Law Preview thoughts?

[Brain Age]

http://www.lawpreview.com/index.php/WhyPrep/

"For the last 11 years, Law Preview has taught thousands of law students what to expect and how to succeed in law school. We offer week-long, intensive summer prep courses in cities across the country. Learn from the very best law professors. Earn higher grades (see chart to the right). Conquer law school."

Thoughts? Anybody taking the plunge? I spent some time on the site, and the program seems beneficial, especially to those of us who are a few years out of UG.

[thisabyssisbliss]

my thoughts are:

-Waste of Money
-Waste of Time

[The Agitator]

I think, instead of that, all you need to do is:

1) Browse the "Current Law Student" forum for advice;

2) Begin reading a lot more heavily as a hobby. Things not as boring as law schools books, but dense reading nonetheless - biographies, books on American history, maybe a philosophy text here and there, etc.

[alexb240]

I know that "Planet Law School II" tends to be rather controversial (to put it mildly) in its analysis of law school and how to prepare for it, but for what it's worth, the author writes that those types of programs are a complete waste of time.

A selected quote from p. 442:
"Despite their claims, Law Preview and BarBri do not prepare you for law school. They're a week-long "feel-good" program where, at best, you get a mild taste of the Socratic/Case Method in mock law school classes.... there isn't sufficient time for them to cover substantive mateial... While these programs appear to be like law school, they have almost nothing in common with what law school is really all about."

[JClark-NYU]

Hi -

Sorry for the cross-post, but I don't have a ton of time for new posts with finals coming up:

I am currently a 1L at NYU and I took the law preview course the summer before I entered law school. It was extremely helpful for me. I would be happy to talk to anyone about this who is interested. I entered law school straight from undergrad and so it was a nice introduction to the rigors of legal reading, as well as helped ease my fears of "cold calling".

I found the skills law preview teaches to be very relevant and useful, and I am still using them during my second semester. These classes aren't for everybody. They are especially useful if you are anxious are worried about your first semester. In addition, I really feel that these classes gave me a head start into the semester. I had already read and briefed cases while my classmates learned about case briefing at orientation.

I learned about outlining months before my classmates did. Most people don't learn about the skills or strategies for outlining until the end of the 1st semester.

Do I think this class is necessary to be successful? No. However it is certainly a worthwhile investment.

Best,
J

[Kobe_Teeth]

I browsed that website for about 5 min and completely cracked up when someone said the best advice they received was "brief your cases!" and the person was actually thankful for the advice.

Briefing seems common sense and actually maybe even somewhat archaic (at least the traditional format) based on what I 've read from some TLS'ers.

So is that advice worth 5 days of freedom and $1000...you be the judge.

Also...isn't law school robbing us blind enough?! Law Preview is practically criminal...lol.

[JClark-NYU]

Briefing is actually not archaic, and is a great way to make sure you are understanding judicial reasoning, which you will be trying to emulate on an exam. Perhaps you had a lot more experience than I did before law school, but I found the briefing practice very helpful in making my reading and studying more efficient.

It is an investment in your education. If you have to take out a loan to take the course, I would say it probably isn't worth it. But if you can spare the money, I really feel like I got my money's worth.