Are Restatements Worth Buying for 1L? Forum

[traydeuce]

^^ Hear, hear. As an example of how besides the point reciting the Restatement can be (as opposed to understanding the law contained therein), I looked at my contracts outline and exam. My outline mentions the restatement once; my exam never did. (I wrote the best exam in the class.) Both, however, mention the UCC repeatedly, which makes sense as the UCC's a statute, not just a series of best principles that you can apply without referencing.

[TatteredDignity]

F*** this thread. It's exactly this kind of bickering between people who have actually been through 1L that makes the way forward seem so impossible for 0L lemmings like me. How could there ever be consensus on 0L prep if we can't even get a firm answer on this triviality?

There really is no one way to skin a cat in law school.

^^^This is the only thing I'm taking from this thread.^^^ I'll see you all in May with my pile of (arbitrary/logical) grades that were the result of my (reading every E&E before school/chilling on my butt all summer) and (religiously reading only the casebook/utilizing the best supplements).

So, yeah.

Lol, a little entitled, don't you think? We're not "bickering," we're discussing various approaches, and it's to your benefit. And there is a consensus that's easily gleaned from this thread: You should use (whether or not you buy is really irrelevant) the Restatements to the extent that it makes sense in the class. In some classes, it will make sense to rely heavily on the Restatement, but in most classes it will make more sense to only learn those provisions quoted in opinions you've been assigned or discussed by your professor.

You're right, a number of us ITT have actually been through 1L and did quite well using different methods. The practice of the law is like that in general: there are few yes or no answers, and you have to extract the truth from a conflicting sources.

I definitely intended to be a little tongue-in-cheek, and didn't mean to sound entitled. There is some seriousness to my gripe - it's all a little overwhelming at times - but the discussions on here are to my benefit. Carry on.

[Bronte]

I definitely intended to be a little tongue-in-cheek, and didn't mean to sound entitled. There is some seriousness to my gripe - it's all a little overwhelming at times - but the discussions on here are to my benefit. Carry on.

You don't need to settle on an approach to exam prep before the school year starts. You definitely don't need to buy any Restatements. Posters discuss a variety of approaches that have been successful for them. Before I started law school, I had a sense which of these approaches, in a broad sense, would work for me. I'm someone who generally likes to do things the hard way, to put it crudely. Synthesizing doctrine from primary sources works well for me. In undergrad, I generally used traditional methods, rather than shortcuts.

Thus, in law school, I mostly relied on primary sources of the law. I read what I was assigned, went to every class and paid attention, and built long, detailed outlines from scratch. I then took practice exams. I really didn't do much else. This was very effective for me because I learn by struggling through the same process that the authors of secondary sources struggled through. I don't have a good rote memorization process; I learn by building and engaging with concepts from the ground up.

Others, however, are better off using secondary sources more heavily. They use commercial supplements and student-made outlines. They take shortcuts when it comes to some of the traditional study methods. They gchat in class. I know people and posters who had success with this methodology as well. To invoke a cliche, it's about your learning style, and it won't make that much sense until you have a few weeks of class under your belt.

In short, relax, don't worry too much about what others do, and focus on developing an approach that comports with the way you've been successful in the past.

[TatteredDignity]

That's really helpful. Thanks

[Heartford]

Planet Law School basically told me that I will fail at all aspects of life if I don't buy, memorize, and worship them for Contracts and Torts. The price isn't terrible, and I can imagine the material being quite helpful, but are they truly necessary?

No.
/thread