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PaulaKimFirstPaper 4 - 22 Jan 2013 - Main.IanSullivan
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The Law School Grading System | | | Is it a good one?
Law students care deeply about grades. Our grades are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyers. | |
<
< | Law school grades are generally determined by a final exam taken at the end of the semester. These exams are written to test how much we have learned in each class. Although a timed exam might not be the best way to test knowledge, and knowledge is definitely not the only thing worth measuring, the system itself is not horrible. But I think the way many students, myself included, respond to the system is destructive. We have a tendency to let our grades define us, as Abby said here. | >
> | Law school grades are generally determined by a final exam taken at the end of the semester. These exams are written to test how much we have learned in each class. Although a timed exam might not be the best way to test knowledge, and knowledge is definitely not the only thing worth measuring, the system itself is not horrible. But I think the way many students, myself included, respond to the system is destructive. We have a tendency to let our grades define us, as Abby said here. | | | I’m not sure why this happens. For me, I think it may partly be habit and the way I was raised. In elementary school, my parents rewarded me for good grades with little toys and trinkets. By the time I reached middle school, they discovered it was much cheaper and easier to just guilt me into getting top grades by telling me they were disappointed in me whenever I got anything lower than an A. In high school, I no longer needed parental pressure to motivate me. The thrill of getting a good grade was enough. | | | Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us. | |
<
< | One way to mitigate the negative effects of the grading system is to opt out of the curve with Rule 3.1.2. Of course even with this option, there is still some determination of merit by the professor (whether the effort one put into the class was, or was not, enough to pass), but the pressure to get an A (or to avoid getting a B-) is no longer there. Maybe without the focus on letter grades, those who choose to use Rule 3.1.2 would focus more on learning and figuring out how to apply what they learn to become good lawyers. | >
> | One way to mitigate the negative effects of the grading system is to opt out of the curve with Rule 3.1.2. Of course even with this option, there is still some determination of merit by the professor (whether the effort one put into the class was, or was not, enough to pass), but the pressure to get an A (or to avoid getting a B-) is no longer there. Maybe without the focus on letter grades, those who choose to use Rule 3.1.2 would focus more on learning and figuring out how to apply what they learn to become good lawyers. | | | I don’t think I will be one of these people. I am not brave enough to opt out of the curve. It’s not just that I fear I won’t be able to get a job. I know there are employers who don’t consider grades when hiring people. Eben tells us that as a hiring lawyer, he never looks at transcripts when he makes his decisions. Many of the jobs I applied to did not require transcripts and the place where I will be working this summer made me an offer before receiving my transcript. Even employers who purportedly only care about grades, don’t just look at transcripts (at least, I don’t think they do). If big law firms only cared about grades, they would only want transcripts. There would be no need for them to conduct interviews or look at resumes for past experience. So I know that I would be able to find a job even with a transcript full of CRs. |
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PaulaKimFirstPaper 3 - 22 Apr 2012 - Main.PaulaKim
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Is it a good one? | |
<
< | The grades we receive in law school are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyer. Yet they are generally determined by how we perform on one final exam that is written by the professor. This is a poor system for several reasons. First of all, it does not measure the skills we will need to use as lawyers. When will we ever have to answer theoretical legal questions within four hours without the use of the Internet and colleagues? Collaboration is a large part of legal work, as is using computers to do research, yet we are denied access to these two tools on an exam that is supposed to tell us whether or not we will be successful as lawyers. Secondly, this system discourages the development of characteristics that Eben stresses are important for lawyers to have: judgment and creativity. These exams are meant to test judgment because we have to spot the most important issues and decide which ones to focus on in our answers. But what really happens is that instead of writing about the issues we judge are important, we write about those we think the professor thinks is important. Those who best predict what the professor wants get the best grades. And those whose answers deviate from what the professor expects are rewarded for their efforts to exercise independent judgment with a lower grade. | >
> | Law students care deeply about grades. Our grades are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyers. | | | | |
<
< | How do you know this?
How many exams have you reviewed to see what grades they got, and how
do you know whether the grades they got were determined by the degree
of accord with the professors' expectations?
What seems evident to you does not seem evident to me, whether as a
person who spent parts of five years taking law school exams, or
parts of fifteen other years grading them. I never approached a law
school exam asking myself what the teacher expected, let alone
wanted. Most of the time I wrote essays in the bluebooks which
contained at least one point, usually the most important, which I was
as sure as could be the teacher did not expect. Often I wrote
something with which I was pretty sure the teacher would disagree; I
considered that to be insurance. Experience showed me most often
that I was right.
