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Professor's book-store page recommends Emanuel, but from doing research on here it's clear as day that Chemerinsky is far and away the holy grail of Con-Law supplements (especially considering we have the Chemerinsky book)

Torn between getting the best supplement overall, and the supplement my professor is recommending

thoughts?

personally, I am buying Chemerinsky. But if I were in your shoes, I would go with my prof's recommendation.

I used both. Would highly recommend doing so. They're both used for very different purposes.

edit: the Emanuel was the only book that I brought with me into my conlaw exam (that and my outlines) - actually helped a lot

My personal opinion is that the Chemerinsky is overrated. I know that puts me in the minority on here (and I read every single page of it that covered the material that we did in class - so it's not due to a lack of trying). Don't get me wrong, it helped and I would recommend buying it. But I didn't see it as the savior of my conlaw class like some others did.

if you have the Chemerinsky textbook and your prof seems to like it at all you would be a fool to use anything but the Chemerinsky supplement.

i was totally lost in Con Law; it basically became a gunnerfest where liberal gunner debated conservative gunner each day while the other 75 of us watched.

i spent 4 days with the supplement and got my highest grade in law school. book is also great for insight on upper level classes on first amendment, fed courts, etc.

I bought Chemerinsky for Con Law this semester, read it once and hated it. I sold it on Amazon and picked up the two E&E's (one for national powers and the other for individual rights), and I was much happier. The E&E got me through Civ Pro with an A-, so hopefully my Con Law experience is the same; I'll know once the grades come out.

Supplements are pretty personal- what works for some may not work for others. Just keep that in mind- no reason to spend the semester reading a supplement that you find no clearer than a textbook because you didn't want to spend $40 on another one.

I liked con law in a nutshell, but it was also the supplement my teacher suggested we use and had with her everyday.

wiseowl wrote:if you have the Chemerinsky textbook and your prof seems to like it at all you would be a fool to use anything but the Chemerinsky supplement.

i was totally lost in Con Law; it basically became a gunnerfest where liberal gunner debated conservative gunner each day while the other 75 of us watched.

i spent 4 days with the supplement and got my highest grade in law school. book is also great for insight on upper level classes on first amendment, fed courts, etc.

This is exactly what happened in my con law class. It was so painful. Thankfully, our teacher interspersed some lecture between the gunner debates, and I basically just studied my notes really hard before the test and did well. I used the Chermerinsky a few times, but I wasn't that impressed. I do know other classmates who swore by that supplement, and got A's.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through the Chemerinsky supplement. It really is great. I plan to re-read sections of it in conjunction with our class material. Although our casebook next semester isn't isn't the Chemerinsky textbook, it tracks the topics fairly well to the syllabus.

I have a copy of the Emanuel outline coming too, but is mainly to help organize my material into a more structured outline. I think they serve different purposes, and so plan to use both.

For me, Chem was almost like a Casenotes for the book. Nothing too insightful, but it was helpful if I didn't really understand what was going on in a particular case -- and SCOTUS loves to write ridiculously long opinions that need to be unraveled.

The only things I found helpful for Con Law were old outlines.

Seems like each prof has their own take on Con Law -- maybe that's why I didn't find supplements too helpful.

missinglink wrote:I'm about 1/4 of the way through the Chemerinsky supplement. It really is great. I plan to re-read sections of it in conjunction with our class material. Although our casebook next semester isn't isn't the Chemerinsky textbook, it tracks the topics fairly well to the syllabus.

I have a copy of the Emanuel outline coming too, but is mainly to help organize my material into a more structured outline. I think they serve different purposes, and so plan to use both.

You read supplements over break?

Its best to wait for a couple weeks into class before getting supplements. I bought Chemerinsky last year and it did not help at all for my prof. He taught the class so differently that it would actually hurt you to read it.

goodolgil wrote:

missinglink wrote:I'm about 1/4 of the way through the Chemerinsky supplement. It really is great. I plan to re-read sections of it in conjunction with our class material. Although our casebook next semester isn't isn't the Chemerinsky textbook, it tracks the topics fairly well to the syllabus.

I have a copy of the Emanuel outline coming too, but is mainly to help organize my material into a more structured outline. I think they serve different purposes, and so plan to use both.

You read supplements over break?

Nothing too serious. I honestly like reading about these things on my own, and I would feel more comfortable having at least some understanding of the broad picture before the semester begins.

Personally, when things began last semester, I spent so much time looking at issues in depth that I never got a sense of the forest for the trees until the very end. I think my time at the beginning of the semester would be better spent if I had a good sense of the course overview. I also have some good course outlines already, so I'm not wasting time looking at things we don't cover.