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So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

Take a semester off, go to france visit the eiffel tower and look five degrees east of south from the top. there will be your answer my son... there will be your answer....

BarbellDreams wrote:So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

I will brief until I have it down, but I will focus my efforts on the final exam. Don't get sucked in! They told me at orientation that it's alright if we hand-write our exams. We don't have to type them. I was shocked that they told me this as I asked that very same question on TLS and received really good feedback. Let's just say my typing has improved and I'll be typing my exams.

Don't get sucked in. Keep your eyes on the prize!

SwollenMonkey wrote:

BarbellDreams wrote:So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

I will brief until I have it down, but I will focus my efforts on the final exam. Don't get sucked in! They told me at orientation that it's alright if we hand-write our exams. We don't have to type them. I was shocked that they told me this as I asked that very same question on TLS and received really good feedback. Let's just say my typing has improved and I'll be typing my exams.

Don't get sucked in. Keep your eyes on the prize!

The bottom of the class doesn't need any help in getting there, why would they tell them this?

BarbellDreams wrote:So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

Retake?

There is no right way to be the top of the class. Try a few different things, see what helps you learn. Just because that method works for people on TLS doesn't mean it will work for you. I read the cases because I kind of liked reading them, and it worked out just fine.

You have to understand, a lot of the people on here who give the advice saying not to brief cases in all likelihood briefed cases at the beginning of their 1L year. Only at the end of their 1L year, or end of 1st semester did they write these helpful guides which say "do not brief!". Briefing helps you learn what issues to spot in a case, what facts are relevant, precedence, black letter law, etc. If you put the time into briefing it becomes very easy, but most importantly, it teaches you the correct way to look at a case. After doing this 300 times, you probably get such a good feel that there's no need to brief and that little time you save by not doing it is useful. I briefed a few cases from a book my school assigned over the summer as pre-reading. And then we got more cases for orientation and further instructions on briefing. After working through only 3 days worth of assignments as well as the aforementioned, I can tell you that it has helped, and I am getting it done much much quicker and will likely only continue to do so.

Eventually I will probably stop briefing, but it is helping a lot right now.

stratocophic wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

BarbellDreams wrote:So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

I will brief until I have it down, but I will focus my efforts on the final exam. Don't get sucked in! They told me at orientation that it's alright if we hand-write our exams. We don't have to type them. I was shocked that they told me this as I asked that very same question on TLS and received really good feedback. Let's just say my typing has improved and I'll be typing my exams.

Don't get sucked in. Keep your eyes on the prize!

The bottom of the class doesn't need any help in getting there, why would they tell them this?

Hell if I know. I'm not listening.

SwollenMonkey wrote:

stratocophic wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

BarbellDreams wrote:So we had our prof give a long speech on how the most important thing to getting A's in law school is briefing every case and reading every case thoroughly. Both of which TLS has taught me never to do. I came into law school with the intention of never briefing and pulling them all from google and skimming cases to get the gist of it while devoting my time to hornbooks, E&E's and black letter law (much like most top performers on here suggest). Now all of my fellow section mates are laughing at me for not briefing or reading the cases and I am slipping into reading the cases a bit more thoroughly (havent started briefing yet, dont think I will ever get tempted to). Thoughts? Is my strategy still a good one?

I will brief until I have it down, but I will focus my efforts on the final exam. Don't get sucked in! They told me at orientation that it's alright if we hand-write our exams. We don't have to type them. I was shocked that they told me this as I asked that very same question on TLS and received really good feedback. Let's just say my typing has improved and I'll be typing my exams.

Don't get sucked in. Keep your eyes on the prize!

The bottom of the class doesn't need any help in getting there, why would they tell them this?

Hell if I know. I'm not listening.

For the record, you probably should be listening. Even if you take a different approach than what is being proposed, you should probably keep in mind that law school professors had to be pretty successful to get where they have gotten. Maybe even more successful than a bunch of anonymous posters on an internet message board.

BTW, I briefed almost every case last year. Top 5%. Do what works for you- not what everyone else tells you to do.

Jarndyce wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

stratocophic wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:
I will brief until I have it down, but I will focus my efforts on the final exam. Don't get sucked in! They told me at orientation that it's alright if we hand-write our exams. We don't have to type them. I was shocked that they told me this as I asked that very same question on TLS and received really good feedback. Let's just say my typing has improved and I'll be typing my exams.

