Law Professors, Law Schools, Screw-Ups

New And Improved Finals: Now With All The Answers In The Exam!

The first exam FAIL of the season is a doozy.

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ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW — CIVIL PROCEDURE EXAM — RETEST

As you know, there was a significant error on your final examination in that you were provided with the model answer to the essay question.

On behalf of Professor Sovern and the administration, I am terribly sorry for this error. We all know how much time and effort you put into studying for exams and how important grades are for a host of reasons. You were entitled to a flawless exam; I am sorry that we did not meet your expectations. I spoke with Professor – a few minutes ago and he asked that I express to you how terribly he feels about the error; he is so sorry that this happened.

The error came about as follows. When Professor Sovern created the exam, he also asked his secretary to type up the model answer to the essay, which he planned to distribute to students who later asked to go over their exams. At some point in the exam preparation process—it is unclear when—the model answer became included as an attachment to the exam. Multiple individuals failed to recognize that the model answer was part of the exam. I am personally investigating how this happened and will work with all who were involved to develop better checks in our system to make sure that this type of error does not recur.

Correcting this mistake is not easy. For obvious reasons, the essay question cannot be graded. However, assigning a grade based solely on the multiple choice questions would be unfair to students whose strength is in essay writing. Complicating matters is that many of you may have made travel arrangements for next week, thus making it difficult to administer an entirely new exam. Grading the course pass/fail is not an option, as it would cause the grades in your other courses to affect your GPA disproportionately.

The solution we have come up with is not ideal, but we feel that it is the best of the various options that are presented. Each of you will have the choice whether (1) to be graded solely on the multiple choice questions that you took today or (2) take a 1.5 hour makeup essay question on Friday, December 13, at Noon, the results of which will be combined with your multiple choice section that you took today. You must make an election, for planning purposes, by Wednesday, December 11 at Noon. To do so, please forward this email to lawregistrar@stjohns.edu and indicate whether you elect “Option 1” or “Option 2.” So as to avoid confusion, your email to the Registrar should contain only the option you select along with your name. If you would like to take a makeup essay (“Option 2”) but have bona fide travel arrangements on Friday, please contact me directly. In order to preserve the integrity of the anonymous grading system, please do not communicate with Professor – about the exam until after grades are released.

Again, please accept our apologies for this error and the disruption it has no doubt caused to the rest of your study schedule.

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Earlier: Third-Year Class Wish List: Sesame Street And The Law

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