grades were mailed today. okay - here's the explanation.

we do not get grades. there is no A or B, and there is no numerical scale. we get narrative evaluations. here is a sample:

Your overall performance in the class was, for the most part, excellent. You did an excellent job on much of the exam. Your analysis was regularly sophisticated and highly persuasive, reflecting an excellent knowledge of the governing law. Your lgal writing is excellent. This was impressive, lawyer-like work. Your consistent class participation was always thoughtful, and often quite sophisticated. Congratulations on a terrific performance!**

These narratives are supposed to keep from having our performanced reduced to 1) an evaluation of only the exam, and 2) a single letter or number.

However. both employers and students work it out. and professors comply. because we've all developed "buzzwords." This is the way it works:

1) Outstanding
2) Excellent
3) Very Good
4) Good
5) Competent
6) Fair
7) Marginal Pass
8) Fail

So, although we do not have "grades," I have every reason to be worried. I'm worried that Family Law was a disaster, as well as Evidence, which was all multiple-choice-y. That is so objective! and therefore, bad!!!

They should arrive tomorrow. Wish me luck.

** this was my shortest one. some of them could have spanned 3 posts.

posted by Zuska @ 8:31 PM

2 Comments:

At Friday, January 20, 2006 9:30:00 PM, E. McPan said…

I'm sure you've heard this like 50 billion times before but that is a weird "grading" system.

I'm sure you did fine. You haven't come this far without figuring something out! I'm not crossing my fingers for the pass, I'm crossing them for the bump to "Outstanding"! :)
At Sunday, January 22, 2006 8:33:00 PM, The Marpepps! said…

Good Luck - waiting is the worst. I think it's pretty interesting that you (1) get evals instead of grades and (2) they cheat the system to appear as grades anyhow. I'm also pretty impressed that you gets evals that could span 3 posts. What are your average class sizes? Are the evals helpful?