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I'm a 0L without any clue as to which professors I'll have or how they'll teach the class... are there any Crunchtime supplements that you guys would consider absolutely indispensible, that would be worth owning on any occasion?

betasteve wrote:

vexion wrote:I'm a 0L without any clue as to which professors I'll have or how they'll teach the class... are there any Crunchtime supplements that you guys would consider absolutely indispensible, that would be worth owning on any occasion?

No... Supplements are going to be predicated upon what book you are using. Instead of crunchtime, you should get the Legalines keyed to your casebook.

My sarcasm detector might be off, but if this is serious advice, I disagree. Legalines is just a compilation of case briefs, which is not particularly helpful. A couple minutes on Lexis or Westlaw and you can get the equivalent for free. A decent outline for the prof would be much more useful.

Good supplements will put things in context of the big picture. The problem with buying them in advance is that no one "series" of supplements is "the best" for any particular subject, or for your particular needs in the class. I loved Crunchtime flow charts -- there were a couple of courses where I got them just for that section. E&E is a great series, but it depends on what you are trying to get out of them, and the quality varies depending on the topic. Sometimes you want a supplement give you more of a big picture of the topic, sometimes you want it to give you more granular detail of the BLL. You won't know this in advance.

Also, do a search on here and there are some threads that give recommendations for particular courses.

Your going to find out real fast that you don't know precisely what you need and you won't know until you have had enough experience to sit down and really think about what it is that helps you wrap your head around this stuff. EVERYBODY is different in that regard.

I have friends that rely almost exclusively on commercial study aids and I have friends that won't touch them. Both do well. I fall somewhere in between and that is probably where most come down on the issue. Even then, it's still a very personalized learning process that you have a high degree of control over and responsibility for.

If you want to do your part to stimulate the economy, by all means, make it rain with the supplements. It won't hurt to have them on hand if you can afford it. However, you would probably be better off experimenting with several from the library shelves at your law school and then making informed decisions about whether or not these things are useful to you.

No matter what "Guide X to succeeding in law school" tells you, you do not have to show up to your first class with a personal library of supplements. Also, as an aside, there is no sex in the champagne room.