Friday, November 03, 2006

How to choose wisely

So with one semester left in law school (after this one, obviously), my GPA can't change much. And that's even more true for me because I'm taking my Lit Skills clinical next semester, which is six credits and is pass/fail. And I haven't taken any pass fail classes so I can take both of my other classes pass/fail, although I'm not sure I will.

Having said that, I can't quite figure out if I should take a class with an adjunct and if I do, if the adjunct curve is a good thing or a bad thing for me. This is what the student handbook says about the adjunct grading curve:

Upper-class course offerings taught by adjunct
professors must be graded to an average or mean in the
range of 3.000 and 3.150. Upper-class seminar and
workshop offerings taught by adjunct professors must
be graded to an average or mean in the range of 3.000
to 3.350. It is the responsibility of the Office of the
Associate Dean to interpret the proper implementation
of the Upper-class Adjunct Professor Grade
Distribution.


I know there is no curve for other upper level classes although it's my understanding that all professors curve the grades based on how everyone does on the exam. I guess as with anything, there are pros and cons. Most people will get about a B, which means it's harder to get an A if there are several top students and you are among them. But it also means it's tough to get a C and virtually impossible to get below a C, right? (I'm presupposing, of course, that you do most of the reading and at least go to more classes than you miss and don't bomb the exam).

I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter much anyway but I'm wondering how to take advantage of this - especially because I'm thinking of taking the three-hour Admin Law class with the adjunct on Mondays. I can't seem to find two classes to meet my requirements at times that are convenient that don't have final exams, so finding a way to manage the curve is the next best thing, I guess.

3 Comments:

At 3:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why not take what seems most interesing and useful? Of courfse Administrative law would be part of that, but why not extend the principle to all yoiur course selection. (If you like the subject, you will probably do better in it, so this also tends to be good for the grade average.)

 
At 4:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are one decisive mofo.

 
At 10:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would like to consider the Director of Curricular Planning's SPRING 2007 REGISTRATION & COURSE SELECTION INFORMATION (Coming by 11/6) in making my class selections, alas his timetable has come and gone. At least he thinks we won't need much time to digest his advice before we register.

 

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