Don't get sucked in. Keep your eyes on the prize!

The bottom of the class doesn't need any help in getting there, why would they tell them this?

Hell if I know. I'm not listening.

For the record, you probably should be listening. Even if you take a different approach than what is being proposed, you should probably keep in mind that law school professors had to be pretty successful to get where they have gotten. Maybe even more successful than a bunch of anonymous posters on an internet message board.

BTW, I briefed almost every case last year. Top 5%. Do what works for you- not what everyone else tells you to do.

I'm not listening to the part where they stated that we can hand-write our exams. I'm typing mine. I am going to listen to the part where they said to brief cases.

You need to (1) learn the law and (2) learn how to take the prof's exam.

Briefing may help you with (1), it will not help you with (2). Briefing may not be the most efficient way to learn (1), but finding an alternative is up to you.

If you do (1) and (2) successfully, you will do well.

Part of doing well is learning to pick out the important stuff.

I don't think you need to do a full-on brief, but making sure you understand the cases is important.

.

I try to get sucked on.

kalvano wrote:Part of doing well is learning to pick out the important stuff.

I don't think you need to do a full-on brief, but making sure you understand the cases is important.

Thats all I have been doing to prepare, I write it down to organize it in my mind. I tend to be the type of reader who skims, so it has really helped me focus so far, but we will see

Rocky Estoppel wrote:I try to get sucked on.

i only opened this thread because i thought it said "off."

I briefed cases throughout my first semester and half 2nd of 1L. I'm not sure if there is any litmus test as to what you should do, but it worked well for me. I guess opinions vary

jayn3 wrote:

Rocky Estoppel wrote:I try to get sucked on.

i only opened this thread because i thought it said "off."

+1!

For what its worth, I plan on briefing using the leews method--I also think there's a difference between briefing for yourself (ie to learn the material, pick out law, etc) and briefing to prep for class. I've read many of the guides on here as well, and my impression is that the latter is what is discouraged. Most people did not say they relied mostly on supplements, but said that they did all the assigned reading. One even mentioned staying a week ahead in the readings.

I really don't think you can supplement your way to the top. Everybody says that one should really pay attention to what their professor's point of view is--considering the class discussion will center around the reading, doing all the reading instead of just reading supplements will probably be more conducive to this, seeing as you need to know what he's referring to in order to know what the hell his pov is.

I never briefed cases but I did use the time saved to read and outline supplements and likely spent more time doing work than those who did brief

There are classes where knowing the cases is essential, and classes where it isn't that important. It also depends on the professor. If the professor is going to want you to cite cases in your exam, you had better know them. There are crim law profs who want you to know cases because they will ask you to look at a fact pattern and you will have to differentiate what happened in a case with what happened in the fact pattern.

There isn't any cookie cutter way to doing it. I'm pretty confident in saying this: if you go along not knowing cases in every class you take, somewhere along the way you're going to fail spectacularly.

SwollenMonkey wrote:

jayn3 wrote:

Rocky Estoppel wrote:I try to get sucked on.

i only opened this thread because i thought it said "off."

+1!

Since you posted earlier in the thread, I don't think you know what "+1" means.

I didn't read all of the responses, so I apologize if I am repeating.

Be careful about focusing on hornbooks, E&E's, etc. I know people that did this and studied a lot of stuff our professor did not cover. I thought reading the cases themselves were helpful, though I would not review them in painstaking detail.

It is a waste of time to read supplements that cover material outside of the syllabus, because professors do not test on material that is not on the syllabus. I'd recommend reading the cases carefully, paying attention in class and then using supplements as a reference to clarify points that you do not understand from the readings/class. If you do not pay attention in class and read the cases assigned you risk not having a framework from which to study. Without a framework it is easy to start covering material that will not be on the exam.

To the people who do not read the cases:

What do you do instead? Just read EE's and hornbooks? I mean, if you aren't reading the cases, then how are you spending your time and what are you doing to prepare for class/exams?

mikeytwoshoes wrote:

SwollenMonkey wrote:

jayn3 wrote:

Rocky Estoppel wrote:I try to get sucked on.

i only opened this thread because i thought it said "off."

+1!

Since you posted earlier in the thread, I don't think you know what "+1" means.

You're probably right.