Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

[crumpetsandtea]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

Ouch, that is terrible. Hope you aren't a 1L?

Never trust "He's an easy grader." ESPECIALLY from gunners. It's mostly a way to humble brag about getting an A.

I'm not a 1L, so thankfully this won't mess up OCI for me. But I don't like getting a shit grade I didn't deserve. I emailed him about it and he told me that if it had been a curved class he would have given me a C (which doesn't even make any sense since Cs aren't part of the curve).

And I heard he's an easy grader from a lot of people who definitely were not gunners and said this was the best grade they've gotten/their first A+ ... And this is by far the worst grade I've gotten in law school, including in curved classes.

I got boned too, FWIW. I was told it was guaranteed A/he had been yelled at before for giving too many A's and I got a fucking B+. I feel your pain breh.

[simplycatalina]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

yeah he gave me a B+, i'm so pissed.

[parkslope]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

yeah he gave me a B+, i'm so pissed.

Isn't it a general rule that younger faculty/adjuncts are more likely to be A-friendly than older faculty?

[zugzwanger]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

That's really shitty that the prof would say something like that though I'm assuming you still studied for the exam? Throughout the semester I think I heard at least 2-3 people tell me that the class was awesome and that everybody does well I was actually pissed that I didn't take it as one of my electives

[Holly Golightly]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

yeah he gave me a B+, i'm so pissed.

Isn't it a general rule that younger faculty/adjuncts are more likely to be A-friendly than older faculty?

That would make sense, but I heard the "D'Amato is an easy grader" thing the whole time I was at NU. Maybe it got back to him and he decided he didn't want that reputation anymore?

[dolfan0516]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

Ouch, that is terrible. Hope you aren't a 1L?

Never trust "He's an easy grader." ESPECIALLY from gunners. It's mostly a way to humble brag about getting an A.

I'm not a 1L, so thankfully this won't mess up OCI for me. But I don't like getting a shit grade I didn't deserve. I emailed him about it and he told me that if it had been a curved class he would have given me a C (which doesn't even make any sense since Cs aren't part of the curve).

And I heard he's an easy grader from a lot of people who definitely were not gunners and said this was the best grade they've gotten/their first A+ ... And this is by far the worst grade I've gotten in law school, including in curved classes.

Same exact thing for me. How can you get a B in an uncurved class when the final was 4 questions at a max of 400 words? You didn't even have space to make more than the most basic of arguments.

at would make sense, but I heard the "D'Amato is an easy grader" thing the whole time I was at NU. Maybe it got back to him and he decided he didn't want that reputation anymore?

Don't give him that much credit. He is so out of it. He said he would retire when he couldn't teach anymore. Someone should tell him that was 5 years ago.

[simplycatalina]

Tried contacting D'Amato about the grade and he's apparently on leave and can't discuss it until Spring. Excellent.

He also said, "I thought you should've done better." What is this bullshit.

[Pokemon]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

[rinkrat19]

Is getting less than an A in ITP a common thing, or did our faculty adviser just take it way too seriously?

[simplycatalina]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

No but he just gave random grades based on a 1600 word exam and I doubt he read a single test.

[Micdiddy]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

No but he just gave random grades based on a 1600 word exam and I doubt he read a single test.

But you don't really think that...

[Pokemon]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

No but he just gave random grades based on a 1600 word exam and I doubt he read a single test.

I mean, it is also not fair that O'Hara grades super-easy whereas Horwich grades hard, but it is part of law school. Grades in law school are not hard science.

[CaptJackSparrow]

Did anybody else get screwed by Jurisprudence with D'Amato? He gave me a B ... I thought he was supposed to be a really easy grader and this was an uncurved class. He told us not to even study for the final.

Ouch, that is terrible. Hope you aren't a 1L?

Never trust "He's an easy grader." ESPECIALLY from gunners. It's mostly a way to humble brag about getting an A.

I'm not a 1L, so thankfully this won't mess up OCI for me. But I don't like getting a shit grade I didn't deserve. I emailed him about it and he told me that if it had been a curved class he would have given me a C (which doesn't even make any sense since Cs aren't part of the curve).

And I heard he's an easy grader from a lot of people who definitely were not gunners and said this was the best grade they've gotten/their first A+ ... And this is by far the worst grade I've gotten in law school, including in curved classes.

Same exact thing for me. How can you get a B in an uncurved class when the final was 4 questions at a max of 400 words? You didn't even have space to make more than the most basic of arguments.

