Drake Law Faculty Bumbles Writing Exams, Will Students Suffer?

[Susan B. Anthony]

Are those legwarmers on that hedgehog?

Casts! He was injured in a freak exam-stapling accident

[armyjag]

I guess they forgot about the nondelegable duty doctrine from Torts 1?

[ISUCKATTHIS]

The school should give some kind of concession to those whose tests were incorrectly formatted. 

There is NO REASON for any differences in the format for exams given to students taking the same test.  The only reason is ERROR.  Such differences are, at least plausibly, distraction-causing.  On that basis alone, concessions should be made. 

The only reasonable argument to the contrary IS NOT that all students are responsible for checking their tests, it is that the formatting errors did not affect performance on the tests.  In a timed examination where any distraction can have an impact, this argument is dubious.

The "personal responsibilty" argument holds water only if all students were given tests of the same format.  In that case, no student could argue that failure to understand the format put him/her at a disadvantage with respect to other students.  As it is, there is no way to refute the contention that the format for some was more distracting than the format for others.  That is unacceptable and should be corrected.

One of the things I really dislike about the legal field are all these people who are so quick to cry "personal responsibility" when it comes to others when you KNOW they'd be kicking and screaming (and probably suing) if the misfortune were their own.  The practice of law either attracts or creates these kinds of personalities, I'm not sure which.   

[ToTransferOrNot]

Actually, one of my tests first semester had a similar page disorder to it. Guess what? Because I knew test-taking 101, it didn't impact me. I was nice enough to tell the proctor so that it didn't screw up other people either, for that matter.


You keep saying "the school should make some kind of concession!" What concession would that be?

[goaliechica]

you KNOW they'd be kicking and screaming (and probably suing) if the misfortune were their own. 

 

Yeah, okay.

[ISUCKATTHIS]

Actually, one of my tests first semester had a similar page disorder to it. Guess what? Because I knew test-taking 101, it didn't impact me. I was nice enough to tell the proctor so that it didn't screw up other people either, for that matter.


You keep saying "the school should make some kind of concession!" What concession would that be?

Yes, you're a genius AND a saint.  Congratulations.

[StevePirates]

I think the real issue here is that the school allows for self scheduling of exams.  How can that not be rife with abuse?  To then change an exam in the middle of exam week so that some people see one version and other see a different one.  That is problematic.

Even if everyone reads through all pages, the one in order will take less time to interpret since it is in correct order.  The out of order pages require people to flip through and figure out where each one goes, to make sure they haven't missed anything.

I think that the people in the first exam will have a lower average.  That sucks, unfortunately the solutions are all worse than the problem, because they would hurt the rest of the class.  Pity about that maladministration.

[ISUCKATTHIS]

Yeah, I agree that self-scheduling the exams is crazy.

[Susan B. Anthony]

You know what I really don't like about a certain segment of the law school population? The childish impulse to freak out and cast aspersions and demand some form of compensation any time something seems remotely unfair.

Mistakes and errors happen. You deal with them. I have no problem with the students working with the administration about this, although I remain skeptical about how much it should actually have impacted them. That does not require running to the internet and creating a username on a forum to proclaim that the faculty (who undoubtedly had nothing to do with the error) screwed up, and creating weird justifications for why you didn't figure out the problem in time to devote the time you would have liked to all of the questions that you should have known were there in the first place. I seriously can't even fathom the thought process that goes "Oh, here's three extra copies of the instruction page...I MUST BE ALMOST DONE! WOO!"

Again, for like the seventeenth time, yes, it's the school's fault, and if they can think of some way to limit the unfairness, bully for them. The whining and complaining and casting of stones is childish and out of proportion.

[ISUCKATTHIS]

"Mistakes and errors happen. You deal with them"

(emphasis added)

quod erat demonstrandum