Apologies for not more words yesterday. I'll make up for it this morning, as I await my constitutional law class at 10:40. The a cappella singing group I'm in here at law school had a small (very small) concert yesterday evening, with special guest group The Alternotives from Oxford. They were quite good. We split the Oxford singers among a few of us to host them for the night, which was a lot of fun. One thing they wanted to know about America:
*Is American high school really like "Saved By The Bell?"
My high school wasn't; I don't know about other people's.
Yesterday, in the aforementioned constitutional law class, the professor told us that after talking to some of his colleagues, he thinks it might be a good idea to put a ten-minute break somewhere in the middle of our 100-minute class. Many people clapped. Then he said that to do so, he'd like to start class ten minutes earlier, at 10:30 instead of 10:40. People began to murmur. He told anyone who had a class conflict to raise his or her hand. No one did. But then someone asked if we could vote on it. Starting class ten minutes earlier: very few votes; no break: a lot of votes. How could something that provoked spontaneous applause just seconds earlier be voted down by an overwhelming percentage? It's not like 10:30 is particularly early in the morning, or substantially earlier than 10:40... but people like their sleep. It's kind of silly.
Speaking of classroom votes, in another class, the professor had us vote on how we'd better like our extra-credit (she provides the possibility of "extra-credit" if you miss no more than 3 classes and show up each time having done the problem set to be discussed in that class -- it's a legal problem-based class, which is actually a really cool approach and makes the class sessions really interested, because we're discussing actual situations and not just hearing a professor lecture on what we just read -- because the problem sets make this class more work than most classes, with just reading) -- the choices were:
Choice A: Of the people eligible for extra credit,
Anyone who falls in the top 1/2 of the distribution of the B-minus grades gets bumped to a B, top 1/2 of the B gets bumped up to a B-plus, top 1/2 of the B-plus gets bumped up to an A-minus, and top 1/2 of the A-minus gets bumped up to an A.
Choice B: Of the people eligible for extra credit,
All of the B-minus grades get bumped up to a B, all of the B grades get bumped up to a B-plus, top 1/2 of the distribution of B-plus grades get bumped up to an A-minus, and top 1/4 of the A-minus grades get bumped up to an A.
So basically you trade, in Choice B, a greater chance to go from A-minus to A for a guarantee that if you're eligible for the extra credit, you won't get a B-minus, and if you would've gotten a B you're sure to get a B-plus.
I liked that trade-off (the "risk averse" choice) and went with choice B. Choice B won, in a very narrow 54-48 vote. To me, the jump from A-minus to A provides quite a bit less utility than the B-minus to B or B to B-plus jumps, so I didn't think it was much of a dilemma. But apparently 48 people are more confident than I am.
*Is American high school really like "Saved By The Bell?"
My high school wasn't; I don't know about other people's.
Yesterday, in the aforementioned constitutional law class, the professor told us that after talking to some of his colleagues, he thinks it might be a good idea to put a ten-minute break somewhere in the middle of our 100-minute class. Many people clapped. Then he said that to do so, he'd like to start class ten minutes earlier, at 10:30 instead of 10:40. People began to murmur. He told anyone who had a class conflict to raise his or her hand. No one did. But then someone asked if we could vote on it. Starting class ten minutes earlier: very few votes; no break: a lot of votes. How could something that provoked spontaneous applause just seconds earlier be voted down by an overwhelming percentage? It's not like 10:30 is particularly early in the morning, or substantially earlier than 10:40... but people like their sleep. It's kind of silly.
Speaking of classroom votes, in another class, the professor had us vote on how we'd better like our extra-credit (she provides the possibility of "extra-credit" if you miss no more than 3 classes and show up each time having done the problem set to be discussed in that class -- it's a legal problem-based class, which is actually a really cool approach and makes the class sessions really interested, because we're discussing actual situations and not just hearing a professor lecture on what we just read -- because the problem sets make this class more work than most classes, with just reading) -- the choices were:
Choice A: Of the people eligible for extra credit,
Anyone who falls in the top 1/2 of the distribution of the B-minus grades gets bumped to a B, top 1/2 of the B gets bumped up to a B-plus, top 1/2 of the B-plus gets bumped up to an A-minus, and top 1/2 of the A-minus gets bumped up to an A.
Choice B: Of the people eligible for extra credit,
All of the B-minus grades get bumped up to a B, all of the B grades get bumped up to a B-plus, top 1/2 of the distribution of B-plus grades get bumped up to an A-minus, and top 1/4 of the A-minus grades get bumped up to an A.
So basically you trade, in Choice B, a greater chance to go from A-minus to A for a guarantee that if you're eligible for the extra credit, you won't get a B-minus, and if you would've gotten a B you're sure to get a B-plus.
I liked that trade-off (the "risk averse" choice) and went with choice B. Choice B won, in a very narrow 54-48 vote. To me, the jump from A-minus to A provides quite a bit less utility than the B-minus to B or B to B-plus jumps, so I didn't think it was much of a dilemma. But apparently 48 people are more confident than I am.
posted by Anonymous @ 9:49 AM
<< Home