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

[homestyle28]

Is the grading for CLR so capricious that if you took assignments to your instructor every week to receive feedback before submitting, you wouldn't come out with any consistent rules to structure your papers by? I'm trying to understand what people mean when they say grading is arbitrary.

I don't know about all the profs, but my prof would only look at one half page, double-spaced, of an assignment in progress. You could take that half page to her more than once, and you could ask her verbal questions as much as you wanted, but she wouldn't look at any more of your paper than that. And we could only show the TA the same half page too.

And you could follow a criticism of hers TO THE LETTER and be told the next time she read it that your change was wrong and it should be the way you had it to begin with.

Here's the rub: I'm pretty sure you're talking about the same prof I had, but only pretty confident. There's a legit chance that multiple CLR profs have these terrible practices.

[bjsesq]

Is the grading for CLR so capricious that if you took assignments to your instructor every week to receive feedback before submitting, you wouldn't come out with any consistent rules to structure your papers by? I'm trying to understand what people mean when they say grading is arbitrary.

I've done this. It didn't help. I literally made changes that were requested only for them to be criticized on the actual paper. It's bullshit.

Get used to it, your clients will do this too.

Yeah, but clients are dumb and don't know what they want, and they're paying for your time anyway. A CLR prof is presumably supposed to teach you to do something the "right" way.

Both fuck with your earning potential. Like Ray said: it is what it is.

[09042014]

At least CLR profs don't introduce typos into your work product like partners do.

[rayiner]

At least CLR profs don't introduce typos into your work product like partners do.

[zugzwanger]

I don't know about other sections, but our CLR has a really tight score curve where the difference between the median grade and the high grades is about 3-4 points. At that point, you could spend hours upon hours editing etc. and still not hit the points that set some papers apart imo.

[09042014]

I don't know about other sections, but our CLR has a really tight score curve where the difference between the median grade and the high grades is about 3-4 points. At that point, you could spend hours upon hours editing etc. and still not hit the points that set some papers apart imo.

That's pretty shitty grading. No way were they all that similar.

[splitsplat]

I don't know about other sections, but our CLR has a really tight score curve where the difference between the median grade and the high grades is about 3-4 points. At that point, you could spend hours upon hours editing etc. and still not hit the points that set some papers apart imo.

if they introduce a mandatory distribution, that will be a good thing. my clr professor gave 1 A, 2 A-, rest B+s lol.

[lawschool22]

From what I heard at the ASW, they are creating a forced, mandatory curve for next year's CLR. They may have already, the timing wasn't clear. But it seemed like that was a complaint and they are attempting to address it.

[rinkrat19]

From what I heard at the ASW, they are creating a forced, mandatory curve for next year's CLR.

Let me guess. That's the way they do it at UT?

[lawschool22]

From what I heard at the ASW, they are creating a forced, mandatory curve for next year's CLR.

Let me guess. That's the way they do it at UT?

Lol I won't pretend I understand that reference. They didn't mention UT fwiw lol

[Kikero]

I know in my section of CLR everyone I spoke with got B+s including people who had As on every assignment leading up to the final one.

[rinkrat19]

From what I heard at the ASW, they are creating a forced, mandatory curve for next year's CLR.

Let me guess. That's the way they do it at UT?

Lol I won't pretend I understand that reference. They didn't mention UT fwiw lol

The new dean came from UT. Every time he discovers something that NU does differently than UT, he is SHOCKED AND APPALLED. Sometimes he gets talked back from the ledge when the reasoning is explained, but sometimes...not.

[Dr. Filth]

Is the grading for CLR so capricious that if you took assignments to your instructor every week to receive feedback before submitting, you wouldn't come out with any consistent rules to structure your papers by? I'm trying to understand what people mean when they say grading is arbitrary.

I don't know about all the profs, but my prof would only look at one half page, double-spaced, of an assignment in progress. You could take that half page to her more than once, and you could ask her verbal questions as much as you wanted, but she wouldn't look at any more of your paper than that. And we could only show the TA the same half page too.

