Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School? Forum

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jtabustos

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Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School?

Post by jtabustos » Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:51 am

With many law school classes seemingly being graded only off of the final exam, I'm curious if there are opportunities for students to get feedback on their "legal thinking skills" prior to (or even after) that final?

For example, during cold calls, would a professor break down for the student what he or she got right or wrong in their exchange? Would they try to "develop" or refine the student's thinking process during these exhanges?

Are there any other opportunities where a student can gain academic feedback?

Is there any sort of mentorship relationship b/n profs. and students?

Beachbum89

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Re: Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School?

Post by Beachbum89 » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:08 am

My school is fairly small and all 1L classes have midterms which is actually really great. They either counted for 10% of your grade or didn't count at all. The good part is that it's an opportunity to see where you are in the class and also meet with the professor to see what you did well or need to improve for the final. I would also suggest taking lots of practice exams and then going to office hours with questions about them. Most schools also have an academic skills thing that will give you feedback on outlining and exam writing. In my experience you can get as much or as little help as you want.

In regards to cold calling the professor might try to steer you in the right direction but they aren't going to turn it into a tutoring session.

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Scotusnerd

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Re: Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School?

Post by Scotusnerd » Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:37 am

jtabustos wrote:With many law school classes seemingly being graded only off of the final exam, I'm curious if there are opportunities for students to get feedback on their "legal thinking skills" prior to (or even after) that final?

For example, during cold calls, would a professor break down for the student what he or she got right or wrong in their exchange? Would they try to "develop" or refine the student's thinking process during these exhanges?

Are there any other opportunities where a student can gain academic feedback?

Is there any sort of mentorship relationship b/n profs. and students?
You'll figure out your actual strategy for this stuff when you get there. Don't sweat it now. I can't tell you how you're going to learn legal thinking, since it's your brain, not mine.

Professors will explain legal concepts, and will generally field any questions on a subject afterwards, either after class or during office hours. Some nice 1L professors will have ungraded midterms. Take those. Do some tutoring for at least your first semester. Take any and all available opportunities to practice test-taking. After exam grades are given out, spend time meeting with each professor to figure out how you did and how you can improve (even if you did well. Repeatable success is what it's all about.)

Also, talk to others about stuff. Get some practice explaining this shit. If you have an SO, shamelessly bore them with legalese a few days a week. The extra dishes you have to do in exchange will be worth the practice in communication.

UnderrateOverachieve

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Re: Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School?

Post by UnderrateOverachieve » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:33 am

HA! . . .

. . .

But seriously, professors love talking. If you go in and ask for help, they will be more than willing to answer your questions---provided you have actual questions. Some can do better than others. For most, figuring stuff out by asking anyone and everyone and also doing research---sometimes even on a site like this---seems to do the trick.

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Devlin

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Re: Opportunities for Academic Feedback During Law School?

Post by Devlin » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:17 am

Best way to get feedback is writing out practice exams and taking them to your professor and/or class tutor (if you have one)

Some professors might actually give mock midterms - that would be ideal.

You will get feed back in your legal writing class periodically.

With anything you do, put in a good faith effort. If you half-ass a practice exam or mock midterm then their advice will be useless.

Also, go Spurs!

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