Course Load + Grading in law school

[OkayLetsGo]

Hi there,

I just had two quick questions about Canadian law schools:

1. Is there significant variation in the 1L course load across different universities? For example, UBC appears to (at least this academic year) require 6 courses in the first semester and 7 courses in the second. Is this standard across law schools? I have tried browsing the websites of other universities but they do not appear to give a timetable of 1L courses.

2. Is grading 'on a curve' a standard practice across law schools in Canada, with minor variations in the details of the curve? Is this only in 1L or also in 2L and 3L?

Interested in hearing personal experiences with the workloads if they vary.

Cheers

Edited January 5, 2022 by awdamndude

[CleanHands]

4 hours ago, awdamndude said:

Interested in hearing personal experiences with the workloads if they vary.

Word of caution: this has been discussed ad nauseum on the forums and different people have extremely different experiences with how time-consuming or effortful they found law school, even when attending the same school and having identical readings/assignments/classes/etc. This is something that is highly individual and I would advise you not to assume anyone else's experience will be reflective of yours. And I would certainly not infer that one school is more work-intensive than another based on what users here have to say.

[Pantalaimon]

1. That sounds fairly standard; Calgary does 7/6. I believe some schools (UofT?) don't have the year-longs and fully complete 3-4 courses a semester, which is the same thing in a different structure.

2. Yes. It's standard through all years, but there's usually an exception for small classes in 2L/3L since a curve doesn't make sense in that context.

[Whist]

Most law schools have sections on their websites called "required courses" or "curriculum" that detail what's required in what year. I have linked a few. UofA has the same 6 courses throughout 1L, with a 7th course that only happens during the first few weeks of the Fall term. Most 1Ls take the basics in first year (contracts, torts, etc), regardless of how it's split up across terms one and two. There is some variation for additional 1L courses at different schools: a friend of mine at Oz has to learn civil procedure in second term of 1L, whereas at UofA civil procedure isn't done until upper years. Dal has a course on Aboriginal and Indigenous law in 1L and a course on legal ethics, whereas some others don't require these until upper years.

[QueensDenning]

From anecdotal conversations, it seems like the workload at UofT is a lot less intense than other schools. I think I remember my UofT friends having like two or three exams each semester, while it Queen's in 1L it was like 5 exams each semester (with the first semester exams being worth not much, or fail safe). Having two or three less exams per semester would have been a game changer for me. 

[BlockedQuebecois]

17 minutes ago, QueensDenning said:

From anecdotal conversations, it seems like the workload at UofT is a lot less intense than other schools. I think I remember my UofT friends having like two or three exams each semester, while it Queen's in 1L it was like 5 exams each semester (with the first semester exams being worth not much, or fail safe). Having two or three less exams per semester would have been a game changer for me. 

I was going to make a joke earlier in response to @CleanHands about how if you look around the forum, students at U of T and Osgoode seem to disproportionately find law school easy and students from Queens, Western, and Windsor seem to find it hard and how that's totally not related to anything about admissions stats. But I figured it was too much of a cheap shot. I'm grateful to you for making it for me.

[123]

20 minutes ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

I was going to make a joke earlier in response to @CleanHands about how if you look around the forum, students at U of T and Osgoode seem to disproportionately find law school easy and students from Queens, Western, and Windsor seem to find it hard and how that's totally not related to anything about admissions stats. But I figured it was too much of a cheap shot. I'm grateful to you for making it for me.

Fun fact, and this is true: at Dal, every seat is attached to a vertical wooden stake and some twine, because they know we lack the cognitive abilities to keep ourselves upright. It's those little touches that set it apart from other schools👌

[Rashabon]

When I went to U of T, they still did full year courses with fail safe exams in first semester, so I wrote 6 in two weeks in December. Didn't stop me from getting mostly As though, so not sure the exam load is all that important.

[Pantalaimon]

2 hours ago, Rashabon said:

When I went to U of T, they still did full year courses with fail safe exams in first semester, so I wrote 6 in two weeks in December. Didn't stop me from getting mostly As though, so not sure the exam load is all that important.

Umm, excuse me, don't you mean HHs? Imposter.

[Rashabon]

That new system was introduced while I was an upper year. I still remember attending an info session about the new grading system where they explained some of their thinking. The only part I remember is an attempt to compete with the HYS of the world which don't give letter grades.

[Eatable Bran]

4 hours ago, QueensDenning said:

From anecdotal conversations, it seems like the workload at UofT is a lot less intense than other schools. I think I remember my UofT friends having like two or three exams each semester, while it Queen's in 1L it was like 5 exams each semester (with the first semester exams being worth not much, or fail safe). Having two or three less exams per semester would have been a game changer for me. 

It is indeed 2 to 4 exams a semester which are worth 100% of your grade, there are no fail-safe midterms (which I would have appreciated). The grass is always greener on the other side!

Edited January 6, 2022 by Eatable Bran

[OkayLetsGo]

Thank you all for your responses. Sorry for the over-asked question.

 

For anyone else that comes across this thread in the near future and has a similar question, I also found two links to Osgoode and UBC law grading schemes, respectively. Found them helpful:

 

Osgoode: https://www.osgoode.yorku.ca/academic-handbook/academic-rules/e-examinations-and-grading/

 

UBC: https://allard.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/2020-06/grading_rules_2018w_beginning_spring_term_2019.pdf

 

I imagine based on the responses above that other schools are similar.

Edited January 6, 2022 by awdamndude