As a teacher, facing piles of bluebooks saying the same things in the
same tones, full of the same mistakes, the same naivetes and the same
graceless prose, what I wanted more than anything else was
originality, flair, mastery, self-confidence, and a strong point of
view. In my opinion, you know the formula for a B+, but you have
lost track of how to get an A.
This system teaches us that thinking for ourselves is bad and that adopting the viewpoints of others is good.
Only if that's what you
want to learn.
How can we learn to be creative lawyers when, to do well in law school, we just need to parrot the ideas of our professors? Finally, this system gives us one shot to show how much we learned over one semester. There is no way to measure improvement or effort. It seems unfair to disregard three months of work in favor of the answers we give on a four hour exam.
Do we really need to know our grades?
Still, grades are a pervasive part of a law student’s job search. Many employers require transcripts and want to hire only those with the best grades. Even if we reject the notion that grades matter, those for whom we want to work will not.
Once again, as a lawyer
who hires lawyers, I know this is nonsense. I hire all the time:
I've hired more than two dozen lawyers and law students in the last
seven years. Though as a teacher I live among transcripts, as a
hiring lawyer I've never looked at a transcript once. For deciding
what lawyers I want to work with, grades are absolutely useless.
Large firms that don't choose lawyers, but just purchase canned meat
by the case, use transcripts. Not because they help lawyers to
choose who to work with, but because they make bureaucracy possible.
After the cans full of meat are opened, partners and senior
associates quickly figure out whom they want to send work to, and
whom they want to leave strictly alone. They don't use transcripts
to sort the meatballs out, I assure you.
But is it necessary for us to know what our grades are? When Eben told us his views on this question, my first thought was “I completely disagree.” Although I think grades are not necessarily a reflection of ability, the reality is that in most cases, to get a clerkship or a prestigious firm job one must have a strong transcript. And so seeing what our grades are gives us a relatively accurate prediction of who will hire us, or at least who will not hire us. We can then tailor our job search to focus on the employers who are likeliest to give us an offer and not waste our time applying for jobs we have no chance of getting. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this approach works only if we are looking for a job. Not our dream job, or a job that makes us happy, or a job that is fulfilling, but simply a job.
Indeed. In short, if
you have decided to kill off your practice.
So assuming we are all looking to get a job we actually want, rather than just somewhere to work, do we still need to know what our grades are?
No. Your problem is
precisely the same no matter what: how to convince the people you
want to work with that they want to work with
you. | >
> | Law school grades are generally determined by a final exam taken at the end of the semester. These exams are written to test how much we have learned in each class. Although a timed exam might not be the best way to test knowledge, and knowledge is definitely not the only thing worth measuring, the system itself is not horrible. But I think the way many students, myself included, respond to the system is destructive. We have a tendency to let our grades define us, as Abby said here. | | | | |
<
< | If our grades are low, being cognizant of this fact might discourage us from applying for our dream job. It might cause us to give up before we even try. However, it might also be motivational. As Eben pointed out, there are other ways to get jobs besides having good grades. Perhaps seeing our grades would spur us to go out and do every possible thing to make the connections necessary to get that dream job. Perhaps we would work harder to have the perfect writing sample and perfect our interview skills. But if we are applying to our dream job, shouldn’t we be doing this anyway, despite what our grades are? Why do we let such a trivial thing as grades be a determinant of our actions? I still don’t know how I feel about this issue. I think knowing or not knowing our grades should have the same effect. We should still apply for the jobs we want and work extra hard to get the ones we really want. But I think we all have a tendency to base our self-worth on the grades we get and maybe knowing our grades just perpetuates this potentially destructive way of viewing the world and ourselves. | >
> | I’m not sure why this happens. For me, I think it may partly be habit and the way I was raised. In elementary school, my parents rewarded me for good grades with little toys and trinkets. By the time I reached middle school, they discovered it was much cheaper and easier to just guilt me into getting top grades by telling me they were disappointed in me whenever I got anything lower than an A. In high school, I no longer needed parental pressure to motivate me. The thrill of getting a good grade was enough. | | | | |
<
< | How can we change it? | >
> | The grading system was beneficial in that it got me to work hard in school. But looking back on it now, I think I was working toward the wrong thing. Maybe I’ve been working toward the wrong thing my entire life. Grades got me to work hard, but they also taught me to seek external validation of my own work, and of my own worth to an extent. No matter how much effort I put into a paper or a test, I couldn’t take pride in it until I saw the red letter scrawled across the top telling me I should be proud (or not). To me, grades were my teachers’ way of telling me what they thought of me. And if my teacher thought I was smart (or stupid), I believed him, because he was the teacher and he knew best. | | | | |
<
< | Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us. | >
> | Now here I am in law school, still depending on others to tell me whether I will be a good lawyer or not. The law school grading system is bad for me in the way all grading systems have been bad for me: it makes me focus on the results rather than the process. I forget that I am here to learn and that I can get out of my education what, and however much, I want to get out of it. | | | | |
<
< | | | | | |
<
< | Read SamanthaWishmanFirstPaper. Meditate on Rule 3.1.2 of the Rules
for the JD Degree at this law school. Cultivate creativity. Stop bullshitting yourself. | >
> | How can we change it?
Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us. | | | | |
<
< | | >
> | One way to mitigate the negative effects of the grading system is to opt out of the curve with Rule 3.1.2. Of course even with this option, there is still some determination of merit by the professor (whether the effort one put into the class was, or was not, enough to pass), but the pressure to get an A (or to avoid getting a B-) is no longer there. Maybe without the focus on letter grades, those who choose to use Rule 3.1.2 would focus more on learning and figuring out how to apply what they learn to become good lawyers. | | | | |
<
< | We are stuck in a system built by our predecessors and have little say in the matter. Even if there are law students who want things to change, there are so many more who accept the status quo. Also, employers have all of the power right now. There are too many law students and too few jobs to go around. We are not in a position to create meaningful change. So should we just sit back and let this system exist, simply because it has always existed? Should we be complacent and play by the rules, even those we don’t agree with? Yes, for now. But maybe one day, once we rise to positions of actual power, once we have more control over lives, when we are partners in law firms, or law professors, or judges, we will remember the discussions we had in this class. Maybe by then we will have the strength and power to examine the system and fix what is broken. It may be too late for us, but we can still affect change for future generations. | >
> | I don’t think I will be one of these people. I am not brave enough to opt out of the curve. It’s not just that I fear I won’t be able to get a job. I know there are employers who don’t consider grades when hiring people. Eben tells us that as a hiring lawyer, he never looks at transcripts when he makes his decisions. Many of the jobs I applied to did not require transcripts and the place where I will be working this summer made me an offer before receiving my transcript. Even employers who purportedly only care about grades, don’t just look at transcripts (at least, I don’t think they do). If big law firms only cared about grades, they would only want transcripts. There would be no need for them to conduct interviews or look at resumes for past experience. So I know that I would be able to find a job even with a transcript full of CRs. | | | | |
<
< | You need to shorten your
paragraphs. Your sentences are blowsy and repetitive too, but when
you shorten the grafs and tighten the outline, the badly-framed
sentences will stick out like unhammered nails and you'll deal with
them. Other comments above. | >
> | I think it’s more that I’m scared to do what no one else is doing. And I’m scared of change. I’ve been letting others define me my entire life. It’s much easier to accept someone else’s definition of me than it is to honestly define myself. It’s comforting to be put in a box and to know exactly where I stand within a group of people. But comfort and complacency are enemies of creativity, and though I’m not sure exactly what kind of lawyer I want to be, I know I want to be a good lawyer. And good lawyers are creative. | | | | |
<
< | | | | \ No newline at end of file | |
>
> | So for now, I won’t invoke Rule 3.1.2, because I’m too much of a coward and also because it won’t solve the real problem which is that I allow (invite?) others to tell me who I am and how much I am worth. I need to stop approaching my classes like they are just review sessions for exams, and I need to stop approaching my exams like they are just an opportunity to impress my professor. I need to start forming my own opinions on things, and have the confidence to share them with others. Maybe then, finally, I’ll learn to stop focusing on grades and start focusing on what I want out of law school and how to get it. (924) | | | \ No newline at end of file |
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PaulaKimFirstPaper 2 - 17 Apr 2012 - Main.EbenMoglen
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<
< | It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | The Law School Grading System | | |
Is it a good one? | |
<
< | The grades we receive in law school are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyer. Yet they are generally determined by how we perform on one final exam that is written by the professor. This is a poor system for several reasons. First of all, it does not measure the skills we will need to use as lawyers. When will we ever have to answer theoretical legal questions within four hours without the use of the Internet and colleagues? Collaboration is a large part of legal work, as is using computers to do research, yet we are denied access to these two tools on an exam that is supposed to tell us whether or not we will be successful as lawyers. Secondly, this system discourages the development of characteristics that Eben stresses are important for lawyers to have: judgment and creativity. These exams are meant to test judgment because we have to spot the most important issues and decide which ones to focus on in our answers. But what really happens is that instead of writing about the issues we judge are important, we write about those we think the professor thinks is important. Those who best predict what the professor wants get the best grades. And those whose answers deviate from what the professor expects are rewarded for their efforts to exercise independent judgment with a lower grade. This system teaches us that thinking for ourselves is bad and that adopting the viewpoints of others is good. How can we learn to be creative lawyers when, to do well in law school, we just need to parrot the ideas of our professors? Finally, this system gives us one shot to show how much we learned over one semester. There is no way to measure improvement or effort. It seems unfair to disregard three months of work in favor of the answers we give on a four hour exam. | >
