The opposite of an oral exam

Law school exams are usually meant to test how well you can spot issues in fact patterns and construct various, thought-provoking, legally-sound arguments to support your position. While this is pretty annoying and a general waste of time, it at least tests your knowledge of the subject matter (some might say all it tests is your ability to write well in a limited period of time).

Unfortunately, during most exams you not only have to cram all of the legal information into your head, but the professors are always making some stupid formatting issues that you have to work around. Thus begins: the Anal exam.
Law students (for the most part) are the most obsessive-compulsive, anal bunch you have ever seen. I have often wondered if law school makes them that way or people who are already that way are naturally drawn to the law. Regardless, they are usually some of the most annoying people to be around in the world. Multiply that by 10 and you have exam time.

Professors can be anal as well. After all most of them went to Harvard or Yale or somewhere like that so they are the nerdiest of the nerds; the analiest of the anal (I have no idea if I just used that semi colon correctly and I don't care). During exams, as if you don't have to worry about enough, some professors will tell you certain margins, or fonts, or page limits that you must use for your paper. Most of the time these are normal, but then you will always have the strange request, like the one I got today: 14 point font, 1 inch margins on every side, and 12 page limit. What the Quiznos? I'm glad its such a short length for a 48 hour exam, but I admit I had to break out my calculator to figure out how long each section should be. Oh, and when I turn it in it has to be in a manilla envelope. Who has manilla envelopes?

So after dilly-dallying (Dilly dally? Chilly chally. Is the Princess Bride gay?) most of the day, I have 11 pages on crap that I really didn't read all semester. I'll fill it out to 12 by the end of the day and hope for the best. After today, I'll be one exam away from never setting foot in the crap hole again!