What's a "Gunner?"

[Butters Stotch]

There was a gunner in one of my classes today who had her hand up for almost ten minutes. The prof. just ignored her. It was great.

This is all too common in my torts class.

[philibusters]

bob blah blah blag.

Wait, remind me when we need LoR's from our law professors?  Institutional knowledge answers that as, "NEVER."

Clerkships, things like that

[ADL]

so far i've visited 2 schools and i've seen the type of behavior described in the mock classes/info sessions @ both schools.

people who ask questions that were already answered in the beginning of the session, just so they can hear themselves talk.  or the ones who ask questions specific to them during an open forum instead of waiting to ask after the forum is over or getting ph#s & e-mail addresses to ask their personal questions.  during the mock classes they bring up scenarios that are totally unrelated to issue being taught in the class.

i guess these are pre-gunners?

[S2X]

As far as my experience goes, I have a couple of gunners in all my classes.  I used to think they were pretty smart in the beginning, but after a few weeks, I just completely ignored them whenever they spoke (and yeah, I still ignore them in class).  They're nice people to talk to outside of class (I shoot pool with one of them), but quite frankly, I never speak up in class unless I'm called on, and I feel like I know just as much, if not more, than the gunners.

[Tetris]

Two questions...

is a person who is ACTUALLY smart and frequently bringing up intelligent "outside the box" thoughts still considered a "gunner"?  Maybe a good kind of gunner instead of the annoying kind?

And are there any benefits to being a gunner?  Especially if you are the type of gunner bringing up good points as hypothesized above.

[dashrashi]

DO NOT GIVE YOUR OWN HYPOS. If the prof thought it was an important hypo, she would've posed it to you. You get ONE opportunity to ask for clarification about something. If the prof doesn't answer to your satisfaction, let it go, go to office hours, and bring it up then. To paraphrase Law School Confidential: the purpose of class time is not to work out your personal difficulties with the material. Let the prof dictate how the class goes, make a note of your "outside the box" thoughts, and go to office hours. If your thought is that valuable, the prof will bring it up next class. And anyway, grading's on a curve. Why would you want to allow everyone in your class access to every single brilliant idea that you have? Read: STOP WASTING MY TIME AND MONEY PLEASE.

I've even had a some "gunners" in my undergrad classes.  It is one thing to be interested and involved in a class, but it is another to feel like you need to share your 2 cents about everything that is brought up.  These people also like to just "make sure that they understand" what is being taught (hence they restate everything that the professor just spent 30 minutes explaining and then come up with some random example that would try and counter it).  I can only imagine that gunners become more annoying in law school, since they want to try and separate themselves from the rest of the class.  Blah.  The only separation that occurs is that the professor begins ignoring them and everyone else rolls their eyes when they raise their hands. 

Is checking to see that you understood what was taught by paraphrasing the professor generally frowned upon, or only when it's obvious that you're doing so to self-aggrandize? When I'm not sure I understand what someone is saying in casual conversation, I have a habit of paraphrasing it and asking them if my understanding is correct. I don't want this habit to rub off on classmates the wrong way.

Yes. It is frowned upon. The purpose of class time is not to work out your personal difficulties with the material. Write it down and go to office hours. That's how profs get to know and like you.

[JG]

Even if your comments are intelligent, if they are "frequent" and "outside the box," you are annoying people, and you are a gunner.  Most of your fellow students are in class to learn the material that's going to be on the exam.  The exam is on what's inside the box.  If you bring up other stuff, however insightful it is, you're annoying most of the class. 

If the topic is really important to you, talk to the professor afer class.  By the way, that strategy also gets you the only possible benefit of speaking in class, which is a better LOR.

[dashrashi]

I think it's funny when prelaws think they know anything at all about exams. Hell, I don't know anything about exams.

[dashrashi]

Assigned seats in all my classes except for legal writing, and no one is a gunner in legal writing--no point. I think that gunners would sit closer if they could.

[cui bono?]

Assigned seats in all my classes except for legal writing, and no one is a gunner in legal writing--no point. I think that gunners would sit closer if they could.

Yeah I think they want to sit closer but we had the fortunate (I'm being sarcastic) experience of having 1 in the front and 1 in the back.  Nowhere was safe!

Yeah no point be a gunner in LW