I'll give my thoughts on it. I believe that this would significantly reduce a level of competition and would be more likely to foster cooperation. I have found that the most value in my legal education has come from the discussion of the law with others and while it exists in the law school, I think increasing it can only be beneficial.

I also think that having more exams or methods of evaluation would encourage professors to promote original thought on the topics in discussion and in papers or exams. This to me would be beneficial particularly in courses such as torts that are widely perceived to not be essential to our legal knowledge base as applicable to our future practice.

I'm sure that professors would resist this, given that it would be more work for them and would change the way the course is currently structured, but I think it would promote our education in a way that the do or die scenario of the 100% exam does not.

-- AndrewWolstan - 20 May 2008

I know that one professor this semester gave a midterm. It was ungraded, but students were urged to study for it nonetheless. Afterwards, she met with each student individually to discuss strengths/weaknesses of their midterm performance. I would have loved to have had this opportunity. It's unfortunate that we don't know whether we are truly grasping the concepts until after the final exam. I agree with you Andrew, more opportunities for evaluation would enhance our education.

-- MinaNasseri - 20 May 2008

Also, what's the deal with our legal writing course ("Legal Practice Workshop," as this school of ours prefers to call it) being ungraded? The one 1L class that actually matters in the long run is basically a joke. It would be great to have more feedback and guidance (and incentive to take the memo/brief assignments more seriously) in the legal writing area.

-- MinaNasseri - 20 May 2008

My two cents:

Professor Dorf was really great about giving feedback after our exam in civ pro first semester (i know this may be too late since it is after the exam for the purposes of this thread) and i found it extremely helpful (hopefully) with regard to taking my next round of finals.

Professor Blasi similarly sought to help after the torts final as he met with each of his students and went over an entire section of the test one on one.

I think that encouraging professors to do more of this sort of thing could be a great first step. It may be too late to help with regard to feedback for one particular class, but it is great to get perspective with which to move forward.

-- AdamGold? - 21 May 2008