Why Does It Take SOOOO Long For Law Profs To Grade Exams?

Law school finals are over, and law students across the country are itching to get their grades. Some will be pleased with how quickly their professors graded their exams, while others will watch the entire summer go by without the vast majority of their grades. Some law students must be wondering how the hell their professors could possibly take so long to grade, and others will be wondering how the hell their professors could possibly have given them such a low grade when their exams were clearly perfect specimens of the information that was learned in class.

To help all law students get a grip on the grading process — to determine how professors grade and to get an insider’s perspective about before and after exams — I sat down to interview the writer of LawProfBlawg (@lawprofblawg), an anonymous professor at a Top 100 law school. Hopefully you’ll be able to get a new understanding of what the process is like for your law professors, and why it’s taking them so damn long to get you your grades.

Staci Zaretsky: Let’s start with the process. What is the first thing you do once you get the exams?
LawProfBlawg: Well, as you know, there are several stages of grief. Some faculty members are stuck in the denial phase, and sometimes that’s why grades aren’t turned in on time. I try not to grade in the angry phase. Then I make sure I have all the exams, match them with the people enrolled, so that I don’t destroy someone’s life by accidentally failing them for not turning in an exam.

SZ: When you say you match them, does that mean you know who wrote each exam?
LPB: No. I know some schools where anonymity isn’t valued, but I don’t work that way. I think anonymity is important so that the prof’s judgment isn’t clouded. Usually, I don’t know who wrote which exam. There are exceptions. Some people just disclose it on the exam. This is a bad strategy. Now you’ve put a face to the exam. I’m going to resent that. Say, for example, a student invited Notorious RBG to her wedding, but not you. You might resent her a bit, right Staci?

Others have “tells.” For example, a friend of mine says to his students “imagine having Paris Hilton in a class. She’d say ‘that’s hot’™ a lot. Then in the exam she might put that.” It’s a problem.

SZ: Some law professors make jokes about grading while drinking, or throwing exams down stairs. Any truth to that?
LPB: Well, depending on the exam, I may really want to drink. But the stair method doesn’t work. The exams on the top will fall furthest because they will have a lower coefficient of friction. I think that’s how that works. As for grading while drinking, well, I like to be consistent. If I grade one like that I would have to grade them all like that for fairness. Hey, thanks for the idea!

Seriously, every professor I know takes grading very seriously. We know that clerkships, jobs, class rank, and reputation hinge on it.

SZ: What bothers you most about student reactions to grades?
LPB: I remember when I was a student. A professor walked by and a friend of mine whispered to me, “That bitch gave me a B+!” I became annoyed because this same friend didn’t say, “That prof gave me an A.” She said instead, “I got/earned an A.” That bothers me when students feel they only deserve the good grades.

The other thing that bothers me is when a student walks in and accuses me of misgrading rather than asking what he or she did wrong and how the exam could have been improved. I know I don’t appreciate that attitude, and it usually ends with a bad interaction. I have been known to set my phaser on emasculate if the student, typically a man, comes in brazenly hostile.

I do think that all students, regardless of grade earned, should stop by the professor’s office and go over their exam. Even “A” answers can be improved. If the professor is unwilling to do that, then the prof isn’t earning his or her keep. That prof should be canned, and, if it is a higher-ranked school than mine, that school should hire me, with a chair.

SZ: What about before the exam? What should the law student be doing?
LPB: Students probably have come to suspect that professors do not all grade alike. I agree. But that doesn’t mean we are all just winging it. Profs, just like senior partners, have different experiences and priorities. It is up to the prof to explain what he or she expects on an exam. I make my expectations very clear to my students. It saves the students frustration, and I get better answers.

I personally don’t like multiple-choice exams, but I can see the use for a statutory course like UCC. Some profs like rapid-fire issue-spotting answers. Others like more depth of analysis. But ultimately, as a friend of mine once said, “We’re all trying to test the same thing in different ways. How you analyze law, facts, and policies, and consequences of those decisions. The implementation differs, but our goals are the same.”

Regardless, the student should access any old exams, take those old exams as if they were timed, and then compare with the model answer. Just looking at the model answer doesn’t help. It’s like reading about how to swing a golf club rather than actually going to the driving range. You have to learn how to swing the club.

SZ: Let’s turn to what you do while marking up an exam.
LPB: The biggest mistake students make is not marketing the exam to me. Most exams start with “there are numerous issues” — hardly captivating. I also can’t help but notice that most students do not edit what they have written. I get all sorts of horrible spelling errors, grammatical errors, bad transitions, run-on sentences, run-on paragraphs, and other obstacles to my understanding the answer. Although some of them make me giggle. I still don’t know how “organic statute” became “orgasmic statue” for one student. Maybe s/he had a recent trip to Italy? I go through and correct all these errors first, so the student has my attention in terms of content in the next go-around.

SZ: So you read each exam more than once?
LPB: Yes. Sometimes I’ll read an exam three to four times. That is why it can take a while for professors to grade, in addition to all that procrastination. It’s not easy reading exams. Imagine reading a book with each chapter being slightly different, but similar, to all the other chapters.

In terms of content, the biggest mistake is usually ignoring any facts I put in the exam. Just citing the rule doesn’t excite me. It’s necessary, but the student has to apply the rule. A client is not paying you to memorize rules and then not help them.

I have a huge checklist of what issues are present, what facts and law are relevant and a point allocation for each. I have points allocated for presentation and coherence, as well as writing.

The other thing I look for is consistency in the exam. You can’t tell me that the defendant did nothing wrong in your IRAC analysis and then conclude plaintiff should sue. If it is a close call (and imagine that not being the case on an exam), then I want students to appraise the risk.

SZ: Sorry, I had a flashback to law school and started shoe shopping. What did you say?
LPB: Get notes from a friend. By the way, professors love it when you ask questions at midnight the day before the exam. It shows you’ve prepared well — NOT.

Allow me to get on my soapbox. Learning is a collaboration between the student and the professor. It doesn’t work well if the learning all happens at the last minute while cramming in the middle of the night. Learning should happen all semester long.

SZ: What’s the biggest mistake students make during exam time?
LPB: Suffering in silence. Not asking the professors questions because they are afraid. Cramming at the last minute. Not reading the cases and assuming all the answers are in the case briefs.

But I think the worst damage is done when students stop sleeping, stop exercising, and dramatically change their routines. Some don’t shower. Before taking exams, you should try to keep your anxiety and stress down to a minimum. Changing routines will increase it.

SZ: If a student thinks you graded their exam wrong, what do you say?
LPB: You’ve only written yours. You haven’t read it, or the other exams for your class.

We hope this was helpful for the long-suffering law students awaiting their grades. Cross your fingers that your law professor wasn’t grading your exams while drinking.