Exam Day

Every Law Students Greatest Fear
    If it can be said that there is a Greatest Fear among law students, that fear would not be getting called on in class.  It would probably not even be death!  That fear would be reading the exam fact pattern on a final and not seeing a single issue!! 
    The feeling is a sort of shuddering shake, combined with a sudden and dramatic temperature increase within your head!  Nearly every law student will take at least one exam where they see no issues and freak out a bit. 
    If this happens to you, start with more deep breaths!  Remind yourself that the issues are indeed there, they are just hidden for the moment.  But sit tight!  More than a few law students have trashed the exam, gotten up and walked out at this point.  You will contemplate doing just that.  You will seriously ask yourself what in the heck you are doing in law school, and the clock is ticking.
    After sitting for a moment and taking some deep breaths, think about what subject is being tested.  This sounds silly, but you will do it at some point in your law school career.  Next, think about the major headings on your outline for that subject.  So if you were sitting in a Torts exam, you would begin to think about negligence, intentional torts, product liability, etc, on down the line, all the while trying to find how one of those headings might fit into the fact pattern. 
    If that doesn't work and a sufficient amount of time has passed, then you must start writing.  If you don't know at all what to write, take a generality that you see, and begin to write.  If what you're writing is garbage, so be it.  You cannot hand in a blank piece of paper.  Now I mentioned "magic" earlier, and I'll mention it again here.  Even the most doubting of law students will tell you, that there is a magic that happens once you start to write. 
    Eventually, you start to see the issues.  Your generalized garbage begins to turn into IRAC.  Your cranial temperature will drop, and your EKG will trend back towards normal again.