V. Examinations and Papers
Although faculty have complete discretion as to how to evaluate their students, the Law School encourages multiple forms of evaluation, including evaluation of class participation, writing assignments and midterms, in addition to the final exam whenever possible. You must inform students of the method of evaluation in writing at the beginning of the semester, preferably in the syllabus.
Nothing raises students’ anxiety level more than unanticipated problems with or changes to their final exams. You should describe your final exam policies, including the length and type of exam (open book, closed book, multiple choice, essay, etc.) in your syllabus. Before making any changes, you must first consult with the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. If, after consultation, you change the format of your final exam, you must publish the changes in a revised syllabus posted to the course webpage. Please also send the change to the Assistant Dean for Student Services and your Faculty Assistant.
Exam questions should be written by the instructor. Questions from an instructor’s exams from prior years should not be reused if the prior exams are available to students. This includes questions from prior exams administered at another law school. Nor should questions be paraphrased from or copied directly from past exam questions published by a State Bar, or from commercial sources, such as bar exam preparation books or on-line software.
All courses with a final exam are required to have a review session during review week at the end of the instructional semester. The Registrar’s Office schedules this session. The Law School’s policy prohibits introducing new material during the review session; the session is limited to reviewing only the material already covered in class.
We schedule review sessions (as much as possible) for the same day and time the course met during the semester. Please contact the Registrar’s office if you need additional time for the review session, or if you have to reschedule the time assigned for your class.
The exam period runs for approximately two weeks at the end of each semester. Your students must take their exams during this period. About a month before the start of the examination period, you will receive a detailed memorandum from the Law School Registrar concerning the preparation of your final exam, along with a request for detailed information about your exam. We urge you to read the memo carefully and submit the requested information promptly. There is considerable “behind the scenes” work that must be completed before an exam can be administered.
Law School policy requires instructors to be accessible when their exams are administered, in person or by phone.
The Law School Registrar schedules exams to minimize conflicts for students. Students are required to take exams on the scheduled date. You cannot change the scheduled date or time of your exam.
To preserve anonymous grading, students are instructed not to contact faculty if they have any issues with their exams, including illness or a family emergency (such as death in the family). You should not reschedule any individual exams yourself. The Law School has established rules and policies to deal with student hardship cases. Please refer all questions about exam rescheduling to the Law School Registrar.
We strongly suggest that you do not change the type of exam you will be giving (in-person vs. take-home vs. a final paper) after you have announced it in class and on your syllabus.
Students rely on the type of final assessment, and the exam schedule, when choosing their classes. Please make no changes in the nature of your final examination without conferring with the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
You are required to submit your examination to your Faculty Assistant at least three business days prior to your examination date. The Law Registrar’s Office sends the faculty an Exam Memo with deadlines about a month prior to exams. It is critical to comply with all deadlines. Because exams must be prepared for use with examination software, last- minute changes to exams may not be possible.
Your Faculty Assistant will send written exam responses to you via FedEx, and will supply you with a prepaid FedEx envelope to return exams to the Law School when you complete your grading. It is encouraged that you opt to receive exam responses electronically and grade them electronically, for administrative efficiency and to reduce processing times.
Students download and upload their take-home exams from the online Take-Home exam interface. At the faculty member’s option, the student can complete the take-home exam either on a fixed day or at any time during the exam period. If on a fixed day, the Law School Registrar schedules the take-home to minimize conflicts with other exams. It is recommended that faculty grade exams electronically to avoid printing and scanning.
Faculty giving take-home exams must submit the text of the exam to their faculty assistant at least three business days before the start time of the download period. It is important to note that take-home exams do not utilize the same software as in-class exams. This means that secure exams that lock students out of all other software on their computers are not possible. Additionally, closed-book exams cannot be enforced, though you are welcome to indicate an exam is closed-book and remind students of the Honor Code.
Faculty may administer final papers or other types of final projects (such as a final trial or negotiation).
All final papers are due by the close of business on the last day of the exam period. Final papers and other non-anonymous written assignments should be submitted through Canvas.
Our IT Department assigns students three different anonymous numbers each term: a paper number, a midterm number, and a final exam number. IT generates new anonymous numbers for students each semester to retain anonymity. Students access their anonymous numbers via My Courses. Faculty will not be able to identify a student by their anonymous number until grading is complete.
Some instructors give a midterm exam as well as a final. Midterms provide students with feedback on their performance, and can be an excellent learning opportunity. Because grading is anonymous at the Law School (see the previous paragraph), students must use an anonymous midterm number.
Midterms must be administered during the class hour itself to avoid time conflicts; this requires advance planning. If you plan to give a midterm, please notify your Faculty Assistant at least two weeks prior to the administration of the midterm.
If you opt to give one or more quizzes, please notify your Faculty Assistant at least two weeks prior to the quiz.
Please note that all timed and graded assessments, including quizzes, must be administered by the Law School Registrar.
Please see Academic Rule I. F.
Consistent with call for reform in legal education, the Third Year Intensive (TYI) is designed to engage 3L students through a focused project that places less emphasis on mastery of doctrine and instead emphasizes skills (ranging from particular types of writing to general skills like negotiation and counseling to more abstract skills like problem-solving). Through the TYI, students can build expertise in a specific area of law, develop law practice skills beyond those acquired during the required clinic or Alternative Field Placement, and/or design a capstone experience at the culmination of their legal education. A special notation appears on a student’s transcript upon completion of a TYI. Students are responsible for obtaining the faculty member’s signature on the TYI Sign-Off form.
For more details on this voluntary program, please see the TYI Handbook.
Also see Exam FAQs.