> | The grades we receive in law school are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyer. Yet they are generally determined by how we perform on one final exam that is written by the professor. This is a poor system for several reasons. First of all, it does not measure the skills we will need to use as lawyers. When will we ever have to answer theoretical legal questions within four hours without the use of the Internet and colleagues? Collaboration is a large part of legal work, as is using computers to do research, yet we are denied access to these two tools on an exam that is supposed to tell us whether or not we will be successful as lawyers. Secondly, this system discourages the development of characteristics that Eben stresses are important for lawyers to have: judgment and creativity. These exams are meant to test judgment because we have to spot the most important issues and decide which ones to focus on in our answers. But what really happens is that instead of writing about the issues we judge are important, we write about those we think the professor thinks is important. Those who best predict what the professor wants get the best grades. And those whose answers deviate from what the professor expects are rewarded for their efforts to exercise independent judgment with a lower grade.
How do you know this?
How many exams have you reviewed to see what grades they got, and how
do you know whether the grades they got were determined by the degree
of accord with the professors' expectations?
What seems evident to you does not seem evident to me, whether as a
person who spent parts of five years taking law school exams, or
parts of fifteen other years grading them. I never approached a law
school exam asking myself what the teacher expected, let alone
wanted. Most of the time I wrote essays in the bluebooks which
contained at least one point, usually the most important, which I was
as sure as could be the teacher did not expect. Often I wrote
something with which I was pretty sure the teacher would disagree; I
considered that to be insurance. Experience showed me most often
that I was right.
As a teacher, facing piles of bluebooks saying the same things in the
same tones, full of the same mistakes, the same naivetes and the same
graceless prose, what I wanted more than anything else was
originality, flair, mastery, self-confidence, and a strong point of
view. In my opinion, you know the formula for a B+, but you have
lost track of how to get an A.
This system teaches us that thinking for ourselves is bad and that adopting the viewpoints of others is good.
Only if that's what you
want to learn.
How can we learn to be creative lawyers when, to do well in law school, we just need to parrot the ideas of our professors? Finally, this system gives us one shot to show how much we learned over one semester. There is no way to measure improvement or effort. It seems unfair to disregard three months of work in favor of the answers we give on a four hour exam. | | | Do we really need to know our grades? | |
<
< | Still, grades are a pervasive part of a law student’s job search. Many employers require transcripts and want to hire only those with the best grades. Even if we reject the notion that grades matter, those for whom we want to work will not. But is it necessary for us to know what our grades are? When Eben told us his views on this question, my first thought was “I completely disagree.” Although I think grades are not necessarily a reflection of ability, the reality is that in most cases, to get a clerkship or a prestigious firm job one must have a strong transcript. And so seeing what our grades are gives us a relatively accurate prediction of who will hire us, or at least who will not hire us. We can then tailor our job search to focus on the employers who are likeliest to give us an offer and not waste our time applying for jobs we have no chance of getting. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this approach works only if we are looking for a job. Not our dream job, or a job that makes us happy, or a job that is fulfilling, but simply a job. So assuming we are all looking to get a job we actually want, rather than just somewhere to work, do we still need to know what our grades are? If our grades are low, being cognizant of this fact might discourage us from applying for our dream job. It might cause us to give up before we even try. However, it might also be motivational. As Eben pointed out, there are other ways to get jobs besides having good grades. Perhaps seeing our grades would spur us to go out and do every possible thing to make the connections necessary to get that dream job. Perhaps we would work harder to have the perfect writing sample and perfect our interview skills. But if we are applying to our dream job, shouldn’t we be doing this anyway, despite what our grades are? Why do we let such a trivial thing as grades be a determinant of our actions? I still don’t know how I feel about this issue. I think knowing or not knowing our grades should have the same effect. We should still apply for the jobs we want and work extra hard to get the ones we really want. But I think we all have a tendency to base our self-worth on the grades we get and maybe knowing our grades just perpetuates this potentially destructive way of viewing the world and ourselves. | >
> | Still, grades are a pervasive part of a law student’s job search. Many employers require transcripts and want to hire only those with the best grades. Even if we reject the notion that grades matter, those for whom we want to work will not.
