1L Soup to Nuts: A Guide to 1L Success Forum

[rdcws000]

Don't lump the E&E for CivPro in with the other ones...Glannon basically taught me CivPro.

+1 . E & E's can be critical, especially where your prof. uses them for exam inspiration. My civ pro prof told us if we could write an essay on every example in Glannons we would do fine on his exam, and I did.

EDIT: but I agree with OP to the extent that I have NEVER bought any supplement, E & E or otherwise, unless it was specifically recommended by the prof.

[yngblkgifted]

You're awesome. Thanks!

[holeinone600]

Good stuff. Thanks

[goodolgil]

Don't lump the E&E for CivPro in with the other ones...Glannon basically taught me CivPro.

+1 . E & E's can be critical, especially where your prof. uses them for exam inspiration. My civ pro prof told us if we could write an essay on every example in Glannons we would do fine on his exam, and I did.

EDIT: but I agree with OP to the extent that I have NEVER bought any supplement, E & E or otherwise, unless it was specifically recommended by the prof.

The Civ Pro E&E is great for jurisdiction and the Erie stuff (and presumably stuff like venue and choice of law also--we didn't cover that) but I found it borderline useless for the Federal Rules stuff (pleadings, discovery, summary judgment, etc...). So depending on what your Civ Pro class focuses on, the E&E might be more or less useful.

[happyfeet]

fabulous, thanks!

[Rooney]

Thank you for this and congratulations on your success!

PS - The opening sentences of the 0L prep section were hilarious.

[AtticusPinch]

Thanks, all, for the nice replies.

This is going to sound silly but how exactly do you outline? Do you just put the law and the counter law?

For me, outlining was basically a process of combining by reading notes, class notes, and case briefs and then culling it all down to what is most important. You will get a better hang of this as time goes on. First semester, I suggest getting an outline or two from students that had the class the previous year so you can compare yours to theirs to ensure that you are on the right track. I also think taking your outlines in to your professors makes sense, they can take a brief look at let you know if you are on the right track.

I'm going to go ahead and just be a dumb 0L: where can I get OneNote? I saw I can buy it from Microsoft for like $90, but that seems pretty steep. Do people buy it from their schools?

You can get a student version of MS Office pretty cheaply. OneNote is on there. I like OneNote because you don't even have to hit "Save" every three seconds, it does it automatically. You can just flip the laptop shut and you're done.

Don't lump the E&E for CivPro in with the other ones...Glannon basically taught me CivPro.

This is a very important point- to each their own on ALL OF THIS. If an E&E works for you, stick with it. I bought a few, read them every now and then and found the hornbooks infinitely more helpful.

Also, my CivPro class was very rules focused so that could be why I never found the E&E helpful. Venue, jurisdiction, choice of law, Erie, etc., seemed so complicated at the time and now seems altogether elementary after working for a court for a few weeks. Law school has the tendency to over-complicate things.

[cinephile]

fabulous, thanks!

[LLB2JD]

Thanks. Great stuff.

[skrillo]

I have to disagree with briefing every case. Ultimately what you need from the cases is the points of law. Unless your professor is one that is a stickler about facts, or is in love with certain cases,* you really don't need to know them. It probably helps for a few weeks during fall semester, just so you can get your feet underneath you, but spending time briefing cases after that is a big waste in my opinion. Read the cases, try to glean the points of law, and supplement with the prof's explanation of a case's importance. The facts are pretty useless for 99.99% of law school exams.

* If you have professors who really harp on certain cases, you would be wise to memorize those: case names, facts, etc. If you throw those in your exam answer you can really stroke their ego and interests, which can get you those marginal points to go from A- to A.

[Zarathustraspoke]

tagged. Some great stuff in here, thanks!

[AtticusPinch]

I have to disagree with briefing every case. Ultimately what you need from the cases is the points of law. Unless your professor is one that is a stickler about facts, or is in love with certain cases,* you really don't need to know them. It probably helps for a few weeks during fall semester, just so you can get your feet underneath you, but spending time briefing cases after that is a big waste in my opinion. Read the cases, try to glean the points of law, and supplement with the prof's explanation of a case's importance. The facts are pretty useless for 99.99% of law school exams.

* If you have professors who really harp on certain cases, you would be wise to memorize those: case names, facts, etc. If you throw those in your exam answer you can really stroke their ego and interests, which can get you those marginal points to go from A- to A.

I concur with this for the most part. I think one should brief the cases during the first semester no matter what. It teaches you how to extract the important stuff which is an important skill. I hardly ever focused on the facts in my briefs, the focus was always on the holding and what could be applied to the future. If you start to get this down cold, then you can probably lay off of it a bit during the second semester.

