Exact Approximations

Friday, May 13, 2005

Boalt's Grading System and other Reasons I May Actually Pull it Off

I took my last law school exam this past Friday. Assuming I passed Intellectual Property, which is not certain, I may actually be damn near finished with law school. I went through the graduation ceremony on Saturday (mom made me, I hate such displays of pomp and circumstance) - it was kinda weird because I still have school-things to do before I 'graduate,' like write two papers. And I need to have passed that IP exam that went so, so horribly...

I'm banking on the Boalt Hall grade inflation system - it basically allows every student to appear as if they are in the top 50% of the class. In summary, here's how it works, everything is anonymous and based only on the final exam: the top 10% of the class get "High Honors," the 11 - 40% get "Honors," and the bottom 60% are awarded "Pass," "Substandard Pass," or "Fail" - the distribution is completely at the Professor's discretion. In practice, this means that any time a student receives a "Pass", they could arguably still be in the top 50% of any class. Some professors do not give any grades below Pass, provided you show up for the final and draw a diagram, preferably labeled with Latin words. It's a matter of practice. Other Professors will actually give Fail grades when your final is really, really - just inexcuseably awful. BlueBooks with 3 pages of outlined answers for a 4-question essay final that lasts 3 1/2 hours. Writing from a student just hoping that the Professor will give the benefit of the doubt and assume there are some correct answers in that scribble. Bad stuff.

For the most part though, if you do really awful and the Professor cannot in good conscience give you a regular "Pass," there is a "Substandard Pass." It is my understanding that a Substandard Pass shows up on your transcript as you having been a dumbass who does substandard quality work - but you still receive credit. Thus, even if IP Professor gives me a Sub-Pass, I still graduate. Sweet. So long as I find employment before grades come out, I should be fine. And write those papers that my professors have been so nice about that I am seriously having feelings of guilt, likely recovering catholic relapses.

Cheese and rice. For someone who just graduated, I sure am caught up with school.

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