NEED clarification which Study Aids to invest in, PLEASE!!! Forum

[Think_lax86]

Before I get that comment that says "use the search function" or "check old posts" please understand that I am creating this topic because I have done just that. The problem is, I have done so much research on this site that now I am even more confused than when I started.

I am looking for books/study aids to read and I want to buy some but I cant figure out which would be the best investments of my time and money. I have heard that the Examples and Explanations are great and that Glannons are really good, but does Glannon make one for every subject? Because I have been only finding his versions for Civ Pro and Torts... Are the Examples and Explanations just an entire series with different authors for different things? should I pick up the entire series?

Also I have been hearing this series called CrunchTime by Emmanuel is really good also... should I get this instead of the E&E's? or are they two separate things that I could benefit from getting both?

Also as far as Hornbooks go... is that something I should wait to hear on from my professor? or does anyone have suggestions about these? I have heard these are good ones:

Torts (Prosser & Keeton)
Criminal Law (La Fave)
Contracts (Calamari & Perill)
Civil Procedure (Friedenthal, Kane & Miller)
Constitutional Law (Nowak & Rotunda)

I also plan on getting the book "Getting to Maybe" and I have read Law School Confidential already and plan on buying that also cause it did have some good stuff in there that I would like to have access to when need be...

Also I have been hearing more and more about this Chemerinsky guy...

Please can someone just lay it out, cut and dry... I wanna get started, but I dont want to order a bunch of stuff and find out I would have been better off ordering somthing else

[Anonymous Loser]

If reading the differing opinions about "this Chemerinsky guy" has confused you, you should probably just to stick with the assigned readings in your classes.

Also, use some common sense. Unless you plan on taking every course which the Examples and Explanations series covers (roughly 60 different subjects), purchasing each of these books is idiotic. Don't plan on taking Secured Transactions? Then don't buy the supplement. Not interested in Corporate Tax? Probably shouldn't buy a book about it.

[A'nold]

Whoa! This thread's title just made me feel all stressed and anxious b/f I even clicked on it. Dude, it sounds like this is a 911 call about something life and death. We're talkin bout supplements here (practice) not class (game), not class, not class, we're talkin bout supplements.

[Think_lax86]

understandable... only get the E & E's for the classes I take... its so crazy it just might work...

So now that we have that cleared up, what about the Crunchtime series? Hornbooks? Should I still get either of these since I am getting the E & E?

I am a 0L and wanted to do some stuff now (I know the stigma against this but I want to do it anyway).

[A'nold]

Dude, you are so intense. You should save some of this energy for the school year, you are going to need it.

Anyway, I went to my school's library and checked out the E&E's for all my classes for the entire semester and then renewed them at the end of the first semester for the rest of the year. They are one edition older but that doesn't matter, at least for most classes. The Civ Pro E&E isn't Twombly updated (you'll learn about this this year) but everything else seems to be just fine.

If you have the money, sure, buy some used copies online. I've tried many supplements and I have to say that the E&E's are by far the most helpful.

[270910]

Don't be stupid. Every professor and every hornbook is different, you have to wait and see. People have very general recommendations (i.e. Glannon is good for Torts, the crim law E&E is a piece of shit) but those pieces of advice are only relevant if you can evaluate a supplement by knowing what professor and/or casebook you will be using.

You're not going to help yourself by trying to do this before your classes start.

[Think_lax86]

ok ok... well I think I am going to just pick up glannons, civ pro and torts E&E, because I am part time these are the only 2 classes I am going to be taking in August anyway... other than that I guess ill hold off on the hornbooks... how about that CrunchTime series thing by emmanuel? hold off on that too? or any recommendations about that?

[A'nold]

Don't be stupid. Every professor and every hornbook is different, you have to wait and see. People have very general recommendations (i.e. Glannon is good for Torts, the crim law E&E is a piece of shit) but those pieces of advice are only relevant if you can evaluate a supplement by knowing what professor and/or casebook you will be using.

You're not going to help yourself by trying to do this before your classes start.

OP's next post: "Yeah, you're right, I probably won't gain much by studying beforehand"
OP's mind: "Whatever, loser. That's what all the losers say. Wait till I memorize every single E&E and can show my professors how briliant I am by asking great questions and tripping him up in class. While all the other students are sitting there struggling over even the most simple concepts I will be doing nothing but hypos 18 hours a day and will be able to walk out of the exam with the highest grade in the class 1 hour before time is called."

Edit: Dang, op must be watching this thread like a freaking hawk.

[leobowski]

E&Es are great for everything. You will absolutely need the Chemerinsky Principles/Policies for con law too.

That's all you really need IMO, E&Es & the Chemerinsky book. I also have all of the Gilbert's/Emanuel's/Kaplan/Barbri books (got em for free from roommates) but I don't really use them. I peruse the Gilbert's occasionally for structuring my outline but generally the E&Es explain everything the clearest.

If you have tests that are multiple-choice the LexisNexis Q&A books are good.

[Think_lax86]

E&E Civ Pro 5th edition or 6th edition? there is about a $20 difference between the older and newer versions... does it matter?

[Cavalier]

First of all, prepping before classes start is a waste of time. I understand the temptation to try - I disregarded the advice and cracked open the supplements months before classes started last year - but honestly, prepping now is not going to give you an advantage. Contrary to what you might think, the concepts in law school are not that difficult to grasp. You will have plenty of time to learn the law once classes start. If you read supplements now, you'll waste a lot of time reading things that simply aren't covered (the supplements cover way more than a typical course does), and you are very likely to become burned out and sick of the law, even before you start school. The last thing you want to do is enter law school already hating the law.

