1 down, 7 to go…
Yesterday I took my final exam for Civil Procedure, a grueling and boring class that ended with a (you guessed it) grueling and boring exam. And with the completion of that hellacious test, I’m now officially done with fall semester.
CLS, like most law schools around the country, assigns grades for all of its classes based on one final exam at the end of the semester. This archaic and brutal method of evaluation is really quite evil, and the fact that it’s standardized across the country makes it worse. Everyone does it because everyone else is doing it, and nobody wants to be the first to change, even though it’s universally acknowledged to be dumb.
While test taking in general is a poor indicator of success in the real world, continuous testing on material as the semester progresses is probably a much more useful indication of competence and intelligence than one massive exam. The idea is simple: more data points are generally better. They allow one to trend things out, to remove unfair questions, and to engage the students throughout the course of the semester. This whole ‘one test to regurgitate everything you know’ idea is baloney.
Indeed, it’s not the only facet of law school that has survived unchanged since the 1800’s. The first year law curriculum, which is mandatory, has not noticeably changed for over a century. I’m serious, a century! It’s a little absurd. Now don’t get me wrong – I think that the courses taught are important and the concepts in many cases are necessary foundations for understanding the newer evolutions of the law. But things have changed, and not all students need to know the details of property rights. 200 years ago in an agrarian society that made a lot of sense. It no longer makes sense. I would advocate trimming these classes down significantly, even making some of them optional.
But hey, I’m only a first year law student, so perhaps my perspective is a little skewed. All I know is that I had to spend 3 weeks almost chained to my desk as I tried to absorb an crapload of material, which I will probably never need again. Luckily, they say it gets easier from here. Next semester will be hard – although not as hard as this one – and then it’s all downhill from there. Sweet.
And now, the brilliant part is that I have 2.5 weeks free! I don’t have to use vacation days or anything – I just do whatever the heck I want. It’s great. I’ll be posting daily for the next few weeks.
Yesterday I took my final exam for Civil Procedure, a grueling and boring class that ended with a (you guessed it) grueling and boring exam. And with the completion of that hellacious test, I’m now officially done with fall semester.
CLS, like most law schools around the country, assigns grades for all of its classes based on one final exam at the end of the semester. This archaic and brutal method of evaluation is really quite evil, and the fact that it’s standardized across the country makes it worse. Everyone does it because everyone else is doing it, and nobody wants to be the first to change, even though it’s universally acknowledged to be dumb.
While test taking in general is a poor indicator of success in the real world, continuous testing on material as the semester progresses is probably a much more useful indication of competence and intelligence than one massive exam. The idea is simple: more data points are generally better. They allow one to trend things out, to remove unfair questions, and to engage the students throughout the course of the semester. This whole ‘one test to regurgitate everything you know’ idea is baloney.
Indeed, it’s not the only facet of law school that has survived unchanged since the 1800’s. The first year law curriculum, which is mandatory, has not noticeably changed for over a century. I’m serious, a century! It’s a little absurd. Now don’t get me wrong – I think that the courses taught are important and the concepts in many cases are necessary foundations for understanding the newer evolutions of the law. But things have changed, and not all students need to know the details of property rights. 200 years ago in an agrarian society that made a lot of sense. It no longer makes sense. I would advocate trimming these classes down significantly, even making some of them optional.
But hey, I’m only a first year law student, so perhaps my perspective is a little skewed. All I know is that I had to spend 3 weeks almost chained to my desk as I tried to absorb an crapload of material, which I will probably never need again. Luckily, they say it gets easier from here. Next semester will be hard – although not as hard as this one – and then it’s all downhill from there. Sweet.
And now, the brilliant part is that I have 2.5 weeks free! I don’t have to use vacation days or anything – I just do whatever the heck I want. It’s great. I’ll be posting daily for the next few weeks.
Labels: Law School
posted by slithytoves at 11:50 PM
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