Mock Criminal Law (1L) exam and feedback

J.Y. Ping

Hi everyone,

As we recently announced, we've created lessons to explain law courses you’ll take in your 1L year. As part of that effort, we also want to teach you how to write a law school exam.

Law school exams truly are unlike any exams you’ve written in undergrad. That in and of itself is daunting enough. They also happen to account for the entirety of your 1L grades.

Therefore, if your 1L grades are important to you, it’s important that you become acquainted with how to write good exams.

So, we’re giving every student enrolled in an LSAT or Admissions course the opportunity to take part in a mock Crim Law exam. We don’t want your very first experience with writing an exam to be one with so much riding on it. Rather, do a trial run with us and we’ll hold your hand. We’ve temporarily opened up some lessons normally available only to students enrolled in our Law School Explained courses.

If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, first listen to or watch some lectures (appx 2.5 hours), then read one case (appx 45 mins), and finally write an exam (2 hours).

“Waah, that’s a boatload of work!”

It sure is.

From the exams that we collect, we will select three, anonymize them, and offer detailed feedback.

The lessons, the exam, and the feedback will all be provided by Prof. Daniel Epps of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.

If your essay is selected for review, you’ll be receiving personalized feedback on how to improve your writing. The catch is that the feedback will become part of the course to benefit other students as well.

If you submit an essay and we do not select it for review, you’ll still gain free access to the critiques of the three essays that we do select. This will enable you to compare your own exams to see where you can do better. Normally, those lessons would be only available to students enrolled in our Law School Explained courses.

If you’re concerned about the odds of your essay being selected, I’d direct your attention to the quote above. Because we’ve setup the process to be time consuming and demanding, I don’t expect that we’ll get too many responses. This mimics what you’ll quickly come to expect as normal once you’re in law school. It also has the additional effect of filtering for only the original gunners.

If that’s you, then I wish you good luck.

You may begin here.

Deadline for completion is October 31.

jmarmaduke96

This is such a fantastic opportunity. Thank you JY!

VerdantZephyr

Thanks a bunch JY. I LOVE this. I do not know if I will have time in the midst of applications to do it, but I really appreciate this whole concept. Giving students, aka consumers, the chance to make sure they are really interested in the 300,000 dollar product they are buying before they sign their checks is such an incredible opportunity. Thank you. I really mean that deeply.

Mariatoya

This is AWESOME!!! I can't wait to do it.

rachelelainehsu

Is this open to all students of the $10 admissions course, or just the more premium plans? Super interested in this!

J.Y. Ping

@rachelelainehsu Yes, the $10 admissions course would get you access to this as well.

kamelbrooklyn

So once we hit "save" does that mean it's submitted? What if we did it after the time expired? (Like, 15 seconds after, since I can't see the timer on the screen while I write). I don't want my work to not count after all this time!

J.Y. Ping

@kamelbrooklyn Yup, once it's "saved" you should be all set. It's fine that the timer expired.

Excellent.Fondue

@"J.Y. Ping" said:
If your essay is selected for review, you’ll be receiving personalized feedback on how to improve your writing. The catch is that the feedback will become part of the course to benefit other students as well.

Will the critiques of the three essays be made publicly available to those who have an LSAT or Admissions course but who did not submit an essay?

Excellent.Fondue

And will the Criminal Law videos that are pat of this mock essay contest be available still after 10/31?

J.Y. Ping

@"Learned Astronomer" After 10/31 the Criminal Law videos will be accessible only to those enrolled in Law School Explained. Same for the critiques of the essays.

PROMISED LAND

Awesome! Thank you!

hollyludvigsen99

I completed the mock exam, but after my time expired there was no option to submit, I just kept clicking "save." How do I know if my exam was submitted?

J.Y. Ping

@hollyludvigsen99 Yup, we got it!

J.Y. Ping

Deadline is coming up in just 7 days everyone!

2ndTimestheCharm

Hi! Also just double-checking that you got mine since there's something anticlimactic about merely hitting save.

J.Y. Ping

@2ndTimestheCharm Yup, we have it!

PROMISED LAND

Just completed mine and want to make sure it was submitted. I'm not sure if I clicked save before time officially expired, but if not, I saved what I wrote and can resend. Thanks! That was hard and fun at the same time!

J.Y. Ping

@"PROMISED LAND" Yup, if you hit save (before or after timer) we have it.

Heinz Doofenshmirtz

Sorry just a question on the deadline--can we take the exam any time on October 31st? Or does it have to be before the date October 31st?

J.Y. Ping

@"Heinz Doofenshmirtz" You can submit on Oct. 31st. The page will go offline on Nov. 1st.

Burden.of.Floof

Ahh! Just finished the exam. I totally agree with everyone above... it's very scary to just press save haha. Thank you J.Y. for this exercise. I think it was a very valuable experience, especially for someone like me who kind of decided to start studying for the LSAT on a whim. I'm looking forward to seeing the feedback from the essays selected, and hope that it can help me improve my own writing, and the way I thought about the questions and the case itself.

J.Y. Ping

@EllaJ016 Nice job!

VerdantZephyr

@"J.Y. Ping" said:
@"Heinz Doofenshmirtz" You can submit on Oct. 31st. The page will go offline on Nov. 1st.

Timeline question. It is getting late here in Asia, what time in what time zone will submissions close? I would prefer to get some sleep after finishing the lectures and complete the exam in the morning, but that will be evening East Coast time. I want to make sure I have plenty of time to complete the exam, will it close at midnight EST, midnight PST, or some other time?

VerdantZephyr

Also, will there be a way to submit comments on the course under the videos/lessons? I would love to share/get thoughts on requisite mens rea for a given statute and states that find anyone who harms another in the commission of a crime to be guilty of secondary crimes.

MChacon17

Where will the feedback be posted?

J.Y. Ping

@VerdantZephyr
Page will go offline around noon ET on Sunday Nov. 1st.
Comments are enabled under the permanent lesson pages for https://7sage.com/lawschool but not for the temporary lesson pages that will go offline on Sunday.

@MChacon17
They will be posted in the https://7sage.com/lawschool curriculum.

jmarmaduke96

Just submitted, thank you for the the opportunity JY. This is going a long way toward calming some of my trepidation about doing these exams for real in law school.

Vicky180

I just wanted to ask the law school classes say $9 or $16/month, is that for a certain period of time, or we can keep it for a month and cancel? Thanks!

Jay Tee

Will there be an announcement once the exams + feedback are posted?

J.Y. Ping

@Vicky180 It's a monthly subscription and you can cancel it anytime!
@"Jay Tee" Yup, it'll take a while though. We have to organize the essays, Prof. Epps then has to select the ones he'll review, then we actually have to produce the reviews. Will update on the forums when they are ready!

J.Y. Ping

Submissions are officially closed.

Thanks everyone for sending in essays! I will announce results in the next few weeks.

2ndTimestheCharm

Hi, J.Y. Just wondering if you have an ETA on the results. It's a nice distraction from waiting to hear back from schools.

J.Y. Ping

@2ndTimestheCharm Soon, in 2 weeks!

J.Y. Ping

The feedback and some additional lessons are ready!

Issue Spotter Question
https://7sage.com/lawschool/actual-answers-issue-spotter/

Policy Question
https://7sage.com/lawschool/actual-answers-policy-question/

This (and the original prompt / lessons) will be accessible to everyone for two weeks. After that, it'll only be accessible to students enrolled in Law School Explained.