I completely agree. If you're not going to provide any information about what you expect (other than "you don't need to study for this test. Everyone is going to do fine") and you only provide enough space to make basic arguments, you can't then turn around and tell us we didn't meet the expectations you never gave us.

Tried contacting D'Amato about the grade and he's apparently on leave and can't discuss it until Spring. Excellent.

He also said, "I thought you should've done better." What is this bullshit.

Same here, he told me he expected me to do better and that he bumped my grade up from a C, based on my exam grade, to a B because of my participation. I really don't understand how I could have gone so far afield in 1600 words on this "studyless test."

To move on from just expressing dissatisfaction though, is there anything we can do? Does anybody know if there is an appeals process given that a significant portion of the class feels we were unfairly graded?

[Flips88]

LOL at the first google result for him: http://anthonydamato.law.northwestern.edu/

Also, he defended a Serbian government official charged with genocide. Nice.

[LRGhost]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

No but he just gave random grades based on a 1600 word exam and I doubt he read a single test.

I mean, it is also not fair that O'Hara grades super-easy whereas Horwich grades hard, but it is part of law school. Grades in law school are not hard science.

Isn't complaining about grades, especially bad grades in an uncurved class, part of law school as well?

[parkslope]

Is getting less than an A in ITP a common thing, or did our faculty adviser just take it way too seriously?

Most definitely not a thing.

[parkslope]

Same here, he told me he expected me to do better and that he bumped my grade up from a C, based on my exam grade, to a B because of my participation. I really don't understand how I could have gone so far afield in 1600 words on this "studyless test."

To move on from just expressing dissatisfaction though, is there anything we can do? Does anybody know if there is an appeals process given that a significant portion of the class feels we were unfairly graded?

Pretty sure grades can only be changed for clerical error, i.e., a professor mis-entered your grade. I've never heard of that actually happening though.

[Georgia Avenue]

Is getting less than an A in ITP a common thing, or did our faculty adviser just take it way too seriously?

Most definitely not a thing.

now THIS is poor form.

[Georgia Avenue]

I understand people are frustrated, I would be too, but it is not like D'Amato gave discretionary bad grades.

No but he just gave random grades based on a 1600 word exam and I doubt he read a single test.

I mean, it is also not fair that O'Hara grades super-easy whereas Horwich grades hard, but it is part of law school. Grades in law school are not hard science.

right, but nobody holds a gun to your head and forces you to take Horwich - you know what you're getting yourself into with him. it's way different when a guy who has a reputation for handing out A's like candy suddenly decides to start giving out B's and C's in an uncurved class. nothing much you can do to protect yourself from that.

[simplycatalina]

Same here, he told me he expected me to do better and that he bumped my grade up from a C, based on my exam grade, to a B because of my participation. I really don't understand how I could have gone so far afield in 1600 words on this "studyless test."

To move on from just expressing dissatisfaction though, is there anything we can do? Does anybody know if there is an appeals process given that a significant portion of the class feels we were unfairly graded?

Pretty sure grades can only be changed for clerical error, i.e., a professor mis-entered your grade. I've never heard of that actually happening though.

Is there anything we can do about the fact that he won't even look over our exams/talk about why he decided to give us that grade?

[rinkrat19]

Is getting less than an A in ITP a common thing, or did our faculty adviser just take it way too seriously?

Most definitely not a thing.

now THIS is poor form.

God dammit, Lutz.

It was just an A- but it still felt undeserved. And that was only after he told our group (and one other group) that our papers were worth a B+ at best and let us do another edit and resubmit after the deadline. wtf. ITP is 4 credits so it hurts. AND he'd loved our presentations and everything else so it came totally out of the blue.

[homestyle28]

Is getting less than an A in ITP a common thing, or did our faculty adviser just take it way too seriously?

Most definitely not a thing.

now THIS is poor form.

God dammit, Lutz.

It was just an A- but it still felt undeserved. And that was only after he told our group (and one other group) that our papers were worth a B+ at best and let us do another edit and resubmit after the deadline. wtf. ITP is 4 credits so it hurts. AND he'd loved our presentations and everything else so it came totally out of the blue.

But with Lutz, you can't really be surprised can you? He's a tool.

[Kikero]

Also got an A-, Rink, and not from Lutz.

[rayiner]

ITT: Butthurt.

Everyone misjudges one class or two as "easy" then gets pwned. Learn your lesson and get over it.

[LRGhost]

ITT: Butthurt.

Everyone misjudges one class or two as "easy" then gets pwned. Learn your lesson and get over it.

When did everyone get so serious about the time-honored activity of complaining about grades?