I wish I hadn't looked at my prof's previous torts exams.. Forum

[Prime12]

It really f***ed me over bad. Yes I know the exams are curved and yes I have no one but myself to blame. I still feel like shit and need to vent.

Our tort professor gave us 3 of his previous exams. He was a visiting professor so those were all I could rely on for anticipating how his exam was going to be like. All of them were pretty similar structuraly (3 different doctrinal questions each with its own fact pattern, 50 minutes to an hour per question, and a short, 10 minutes long policy question in the end that is worth maybe 5%). He told the class that that his previous exams are probably what his exam is going to look like and it won't be wise to not use them. I seemed to be in luck; Let me first say I fucking HATE policy questions. I can't do them. I've practiced throughout the semester but I just can't make a convincing policy argument in a short time. I can write an okay one for LRW but that is only because I can think over it for several days. I also strongly prefer shorter questions with different fact patterns over a huge one with a fact pattern that is 5+ pages long.
if his previous exams were any indications, at least I didn't have to worry about the exam exploiting my weak points.


Well, his exam was COMPLETELY different from what he had given us. First, it had a policy question that was going to be worth third of your grade. After that, instead of several questions each with different fact patterns, it had a HUGE, single question with a complex fact pattern that was 7 pages long (with diagrams to boot).

Yeah.. you can imagine how I did. I just lost it when I saw the policy question. While I did prepare for policy questions, you can't just 'fix' your natural weakness. It also completely fucked with my performance on the latter section.

Given that I typed only about 2300 words total, we all know how my grade is going to be like (Probably a C- at best, IF he doesn't give me a fucking F). I will most likely end up below median and will be dropping out. I know there is no excuse about what happened but I still feel what my professor did was misleading and unethical.

[shmoo597]

Sorry man, maybe you should drop out? You'll probably be unemployed due to terrible grades so it might be best to cut your loses. No offense, I mean this sincerely.

[charliep]

Sorry man, maybe you should drop out? You'll probably be unemployed due to terrible grades so it might be best to cut your loses. No offense, I mean this sincerely.

she already said she would drop out if her grades were poor

[monkey85]

There is always second semester to salvage whatever horrible first semester grades you received.

Don't worry. You can tank the first round, ace the second round, and end up with a market-paying SA offer in 2L OCI (i.e., my story).

Chill out, apply for 1L summer jobs, and enjoy break.

[BlueDiamond]

is there like a question here or anything?

there is a CURVE.. unless he is a horrible professor and told some students what the test would have on it (policy/issue spotter/grade distribution), then everyone is in the same boat and nobody knew it was coming

[Borhas]

It really f***ed me over bad. Yes I know the exams are curved and yes I have no one but myself to blame. I still feel like shit and need to vent.

Our tort professor gave us 3 of his previous exams. He was a visiting professor so those were all I could rely on for anticipating how his exam was going to be like. All of them were pretty similar structuraly (3 different doctrinal questions each with its own fact pattern, 50 minutes to an hour per question, and a short, 10 minutes long policy question in the end that is worth maybe 5%). He told the class that that his previous exams are probably what his exam is going to look like and it won't be wise to not use them. I seemed to be in luck; Let me first say I fucking HATE policy questions. I can't do them. I've practiced throughout the semester but I just can't make a convincing policy argument in a short time. I can write an okay one for LRW but that is only because I can think over it for several days. I also strongly prefer shorter questions with different fact patterns over a huge one with a fact pattern that is 5+ pages long.
if his previous exams were any indications, at least I didn't have to worry about the exam exploiting my weak points.


Well, his exam was COMPLETELY different from what he had given us. First, it had a policy question that was going to be worth third of your grade. After that, instead of several questions each with different fact patterns, it had a HUGE, single question with a complex fact pattern that was 7 pages long (with diagrams to boot).

Yeah.. you can imagine how I did. I just lost it when I saw the policy question. While I did prepare for policy questions, you can't just 'fix' your natural weakness. It also completely fucked with my performance on the latter section.

Given that I typed only about 2300 words total, we all know how my grade is going to be like (Probably a C- at best, IF he doesn't give me a fucking F). I will most likely end up below median and will be dropping out. I know there is no excuse about what happened but I still feel what my professor did was misleading and unethical.

sounds like a B+ to me

[blurbz]

Sucks, but the lesson here is to rely on past exams for content and the types of issues most often tested and not as a guarantee of the format of the exam. Why can't you make policy arguments? Most people I know here make policy arguments even when they're not supposed to!

