Face to face at last

10 November 2009 • Ricardo J. Bascuas • 5 Comments » • Tags: None

It was slightly terrifying. Instead of a field of glowing Apple logos and Dell badges, there were faces. And it was like they were all on pseudoephedrine, raising their hands and asking questions. To be sure, most of those questions sprang from the rising anxiety over the impending exam. All I know about it is that it is going to be insanely hard. I always try to make my exams as hard as possible so that I don’t have any trouble telling the B-plusses from the regular B’s etc. I learned that from all those standardized tests. The questions that separate the geeks from the nerds on the LSAT and the SAT etc. are the very, very hard ones. The easy questions don’t even matter. They’re just there to wear you and the point on your No. 2 down.

I haven’t even decided on a TV show yet, and it’s getting kind of late for that. All my exams are TV-based. It makes them easier to write and less painful to grade. The Evidence exam calls for a pretty specific formula. You need a non-cop, non-lawyer show with a sizable ensemble cast, preferably including a decent-sized family. Then you need an event mobwall.gifthat gives rise to both a criminal prosecution and a civil suit. The two cases need to be built on completely different and inconsistent explanations for said event. Then, you just mock-up all the stuff that would exist—FBI reports, deposition excerpts, hospital reports, web sites, text messages, photos, newspapers, wiretaps, emails, letters, etc.—and have them argue that it’s either in or out in one case or the other or both. For instance, my first year doing this, the church in Springfield was burned and the insurance company believed Reverend Lovejoy did it and refused to pay while the police believed Fat Tony had it torched because Lovejoy failed hung1.jpgto pay extortion. My favorite was the Arrested Development exam because I was able to base it entirely on one episode and it worked beautifully.

There’s nothing on TV now that lends itself to this. I’ve been trying to work with Hung, which is pretty sharp. But something’s off and it hasn’t come together. It’s sort of like last time, when I tried to do an I Love Lucy that involved Fred Mertz doing inappropriate things to Little Ricky. The reaction from the two friends I sent early drafts was of such outraged revulsion that I had to start from scratch with 30 Rock. Relying on DOM’s endorsement, I tried out Glee and, boy, did I pay for that. The clip DOM posted is all you need to know. This stuff is concentrated, cloy poison. It’s Juno lobotomized and remade into a cheesy, warbling, nauseating musical: a veritable hell on Earth.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

5 Comments on “Face to face at last”

  1. 1 Jewish Marksman said at 11:26 am on November 10th, 2009:

    Nobody watches Scrubs anymore? Seems like a show with good law school exam question potential.

  2. 2 NSK said at 11:42 am on November 10th, 2009:

    This is a genuinely helpful, constructive post.

    I remember taking evidence with you during law school, and was struck by the TV-centric nature of the exam question. You’re right; it does allow for a good examination of lots of evidentiary issues.

    Thanks for writing. This post would be well taken for your students, especially those hiding behind laptop screens…

  3. 3 Anonymous said at 3:51 pm on November 10th, 2009:

    Use The Odd Couple, which is probably not well known to the generation comprising your class. The special students will overcome their lack of show knowledge while the others will be consumed by it.

  4. 4 Anonymous said at 11:46 am on November 11th, 2009:

    clearly Curb would be a perfect show! just use last weeks episode with officer krupke, larry leaves the store with the store’s pants on b/c of the fire in the store. Then the store loses larry’s pants that he left in the dressing room. You got your criminal case and your civil case right there. He makes statements to krupke and other’s about his leaving the store (admissions against interest). The wearing of the women’s panties is just icing on the cake!

  5. 5 Anonymous said at 12:03 am on November 19th, 2009:

    Professor, I wish your face to face initiative success, but to a point. As someone who uses my laptop in class primarily to take notes faster and arrange them more easily, I’ve definitely been troubled by how many of my colleagues chat, play crosswords, read blogs, etc. It’s important to think quickly in class about shifting topics, and it’s just not possible to do that meaningfully when you’re scanning that NY Times article that just popped up.
    There are many times when students genuinely put the machines to good use, however, looking up legal definitions, researching, answering each other’s questions about the case discussed on gchat. The social/information connection has value. Professors need to step up their game to stay relevant. Pseudoephedrine doesn’t make people more alert by the way. In fact, it commonly makes people drowsy. Amphetamine-based drugs like Adderall, or to a lesser extent, cognitive enhancers do that.