Professors Quality Variations Forum

[3ThrowAway99]

Edited for privacy.

Basic idea is that there does seem to be considerable variation.

[Retiarius]

I'm at a TT, and I've found all of my professors to be more than competent when it comes to the material they're teaching. The ones that aren't great at presenting it will answer questions to clear up any confusion.

Giving tests, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. Some of them just don't care about testing what you've learned, and want nothing more than an easy way to distribute a wide range of grades that fit in the curve. Others put a lot of thought into designing a test that they believe tests your knowledge of the material. Others would rather test your ability to "think like a lawyer," and pretty much disregard what you've learned all semester.

It's unfortunate, but in the end, it is what it is. Even knowing this is true, I'm having just as much difficulty accepting it as you seem to be having.

[zomginternets]

I had a professor this semester who went to Boalt who is supposed to be a leading scholar in his field. However, he's about 80, has absolutely no organized class discussions (seriously, just vaguely talks about the assigned reading and invariably goes off on some extended tangent for half the class), and speaks so slowly and pauses so frequently that it's actually difficult to follow anything he's saying. He would also fall very far behind the class schedule, and would basically expect us to have 2-3 assignments prepared for any one class just in case he would catch up that class.

His previous exams has model answers that would give a few words describing the rules, and then writing "apply to facts".. not quite sure how that qualifies as a "model answer". Thus, you had no idea what kind of answer he was expecting you to give. He gave us MC questions on the final about case facts. He also gave us 2 sample MC questions beforehand, one of them he flat out admitted that there were 2 answers that were equally right, and that he would decide who should get credit for which answer depending on how many people chose one answer over the other. To top it all off, his final essay questions would be worth 10 points each, even though some required far less discussion than others, so you'd be paranoid that you had missed the issue.

I admit that I'm at a T3 so maybe my school hasn't got the best professors, but this one was by far the worst of my 1L teachers.

Just had to join you in that rant.

[grash]

Civ pro - I was taught by one of the best researchers in the area of social science and the law, but the guy had a stroke a few years ago and was sorta past his prime. We probably talked about 1/4 of the assigned cases. Our test was had 2 questions that were blisteringly obvious, and then 1 question that was so inane and tangentially related to the class that I can only imagine it was meant to create a curve.

Torts - I was taught by an 80 year old professor that didn't want to be bothered creating a real exam, so he gave us an exam that would take 1 hour to complete, which tested a very narrow, somewhat unimportant point of the law (closed book). Needless to say, the grades in that class were all over the place.

t10 school. I occasionally consider asking for a partial refund.

[GATORTIM]

I had one this semester. Totally f'n ridiculous, I too feel that I should get some kind of refund.

[jkay]

Yes.