Once again, as a lawyer
who hires lawyers, I know this is nonsense. I hire all the time:
I've hired more than two dozen lawyers and law students in the last
seven years. Though as a teacher I live among transcripts, as a
hiring lawyer I've never looked at a transcript once. For deciding
what lawyers I want to work with, grades are absolutely useless.
Large firms that don't choose lawyers, but just purchase canned meat
by the case, use transcripts. Not because they help lawyers to
choose who to work with, but because they make bureaucracy possible.
After the cans full of meat are opened, partners and senior
associates quickly figure out whom they want to send work to, and
whom they want to leave strictly alone. They don't use transcripts
to sort the meatballs out, I assure you.
But is it necessary for us to know what our grades are? When Eben told us his views on this question, my first thought was “I completely disagree.” Although I think grades are not necessarily a reflection of ability, the reality is that in most cases, to get a clerkship or a prestigious firm job one must have a strong transcript. And so seeing what our grades are gives us a relatively accurate prediction of who will hire us, or at least who will not hire us. We can then tailor our job search to focus on the employers who are likeliest to give us an offer and not waste our time applying for jobs we have no chance of getting. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this approach works only if we are looking for a job. Not our dream job, or a job that makes us happy, or a job that is fulfilling, but simply a job.
Indeed. In short, if
you have decided to kill off your practice.
So assuming we are all looking to get a job we actually want, rather than just somewhere to work, do we still need to know what our grades are?
No. Your problem is
precisely the same no matter what: how to convince the people you
want to work with that they want to work with
you.
If our grades are low, being cognizant of this fact might discourage us from applying for our dream job. It might cause us to give up before we even try. However, it might also be motivational. As Eben pointed out, there are other ways to get jobs besides having good grades. Perhaps seeing our grades would spur us to go out and do every possible thing to make the connections necessary to get that dream job. Perhaps we would work harder to have the perfect writing sample and perfect our interview skills. But if we are applying to our dream job, shouldn’t we be doing this anyway, despite what our grades are? Why do we let such a trivial thing as grades be a determinant of our actions? I still don’t know how I feel about this issue. I think knowing or not knowing our grades should have the same effect. We should still apply for the jobs we want and work extra hard to get the ones we really want. But I think we all have a tendency to base our self-worth on the grades we get and maybe knowing our grades just perpetuates this potentially destructive way of viewing the world and ourselves. | | | How can we change it? | |
<
< | Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us. We are stuck in a system built by our predecessors and have little say in the matter. Even if there are law students who want things to change, there are so many more who accept the status quo. Also, employers have all of the power right now. There are too many law students and too few jobs to go around. We are not in a position to create meaningful change. So should we just sit back and let this system exist, simply because it has always existed? Should we be complacent and play by the rules, even those we don’t agree with? Yes, for now. But maybe one day, once we rise to positions of actual power, once we have more control over lives, when we are partners in law firms, or law professors, or judges, we will remember the discussions we had in this class. Maybe by then we will have the strength and power to examine the system and fix what is broken. It may be too late for us, but we can still affect change for future generations. (973) | | | | |
>
> | Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us.
Read SamanthaWishmanFirstPaper. Meditate on Rule 3.1.2 of the Rules
for the JD Degree at this law school. Cultivate creativity. Stop bullshitting yourself.
| | | | |
<
< |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.
To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines: | >
> | We are stuck in a system built by our predecessors and have little say in the matter. Even if there are law students who want things to change, there are so many more who accept the status quo. Also, employers have all of the power right now. There are too many law students and too few jobs to go around. We are not in a position to create meaningful change. So should we just sit back and let this system exist, simply because it has always existed? Should we be complacent and play by the rules, even those we don’t agree with? Yes, for now. But maybe one day, once we rise to positions of actual power, once we have more control over lives, when we are partners in law firms, or law professors, or judges, we will remember the discussions we had in this class. Maybe by then we will have the strength and power to examine the system and fix what is broken. It may be too late for us, but we can still affect change for future generations. | | | | |
<
< | | >
> | You need to shorten your
paragraphs. Your sentences are blowsy and repetitive too, but when
you shorten the grafs and tighten the outline, the badly-framed
sentences will stick out like unhammered nails and you'll deal with
them. Other comments above. | | | | |
<
< | Note: TWiki has strict formatting rules for preference declarations. Make sure you preserve the three spaces, asterisk, and extra space at the beginning of these lines. If you wish to give access to any other users simply add them to the comma separated ALLOWTOPICVIEW list. | | | \ No newline at end of file | |
>
> | | | | \ No newline at end of file |
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PaulaKimFirstPaper 1 - 16 Feb 2012 - Main.PaulaKim
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>
> |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstPaper" |
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
The Law School Grading System
-- By PaulaKim - 16 Feb 2012
Is it a good one?
