I’m working on two take-home mid-terms at the moment.
One is not graded. Well it’s self-graded and then the professor grades it pass-fail. You pass so long as you give a reasonable effort at answering and evaluating your own answer. The professor gives you some feedback but none of it affects your final grade.
The other is graded, but it can only help you not hurt you. If you do well it can bump up the score on your final. If you do poorly it won’t be held against you. (“up not down” is how the professor phrases it)
In my other class we have take-home quizzes – distributed on Wednesday and due by the following Monday. We’ve had two so far and I suspect we’ll get our third this week or next. I don’t remember off hand how much they count toward the final grade, but I’d bet they will be about 20%.
I’m torn about these things. On the one hand, they’re good exercises at forcing you to digest the material and kickstart your outlining. On the other, they’re yet another demand placed on your time that may or may not help your grade.
I certainly don’t mind the practice. But I could do without the added time it takes to complete these things. On my last quiz (for the third class above) I simply didn’t have much time to devote to it and my grade on the quiz proved that. But at some point you need to let one or two things slide a little to get the mandatory stuff done.
So what’s your take on things like this? Do you find them helpful? Or are they more annoying than anything? What about when they don’t really affect your grade?
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All of my classes this semester have a written assignment of 2-3 pages due each week. They are once a week classes. The work is definitely bogging me down, especially on top of the never-ending job search. However, they are all very practical assignments that force us to apply what we discuss in class. In that sense, I find them extremely helpful. If they weren’t graded, it would be ridiculously frustrating.
I hate these things with a passion, along with “group presentations” and “skit day” and any other busywork better suited for classes taught by teachers wearing flower sundresses. I think the publication of books like “101 Uses for a Law Degree Besides Practicing Law” have caused law schools to look more and more like your typical waste-of-time graduate school program. Law school is supposed to be terrifying. It’s supposed to be hazing. It’s supposed to reconstruct you and change the way you think. There’s supposed to be Socratic questioning, lively debate between students, and such. If you need midterms and constant self-validation from the professor, go get an MBA or something.
Christopher-
Well-said!
Josh-
I’m with ya. If they’re an integral part of the class grade (like legal drafting) or a clinic (regularly drafting short motions and briefs), I’d certainly understand something like that and wouldn’t mind.
Y’all get take-home assignments?? I’m jealous