In prior posts on teaching, I have mentioned the "present and prepared" system. (See my syllabus for a description.) This system is not my invention -- I associate it with Randy Barnett, though I can't find any evidence on the internet regarding its origins -- but I have used it in various classes for many years. For some reason -- perhaps because BYU is the most competitive law school in the country or because I am the only professor at BYU who currently uses this system -- I have had more requests for special exceptions than I have received at any other law school. These requests have forced me to think more precisely about the goals of the system, and this post contains some reflections on that issue.

When students miss classes, the effect is not only to deprive the missing student of the experience, but to deprive the missing student's classmates. This effect is particularly important in a class that is highly interactive, like my class this semester. The purpose of the "present and prepared" system is to reward students for their contributions to the quality of the classroom experience. Obviously, the system assumes that students make contributions merely by being in class, having done the reading. In my experience, that is a reasonable assumption.

The "present and prepared" points are available to all students equally. No curve. But the system does not have the desired effect if students miss too many classes. Whether students miss the classes because they are lazy or because they are doing some noble work is irrelevant to what happens in the classroom. The fact is that when students are gone, their contributions are missed.

Of course, everyone has circumstances during the semester that may require them to be away from the law school, so I do not expect students to be perfect in their attendance and preparation. Moreover, I cannot effectively determine on a case-by-case basis which absences are reasonable and which are not -- and the thought of attempting to administer such a system would make me surrender before I even began -- so I have made a judgment that students who are present and prepared for roughly 85% or more of the classes deserve to be rewarded for their efforts with full credit, while students who are present and prepared for roughly 70% or more of the classes deserve to be rewarded for their efforts with half credit. I could have set these percentages higher or lower, but those seem like reasonable expectations to me.

At the beginning of this semester, one of my students observed that she would not have any of "her days" left over if I counted callback absences against her. Somehow, she got it into her mind that the days on which she would be doing call backs were separate from "her days." I suggested that she had the wrong idea about "her days." The point is not to have five personal days plus any number of additional absences, as long as you have a good reason.

In the past, I have made accommodations for people who are seriously ill or have other debilitating problems. Otherwise, I assume students allocate their days to their best uses, whether those uses are call backs or family reunions or trips to the hospital. But if a student cannot attend at least 85 percent of the classes, it seems to me that the student shouldn't expect the same reward as someone who has been able to achieve that. In the end, about two-thirds of the class typically receives full credit and another one-sixth or so of the class receives half credit. Those numbers suggest that the policy is not overly harsh, and the effect on the quality of the classroom discussion is substantial.

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