And you could follow a criticism of hers TO THE LETTER and be told the next time she read it that your change was wrong and it should be the way you had it to begin with.

Who did you have? This sounds exactly like my prof. Fair warning: def butthurt about that class

We already have a forced curve this year. It's easier than the normal curve though. I posted it somewhere else ITT p sure.

[lawschool22]

From what I heard at the ASW, they are creating a forced, mandatory curve for next year's CLR.

Let me guess. That's the way they do it at UT?

Lol I won't pretend I understand that reference. They didn't mention UT fwiw lol

The new dean came from UT. Every time he discovers something that NU does differently than UT, he is SHOCKED AND APPALLED. Sometimes he gets talked back from the ledge when the reasoning is explained, but sometimes...not.

Ohhh I see. That makes sense. I will say from a 0L's perspective, a lot of what he was saying at the townhall made some sense. Although I'm sure after a while his personality could get overbearing lol

[Ricky-Bobby]

The new dean came from UT. Every time he discovers something that NU does differently than UT, he is SHOCKED AND APPALLED. Sometimes he gets talked back from the ledge when the reasoning is explained, but sometimes...not.

Ohhh I see. That makes sense. I will say from a 0L's perspective, a lot of what he was saying at the townhall made some sense. Although I'm sure after a while his personality could get overbearing lol

You could definitely hear him over the PA, that's for sure.

[rayiner]

Don't you guys have examsoft now? If so, NU really is a TTT in decline.

[rinkrat19]

Don't you guys have examsoft now? If so, NU really is a TTT in decline.

We haven't fallen that far yet, thank god.
We use the Examsoft website to download the honor code statement/upload exam answers, but not the actual Examsoft software to write exams.

[lawschool22]

The new dean came from UT. Every time he discovers something that NU does differently than UT, he is SHOCKED AND APPALLED. Sometimes he gets talked back from the ledge when the reasoning is explained, but sometimes...not.

Ohhh I see. That makes sense. I will say from a 0L's perspective, a lot of what he was saying at the townhall made some sense. Although I'm sure after a while his personality could get overbearing lol

You could definitely hear him over the PA, that's for sure.

Someone needed to turn him down a bit. Or take the microphone.

[Flips88]

Don't you guys have examsoft now? If so, NU really is a TTT in decline.

We haven't fallen that far yet, thank god.
We use the Examsoft website to download the honor code statement/upload exam answers, but not the actual Examsoft software to write exams.

We used a comparable thing called PlanetSSI to download and upload exams when I was a 1L. Hopefully his switch to ExamSoft wasn't a prelude to making people using the exam writing software.

[rayiner]

Don't you guys have examsoft now? If so, NU really is a TTT in decline.

We haven't fallen that far yet, thank god.
We use the Examsoft website to download the honor code statement/upload exam answers, but not the actual Examsoft software to write exams.

Disaster averted so far.

[09042014]

Exam soft doesn't do shit if you take your exams in your own apartment.

[bk1]

Exam soft doesn't do shit if you take your exams in your own apartment.

No need to give D-Rod more ideas on things to take away from NU.

[zugzwanger]

I'm not sure about the extent that the Dean has in managing admission (I would assume it is quite extensive), but I found one of the most interesting shifts being NU now basically taking its 25th LSAT to 161. I wonder whether or not this means the interview will start having more weight/other softs/WE since the amount of applications falling in the middle 50% will be so much higher from now on.

[bk1]

I'm not sure about the extent that the Dean has in managing admission (I would assume it is quite extensive), but I found one of the most interesting shifts being NU now basically taking its 25th LSAT to 161. I wonder whether or not this means the interview will start having more weight/other softs/WE since the amount of applications falling in the middle 50% will be so much higher from now on.

My take is that they want/need more splitters to maintain high medians. I don't think it's going to make softs more material.

[Pishee77]

Their 25th is going to be a 161?!? No way...

Also, I wasnt able to go on the tour but does northwestern have a student space where you can put your books and coats or are you going to be lugging that around all day?