For those OL's prepping, what are you using to Prep? Forum

[chadwick218]

I took a trip to Hawaii, read part of the K's E&E, and skimmed GTM. The only one I'd say that helped at all was the trip to Hawaii.

I second betasteve. I feel that my first semester went very well and I didn't even crack a book over the course of the summer (though I did purchase Getting to Maybe, just never read it). Now if only second semester will be so kind so I can transfer the hell out of here!

Also, I took a trip to thailand before starting school

[Kobe_Teeth]

I do have another question about 0L prep though.

As for a study plan, when do you develop one?
I was thinking of reading other posts by people in the "What did we learn?" thread and Arrow's guide to develop a general study schedule for the first few weeks when i will have no clue what I am doing. Obviously, I wouldn't do this until late in the summer but I still feel like it might be a good idea.

Thoughts?

[TTT-LS]

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[Kobe_Teeth]

Do law school exams ask questions such as (after long case or fact pattern as I guess its called) who do you think is at fault? Or did the judge make the correct ruling?

I'm sure I'm a bit off here, but don't the questions ask you to make some sort of qualitative judgement? If that's true, is the challenge still just to spot as many issues, discuss them, possibly connect them to other issues and just come to a conclusion?

How far off am I?

Essentially most issue spotters are asking you to state all possible claims and their relative strength. They won't ask who's at fault per se, but who has the stronger case... And even then, I've yet to see a question that was directly asked that way. Most are asked as I said in the first sentence...
Property and Ks are questioned somewhat differently - i.e. (all this shit happens) - What result? or Advise your client on all possible claims others may have and their defenses.

Yea, after I asked, I went and looked a couple up. I see what you're saying.

[Kobe_Teeth]

I don't think a little prior knowledge can hurt.

If you search around, you'll actually find a number of posts where people conclude that "a little knowledge," if divorced from your prof's teaching method and personal views, can hurt. For example: if your torts professor things proximate cause is an empty concept/doesn't teach it, but you've "learned" it because you read that part of the E&E, and so you write about it on the exam, then you'll lose points and valuable time.

Duly noted.

[annapavlova]

Doesn't this count as a lockable 0L prep thread?

Lishi should be a'comin.

[orangeswarm]

I made a little reading list on another thread of stuff to look at. I will post it later if I find it.

There is probably some modest correlation between prepping and getting better grades. A few people here have totally rocked exams after doing so. I did so a little bit and found it helped reduce my workload a lot.

As a major caveat, success on law exams is pretty inexplicable to a lot of people. Many people go into the exam room totally confused about the material and barely understanding it, yet come out with A's because they can do law exams very well. Preparation, even over the course of the term, doesn't seem to be a dominant factor in who gets good grades. that is actually the purpose of the LSAT - to test your test-taking skills since it correlates so powerfully with exam performance, .33 or so for law exams but only .03 for legal memo grades.

On the flip side, a significant number of us on here did very little and also rocked exams. Of course, I'm as biased as TTT is on this subject. I am not an advocate of much 0L prep. In fact, I think the motivation you get from feeling a little behind at the beginning may be more beneficial during the semester than any prep prior to starting law school (based solely on anecdotal evidence of people I know who attended LS prep courses, rested on their laurels a bit during the semester, and ultimately ended up getting destroyed during finals).

If you are an 0L reading this and thinking to yourself "but this can't be right, I just have to do something!", I'd suggest reading GTM and go through LEEWS if you can find it cheap. This isn't to get you ahead substantively, it is just to give you an idea of what to expect from the exams in order to help you study and outline more efficiently. Save the substantive stuff for class - you don't want to learn something that deviates from your professor only to have it come bite you in the ass later. Finally, if anyone wants to prep just because they are worried about how to brief a case, I posted a thread about a year ago that gives you the rundown of just how to do it. Read it and rest easy.

[Aloha4]

can post a link to your thread on here please.

[TTT-LS]

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[Aloha4]

can post a link to your thread on here please.

Lack of hustle = not a good indicator for law school success.

[solidsnake]

I don't think a little prior knowledge can hurt.

If you search around, you'll actually find a number of posts where people conclude that "a little knowledge," if divorced from your prof's teaching method and personal views, can hurt. For example: if your torts professor things proximate cause is an empty concept/doesn't teach it, but you've "learned" it because you read that part of the E&E, and so you write about it on the exam, then you'll lose points and valuable time.

+1. My torts prof taught duty as being synonymous with proximate cause. Moreover, she took the Andrews dissent in palsgraf as an assumed duty from which, in all cases, you determine whether there was an non cost justified breach. Try erasing an 0L summer's worth of E&E version doctrine after grappling with this switch-around.

You want to prep? Learn how to be efficient, disciplined, and have solid time-management skills. Don't learn doctrine. Authorities are split on most of the interesting legal issues, and you need to learn your prof's take on them. Chances are, some TTT E&E author is not going to mirror your professor's opinions or take on what is the correct analytical framework that you need to be applying on their exams.