Short memo grading Forum

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miobrien

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Short memo grading

Post by miobrien » Fri Oct 31, 2014 8:08 pm

I got a B+/A- on my short memo .

In class, my prof told us: "Don't worry. No one is getting an A." He's purposely using a "harder" curve on this first assignment since it's worth less than the other assignments, and he wants to motivate people to improve. Has anyone else had a professor who said that?

Anyway, there are two ways of looking at this: 1) either no one got A's or A-'s in general and he's bumping me up a bit, or 2) someone else got an A-. Thoughts?

Class has like 14 people in it. Where would this put the median?

Either way it's not a big deal. I'm at the good end of the curve. But it's just kind of funny to see B+/A- on top of my paper, and then read the attached note as well as my memo, which has excellent! and good! all over it.

Bottom line: LRW is weird.

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Kratos

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by Kratos » Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:20 pm

Exactly how many "excellents" did he write on your paper?

GOATlawman

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by GOATlawman » Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:51 pm

Someone in the class got an A. Legal writing instructors love to sandbag the students for some reason

Find that student, and then I'm sure you'll know what to do from there

miobrien

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by miobrien » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:01 pm

Kratos wrote:Exactly how many "excellents" did he write on your paper?
Attached notepaper: "Very strong memo ... [two general suggestions] ... Keep up the good work!"

It's a five page memo. He makes a bunch of suggestions throughout—most of them having to do with elaborating, specifying, etc. (Which I understand and agree with but don't know how he wants me to fit in with a five page limit...)

Page 1: a "good" next to my Question Presented along with a suggestion; a "good!" and "excellent" next to my Brief Answer
Page 2: a "good job succinctly stating facts" next to my Facts section; a "good" next to a statute citation at the beginning of my discussion
Page 3: an "excellent" at the end of my first discussion paragraph; an "excellent!" and "yes!" next to §1 of my discussion; a "good" next to the beginning of §2 of my discussion
Page 4: a "yes!" and "excellent" next to the end of §2 of my discussion; two "excellent" next to §3 of my discussion
Page 5: four "excellents" next to §3 of my discussion and one "good" at the end

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:14 pm

Dude, it's not like there's some rubric where 7 goods = 3 excellents = A or the like. You wrote a lot of good stuff, there were some things you could have done better, you're graded on a curve, he's grading tough to make you want to improve, and there you go. This isn't really as odd as you're making it out to be. (Also, what is your school's median? LRW is going to be on the same median.)

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miobrien

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by miobrien » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:25 pm

Yeah, I understand that. Just trying to get some outside input.

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:21 pm

I guess I'm confused. What are you looking for outside input on?

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Kratos

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by Kratos » Sat Nov 01, 2014 7:37 pm

miobrien wrote:
Kratos wrote:Exactly how many "excellents" did he write on your paper?
Attached notepaper: "Very strong memo ... [two general suggestions] ... Keep up the good work!"

It's a five page memo. He makes a bunch of suggestions throughout—most of them having to do with elaborating, specifying, etc. (Which I understand and agree with but don't know how he wants me to fit in with a five page limit...)

Page 1: a "good" next to my Question Presented along with a suggestion; a "good!" and "excellent" next to my Brief Answer
Page 2: a "good job succinctly stating facts" next to my Facts section; a "good" next to a statute citation at the beginning of my discussion
Page 3: an "excellent" at the end of my first discussion paragraph; an "excellent!" and "yes!" next to §1 of my discussion; a "good" next to the beginning of §2 of my discussion
Page 4: a "yes!" and "excellent" next to the end of §2 of my discussion; two "excellent" next to §3 of my discussion
Page 5: four "excellents" next to §3 of my discussion and one "good" at the end
Umm I wasn't serious dude. More making fun of you for bragging about getting good notes on your memo and still freaking out about it.

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Kratos

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by Kratos » Sat Nov 01, 2014 7:37 pm

A. Nony Mouse wrote:I guess I'm confused. What are you looking for outside input on?
How awesome they are.

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UnicornHunter

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by UnicornHunter » Sat Nov 01, 2014 7:56 pm

miobrien wrote:I got a B+/A- on my short memo .

In class, my prof told us: "Don't worry. No one is getting an A." He's purposely using a "harder" curve on this first assignment since it's worth less than the other assignments, and he wants to motivate people to improve. Has anyone else had a professor who said that?

Anyway, there are two ways of looking at this: 1) either no one got A's or A-'s in general and he's bumping me up a bit, or 2) someone else got an A-. Thoughts? Or 3, no one got an 'A' but some/most got B+/A-s.

Class has like 14 people in it. Where would this put the median?

Either way it's not a big deal. I'm at the good end of the curve. But it's just kind of funny to see B+/A- on top of my paper, and then read the attached note as well as my memo, which has excellent! and good! all over it.



Bottom line: LRW is weird.

shock259

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by shock259 » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:24 am

I got a B+ (median) on every single LRW assignment both semesters regardless of the effort I put into it. Some people got higher. Don't sweat it, and just do better in your other classes. Much easier to get an A in Civ Pro than it is in LRW. So many people don't know how to take a law school exam. Lots of people know how to write.

NotMyRealName09

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by NotMyRealName09 » Tue Nov 04, 2014 6:25 pm

Ok just curious - what is this? B+/A-?

Is that a thing? Like was your grade B+/A-? Or are you being vague like you got either a B+ or an A- but don't want to say?

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Kratos

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by Kratos » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:28 pm

NotMyRealName09 wrote:Ok just curious - what is this? B+/A-?

Is that a thing? Like was your grade B+/A-? Or are you being vague like you got either a B+ or an A- but don't want to say?
Some teachers don't give a hard grade but just give people a range where their score would sit if they did. I suspect it's because law school keeps up the special snowflake syndrome and doesn't want to hurt people feelings. Totally fucking stupid imo but my teacher did that shit as well.

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BmoreOrLess

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by BmoreOrLess » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:15 pm

Kratos wrote:
NotMyRealName09 wrote:Ok just curious - what is this? B+/A-?

Is that a thing? Like was your grade B+/A-? Or are you being vague like you got either a B+ or an A- but don't want to say?
Some teachers don't give a hard grade but just give people a range where their score would sit if they did. I suspect it's because law school keeps up the special snowflake syndrome and doesn't want to hurt people feelings. Totally fucking stupid imo but my teacher did that shit as well.
I'd rather get that than the wall of criticism that everyone here gets on their memos, giving us no clue about how our memo's are actually stacking up.

And as always, fuck graded LRW.

JustHawkin

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Re: Short memo grading

Post by JustHawkin » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:58 pm

BmoreOrLess wrote:
I'd rather get that than the wall of criticism that everyone here gets on their memos, giving us no clue about how our memo's are actually stacking up.

And as always, fuck graded LRW.
"Nice job on your memo, may I suggest you fix this (flaming piece of trash) for next time"

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