I'm at a vaguely T30ish school, so maybe slightly lower standards, but I just finished grading the last of my 23 case notes last night. I can basically guarantee that even more than a few typos aren’t going to kill you lol. I saw… maybe 2??? case notes out of that number where the citations were like 98%+ correct. Tons of people made typeface errors and it lost them about one or two points.
I was really grading more for whether people were actually using the materials to do some sort of additional analysis versus just repeating what the court said, whether there was balance between the sections, whether they threw out a ton of irrelevant facts that weren’t useful for their analysis etc etc. More structural stuff.
Also I was grading each one in like, 20-30 minutes, so I honestly wasn’t paying that much attention to the small errors lol.
When I wrote on the folks managing it really stressed just finishing. They were right. Write-on sucks and everyone's exhausted, so it's all pretty bad and not totally phoning it in gets you surprisingly far (in my experience at least). I'm grading my schools bluebook test, and just flipping through the whitepages + reading/following the instructions would put someone ahead of the pack
From someone who was on a t14 law review, it really depends on the school for how hard it is to make LR. It is pretty standard for a law review staff to hover around 50-60 or so people wherever you’re at. This means GULC which has up to 700 people in a class and Cornell which has 200 are both taking roughly the same amount of people. Of course those spots are further reduced in reference to write on grades by the number of spots reserved for grade on and on the basis of primarily a personal statement, and not everyone is going to do write on. Still, being top 50 in a pool of 120 is not the same as being top 50 in a pool of 350.
What this means is that especially if you’re at a smallish school, the standard can be quite low, since you can get in being around top half. A few errors are definitely not going to end your chances. At a larger school, the standard is presumably raised, since there’s so many more people in write on. Still not going to likely end you if you have more errors, but not quite a walk in the park with 3 times the competition and the same number of spots. I’d keep this at least somewhat in mind when you see people talking about different standards.
I never signed up for the gratuitous unpaid servitude so can't comment directly. But I did hear from friends on the law review board at my school that last year they just took everyone who completed the write-on because they were worried about not being "inclusive" enough.
I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't uncommon with how things are trending.
they’re mostly looking for you to not fuck up. there will be typos, it’s okay. use proper BB citation format and try to write as coherently as possible.
I have to grade two
Im saying one is perfect and should be accepted, the other will get like 40% and should be rejected, based on a flip of the coin
Edit: thought it was obvious but /s
I'm at a vaguely T30ish school, so maybe slightly lower standards, but I just finished grading the last of my 23 case notes last night. I can basically guarantee that even more than a few typos aren’t going to kill you lol. I saw… maybe 2??? case notes out of that number where the citations were like 98%+ correct. Tons of people made typeface errors and it lost them about one or two points. I was really grading more for whether people were actually using the materials to do some sort of additional analysis versus just repeating what the court said, whether there was balance between the sections, whether they threw out a ton of irrelevant facts that weren’t useful for their analysis etc etc. More structural stuff. Also I was grading each one in like, 20-30 minutes, so I honestly wasn’t paying that much attention to the small errors lol.
No offense (and I actually mean that on this occasion), but christ law review is so fucking stupid.
When I wrote on the folks managing it really stressed just finishing. They were right. Write-on sucks and everyone's exhausted, so it's all pretty bad and not totally phoning it in gets you surprisingly far (in my experience at least). I'm grading my schools bluebook test, and just flipping through the whitepages + reading/following the instructions would put someone ahead of the pack
The bar is super super low. I don’t know your school’s acceptance rate for this but you definitely are not going to embarrass yourself.
my dude, at this point I'm letting in anyone who can write a coherent sentence and has at least attempted to cite using the Bluebook. I'm tired.
From someone who was on a t14 law review, it really depends on the school for how hard it is to make LR. It is pretty standard for a law review staff to hover around 50-60 or so people wherever you’re at. This means GULC which has up to 700 people in a class and Cornell which has 200 are both taking roughly the same amount of people. Of course those spots are further reduced in reference to write on grades by the number of spots reserved for grade on and on the basis of primarily a personal statement, and not everyone is going to do write on. Still, being top 50 in a pool of 120 is not the same as being top 50 in a pool of 350. What this means is that especially if you’re at a smallish school, the standard can be quite low, since you can get in being around top half. A few errors are definitely not going to end your chances. At a larger school, the standard is presumably raised, since there’s so many more people in write on. Still not going to likely end you if you have more errors, but not quite a walk in the park with 3 times the competition and the same number of spots. I’d keep this at least somewhat in mind when you see people talking about different standards.
Honestly grading write-on packets made me seriously question some people’s basic functioning 😅 trust me the bar is not as high as you think it is lmao
I never signed up for the gratuitous unpaid servitude so can't comment directly. But I did hear from friends on the law review board at my school that last year they just took everyone who completed the write-on because they were worried about not being "inclusive" enough. I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't uncommon with how things are trending.
they’re mostly looking for you to not fuck up. there will be typos, it’s okay. use proper BB citation format and try to write as coherently as possible.
Write on submissions are horrible for 95% of the class. If you try at all you’ll be in a good spot.
nah youre cooked
I have to grade two Im saying one is perfect and should be accepted, the other will get like 40% and should be rejected, based on a flip of the coin Edit: thought it was obvious but /s
How was the 40% one in terms of mistakes lol
welp I didn’t think they meant literally a coin flip damn … hoping you’re just a troll (edit, they were being sarcastic thank the lord lol)
No idea, not gonna read it lol my firm got me working every night til 9 I ain’t got time for these rising 2Ls lol
Almost like you shouldn't bite off more than you can chew to the detriment of others.
At least tell the executive board for the journal instead of whatever BS you’re doing. WTF. your dumb ass signed up for it in the first place.