Ever wondered if you could trade a few so-called meaningless marks for some cold hard cash? Max Paterson gets fiscal with the marking system. I recently heard a tale of a handsome law student with a dilemma. He had been offered a several thousand dollar contract to sit on a beach in South East Asia for a few days. Some cameras were to soak up his beauty and later squirt it back into our faces to encourage us to buy stuff. The dilemma bit came from the fact that shooting was to take place days before his law exams, and studying would be out of the question. He’d been diligent throughout semester but knew that the week or so of closed books would inevitably cost him a few marks. He took the contract, but not without hesitation. And I got to thinking; how much is a law mark worth? If he had to think twice about accepting thousands of dollars at the expense of losing just a few marks, what are our marks worth in cash? People I’ve consulted have generally agreed they’re worth ‘a lot’. How much depends on the situation; the subject, what mark you’re currently sitting on, what stage you’re at in your degree. So, I’ve come up with a model for thinking about this. Say everyone does their exams, and gets their marks, but could then buy or sell them for cash in a stock market-like system. People willing to sell one or more percentage points (i.e. marks) enter a price they’d accept into a computer system. Buyers enter a price they’re willing to pay. For a person to buy one mark to add to their total, someone else must sell and forfeit one mark. Say you’re sitting on a 49 or a 79, you could buy one mark from some-
one happy to let their 63 become a 62 in exchange for some handy cash. You avoid a fail/supp or revel in an H1, while they walk away with some Yankee Dollar. A price too low for sellers or too high for buyers results in a non-sale. Much like the share market, a certain dollar amount would be reached for one mark. This mark price is like the ‘trading price’ for a single company share that Allan Collar reads out during the seven o’clock news. I love him. Lets iron out some ‘buts’. Firstly, the marks would become meaningless; employees, grandmas and the little voice in our heads that chants ‘achieve, win, beat all your friends, hide library books’ would cease to care what marks we had ‘bought’. Ignore this for a second. Pretend that marks in the new system carry the same significance they do now. Secondly, marks in different subjects would fetch different prices. OK, so work that in. Instead of being able to buy and sell a generic law mark, you could trade an ‘Admin mark’ or a ‘Corps mark.’ This is exactly like the share market; you’d buy a ‘Crim mark’ much like you could buy a ‘BHP share.’ So how much? Some of the people I’ve approached asking that very question have slapped me. Others have said that a fail costs you thousands if you have to pay for the subject again. Also, the difference between having a few 78s on your record and having a few H1s could mean the difference between getting Articles, or impressing an employer in any other field we choose. This could perhaps impact on career earnings entering the tens or even hundreds of thousands over your career, not to mention job satisfaction. So clearly people would be willing to buy. How about forfeiting a mark? Model man was reluctant to loose some
marks even for a few thousand (probably upwards of ten). If you were sitting on a 73 for Torts, would you go down to 72 for a few hundred? A grand? An H2B is an H2B. But then there’s your average to think of. If you sold a couple of marks per semester throughout your degree, that's quite a difference. Thinking back over your record, how many and which marks would you be prepared to lose? Who cares? This model is far-fetched and fanciful (bang), and would never happen. However, it is useful for thinking. My model friend’s dilemma is an unusual circumstance of a very usual phenomenon. Jobs. Most of us have them. They provide us with rent, food and living expenses. They also provide us with overpriced clothes, $8 alcopops (bang) and $25 cover entry a Prince (which, contrary to my assumptions, apparently doesn't include a free ecstasy/ pinger/bickey). Some of us work right through exams, most of us could use those several hours a week to read some more Diplock. Presumably, less time at work could mean better marks. If you really think about it, is the amount of time you spend working justified? Us lawyers just love putting a price tag on anything; a reputation, a broken spine, a person’s life. It makes sense that we should consider just how much our marks are worth. Max Paterson
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