Around 3 p.m. in the afternoon, on 5/9/2012, the exam instructions were posted.
Posted here is the form that will be provided during the exam to allow students to report issues with multiple choice questions if desired.
Please bring all three of the course books to the exam.
Posted here is the instruction portion and assignment portion of the final examination.
The actual question portion (which is not included in the above link) is 4 pages (4 sides), double spaced, for the IRAC/Policy portion, and 24 pages (24 sides, printed double-sided on 12 pieces of paper) for the multiple choice.
I strongly recommend that students read this document before the exam.
The exam is May 11, 2012, at 9:00 a.m., at the place scheduled by the school, rooms BLB 240 and BLB 213, for 4 hours.
Exam distribution and pickup will be in the larger room BLB 240. Upon receiving your examination documents, you will not be allowed to depart BLB 240 until the start time is called.
{ forthcoming, if any}
Here is a prototype of the exam instructions I anticipate using for a property law final examination. I contemplate that the ultimate exam instructions will be substantially similar to these instructions, however, I reserve the right to change these exam instructions in any way.
Here is a document about how to write answers for my exams and some information about how I evaluate these answers. There may be revisions to this document during the Spring 2012 "exam season."
Here is a video of a presentation I gave about how to prepare for courses and course examinations. To be most useful, one should watch this video sometime during the first third of the course. Here are the slides used in that video.
Here is a video of a presentation I recommend about how to outline for a course. To be most useful, one should watch this video sometime during the first third of the course.
I anticipate three sections on the final examination: (i) multiple-choice questions; (ii) Issue-Spotting Fact-Pattern question(s); and (iii) policy-oriented question(s). No one section will be more than fifty percent or less than fifteen percent.
There is a document linked near the bottom of this web page which provides additional detail and guidance for the multiple choice questions, including some example questions.
I also note that the multiple choice questions are meant to have broad coverage across the entire class. They are, as the examples show, designed to measure whether one knows the information, or has sufficient familiarity with the materials to be able to quickly locate and use the information pertaining to the question.
The policy question(s) are the most difficult to cabin. It is likely that they will have a greater focus on the materials from Perspectives than the Issue-Spotting Fact-Pattern question(s), which will have minimal focus on Perspectives. Policy questions imply different perspectives; issue-spotting questions imply doctrine and its application to fact patterns. This by no means implies that the policy question(s) will not also be based on Casebook materials. The Casebook has much policy content as well.
Here are six example multiple choice questions, provided so that students have some sense of the likely scope, style and coverage of the multiple choice questions. I work on these questions as I prepare materials for the class during the semester, so they are meant to have broad coverage across the entire class, and test for fairly specific information from the materials and class discussion.
Please note that I generally calibrate the length of the issue-spotting portion of my exams with the number of exam hours allocated to that portion. For each exam hour allocated to the issue-spotting portion there will be no more than 2 pages double spaced of examination fact pattern for issue-spotting exams. Thus, if issue-spotting questions are 50% of the grade in a course having a three hour exam, the fact pattern would be no more than three pages double spaced.
The Spring 2006 Property final examination is representative of the final examination I contemplate for the course.
Here is the issue-spotting portion of the Spring 2006 Property examination, and here is the composite student model answer. Please note that the composite answer does not necessarily address every issue, nor resolve every issue in such a way as to earn all the points for that issue. Both the examination and the answer should be read in light of the documents I have posted above describing how to deal with my exams.
The Spring 2004 Property final examination is representative of the final examination I contemplate for the course. The exam instructions will likely change as to procedure, however, since the examination below is for UH.
Here is the issue-spotting portion of the Spring 2004 Property examination, and here is the composite student model answer. Please note that the composite answer does not necessarily address every issue, nor resolve every issue in such a way as to earn all the points for that issue. Both the examination and the answer should be read in light of the documents I have posted above describing how to deal with my exams.
Last modified on May 9, 2012, by Greg R. Vetter