Continuing with the 1L year in review:
Torts I
What to say about this class? This has to be the most hated of all the classes of 1L students. Many will complain about Legal Skills; but, LS is tedious; Torts is torture.
The first portion of Torts was not that bad. Intentional torts are close to their counterparts in criminal law, so much of intentional torts was review. A new concept was introduced but because it is similar to another concept, difficulty did not lie too much in the new concept. (Of note, the new concept was called "conversion." I'm sure you can gain a good picture of what it deals with.)
Where the difficulty arose was in the multiple choice questions. Professor Bowermaster conducted a review session at the end of the intentional torts section with some multiple choice questions. And these questions were borderline between difficult and extremely difficult. The painted picture at the end of the review session basically told everyone, "you don't know torts."
Then negligence came into the picture. And everyone was turned onto their heads. Conceptualizing the new concepts was a chore. Trying to understand what the judges were getting at was a chore. Understanding torts is a chore.
And to be honest, I'm not sure the casebook and the course were developed to help understand the concept. I used the Criminal Law theory taught by Professor Campbell to help with Torts. I tried to put the concepts into organized boxes. Unfortunately, trying to organize the boxes was difficult because the course was not structured to do this. I eventually was able to box the concept but it took some time and a lot of effort.
The tutor for Torts was not very helpful. Although tutors did well in the subject, tutors are not always the best at teaching the subject. Now, I don't want to bash our tutor. He did the best with the subject and tried to help. Unfortunately, the setup of tutor sessions did not always lend itself to allowing him to help others understand the concepts. I'm still debating how much was him, how much was the handouts, and how much was the subject. (I'm hoping you are getting the picture: Torts blows.)
The final exam was difficult for this subject also. Professor Bowermaster believes in asking some tough multiple choice questions to cull from everyone their true understanding of Torts. She believes this will expand the distribution of grades in the class. My only complaint about the exam was the call of the question for her essay. In my opinion, the call was too broad. Prof Bowermaster limits the essay length to 11,000 characters (this includes spaces, returns, commas, etc). The call of the question was so broad that it could not be answered in 11,000 characters. You had to pick and choose the best arguments. For 1L students, this might not be the best test of our understanding of the subject. Maybe a 3L. Maybe someone taking the bar exam. But, not so sure a 1L will have the grasp of the subject to prioritize the essay question topics. (In her defense, she did give us hints and warnings about the exam. Of course, I realized this while taking the exam; not before!)
Turning to Professor Bowermaster.
I like her. Some students do not. She is very nice and she works to help you understand the course. Obviously, this works for some but not for others.
One of my complaints about her is her specificity with answers. She will ask leading questions to get you to say what she wants to hear - word for word. If she wants to hear the word "malcontent," she will attempt to get you to say the exact word. She is not satisfied with another word which means the same thing. But, if you can get used to this habit, you should do fine with her.
Her teaching method is very close to the Socratic method, but like many of the other professors at Cal Western, she strays from the typical law school teaching method occasionally. Listening to my classmates go through the motions with the concepts while answering her questions helped in my understanding.
The biggest complaint came at the end of the course. The last couple of weeks felt rushed to get through the material so I found it difficult to grasp that material sometimes. Of course, when you couple rushing through a difficult subject as Torts with the final push to finish the Legal Skills project and the amount of studying required for upcoming finals, the stress created can be over bearing at times.
While it would've been nice to slow down slightly, I'm not sure we could have. There is an agenda and we must accomplish the agenda. Much like the real world, sometimes efforts must be cut back to accomplish a task. While the task is not perfect, it is accomplished. Better to be done than to be not done trying to obtain perfection. There are trade offs in life. Get used to them.
Torts is difficult at times. You must stay on top of the subject. Outline constantly. Seek the professor during office hours (Professor Bowermaster is very helpful one-on-one). Take essays and multiple-choice questions constantly. Use the knowledge and concepts you are learning and torts will be easier. But, Torts will always be the most hated class.
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