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ExamSoft 1 - 16 Dec 2008 - Main.AlexLawrence
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So I thought this was one of the more appropriate forums for bringing up one of the major issues I have had with CLS throughout my first year and a half here: SoftTest? . Personally, I think that this program is absolutely ridiculous. I understand that CLS does not want us to be cheating during exams, but that is what an honor code is for. Why is it that we are forced to use what is, to be perfectly honest, a horrible program that routinely seems to screw up students' computers (and which for some 3L students who might have wanted to buy a new Mac before law school, forced them to buy a PC) in order to keep us honest during our in class exams? Moreover, I feel that the use of SoftTest? actually punishes students who have taken good notes throughout the term. The reason for this is simple. If you have taken solid notes through an entire term in a 3 or 4 credit class and want to use them during an in-class exam you have to print out what is likely to be around 100 pages and then sift through them during an exam where you don't have much time. However, during an 8 hour take home in which you are allowed to use your notes you can simply search through them on your computer using the "Find" function. How does this make any sense? It seems ridiculous that SoftTest? makes the same exam artificially harder for people taking it in class than people taking it at home (this is especially true for 1L exams where different sections of torts, contracts, etc have different exams, some of which are take homes and some of which are in class). Indeed, it seems to me that the use of SoftTest? for in class exams might actually have a serious and substantive effect on student grades, and I cannot fathom that this is what the CLS administration wanted to happen.
So my question is what do people think about trying to get CLS to stop using SoftTest? ? Or what if professors giving in-class exams could choose whether they wanted to require their students to use SoftTest? or not. I think that this would be a great system because eventually as soon as a few professors started offering in-class exams with no SoftTest? it would put pressure on the other profs to follow suit. If professors kept using it under those circumstances I can imagine students beginning to feel like their professors don't trust them, which would probably in turn lead to more negative reviews in the course review guide, and fewer people taking the classes. I believe that that would be an interesting test to gauge whether other people feel the same way that I do on this subject.
Finally, I was wondering whether people in this class had any suggestions for how SoftTest? might be replaced or re-vamped to make it a better system. What if it shut down your internet, allowed you to still look through your outline and notes on your computer, but also prevented copying and pasting from one document to another. I don't know if this could be done, but it certainly seems to me that it would make SoftTest? a far more palatable program.
Sorry for the rant in the midst of finals, but I'm anxious to hear what others have to say.
-- AlexLawrence - 16 Dec 2008
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