Ah, 6 Weeks of Freedom!

Well, not exactly, of course. But I did finish up my summer school finals this afternoon with my Children and the Law exam. Neither final was particularly difficult. And I didn't spend much time studying for either. Not that I'm brilliant. I just prepared ahead of time. Since both were open book and open note, I did the following:

• Did all the reading assignments as assigned during the course of the classes, highlighting important things
• Typed up all my class notes each week, and compiled an index after the last class
• Organized all the handouts in Children and the Law by creating an index, and highlighting and/or noting on each, the main point of the handout.
• Printing out all codes sections, week by week, that were assigned for reading in Family Law, and organizing them by topic area.

I ended up with super organized and indexed binders for each class, containing class notes, handouts, and code sections. I spent less than 6 hours studying, after compiling all my materials, for both exams combined. I'm sure glad I didn't spend more time, as I didn't think it would have made any difference. I knew what materials I had, and where they were. That's all I really needed to know.

The tests were completely different. For Family Law, we were given a hypothetical fact pattern, and then given a question on child custody, and a second one on spousal and child support, all based on the same fact pattern. It was pretty much code based, just what is allowed, and a little policy of why the court does things the way they do. I threw in a bunch of stuff that wasn't really asked for just because I had the time and thought it made for a more complete answer (and let's not lie, I'm hoping it will add to my points!). For Children and the Law, we had a bunch of multiple choice, some fill in the blanks, some short answer (which consisted of 5 quotes taken directly from some of the cases that were distributed during class, of which we needed to ID which case it was and give a one sentence summary), and 2 essays. That test was worth 75% of our class grade, and each essay was only worth 10 of those 75 points, so it wasn't quite the same as other exam essay questions. I think I had 1500 words for both questions combined, whereas last night, I had approx. 1350 words on each of the 2 questions for Family Law. Anyway, the multiple choice, fill in and short answers were mostly just facts/numbers from the law. The essays were policy discussions. I have no idea how the professor will grade something like that, so it is hard for me to guess on my grade. I am sure I must have done very well on the Family Law exam though. The professor said she was worried that we would think it was too easy. Like that would bother any of us! I could use the GPA bump!

I have no idea when these grades will be posted, and like an idiot, I forgot to ask about how and when I could pick up my paper for Children and the Law. At this point, I'm not sure it really matters. I just want to enjoy my time off!