people at mandatory p/f schools: how hard are you studying?

[Cookies20000 18]

I am at a mandatory p/f school. to be frank, i am not studying that hard. how hard is everyone else studying?

[FingersCr0ssed 386]

The same as I normally would, which isn’t a lot to begin with. Create my summaries, know where shit is, forget about it until exam day.

[2851 0]

Much less hard than I usually would. I hope everyone else is the same haha. 

[howdydo 60]

You’re studying? 

[Twenty 262]

Sporadic efforts here and there, but with a steady dose of Netflix. I sometimes tell myself that I should still give it 100% to try to aim for a course prize (my school is doing mandatory CR/F, but profs said they will be awarding course prizes on a discretionary basis), but then I realize how improbable getting a course prize is and tell myself that the rational thing to do would be to take it easy. That being said, I am still a bit of a keener and spent more time on a final paper than I would have because I was interested in the topic and had more time. 

[chaboywb 822]

I don't feel motivated to do anything but glance over my notes a few times. 

[Toad 409]

Just enough to create my Battlecan and then a brief 1-2 hour review the day before the exam.

At U of A we have mandatory P/F and an additional hour of added "flex time" on all exams that we can use however we want.

I've also had some professors cut out readings, switch to multiple choice, or provide us excessive hints as to what will be on the exam.

 

[lawstudent20202020 592]

I have a real estate exam wednesday afternoon, I plan to start studying wednesday morning.

[Psychometronic 582]

12 minutes ago, Toad said:

Just enough to create my Battlecan and then a brief 1-2 hour review the day before the exam.

At U of A we have mandatory P/F and an additional hour of added "flex time" on all exams that we can use however we want.

I've also had some professors cut out readings, switch to multiple choice, or provide us excessive hints as to what will be on the exam.

 

Wow...

[Twenty 262]

1 hour ago, Toad said:

Just enough to create my Battlecan and then a brief 1-2 hour review the day before the exam.

At U of A we have mandatory P/F and an additional hour of added "flex time" on all exams that we can use however we want.

I've also had some professors cut out readings, switch to multiple choice, or provide us excessive hints as to what will be on the exam.

 

Maybe this would cause me to study more haha. 

53 minutes ago, Psychometronic said:

Wow...

Profs at U of T are also very accommodating (won't go into specifics, but more accommodating than U of A it seems in some aspects—not that what U of A is doing is bad. An hour of extra time is already good enough, in my opinion.) with regards to finals and stressed to students that the most important thing right now is to focus on mental and physical well-being. Although I initially wanted grades, I feel like this is the right way to approach mandatory pass/fail.  Once a school goes mandatory pass/fail, there is no reason why that school wouldn't further accommodate students— which furthers my opinion that optional pass/fail is just virtue signalling. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Twenty

[Otter248 209]

10 minutes ago, Twenty said:

[Multiple choice] would cause me to study more haha. 

So what you're saying is that you had Yoon for legal process?

[katurian 130]

Lmao.

[Twenty 262]

1 minute ago, Otter248 said:

So what you're saying is that you had Yoon for legal process?

No, fortunately? Theoretically, I just think a multiple choice final exam in law school would stress me out so much. Has this been the case in your experience? 

[Toad 409]

3 minutes ago, Twenty said:

No, fortunately? Theoretically, I just think a multiple choice final exam in law school would stress me out so much. Has this been the case in your experience? 

Under normal circumstances it would, but the professor made the change in response to the COVID-19 lock down.

I highly doubt they would switch to multiple choice and then make it hellishly difficult if their goal (presumptively) was to make it easier for students who are impacted by the pandemic

Edited April 10, 2020 by Toad

[Psychometronic 582]

15 minutes ago, Twenty said:

Maybe this would cause me to study more haha. 

Profs at U of T are also very accommodating with regards to finals and stressed to students that the most important thing right now is to focus on mental and physical well-being. Although I initially wanted grades, I feel like this is the right way to approach mandatory pass/fail.  Once a school goes mandatory pass/fail, there is no reason why that school wouldn't further accommodate students— which furthers my opinion that optional pass/fail is just virtue signalling. 

Allard went a completely different direction: optional Cr/D/F, short and curt responses from the Dean to those who brought their grievances to her, emphasis on NOT cheating when her instructions rolled out, and poor accommodations or no accommodations to those who requested it.

[Twenty 262]

1 minute ago, Toad said:

Under normal circumstances it would, but the professor made the change in response to the COVID-19 lock down.

I highly doubt they would switch to multiple choice and then make it hellishly difficult

Very true. 

That being said, I have heard horror stories of how some profs (law school and outside law school) responded to the COVID situation (i.e. making the finals harder because they don't like the idea of students writing at home/somehow feeling that because it is a take home final, they have to adjust the difficulty of the exam). However, this doesn't make sense under a mandatory pass/fail, so I think your comment is right. 

Personally, since I have never written a MC final exam in law school, I am just curious as to how difficult they are generally. 

5 minutes ago, Psychometronic said:

Allard went a completely different direction: optional Cr/D/F, short and curt responses from the Dean to those who brought their grievances to her, emphasis on NOT cheating when her instructions rolled out, and poor accommodations or no accommodations to those who requested it.

Not surprised if Allard just begrudgingly went to optional Cr/D/F for optics. Probably wanted to just continue as is, but didn't want to look like the bad guy. 

[Otter248 209]

8 minutes ago, Twenty said:

No, fortunately? Theoretically, I just think a multiple choice final exam in law school would stress me out so much. Has this been the case in your experience? 

Yoon's multiple choice questions were just nonsensical, and after studying past exams the "right" answer was wrong based on the law at the time. I never really had another multiple choice exam in law school, probably because its simply not a very good way of assessing legal knowledge. With that being said the mere fact of multiple choice wouldn't make me balk, as much as a given prof's reputation for writing wild multiple choice questions.

[RGoodfellow 96]

6 hours ago, Toad said:

Just enough to create my Battlecan and then a brief 1-2 hour review the day before the exam.

At U of A we have mandatory P/F and an additional hour of added "flex time" on all exams that we can use however we want.

I've also had some professors cut out readings, switch to multiple choice, or provide us excessive hints as to what will be on the exam.

Wtf I want multiple choice

But yeah I'm in the same boat, I'm making battle CANs and that's about all I can bring myself to do. I still have days where my mental health is so low all I can do is sit and cry so as long as I have something to rely on come exam day that's all that matters.

[TobyFlenderson 237]

12 minutes ago, RGoodfellow said:

Wtf I want multiple choice

The exams I was going to have that were multiple choice prior to P/F have been changed to fact pattern/short answer/other non-MC question types. The vibe i got from this decision and the way profs addressed it was that removing MC in favour of written answers allows for greater interpretation. Someone (not a prof) phrased it as "taking the math out of passing or failing". 

 

As far as studying goes, I'm trying to look over my notes and retain information but I'm taking more breaks than usual and find myself lacking motivation. Last semester I had fear of failing motivating me, and now the combination of cabin fever/trying to figure out what happens when I'm supposed to go home/what I'll do for work this summer/the general unlikelihood of failing has made studying (and retaining what I study) an unusually uphill battle.

Edited April 11, 2020 by TobyFlenderson

[AJD19 279]

Not much