The grades we receive in law school are supposedly a reflection of how much we know, and perhaps also of how well we will do as lawyer. Yet they are generally determined by how we perform on one final exam that is written by the professor. This is a poor system for several reasons. First of all, it does not measure the skills we will need to use as lawyers. When will we ever have to answer theoretical legal questions within four hours without the use of the Internet and colleagues? Collaboration is a large part of legal work, as is using computers to do research, yet we are denied access to these two tools on an exam that is supposed to tell us whether or not we will be successful as lawyers. Secondly, this system discourages the development of characteristics that Eben stresses are important for lawyers to have: judgment and creativity. These exams are meant to test judgment because we have to spot the most important issues and decide which ones to focus on in our answers. But what really happens is that instead of writing about the issues we judge are important, we write about those we think the professor thinks is important. Those who best predict what the professor wants get the best grades. And those whose answers deviate from what the professor expects are rewarded for their efforts to exercise independent judgment with a lower grade. This system teaches us that thinking for ourselves is bad and that adopting the viewpoints of others is good. How can we learn to be creative lawyers when, to do well in law school, we just need to parrot the ideas of our professors? Finally, this system gives us one shot to show how much we learned over one semester. There is no way to measure improvement or effort. It seems unfair to disregard three months of work in favor of the answers we give on a four hour exam.
Do we really need to know our grades?
Still, grades are a pervasive part of a law student’s job search. Many employers require transcripts and want to hire only those with the best grades. Even if we reject the notion that grades matter, those for whom we want to work will not. But is it necessary for us to know what our grades are? When Eben told us his views on this question, my first thought was “I completely disagree.” Although I think grades are not necessarily a reflection of ability, the reality is that in most cases, to get a clerkship or a prestigious firm job one must have a strong transcript. And so seeing what our grades are gives us a relatively accurate prediction of who will hire us, or at least who will not hire us. We can then tailor our job search to focus on the employers who are likeliest to give us an offer and not waste our time applying for jobs we have no chance of getting. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this approach works only if we are looking for a job. Not our dream job, or a job that makes us happy, or a job that is fulfilling, but simply a job. So assuming we are all looking to get a job we actually want, rather than just somewhere to work, do we still need to know what our grades are? If our grades are low, being cognizant of this fact might discourage us from applying for our dream job. It might cause us to give up before we even try. However, it might also be motivational. As Eben pointed out, there are other ways to get jobs besides having good grades. Perhaps seeing our grades would spur us to go out and do every possible thing to make the connections necessary to get that dream job. Perhaps we would work harder to have the perfect writing sample and perfect our interview skills. But if we are applying to our dream job, shouldn’t we be doing this anyway, despite what our grades are? Why do we let such a trivial thing as grades be a determinant of our actions? I still don’t know how I feel about this issue. I think knowing or not knowing our grades should have the same effect. We should still apply for the jobs we want and work extra hard to get the ones we really want. But I think we all have a tendency to base our self-worth on the grades we get and maybe knowing our grades just perpetuates this potentially destructive way of viewing the world and ourselves.
How can we change it?
Is there anything we can do to change the system? Honestly, I think it’s too late for us. We are stuck in a system built by our predecessors and have little say in the matter. Even if there are law students who want things to change, there are so many more who accept the status quo. Also, employers have all of the power right now. There are too many law students and too few jobs to go around. We are not in a position to create meaningful change. So should we just sit back and let this system exist, simply because it has always existed? Should we be complacent and play by the rules, even those we don’t agree with? Yes, for now. But maybe one day, once we rise to positions of actual power, once we have more control over lives, when we are partners in law firms, or law professors, or judges, we will remember the discussions we had in this class. Maybe by then we will have the strength and power to examine the system and fix what is broken. It may be too late for us, but we can still affect change for future generations. (973)
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