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400/500 Law Electives (2 Viewers)

maka

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Yeah, Tabris, I know what you mean.

It is a bit of a slap in the face considering how hard people work and everything.

I find that law is a lot more subjective than my Business degree assessment wise. Hence probably why you never know how you are going!
 

GoodToGo

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Tabris said:
20/40, all that time and effort for 20... anyway thats over, got to find out where i went wrong and try to improve......i certainly get the feeling that Rafiqual marks harsher.....
I found Rafiq quite an easy marker when I did International Law and International Trade and Finance, provided you argue points he wants to hear, as opposed to presenting material/ideas that he has not touched on in class.
 

Tabris

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Well i guess that indicates subjective marking on things he want to hear.....

The essay question was how to promote compliace and enforcement and be pragmatic about the strategies... very open ended question, it would be unfair to subjectively mark on a q like that.
 

MaryJane

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Well, to me, that just confirms that the entire unit is a bit... questionable. If Tabris only just passes, then thats a sure sign to me (seeing you always do well in essays).

I spoke to a friend who did Int Law last year, and she agreed that Rafiq was quite a hard marker and very much wanted students to regurgitate what he said in tutes etc (because I dont think he was the lecturer last year).

Now I'm questioning whether to do international human right law, because its Rafiq - not Shawkat - who runs it with Natalie Klein. Dont want to do another subject with him, really. Especially as an external student.
 

melsc

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I found out I got 18..haven't got my actual essay back. I am really disapointed. I put a fair bit of effort in and I have no idea what he wanted it seems really arbitrary. I focused on the UN but also talked about the 'increasing awareness of current compliance etc.. and linked it back to the idea of improving enforceability where was Tabris was it you who focused on treaty design and other things?
 

Tabris

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My strategies:

1) UN, increase membership to poorer countries-> greater democratic legitmacy -> great balance to enforce against hegemonies->greater legitmacy

greater transparency of veto -> greater institutional legitimacy and participation in security council

2) Treaty design - greater hard lwa treaties to enforce, greater multi-lateral treaties to enforce and balance of power to create compliance -> dispute resolution mechanism as deterrant and incentive for compliance in international law

3) Domestic institution law -> greater involvement of int organisations with domestic inst to gain better capacity in compliance. International agreements to utilise each other's resources to build regional capacity to comply etc.

Each strategy had a counter-argument suggesting as to how to pragmatically implement it.... I reall dont know what rafiq was smoking, but an international student i know got 32....
 

MaryJane

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Wow melsc I dont know how you got that mark. You and Tabris always do incredibly well! Its disgusting, really...

I'm intrigued as to how they marked, too. I know one person who got 30 (or maybe 32) and they had two incomplete sentences in their essay, and they were obviously incomplete; the marker actually circled them, so they knew they existed. So obviously it was a last minute job with no proof-reading. Yet they get that mark. Its like they didn't actually mark the papers, but pulled random numbers out of a hat and gave them to certain essays.

I wonder if you could lodge a mass appeal to the Dean?
 

iwannarock

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MaryJane said:
Wow melsc I dont know how you got that mark. You and Tabris always do incredibly well! Its disgusting, really...

I'm intrigued as to how they marked, too. I know one person who got 30 (or maybe 32) and they had two incomplete sentences in their essay, and they were obviously incomplete; the marker actually circled them, so they knew they existed. So obviously it was a last minute job with no proof-reading. Yet they get that mark. Its like they didn't actually mark the papers, but pulled random numbers out of a hat and gave them to certain essays.

I wonder if you could lodge a mass appeal to the Dean?
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2367202950

:)
 

melsc

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Its like a friend of mine. I am sure she deserved her mark but when he was giving general comments (two weeks ago) he said that people who were all theoretical would do quite badly and hers was like that and she got 28...
 

MaryJane

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That is awesome my friend IWR. I joined straight away. :D

... and have stalked you (pretty easy seeing you have been the latest contributor to said groups wall)...

... Unless its some random dude who has suspiciously the same hair as you...

... in which case I will be well embarrassed and will have added some complete random!

melsc, if you are on facebook, I strongly advocate joining this group.

I'm rethinking my choice of Int. Human Rights law for next semester after this experience with good old Raf.
 

melsc

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I have joined the group lol.

I don't want to sound like I think I am the best or anything. I guess I am just disapointed with myself especially because its my first fail at uni and I am trying to keep a honours average. It might not help that I have a cold and just got my braces back on so I am in pain lol.

I am a bit worried also how he will allocate tutorial presentation because he just passes the role around and never asks people for their name!

I guess tomorrow I will see what my comments are...maybe I wasn't ready for an elective, I am a third year so maybe I lack sofistication and all that?

I do feel though that the assignment was broad yet it seems that the answers he seemed to deem worthy was limited. I don't know what you guys were told but in my tutorial he said the narrower the focus the better.
 

maka

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Melsc,

There is no way that you should be thinking that you are not ready for an elective unit.

It seems that lower than ordinary marks are the norm from what I am hearing about this assignment.

Perhaps it is the very nature of the assignments and assessments that are too blame. I dont know but you get the chance to critique the course and it would be important to determine how you think the subject is run. I know that doesnt help this semester and you but it is important that no one gets similiar scenarios in the future.

I am steering clear of Int Law and its various other forms.
 

GoodToGo

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melsc said:
I am a bit worried also how he will allocate tutorial presentation because he just passes the role around and never asks people for their name!
He allocates marks to faces. He'll read out your name, you'll answer yes and he'll and give you a mark of 12, 14 or 16 out of 20 (or 6, 7 or 8 out of 10).
 

iwannarock

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GoodToGo said:
He allocates marks to faces. He'll read out your name, you'll answer yes and he'll and give you a mark of 12, 14 or 16 out of 20 (or 6, 7 or 8 out of 10).
how sure are you of this 6,7 or 8 out of 10 business?

like thats the only marks he gives out?
 

Tabris

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looks like i was wrong, it was shawkat who marked it....anyway and one of the things he wrote was "poor citation" and not enough strategies..... and also he wrote 24/40 and crossed it out and replaced it with 20/40....
 

melsc

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Shawkat marked mine too. I saw rafiqul today and essentially he had a look at it and said I was failed because:
1. My strategies were not pragmatic
2. I didn't research enough - not enough sources

The comments on the paper said it looked like I had little preparation (which was a bit unfair) and was 'irrelevant' which I believe to mean unrealistic and not pragmatic, lack of citation sytle(it wasn't that bad one or two errors) and that I i referenced the lecture once which I was sure was acceptable . Basically I am a bit upset that the ideas were good but failed for being too unrealistic!
 

Tabris

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i got bumped up to 24 after a we talked it through
 

MaryJane

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Congrats on getting the bump up Tabris :) You obviously deserved the mark in the first place if it was written on your paper!!

melsc, I can see why you'd be disappointed re: not realistic enough.. then again I think thats what the essay was about, pragmatic solutions (I could be wrong, and am completely going off memory though). I nearly fell into that trap a few times while writing it, but told myself off... Not that I did great in the end, either.

Re: referencing lectures, never do it. Ever. Not sure why they are so against referencing lectures, but all units I've ever done have explicitly made post-essay comments about people who reference lectures. I think the problem is that they are a transient source and therefore not a scholarly source. I agree that its a bit annoying, especially when they say things that are directly relevant and then you cant find a quote for it anywhere in any of your research.
 

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