I have a professor who is reasonably new and simply does not have control of the classroom. He lets the 8th grade gunners (kids not looking to even demonstrate knowledge but rather those who think saying whatever is on their mind will earn them gold stars) raise irrelevant questions and hypos and general assertions about how they feel ad nauseum. This means that we do not have time for substantive discussion at all.

Does anyone have any advice on how to bring this up to a professor (experience doing so preferred)? I just can't sit through another period where 50% is the same 5 people spouting non sense.

This isn't to say that I don't like the prof. Excellent during office hours, very engaged and nice, and obviously way smarter than I am.

Everyone has a class where in-class time is essentially useless. Just teach yourself the subject with your casebook, supplements, office hours, and practice exams, and hope for the best. No need to bring anything up to the professor, because it is just going to make you sound ridiculous.

Had the exact same experience this year. I have a teacher this semester to that just does not make any sense.

This is actually a good opportunity for you. If you go to his office hours, get a few EEs and learn all of the material it is a guaranteed A.

May sound insane but you have to remember that you are curved, so you only have to get it better than everyone else. Stay on his good side.

Yeah I'm doing that stuff its kind of adding to my frustration but obviously the material is there. My only concern in terms of grade is the "what the prof thinks or says trumps" that goes around TLS and we just aren't getting very much of that.

Neither are your classmates.

Exactly. And that is why OP should continue going to office hours and find out there what the professor thinks/says.

haha I think this is one of the few times TLS has actually seemed supportive

Also helps if you can find some of his law review articles or published works.

Supplement+Class Notes+Office hours+ law review articles is all you can do.

I'll be in the minority here, but: We're paying these dudes more than enough to expect competent pedagogy. Like, way more than enough. There's no respectful way to bring it up to the professor, so go to the dean, let him know one of his teachers isn't teaching.

Experience: close to a lot of professors and people who hire professors.

I had a torts teacher like this last semester. I generally ignored what she said (because it made no sense), read the E&E, did a shit-ton of practice tests, and typed like hell. I got an A.

It sucks that you are paying so much for someone who is basically worthless. But its actually probably easier to do well in a class like this cause most students won't bother reading the supplements and will rely on whatever convoluted stuff she says during class.

Came in here to say exactly what everyone else has said. It works to your advantage, just keep going to office hours and doing what you're doing. While I wouldn't say it's a guaranteed A, it certainly falls in your favor.

I can't stress that you should read his law review articles enough. Get into his dome.

That's one of those things you really appreciate the experienced professors for. From experience, it's a lot harder to corral a gaggle of blowhards than you would think.

Study the black letter, read some LR articles for policy, then pwn.

Then destroy the prof on evals. It's harsh, but like others said - tough. Every day of school is worth about $500 in tuition. They're getting paid high six figures to be stewards of that money.

I know who you meeeeeeeeeeeean..............

I wonder if I'm one of the 5?! I think I might be, but just on the borderline. Some days are more gunnerish than others for me. For what it's worth, I'm planning on teaching myself the entire course in the week before the final.

I wouldn't bring it up to the professor. That isn't likely to be productive. Just do as others have said (i.e., office hours, E&E, law review articles). I don't see anything wrong with speaking with the dean privately.

No your not one of them, generally when you speak your talking about the case or rule of law. Plus you don't raise your hand enough to be included.

I dunno. I don't read for class, I don't do internet during class, I take lots of practice tests and outline for each class from my own notes, and I've been pwning law school.

What's funny about this survey is that "law student" signifies a bigger asshat than "huge."

Well, that's good. I think once every couple of weeks I hear myself getting obnoxious, but usually I'm kind of asleep in that class anyway...

Glad to see the 150k you're spending on this TTT dump paying off.

Yawn. Yep. Me too. I mean, damn, I just came here because they had the same school colors as my undergrad, and I didn't want to change blankets

Geeze, everyone knows that you're not in law school to go to class and learn the law there. You're there to 1) get a job and 2) show potential employers that, given the arbitrary subset of "the law" that some professor, competent or not, tells you you're going to be tested on, you can learn it one way or another - it doesn't matter if you teach yourself, or learn it from the prof, or, hell, I dunno, learn it from the "ask a law student" section on TLS - and regurgitate it in a way that suits the personal whims of your employer/professor.

And I know what you're going to say: "not everyone knows that"

Well, at least I do.

I'm pretty sure that's not what MTal was going to say. lol