Write an essay exam that is comparable to the questions on the California Bar Exam (CBX), the First-Year Law Students’ Examination (FYLSX or Baby Bar), and the final exams from NWCU in terms of complexity and format. Students must write their own answers to the midterm essay question without help from any other person, but the exam is open book, untimed, and unproctored. Students may use their course materials, particularly for locating and citing the applicable rules of law. The midterm essay exam question is available via the link at the bottom of this page. Although students have immediate access to the question, they are prohibited from discussing it with others, including other students, professors, attorneys, friends, and all others. Students must answer the question entirely on their own, using only their course materials for assistance. It is recommended that, prior to taking the midterm essay exam, students complete the reading of the casebook and commercial outline. Additionally, students should watch the essay exam writing videos, located on the VAE: Classes and Lectures page of the Intro to Law course on eJuris™ before taking the midterm essay exams. Participation in our online classes which teach law school essay exam writing is also highly recommended so that students learn the proper format required at NWCU. Students should spend the amount of time necessary to complete a proper answer to the midterm essay exam question. Keep in mind, however, that the final exam, Baby Bar exam, and California Bar exam allow 60 minutes per essay, and the NWCU professors who grade midterm exams will be looking for answers of similar length and scope as what would be expected for these other exams. Thus, while there is no time limit for the midterm exam, a good goal would be to spend an hour or so to write the exam, and perhaps another hour for editing. This will allow enough time to write a good answer without the benefit of the speed that should be attained during the remaining months of study, but will prevent students from writing a dissertation or similar over-long answer instead of a proper law school essay exam answer. All midterm essay examinations must be submitted together via the upload links on eJuris™; so students must complete the assignment for each course, then submit them all at once. We recommend that students complete and submit the midterm essay exams at least 2-3 months before they request final exams. This will allow students to receive grades and comments back in time to make suggested improvements to essay exam writing skills before taking final exams. Midterm essay exam answers will be sent out to one of our staff professors for grading. The professor will send exam grades and comments directly to the student, and will report the grades to the school for processing. It typically takes 1-3 weeks for grading to be completed after midterm exams are submitted to the school. The grade on the midterm essay exam represents one-third of the final grade for the course. For more information about grades, please see the Student Handbook. Note that in order to be eligible to request final exams, students must have submitted midterm essay examinations to the school. However, it is not required that the midterm essay exams have been graded yet, nor that they received passing grades in order for the student to request or take final exams. Students receive two hours of credit for verified academic engagement for each midterm essay exam submitted. Midterm Essay Exam Requirements: Follow the submission and format instructions in Chapter 5 of this syllabus. Midterm essay exam answers must not exceed eight pages. The typical length for a good answer is 3½ to 6 pages. It is unlikely a paper of less than 3 pages will have sufficient coverage of the issues or sufficient argument to receive a good grade. On the other hand, it is equally unlikely that a paper of more than about 6 pages will be concise and focused enough on the proper issues to receive a good grade. Use IRAC format, and write the essay in a narrative fashion. Include a copy of the midterm essay exam question with your answer when it is submitted for grading.
