Top Law Schools

Asking for the wisdom of elders on this: how did you register for LEEWS? I'd like to take the program, and don't mind the $100+ payment on it. But would you recommend doing it with a group of others, or solo? Which of the offered programs is most worthwhile? Is the audio program a suitable substitute for the live experience, or is that just "market talk" (the website says it's about as effective)?

Just buy the CD

Buy the CD solo? What are the advantages of that? Is the CD sufficient? I feel like having feedback from a person would be nice, but perhaps it's not necessary? What are your thoughts?

A friend gave me a copy of the audio program. I found the cd format to be perfectly sufficient. It allowed for me to review the material once early in the semester, and once towards the end of the semester.

The program is a bit corny:
"LEEWS the confusion, LEEWS the anxiety."

Honestly, I think reviewing hypos with professors was significantly more useful than LEEWS.

I.P. Daly wrote: Honestly, I think reviewing hypos with professors was significantly more useful than LEEWS.

I agree with this statement, although I may change my mind at the end of this semester. To be fair, LEEWS teaches me some tricks that may be useful taking exams.

Corny....hm. It has been recommended to me so many times that I feel an obligation to use it though. Are the tricks actually useful for exams though? I've heard some are handy, but not "required." Could someone give more details about the usefulness (or uselessness) of the LEEWS techniques?

Also, when you say "reviewing hypos with your professor," you mean in the prof's office hours, not in class right? I feel like the hypos in class are great when explained by the prof, but often they are communicated unclearly or the student responses aren't really helpful (esp. the ones who are unprepared).

Overall, I think LEEWS was helpful. For example, LEEWS taught me some exam writing tricks that saved a lot of time on exams (use captions, be short and to the point). Some of the stuff LEEWS discusses is not intuitive. It can provide valuable insight on how to organize an exam answer.

However, several of my professors were willing to review hypos/old exams with me during office hours. I feel like having a professor critique a short hypo/old exam answer during office hours is more valuable than the stuff LEEWS provides. Of course, some professors can be jerks about it.

Also, I think it was more beneficial for me to learn the LEEWS stuff at the beginning of the fall semester (case briefing, tips for preparing for classes). The live LEEWS presentation is conducted late in the semester where I attend school, and a lot of the stuff LEEWS recommends is helpful throughout the semester.

There are certain aspects of LEEWS that are really corny. The instructor encourages the use of several gimmicky legalese phrases (e.g., "assuming arguendo," "infra," "supra"). I would never use that stuff on an exam.

Finally, although my school library does not have a copy of LEEWS, one of my classmates was able to borrow the LEEWS program through the "interlibrary loan system." So, you might be able to borrow a copy for no charge.

Looks like my school has it on ILL, but only the tapes. Is that all I really need? I read GTM this summer and will again probably over fall break, should I do this too?

Stop.

Continue.

Get the CDs, they come with the primer so you can listen and review the material as needed

Lol @ Stop. Continue.

I'm a 1L, but I think LEEWS has already been helpful in narrowing my focus and giving me a good idea of what to expect on most exams. The CD is painfully slow at times, but it does give you a lot of good information and strategies. Personally, I think I'm going to be taking a LEEWs-heavy approach to exams, but I can tell I am not going to follow everything he says to a T.

I have looked at exams for some of my professors and I can tell that many of them may not be that LEEWs friendly. They seem very structured, short answer types rather than long fact patterns. I can't tell yet if this will throw off the LEEWs approach. I'll let you know once I start taking practice tests.

shock259 wrote:Lol @ Stop. Continue.

I'm a 1L, but I think LEEWS has already been helpful in narrowing my focus and giving me a good idea of what to expect on most exams. The CD is painfully slow at times, but it does give you a lot of good information and strategies. Personally, I think I'm going to be taking a LEEWs-heavy approach to exams, but I can tell I am not going to follow everything he says to a T.

I have looked at exams for some of my professors and I can tell that many of them may not be that LEEWs friendly. They seem very structured, short answer types rather than long fact patterns. I can't tell yet if this will throw off the LEEWs approach. I'll let you know once I start taking practice tests.

I agree. Also, remember that you don't have to follow it to the letter. Try it, keep what works, ignore the rest.