Briefing forces you to pay close attention to the cases as you read them and to be a more "active" reader instead of just passively highlighting. I will keep briefing as a 2L but I agree that it requires a lot of time.

[Gemini]

Woot, thanks for this!

[ak13]

It's actually quite nice getting different 1L guides from different perspectives; it is possible to glean what you will, mix and match what works best for you. Thank you for this.

[glitched]

I am of the opinion that 0L prep is exceptionally important. Without my regimen of preparation during the summer months before law school, I would not be where I am today. This prep includes lowering the golf handicap, working on a tan, spending significant amount of time on various beaches, traveling, going to concerts, working out routinely, the consumption of alcohol and, perhaps most importantly and always the first thing to go, pleasure reading.

i like you

[pookie]

This is great! Thanks!

[CurbYourEnthusiasm]

Awesome post Atticus. One of the best guides I've seen so far on here. In your schedule, you did your reading on the weekends and your outlining on Fridays, so what were you reviewing/studying at the library during those other days; hornbooks, updating notes?

[JustE]

Awesome post Atticus. One of the best guides I've seen so far on here. In your schedule, you did your reading on the weekends and your outlining on Fridays, so what were you reviewing/studying at the library during those other days; hornbooks, updating notes?

I was wondering that as well.

[fatduck]

word kinda blows, but excel is the shit

What is better than Word? OpenOffice is not a good answer. It is no longer supported (last I checked). And Word is the corporate standard, better get used to it.

thanks, i'll be sure to remember this advice when i grow up

[Kabuo]

It's actually quite nice getting different 1L guides from different perspectives; it is possible to glean what you will, mix and match what works best for you. Thank you for this.

I agree and am doing the same. Thanks, OP.

[shoeshine]

I can't take advice from anyone who uses the phrase "soup to nuts".
I am also doing a ton of 0L prep.

[Baylan]

I have to disagree with briefing every case. Ultimately what you need from the cases is the points of law. Unless your professor is one that is a stickler about facts, or is in love with certain cases,* you really don't need to know them. It probably helps for a few weeks during fall semester, just so you can get your feet underneath you, but spending time briefing cases after that is a big waste in my opinion. Read the cases, try to glean the points of law, and supplement with the prof's explanation of a case's importance. The facts are pretty useless for 99.99% of law school exams.

* If you have professors who really harp on certain cases, you would be wise to memorize those: case names, facts, etc. If you throw those in your exam answer you can really stroke their ego and interests, which can get you those marginal points to go from A- to A.

First: TTT Disclaimer. I attend a TTT.

Second: Anecdotally, I followed conventional TLS wisdom and did no such briefing first semester and got a 3.35. Because the others in my study group did brief and did substantially better, I tried it out second semester. 3.85 GPA second semester. Substantial improvement. It may have been related to the differences in exam style and how I was studying, but the fact is that briefing typically helps commit more to memory. It may or may not be worth the time, but at the end of the day, I believe it significantly helped my second semester grades.

[Verity]

tag

[keg411]

I have to disagree with briefing every case. Ultimately what you need from the cases is the points of law. Unless your professor is one that is a stickler about facts, or is in love with certain cases,* you really don't need to know them. It probably helps for a few weeks during fall semester, just so you can get your feet underneath you, but spending time briefing cases after that is a big waste in my opinion. Read the cases, try to glean the points of law, and supplement with the prof's explanation of a case's importance. The facts are pretty useless for 99.99% of law school exams.

* If you have professors who really harp on certain cases, you would be wise to memorize those: case names, facts, etc. If you throw those in your exam answer you can really stroke their ego and interests, which can get you those marginal points to go from A- to A.

First: TTT Disclaimer. I attend a TTT.

Second: Anecdotally, I followed conventional TLS wisdom and did no such briefing first semester and got a 3.35. Because the others in my study group did brief and did substantially better, I tried it out second semester. 3.85 GPA second semester. Substantial improvement. It may have been related to the differences in exam style and how I was studying, but the fact is that briefing typically helps commit more to memory. It may or may not be worth the time, but at the end of the day, I believe it significantly helped my second semester grades.

I briefed cases all year and did well as well. I dunno, it kept me organized and made it easier for me to remember WTF I was reading (plus, it turned out some profs really really liked it when you mentioned cases). Although I actually like OP's format more than the one I personally used. Briefing just kind of makes for "active" reading; I'm sure taking notes some other way is fine too.

[albanach]

Thanks for this. Looks very helpful.