Grading at the T14 Forum

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whereskyle

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Grading at the T14

Post by whereskyle » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:00 am

Which schools can I trust with $200,000.00 to give me a fair shot? Any of them? Where is it the worst?

20141023

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by 20141023 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:08 am

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Last edited by 20141023 on Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

whereskyle

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by whereskyle » Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:43 am

I want to read about grades for all courses. Are there schools, whose grading works according to perceivable logic. Is it a crapshoot everywhere? Are some worse than others?

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Icculus

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by Icculus » Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:58 am

whereskyle wrote:I want to read about grades for all courses. Are there schools, whose grading works according to perceivable logic. Is it a crapshoot everywhere? Are some worse than others?
What you need to realize is that grades are not a "crapshoot" nor are they really arbitrary. The issue with grading is that your exams are compared to the rest of your section and therefore even if you know the law and can answer well, if others answer better than you, your grade suffers. This is why people can't rely on being in the top X%. Almost everyone at a T14 is hard working and incredibly intelligent, just as hardworking and smart as you are, and therefore you can't rely on your natural ability to do well. Some people are just better at law school exams, and some people will just have betrter answers, more well organized answers, or more issues spotted. One prof. explained that all of his exams were within 10 points of each other, which meant the difference between an A+ and a B- was 10 points. The only class in which I think grades really were arbitrary was my legal writing course, but that is how most writing classes are.

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Law Sauce

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by Law Sauce » Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:07 pm

I dont think grades are arbitrary. Any particular grade is somewhat subjective but overall the top of the class usually is the best at taking exams and doing the type of thinking that helps you do well on exams. Which school is the fairest? They are all bind grading so they are all fair. Besides a small number of classes which put a small amount of weight on participation or something, every class at every school will only grade you on your written product, fairly, bindly, against your peers in the class. When people say that grades are a crapshot, they mean they cant predict them or dont understand how they ended up on the bottom or on the top for that particular class. I dont think anyone really thinks that the grading process is unfair (I guess someone could argue that they test the wrong skill set or tests are not representative of knowledge, but no one thinks that they didnt get a fair shot at being read and considered for a good grade or anything).

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whereskyle

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by whereskyle » Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:11 pm

Icculus wrote:
whereskyle wrote:I want to read about grades for all courses. Are there schools, whose grading works according to perceivable logic. Is it a crapshoot everywhere? Are some worse than others?
What you need to realize is that grades are not a "crapshoot" nor are they really arbitrary. The issue with grading is that your exams are compared to the rest of your section and therefore even if you know the law and can answer well, if others answer better than you, your grade suffers. This is why people can't rely on being in the top X%. Almost everyone at a T14 is hard working and incredibly intelligent, just as hardworking and smart as you are, and therefore you can't rely on your natural ability to do well. Some people are just better at law school exams, and some people will just have betrter answers, more well organized answers, or more issues spotted. One prof. explained that all of his exams were within 10 points of each other, which meant the difference between an A+ and a B- was 10 points. The only class in which I think grades really were arbitrary was my legal writing course, but that is how most writing classes are.

Excellent point. Damn, this law school business is intimidating.

whereskyle

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Re: Grading at the T14

Post by whereskyle » Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:13 pm

Law Sauce wrote:I dont think grades are arbitrary. Any particular grade is somewhat subjective but overall the top of the class usually is the best at taking exams and doing the type of thinking that helps you do well on exams. Which school is the fairest? They are all bind grading so they are all fair. Besides a small number of classes which put a small amount of weight on participation or something, every class at every school will only grade you on your written product, fairly, bindly, against your peers in the class. When people say that grades are a crapshot, they mean they cant predict them or dont understand how they ended up on the bottom or on the top for that particular class. I dont think anyone really thinks that the grading process is unfair (I guess someone could argue that they test the wrong skill set or tests are not representative of knowledge, but no one thinks that they didnt get a fair shot at being read and considered for a good grade or anything).
Also excellent. Thanks you two.

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