Law Schools

Law Professor Totally Screws Up This Torts Exam By Taking The Lazy Route

Law prof demonstrates the humiliation lurking when you try to cut corners.

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If you have any friends or family who work in higher ed — or really at any level of education — you know what a beast exam time can be. It’s pretty much the worst time of year and the time crunch of grading so many exams is incredibly stressful. I have sympathy for the teachers out there — but cribbing an exam from a commercial outline isn’t the way to deal.

That’s what happened at Northwestern, when one professor took questions — “in substantial part” — from a commercial outline. Yikes. And… to make it even worse, the materials were used in a pre-law class, so students who’d taken that class already had written answers to at least one question used in the exam. Oof.

The good(ish) news is that the administration reacted quickly to the news, and is taking steps to ensure that all students in the section are treated fairly. From Dean Daniel Rodriguez’s email to students in the class:

Because some students, but not all students, saw a question or questions previously, it would not be fair to issue letter grades based on the Torts exam you took. Administrators and faculty discussed the issue extensively, and the conclusion is that each of you will receive a mark of CR (credit) for Torts, in lieu of a letter grade. CR is a GPA-neutral mark. It allows you to count the three credits towards graduation but does not factor into your GPA.

Ugh, this still sucks. Think about the hours spent studying for torts and all you have to show for it is a lousy CR. Spending that time on contracts review would have had a much bigger impact on your GPA, if only you’d known. Even the admin knows this isn’t the best solution, but their hands were tied by a terrible situation:

We understand that this is not an ideal solution, but it is the fairest approach given the options available. Rest assured the Law School will explain to on-campus recruiters the reason for the CR mark in Torts. The administration will also take measures to ensure that this situation does not arise again.

Left unsaid is what the school is doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. After all, professors trying to take the easy way out of writing a final exam is hardly new — one NYU prof used the same exam three times.

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Isn’t this everything that teachers are supposed to be against? Cheaters never win, taking the time to do work correctly and all that? Perhaps this is just an elaborate performance piece demonstrating the humiliation lurking when you try to cut corners. If so, bravo — it’s a lesson these students aren’t likely to forget.

Read the full letter from the Dean on the next page.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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