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CompetitionInPreparationForCareersTalk 5 - 20 Feb 2008 - Main.AndrewGradman
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="GradingCurveTalk" |
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The question is, should law school be teaching us competition in preparation for our careers? I think this question harks back in many ways to whether we think law school is a "vocational school." If you really think law school is just about making you into a good associate at X firm, then maybe depriving us of sleep and pitting us against one another early on is a great thing. But, if law school is about teaching you how to think critically about the law and getting you to thoroughly analyze the material that you're working with, then a system which discourages collaboration is antithetical to that idea. | | | -- MiaWhite - 20 Feb 2008 | |
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< | I was in the elevator with a fellow student last month who excitedly asked "have you checked your Civ Pro grade? They just came in!" My heart began to pound. I didn't even realize they were in--how could I have possibly missed the email from the registrar? Then he said, "don't worry, you got a B. We all got Bs." He was right.
* The curve is a "safe" way instilling the trepidation of failure without allowing it as a possibility. Think about it, even if you did the absolute WORST, you are looking at a C (which in some cases is optional). Some schools will straight out give you a D. Or let you fail.
* The curve provides the backbone for a ranking system. It is arbitrary but vital to organizations (read: firms) to be able to treat us as the numbers we become in those systems.
* If we didn't have a curve, we would need some actual feedback. Most of our professors have shown they simply can't be bothered with such details. So, we get a letter and determine whether we should feel good, bad or indifferent about the whole situation. | >
> | I was in the elevator with a fellow student last month who excitedly asked "have you checked your Civ Pro grade? They just came in!" My heart began to pound. I didn't even realize they were in--how could I have possibly missed the email from the registrar? Then he said, "don't worry, you got a B. We all got Bs." He was right.
* The curve is a "safe" way instilling the trepidation of failure without allowing it as a possibility. Think about it, even if you did the absolute WORST, you are looking at a C (which in some cases is optional). Some schools will straight out give you a D. Or let you fail.
* The curve provides the backbone for a ranking system. It is arbitrary but vital to organizations (read: firms) to be able to treat us as the numbers we become in those systems.
* If we didn't have a curve, we would need some actual feedback. Most of our professors have shown they simply can't be bothered with such details. So, we get a letter and determine whether we should feel good, bad or indifferent about the whole situation.
| | | * Law school allows for us to squeak by at 75%. Unfortunately, it allows encourages this level for those of us that put in 100% and found little reflection of our efforts on our transcript. |
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