garage from somewhere in your past …. definitely an A job!
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
A on your exam due to your Picassoan state of mind.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
You weren’t working on it at home which is always a good sign. Definitely A work on the drawing. Good luck!
May 5th, 2007 at 9:55 am
your work strongly resembles william de kooning. thus, i might venture your state of mind was one of imprisonment, obsession, and repetition, as de kooning’s work is often described. however, since each artist creates differently, i would have to say your lines clearly radiate transcendence and joy and a yearning to return to your true calling - your law final. congratulations. you will get an A+
May 9th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Quite clearly you feel trapped under the twin pressures of performance and captivity. In a competitive environment of the hard curve that is law school life, you are very much measured in the eyes of your classmates, which clearly carries through in the numerous red and black ‘eyes’ that are watching you work on your final exam. The second pressure weighing upon you is the sense of imprisonment and isolation that the rigors of law school inflicts upon all students, locking you away from any sense of the real world with excessive amounts of work until you lose any ability to relate to anything outside the world of law school. This is readily apparent as demonstrated by not only the ‘prison cell-ish’ verticle black lines, but also the indistinct blue and red world locked away behind the bars. The four windows up at the top reinforce the isolation and sense of imprisonment as they allow only a small view on specific subsections of the world while large blocks of black nothingness void out other possibilities. Lastly, the bits of words and phrases that have been crossed out and partially erased represent the psychological opportunity cost of going to law school. They are the relationships and opportunities that the three years of self-imposed educational isolation demand be sacrificed and only snippets of them remain as a subconscious reminder of how the world could have been.
Wow, this does not look good…
Seriously though, good luck on that final.
Rob
May 12th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Wow, Rob. What an insigtful analysis, revealing the angst of a 2L (2L in a handbasket!). We really need more art history majors in law school.
May 12th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Counselor Wreck,
Very, very nice work, sir.
You’ve delighted and scared the hell out of me.
-Rick Lax