The UVic difference

One of the selling points of UVic Law is that the school does not produce class rankings and strives to create a, "supportive learning environment. Students are encouraged and challenged to excel, but to compete only against themselves." What does this really mean though? The fact remains that UVic Law subscribes to the same grading scheme that all other Canadian law schools do, strictly limiting the number of A-level grades they award. Since most of us at law school are used to getting A grades and most of us are competitive (I think), this poses a bit of a problem. Also, getting a job often depends on getting good marks, whether UVic produces rankings or not.

I can't say whether it's more or less likely that a UVic law student will give another one a helping hand. I can say, though, that during exam time, some people do refuse to share their class outlines / cheat sheets. This might be just because if they put work into it they feel it's fundamentally unjust for me slackers who don't do any work to get a "free ride". Or, it might just be that when the chips are down, some people don't want their classmates to have the same chance they do for good grades.

That's not to say there aren't some generous people here. I won't name names, but I've had 3 people email me info from their outlines for this year (and the student body maintains a list of outlines from past years). Still, I think UVic Law would be really different if they had a truly communal study prep mentality. Just a thought.