This term is one third over...
It's been a while since I've said anything about my classes. This is supposed to be a law school based blog, so maybe I should say something.
The first month is just about finished. Today is September 27 so... in 4 days it'll be October. That's Sunday. It's interesting to me that one third of the term is over (classes finish this term on December 1st), because I've probably done about 1/20 of the work. If that.
But this is day 3 post-rut, and I'm catching up. I know you're on the edge of your seat to hear about my classes, so I won't make you wait any longer:
Trusts. Interesting course, lots of reading. Unfortunately I missed this class last week... uh... twice... so I have some extra reading to do.
Federalism. Looks at how the constitution divides power between the federal and provincial governments and what happens when federal and provincial laws conflict. I'm finding this course and my comparative constitutional law course the most interesting. I guess that means I'm interested in constitutional law...
Comparative constitutional law. This course is great. It compares the constitutions of Canada and the United States and it's taught by videoconference from Penn State. There are 24 students in the class, with 12 being at UBC and 12 at Penn State. The prof is also at Penn State, but we can all see and hear each other because of the video conferencing. He teaches the class using the Socratic method, meaning he calls on people and asks them a series of questions. So basically I study like I'm getting ready for an exam before every class.
Evidence. This is probably one of the most important courses in law school. It covers... wait for it... evidence! We look at what is admissible and what isn't, jury charges, presentation strategies, etc.
Real estate transactions. This is my Wednesday night course. I usually don't like night courses, which run from 6 til 9. Happily, the prof is great and usually lets us go by 8. And he brings cookies, even though there are like 50 people in the class. We're basically learning what lawyers do for all the money they get in real estate conveyancing. Interesting.
Most my profs are pretty good this term. There aren't any absolute train wrecks yet, although there's a potential train wreck in the making. One prof I've got... slow with a capital S. We spend the whole class on a case or two, going through every paragraph and deciding whether it adds anything to the case. The problem is, after spending so long dissecting a case it's hard to know exactly what we're supposed to take from it. Because when it's exam time, we don't go into detail about cases - we just give a basic point or two.
How slow is this prof? Ok well the reading list is 8 pages long. After one third of the term we are about 4/5 of the way down the FIRST page. So by the end of this week we'll probably be finished the first page. 7 pages to go.
As bad as this is, it's not as bad as last term. I had one prof who was actually removed from the course part way through the term because of being unable to teach it. I had 2 courses with this prof, who wasn't removed from the other course. We didn't get an outline until the last month of the course, and at that point we got a 5 page single-spaced list of terms and cases we had to know for the final. Brutal? Yes.
Not wanting to sound too negative, I've got 2 profs this term who are really great, and another 2 who are pretty damn good. Pretty damn good isn't as good as really great, but it's still a lot better then mediocre or good, and it's not even on the same planet as bad.
The first month is just about finished. Today is September 27 so... in 4 days it'll be October. That's Sunday. It's interesting to me that one third of the term is over (classes finish this term on December 1st), because I've probably done about 1/20 of the work. If that.
But this is day 3 post-rut, and I'm catching up. I know you're on the edge of your seat to hear about my classes, so I won't make you wait any longer:
Trusts. Interesting course, lots of reading. Unfortunately I missed this class last week... uh... twice... so I have some extra reading to do.
Federalism. Looks at how the constitution divides power between the federal and provincial governments and what happens when federal and provincial laws conflict. I'm finding this course and my comparative constitutional law course the most interesting. I guess that means I'm interested in constitutional law...
Comparative constitutional law. This course is great. It compares the constitutions of Canada and the United States and it's taught by videoconference from Penn State. There are 24 students in the class, with 12 being at UBC and 12 at Penn State. The prof is also at Penn State, but we can all see and hear each other because of the video conferencing. He teaches the class using the Socratic method, meaning he calls on people and asks them a series of questions. So basically I study like I'm getting ready for an exam before every class.
Evidence. This is probably one of the most important courses in law school. It covers... wait for it... evidence! We look at what is admissible and what isn't, jury charges, presentation strategies, etc.
Real estate transactions. This is my Wednesday night course. I usually don't like night courses, which run from 6 til 9. Happily, the prof is great and usually lets us go by 8. And he brings cookies, even though there are like 50 people in the class. We're basically learning what lawyers do for all the money they get in real estate conveyancing. Interesting.
Most my profs are pretty good this term. There aren't any absolute train wrecks yet, although there's a potential train wreck in the making. One prof I've got... slow with a capital S. We spend the whole class on a case or two, going through every paragraph and deciding whether it adds anything to the case. The problem is, after spending so long dissecting a case it's hard to know exactly what we're supposed to take from it. Because when it's exam time, we don't go into detail about cases - we just give a basic point or two.
How slow is this prof? Ok well the reading list is 8 pages long. After one third of the term we are about 4/5 of the way down the FIRST page. So by the end of this week we'll probably be finished the first page. 7 pages to go.
As bad as this is, it's not as bad as last term. I had one prof who was actually removed from the course part way through the term because of being unable to teach it. I had 2 courses with this prof, who wasn't removed from the other course. We didn't get an outline until the last month of the course, and at that point we got a 5 page single-spaced list of terms and cases we had to know for the final. Brutal? Yes.
Not wanting to sound too negative, I've got 2 profs this term who are really great, and another 2 who are pretty damn good. Pretty damn good isn't as good as really great, but it's still a lot better then mediocre or good, and it's not even on the same planet as bad.
posted by Darren at
9:12 AM
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