Second of all, supplements are not even the best way to learn the law in most classes. Unless your professor is someone who forces you to figure out the law on your own (which seems uncommon), you can usually learn everything you need to know just from reading the cases and taking notes in class. You should only buy supplements after a couple weeks in class, when you realize that you aren't learning the law adequately just from the casebook and your notes.

[mikeytwoshoes]

Whoa! This thread's title just made me feel all stressed and anxious b/f I even clicked on it. Dude, it sounds like this is a 911 call about something life and death. We're talkin bout supplements here (practice) not class (game), not class, not class, we're talkin bout supplements.

Those commas should really be semicolons. Just saying.

/ Jerk from the other thread.

[PSLaplace]

I agree with the other law students in this thread (and the vast majority of law students in general); reading supplements at this stage will not help you, and it may even end up hurting you. That warning aside, here's my take.

I typically only buy one supplement per class. Far better, in my opinion, to spend serious time with one supplement than to superficially read a whole bunch. Here's what I used and my opinion of them.

Tier 1 - Ignore these at your own peril.
Civil Procedure E&E by Glannon.
Constitutional Law Principles & Policies by Chemerinsky. (Edit: You will notice the Chemerinsky book is over 1200 pages. Again, more evidence that trying to read ahead at this stage is useless: most Con Law classes will only cover 300-400 pages of it and it's impossible to know which sections it will be.)

Tier 2 - Worked well enough for me, although there might be better out there.
Torts E&E by Glannon.
Understanding Criminal Law by Dressler.
Property E&E by Burke.

TTT - Skip it.
Contracts E&E by Blum (it's not horribly inaccurate, but I think using it was inefficient; Blum is just too verbose. I still got an A in Contracts, though.)

[Think_lax86]

Hey PSLaplace,

I think I am gonna get the Civ Pro E&E by glannon and possibly the Torts by glannon also... I dont know if you have any experience with the different versions, but I mentioned that the older versions, like 4th and 5th versions are significantly cheaper than the latest version, i think version 6... Do you know if getting the 5th or even the 4th version will be much less in depth or less informative than the newest version? for civ pro? for torts?

[Think_lax86]

Also anyone have thoughts on those Delaneys books?

[solidsnake]

OP, if you are going to a top school, the amount of discretion each prof has in approaching the subject matter is quite substantial. Profs will put their own professorial gloss on certain topics and hornbooks written by someone who isn't your prof will just confuse you at worst and waste your time at best. As you get further down into TTTdom, the curriculum seems to standardize; then you can E&E it out all summer, while your classmates enjoy themselves. Whatever advantage you gain in doing this, however, will be offset by the horrible fail that is your OCI. In other words, don't buy anything until you at the very least gain access to YOUR prof's syllabus.

[Renzo]

OP: You need xanax way more than you need study aids.

[Think_lax86]

Renzo I think your right

[mikeytwoshoes]

OP, if you are going to a top school, the amount of discretion each prof has in approaching the subject matter is quite substantial. Profs will put their own professorial gloss on certain topics and hornbooks written by someone who isn't your prof will just confuse you at worst and waste your time at best. As you get further down into TTTdom, the curriculum seems to standardize; then you can E&E it out all summer, while your classmates enjoy themselves. Whatever advantage you gain in doing this, however, will be offset by the horrible fail that is your OCI. In other words, don't buy anything until you at the very least gain access to YOUR prof's syllabus.

Do you have any authority to cite on that one?

OP, all law schools teach same things and all profs have discretion to decide how they want to teach it. It does not matter whether you are at Yale or Cooley. At Cooley, the library has more chairs though.

[mikeytwoshoes]

OP, if you are going to a top school, the amount of discretion each prof has in approaching the subject matter is quite substantial. Profs will put their own professorial gloss on certain topics and hornbooks written by someone who isn't your prof will just confuse you at worst and waste your time at best. As you get further down into TTTdom, the curriculum seems to standardize; then you can E&E it out all summer, while your classmates enjoy themselves. Whatever advantage you gain in doing this, however, will be offset by the horrible fail that is your OCI. In other words, don't buy anything until you at the very least gain access to YOUR prof's syllabus.

Do you have any authority to cite on that one? Did you hedge because this is just standard TLS prestige whoredom?

OP, all law schools teach same things and all profs have discretion to decide how they want to teach it. It does not matter whether you are at Yale or Cooley. At Cooley, the library has more chairs though.

[solidsnake]

I have authority that you're a homo. Do you want me to cite that?

[mikeytwoshoes]

I have authority that you're a homo. Do you want me to cite that?

Greek or Latin?

[mac.empress]

I have authority that you're a homo. Do you want me to cite that?

It's probably [strike]just[/strike] highly persuasive authority.

FTFY.

[RVP11]

I have authority that you're a homo. Do you want me to cite that?

Is this not banworthy?

[Oban]

These books come higly recommended on this site.

Torts
Glannon E&
Civ Pro
Glannon E&E
Crim
Dressler Treatise + His Outline
Property
Prop E & E, Understanding Property(maybe)
Con Lawl
Chemerinsky
K
Chirelstein

These Don't

Crim E&E
Contract E&E

HTH