Deep Space LC-170
15 September 2009 • Ricardo J. Bascuas • 3 Comments » • Tags: NoneI heard a rumor the other day (which I have made no effort at all to substantiate): our “extra” section, which is taking all of its classes over in our satellite classroom, LC-170, has taken to calling itself the “experimental section”. If this refers to what I think it refers, it’s pretty damn clever.
What makes an LSAT so precise is that every question on it has been tested by thousands and thousands of students before making it onto an actual exam. LSAC achieves this by forcing students taking an LSAT to answer a bunch of questions that won’t count toward their score but not telling them which ones those are:
The test consists of five 35-minute sections of multiple-choice questions. Four of the five sections contribute to the test taker’s score. The unscored section, commonly referred to as the variable section, typically is used to pretest new test questions or to preequate new test forms. The placement of this section will vary.
Only LSAC calls it the “variable section”. Aspiring law students have forever called it the “experimental section”. And everyone knew that if you found yourself answering a series of questions that didn’t quite make sense or were ambiguous or had two logically correct answers or no correct answers, that you should get ahold of yourself and not freak out because that probably was the experimental section.
So, I think the students relegated to LC-170 are feeling a little isolated. It’s interesting that, even though I’m sure that group was picked randomly, they may be self-identifying as the overflow group. We should do some cross-disciplinary work by getting some psychology students over there to write this up. Anyway, buck up, Experimental Section. You’re scheduled for integration next semester when LC-170 will no longer belong to any one section. And kudos on the name. You should have T-shirts printed up.
Isolated, yes, but random, no. The IJ section was put together in LC-170 because we all opted for the new version of Elements. We have to write up a case study instead of whatever it is that’s done in the traditional Elements class.
Maybe the administration should offer this section $5K to feel better.
I have to say, nothing at this school is random, especially the assignment of students to sections. Case in point: Fall 2007. Then an incoming 1L, I attended a dinner for students had been given scholarships upon entry into law school. Someone decided to take pictures by section. Sections A, B, C, and D averaged about 14 or 15 scholarship students per section. Sections E, F, G, and H, PUT TOGETHER, had 3 students on scholarship. There were, I’m sure, some who didn’t attend the dinner, but I’m sure there were such people from the first 4 sections as well.
Then, once classes began, the first 4 sections were put together in classes, so that we had to compete against each other. In other words, the kids on scholarship all had to compete against each other, while the kids in the other 4 sections got to compete against each other. If you buy the idea that people on scholarship are there for a reason, then it’s easy to see why the section assignments are what they are.
It’s ludicrous to think that the school does this for any reason other than money. They pit scholarship kids against each other, hoping that a couple of them will lose their scholarship by going below a 3.0 GPA. Why? because the school overcommits on scholarships for the incoming class, and so has to basically force a few students to lose their scholarship each year.
This screws with everything, including law review membership. The vast majority of people who ended up grading on were from the 4 “non-scholarship” sections. I would love to hear what you think about this, Professor.