As others have said, it's all dependent on the curve. Don't give up hope yet.

[paulinaporizkova]

It really f***ed me over bad. Yes I know the exams are curved and yes I have no one but myself to blame. I still feel like shit and need to vent.

Our tort professor gave us 3 of his previous exams. He was a visiting professor so those were all I could rely on for anticipating how his exam was going to be like. All of them were pretty similar structuraly (3 different doctrinal questions each with its own fact pattern, 50 minutes to an hour per question, and a short, 10 minutes long policy question in the end that is worth maybe 5%). He told the class that that his previous exams are probably what his exam is going to look like and it won't be wise to not use them. I seemed to be in luck; Let me first say I fucking HATE policy questions. I can't do them. I've practiced throughout the semester but I just can't make a convincing policy argument in a short time. I can write an okay one for LRW but that is only because I can think over it for several days. I also strongly prefer shorter questions with different fact patterns over a huge one with a fact pattern that is 5+ pages long.
if his previous exams were any indications, at least I didn't have to worry about the exam exploiting my weak points.


Well, his exam was COMPLETELY different from what he had given us. First, it had a policy question that was going to be worth third of your grade. After that, instead of several questions each with different fact patterns, it had a HUGE, single question with a complex fact pattern that was 7 pages long (with diagrams to boot).

Yeah.. you can imagine how I did. I just lost it when I saw the policy question. While I did prepare for policy questions, you can't just 'fix' your natural weakness. It also completely fucked with my performance on the latter section.

Given that I typed only about 2300 words total, we all know how my grade is going to be like (Probably a C- at best, IF he doesn't give me a fucking F). I will most likely end up below median and will be dropping out. I know there is no excuse about what happened but I still feel what my professor did was misleading and unethical.

sounds like a B+ to me

lolol

[paulinaporizkova]

soo the point of this thread is that 1L exams are hard, boohoo?

seriously, GTFO

[Grizz]

Wait to bitch until after you see your grade, herp derp

[Extension_Cord]

It really f***ed me over bad. Yes I know the exams are curved and yes I have no one but myself to blame. I still feel like shit and need to vent.

Our tort professor gave us 3 of his previous exams. He was a visiting professor so those were all I could rely on for anticipating how his exam was going to be like. All of them were pretty similar structuraly (3 different doctrinal questions each with its own fact pattern, 50 minutes to an hour per question, and a short, 10 minutes long policy question in the end that is worth maybe 5%). He told the class that that his previous exams are probably what his exam is going to look like and it won't be wise to not use them. I seemed to be in luck; Let me first say I fucking HATE policy questions. I can't do them. I've practiced throughout the semester but I just can't make a convincing policy argument in a short time. I can write an okay one for LRW but that is only because I can think over it for several days. I also strongly prefer shorter questions with different fact patterns over a huge one with a fact pattern that is 5+ pages long.
if his previous exams were any indications, at least I didn't have to worry about the exam exploiting my weak points.


Well, his exam was COMPLETELY different from what he had given us. First, it had a policy question that was going to be worth third of your grade. After that, instead of several questions each with different fact patterns, it had a HUGE, single question with a complex fact pattern that was 7 pages long (with diagrams to boot).

Yeah.. you can imagine how I did. I just lost it when I saw the policy question. While I did prepare for policy questions, you can't just 'fix' your natural weakness. It also completely fucked with my performance on the latter section.

Given that I typed only about 2300 words total, we all know how my grade is going to be like (Probably a C- at best, IF he doesn't give me a fucking F). I will most likely end up below median and will be dropping out. I know there is no excuse about what happened but I still feel what my professor did was misleading and unethical.

I agree, B+

Relax its all curved, you did great.

[crit_racer]

this same thing happened to me in Crim. Not a visiting prof, so I had 15 of her past exams to look at. Every. Single. One. was an issue spotter, then she hit us w/ some weird shit on the final. I freaked and froze up. Didn't follow directions, etc...pretty bad.

I've been having a hard time getting over it, but everyone in my section says it killed them, too, so I have no other choice but to wait a month see how I did and hope the curve takes care of us. Good luck...have faith in the curve, seriously.

[Gamecubesupreme]

The worst part about profs who do this is that it rewards students who slacked off and didn't practice on past exams while it punishes those who diligently worked through all the past exams.

