- Please review 1L gameplan - Forum

[A. Nony Mouse]

Oops. Yup, tanked. (This time autocorrect wanted to make that tabled.)

And to be clear, I know many people do fine just using supplements and not reading cases. But it doesn't work for everyone, and I think it's risky to try that during 1L (at least the first semester). Once you've taken some exams and figured out how classes work, you may handle ditching cases better.

But then, I didn't find cases any harder than supplements, and rarely used supplements or outlines, so never saw any reason not to read cases - which I continue to do, all the time, in practice, but then, I'm in litigation. Really the takeaway here is that everyone has to do what works for them.

[ghostoftraynor]

3.

Don't inject class notes. That's far more important than supplements. Your professor's view is all that matters. You should be injecting supplements

This is misleading. 90% of the time teacher's act like they care about their own views but the exam is 100% blackletter. Some professors its the opposite. Generally I'd go with supplements and not really care about what was said in class, but you should ask other students who have had the teacher/ look at practice exams with model answers if possible.

[totesTheGoat]

Regarding keeping ahead: It's a nice idea, but not super practical. You'll forget the details of the case by the time the class gets around to it, let alone if the class is running behind and now it's been 3 weeks since you last saw the case. Heck, in the middle of the semester, I have trouble remembering details cases I read that weekend. I have to take 10 minutes before class and refresh myself on what I read or I'll embarrass myself if called on to recite.

[grizz20]

I did so much better in classes where I read the cases. I ranked classes where I relied on supplements.

ranked classes?

I assume Nony meant "tanked." In any event, I also fall in the "you should read the cases" camp. In my experience, many profs based their exam fact patterns on actual cases we read for class. If you had read and thought about the case that the question was based on, you were in a stronger position to write a good answer.

Yes. Read the cases. Only use supplements sparingly.

My "horror story" - I missed most of an essay question because I did not read a case and I was absent the day of class. It was the only case I didn't read all semester in Civ Pro. Thankfully I crushed the rest of the exam. Got a B+ on the exam but most likely would have had an A.

[BVest]

Yes. Read the cases.

And go to class. There's no excuse not to unless you're sick (in 2L hopefully you'll miss a class or two for CBs, but there's no excuse during 1L. This isn't college; you're an adult now. You only have 2-4 hours of class a day and they don't start 'til 9 or 10.

To tie into Grizz's horror story, I had a prof in a large-section class who used a case as an essay that was not assigned for reading (and was too new for the casebook), but he described the case and ruling in detail in class, including the dicta in the case. The essay was the same set of facts with one minor tweak that made the dicta applicable.

[Zensack]

That's all pretty spot on. Just don't forget to masturbate.

^ This. Practice questions are #1 in importance though, so prioritize them when you're coming down to the wire.

[Lawdork]

I usually spend less than an hour doing law school related homework/readings per day, but i purchased outlines keyed to my professors from day 1 and review those on an almost daily basis. This way i can predict what the professor is going to talk about during class and it really helps me fully understand the material because in a way i've already learned the big points he is going to make from our readings in the casebook. This way i can concentrate on the path he takes to get to those points. But Idk, I do sometimes feel like i'm not doing enough compared to my classmates. Right now i feel like there's not a whole lot to do other than quickly read the case; read a corresponding supplement; check out the outline; and listen/take notes in class.

Anyway, my plan is to buckle down a month before exams, and do as many practice exams as I can find while trying to memorize the outlines.

[Attrition]

Man, that seems so quick. I've always been a quick reader but cases are really bogging me down. I finish maybe 20-30 pages an hour. Do you skim your readings hardcore? I've noticed that I can get through it faster but that I end up missing a bunch of stuff (I've pretty much decided to either work through slowly or find a brief.)

[Lawdork]

Man, that seems so quick. I've always been a quick reader but cases are really bogging me down. I finish maybe 20-30 pages an hour. Do you skim your readings hardcore? I've noticed that I can get through it faster but that I end up missing a bunch of stuff (I've pretty much decided to either work through slowly or find a brief.)

We don't get assigned that much reading. Crim law is like 2-3 pages a night (she's a self-described long-case teacher). Meaning she takes two class periods to cover one case. The rest of my classes have like 8-9 pages a night so altogether 30 pages a day.

[totesTheGoat]

Man, that seems so quick. I've always been a quick reader but cases are really bogging me down. I finish maybe 20-30 pages an hour. Do you skim your readings hardcore? I've noticed that I can get through it faster but that I end up missing a bunch of stuff (I've pretty much decided to either work through slowly or find a brief.)

Yes, skim like the wind! Once your eyes adjust to being able to pick out relevant phrases, I don't think it should take too much more than 15 minutes to do a reading for a class. If you have 3 cases (6 pages each=18pages, plus another 10 pages of notes and the like means a 30 page reading assignment, which is par for the course, IME) for an hour-long class, your professor is spending 20 minutes on each case at most. How much of that 6 page case can s/he address in 20 minutes? Not that much!

Read looking for answers to these questions:
-What is the procedural history (including deference, if important)?
-What are the facts (in a one or two sentence summary)?
-What rule is being applied by the court?
-What facts are being analyzed w/r/t the rule?
-What is the outcome?
-What else stuck out while I was skimming (policy args, shout outs to other courts, treatment of other decisions)?

If you can answer all of those questions, you're probably overprepared to be cold-called on the case.