Sum & Substance Audio versus Cali.org lessons Forum

[2011Cycle]

For those law students who have utilized both Sum & Substance Audio tapes and Cali.org lessons your comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Giddy-Up]

I have used both. Sum and Substance is better for an overall picture of the entire class. Most of the time the total lecture time is approximately 5 hours and the lecturer tries to hit on the main points. For highly code specific classes (Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, Bankruptcy, Income Tax), my opinion is that the treatment of these subjects will not significantly vary between professors. For first year classes, there is likely to be some significant differences between how your professor teaches a subject and how the lecturer covers the subject. While it still may be helpful to listen to the lectures, there is a danger that you confuse the lecturer's approach and your professor's approach.

Cali lessons allow you to hone in on specific points of law, also they are free. I liked CALI lessons because the material is almost always presented in fact patterns with multiple choice questions. Writing multiple choice questions is much more difficult than writing essay questions since there has to be only one right answer but the wrong answers must be reasonable enough to trip someone up. If I took a course with multiple choice type questions they were often quite similar to the corresponding multiple choice questions from CALI. Whereas an essay question is looking to gage your overall level of knowledge, a multiple choice question is almost always narrowly focused on a specific point of law.

The only reason I used sum and substnace as much as I did is because I spent a couple of hours most days commuting and this would have been wasted time otherwise. If I had the time to focus anyway that I wanted, I am not sure that I would have devoted it to Sum and Substance.

[2011Cycle]

Thanks Giddy-up

[npe]

Trick question, no? TCR is "both."

[thesealocust]

Trick question, no? TCR is "neither."

[npe]

Trick question, no? TCR is "neither."

Meh. S&S is something to listen to during the commute, and CALI lessons are a good way to spend a few hours warming up before diving into practice exams.

[king3780]

I have used both. Sum and Substance is better for an overall picture of the entire class. Most of the time the total lecture time is approximately 5 hours and the lecturer tries to hit on the main points. For highly code specific classes (Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, Bankruptcy, Income Tax), my opinion is that the treatment of these subjects will not significantly vary between professors. For first year classes, there is likely to be some significant differences between how your professor teaches a subject and how the lecturer covers the subject. While it still may be helpful to listen to the lectures, there is a danger that you confuse the lecturer's approach and your professor's approach.

Cali lessons allow you to hone in on specific points of law, also they are free. I liked CALI lessons because the material is almost always presented in fact patterns with multiple choice questions. Writing multiple choice questions is much more difficult than writing essay questions since there has to be only one right answer but the wrong answers must be reasonable enough to trip someone up. If I took a course with multiple choice type questions they were often quite similar to the corresponding multiple choice questions from CALI. Whereas an essay question is looking to gage your overall level of knowledge, a multiple choice question is almost always narrowly focused on a specific point of law.

The only reason I used sum and substnace as much as I did is because I spent a couple of hours most days commuting and this would have been wasted time otherwise. If I had the time to focus anyway that I wanted, I am not sure that I would have devoted it to Sum and Substance.

+1. Agree with this whole post.