Recommended Reading in Preparation for Law School Forum

[kalvano]

I don't know what some of you crazy bastards are on about. My Civ Pro and Property professors went out of their way to make stuff as confusing and theoretical as possible. E&E's rock.

[Stringer6]

Jesus.

avatar lolz

[JazzOne]

At Columbia, did you feel like no one used supplements? E&Es, hornbooks, and outlines? I'm curious.

Commercial outlines? A rare sight. People ordered them at the beginning of the semester and anyone with a quantum of intelligence left them to gather dust.

2/3 of my professors explicitly told us that we should make our own outlines (not just as a rule, but because it's a smart habit), I think that settled it for most people.

Hornbooks and E&E's were far more common. But I really saw them as a "drug", you use them, you feel great. You feel way over-confident because now all the black-letter-law has been laid bare before you! It's so satisfying having it all so easily explained to you. I almost fell into that trap with my Glannon E&E that was assigned for CivPro. Professor only assigned some sections yet many people just read the whole damn thing.

E&E's are great only to the extent that your class covered exactly the same scope of material that the E&E chapter does. Then it's nice for "testing yourself" on some of the tougher concepts without having to second-guess yourself. Other than that I wouldn't get too deep into them. We covered the new Supreme Court cases on Erie Doctrine that Glannon didn't have, yet people still read this version like the bible.

TL;DR version: If a professor says they will only test what's on the syllabus/what was discussed in class (99% do) and you have notes from everything discussed in class AND you understand what was discussed in class, you shouldn't worry about your knowledge for the exam. Out of my exams so far I have never been sitting there going "Dammit, if only I had read more hornbooks this question would have been easier!" By the time I finished my outlines I really felt on top of things, at no point did my knowledge ever feel incomplete; By learning the course on the professor's terms, I felt more prepared when answer the questions designed by him to elicit the lessons he was trying to get across to us during lectures. I cannot fathom how any of the intense book marking/highlighting/briefing/hornbooking that many of my peers carried out could have helped them at the end of the day.

Your TL;DR is just as long as your TL version. You are bad at internets.

+1

[Sogui]

"Your TL;DR is just as long as your TL version. You are bad at internets."

Meant it as a TL;DR of that post and all my prior points together.

[URMdan]

if you think it's a joke, you're a 0L. i will say it again- learn the material the way YOUR PROFESSOR TEACHES IT. that is how you get good grades. BLL is part of it. but your understanding of the BLL will be woefully limited prior to law school. reading big heavy books will not get you better prepared for it. in all honesty. just relax. speed reading? i guess maybe that's helpful, but once you get the hang of reading cases you won't find yourself agonizing over every last word. 90 pct of decisions you read will be dross. 10 pct will be important.

WTF is BLL ??

[sanjola]

I'm reading 1L of a ride and the news. That is all.

I am too. I'm really enjoying it and I really think it's a great starting point.

How are you liking it, txadv11?

[well-hello-there]

WTF is BLL ??

BLACK letter law (not racist)