Nothing wrong with hypo questions. Forum

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LawyerSawyer102

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Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by LawyerSawyer102 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:25 am

What is the big deal with people making a big deal out of fellow student proposing their own hypos? It is an excellent way of confirming their understanding of the subject and the instant answer/feedbacks directly from the prof are extremely valuable. Try it sometimes. Sighs wont get you the A.

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pancakes3

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by pancakes3 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:54 am

do it on your own time. ppl didn't go to law school to listen to you trying to confirm your understanding.

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cavalier1138

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by cavalier1138 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:20 am

Being an annoying gunner who wastes class time trying to sound smart will also not get you an A.

didgeridoo92

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by didgeridoo92 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:52 am

Nothing wrong with them IMO as long as you are thoughtful about when you ask a hypo-type question in class. If the class is discussing a case or sample question/problem, there is no problem (and most people won’t care) with you tweaking the hypo a little bit to figure out what about the law/policy is really driving the court’s decision. As long as you’re not obnoxiously taking up half or a quarter of the allotted class time with your hypos, you’re fine (and if you have enough questions to do this, for the love of god go to office hours). I understand the argument that people didn’t come to law school to hear your questions, but YOU are paying a lot of money to go to school so you might as well get your money’s worth by making sure you have a concrete understanding of the subject. This is also professor dependent, some will appreciate the class participating, others will want to keep to schedule and get annoyed with you taking them off track. Use situational awareness and you will be fine.

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TheSpanishMain

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by TheSpanishMain » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:33 am

LawyerSawyer102 wrote:What is the big deal with people making a big deal out of fellow student proposing their own hypos? It is an excellent way of confirming their understanding of the subject and the instant answer/feedbacks directly from the prof are extremely valuable. Try it sometimes. Sighs wont get you the A.
If it's a large lecture, take your hypos to office hours. Don't make 150 other people sit through your personalized review. If it's a twenty person seminar where lots of class participation is the expectation you have a lot more leeway imo.

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cavalier1138

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by cavalier1138 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:57 am

I think the real key element here is whether you're asking a question because you want to know the answer or asking the question because you want the professor to be impressed by how well you understand the previous case.

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The_Lorax

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by The_Lorax » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:52 pm

pancakes3 wrote:do it on your own time. ppl didn't go to law school to listen to you trying to confirm your understanding.
Bingo. If your hypo + prof answer takes 2 minutes and there are 50 people in the class you've wasted 100 minutes of people's time. Now if your hypo is exactly on point, lots of others have the same question, and the prof can use it effectively? Maybe that's worth it, but I'm going to warrant a guess and say there's a 99% chance you won't be asking that question.

Go to office hours.

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The_Lorax

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Re: Nothing wrong with hypo questions.

Post by The_Lorax » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:54 pm

LawyerSawyer102 wrote:What is the big deal with people making a big deal out of fellow student proposing their own hypos? It is an excellent way of confirming their understanding of the subject and the instant answer/feedbacks directly from the prof are extremely valuable. Try it sometimes. Sighs wont get you the A.
They're about as correlated as talking in class...

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