[crEEp]

Given that I typed only about 2300 words total, we all know how my grade is going to be like (Probably a C- at best, IF he doesn't give me a fucking F). I will most likely end up below median and will be dropping out. I know there is no excuse about what happened but I still feel what my professor did was misleading and unethical.

Shut up; seriously, just suck it up and don't listen to this bullshit advice about dropping out or whatever. If you get a C-, if you fail, or whatever, it just makes it harder in the end for you to do whatever you want to do. But that doesn't mean you can't.

If you're so pathetic and weak that you're willing to give up at the first sign that you won't be handed your golden ticket on a silver fucking platter, then go ahead, drop out, and bitch to whoever will listen about how "unfair" life is.

[crEEp]

The worst part about profs who do this is that it rewards students who slacked off and didn't practice on past exams while it punishes those who diligently worked through all the past exams.

Uhhhh you mean it punishes the people who assumed something. Unless the professor says (in the syllabus) what will be on the exam, you probably shouldn't get your hopes up. No one cares how long you worked or how much you studied; you don't get extra credit for how much "effort" you put in. It's the results that matter. Period.

[Gamecubesupreme]

Uhhhh you mean it punishes the people who assumed something. Unless the professor says (in the syllabus) what will be on the exam, you probably shouldn't get your hopes up. No one cares how long you worked or how much you studied; you don't get extra credit for how much "effort" you put in. It's the results that matter. Period.

What is the point of this post again?

[sundance95]

The worst part about profs who do this is that it rewards students who slacked off and didn't practice on past exams while it punishes those who diligently worked through all the past exams.

Uhhhh you mean it punishes the people who assumed something. Unless the professor says (in the syllabus) what will be on the exam, you probably shouldn't get your hopes up. No one cares how long you worked or how much you studied; you don't get extra credit for how much "effort" you put in. It's the results that matter. Period.

Not sure why you're being dickish about it. The professor released the exams for practice; the implication is that the exams released would be similar in style. I don't think anyone is saying that they expected the same exact issues to be tested, just that they are frustrated that the few datapoints that signal what is expected of them ended up being misleading.

[AreJay711]

You either know your shit and how to apply it or you don't. Stop bitchin, bitch,

Plus, how do you fuck up a policy question? Im sure there were autonomy, efficiency (icl deterrence)and public policy goals about distribution and who bears the burden that were pretty obvious. Cap that off with "The real question is what type of society we want to live in, one where X or one where Y" and call it an answer.

[crEEp]

Not sure why you're being dickish about it. The professor released the exams for practice; the implication is that the exams released would be similar in style. I don't think anyone is saying that they expected the same exact issues to be tested, just that they are frustrated that the few datapoints that signal what is expected of them ended up being misleading.

Do I really need to connect the dots? The professor offered those exams for practice... nothing more. Practice with the issues that the class covers. Reading into the release of exams to the extent that you expect anything on the final exam is NOT HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME.

If I were a professor, I'd give back exams just to fuck with the people who think that they're being super sleuths by trying to read into my thought patterns or whatever. If you want a prediction on what will be on the final, you're probably better off calling Miss Cleo than relying on previous exams. The risk is about the same.

[sundance95]

Did you even read my post? Again, no one is saying that they expected the same issues to be tested.

If I were a professor, I'd give back exams just to fuck with the people who think that they're being super sleuths by trying to read into my thought patterns or whatever.

Okay, thanks for confirming that you're a douchebag.

[crEEp]

Not sure why you're being dickish about it. The professor released the exams for practice; the implication is that the exams released would be similar in style. I don't think anyone is saying that they expected the same exact issues to be tested, just that they are frustrated that the few datapoints that signal what is expected of them ended up being misleading.

Did you even read my post? Again, no one is saying that they expected the same issues to be tested.

Reading comprehension lesson: THE IMPLICATION WAS WRONG. The exams were for practice with the issues, not to reveal some secret about the style of the exam.

[BunkMoreland]

I got a Bminus in my first class 1L fall semester; thought all was ruined, etc.

Now I have top 5%, good job, etc.


Chill out, herp derp

[Cupidity]

Who the hell does policy questions in LWR

[094320]

..

[Borhas]

The worst part about profs who do this is that it rewards students who slacked off and didn't practice on past exams while it punishes those who diligently worked through all the past exams.

This is the best part actually, because it means there is less pressure for all of us to work excessively. It's the predictable exams you gotta watch out for (if you are a slacker/quality of life person like me)