Today in Contracts

[bacchus]

Our contracts professor asked a question to the class.  A student raised his hand to answer.  He answered "Well I guess".  And before he could say anything else the professor stopped him with the following response: "Lawyers do not answer questions with guesses.  If I wanted to hear someone guess I would go out during the winter and offer homeless people a warm classroom to sit in.  I could lecture them about the law and then ask them to guess what they thought the answers were."

[ACore]

That's awesome!

[Highway]

Last night in Contracts, the prof called on somebody to discuss the second case we were to read. She said she hadn't read it, but made sure to let him know that she had read the first one.

He said he was sorry he didn't call on her for the first one, but he wasn't aware that when he assigned two cases to be read that he had given us a choice of which one we wanted to read. He then turned to the class and asked us if he had actually said that - "just to be sure." ?

Before turning to another victim, he told the girl that he would suggest she be very prepared next week.

[SassDiva2000]

Wow. My contracts prof was pretty horrible but certainly not to that extent. I guess it's a lesson to be learned: don't come to class unprepared and if you do, have a really, really good excuse.

[eray01]

My torts prof gives three unexcused absences. On the fourth, he drops you from the class. Being caught unprepared is considered an unexcused absence.

[Bonkers, Jr.]

Damn... so much for Woody Allen's rule about just showing up.

[jakalski]

Man that's tough.  My contracts prof started the course by saying if you're unprepared for any class tell her before class starts so that she doesn't waste time calling on you.

I thought that was pretty fair.

[Trancer]

In my torts class last week someone was unprepared, instead of wasting the classes time he actually said, "im unprepared to argue this case" professor just went to the next person... i think they respect the fact you are honest with them instead of trying to bull your way through a question.  Everyone is different though.

[J D]

At my school, most professors will let you "drop a note."  As the name implies, it is a system whereby an unprepared student can avoid getting called on for a day by leaving a note on the front podium before class ("Dear Prof. X, I am not prepared for class discussion today.  Sincerely, Student Z").  Most profs would prefer knowing this in advance rather than waste time calling on you only to find out that they must seek answers elsewhere.  But profs will also keep track of how many notes you drop and adjust grades accordingly, at the margins, so you don't want to do it too often.

[BigTex]

So far, everyone called on has been prepared in my K class. It seems like every student understands he/she has to show up prepared.