How the hell do you study for secured transactions? Forum

[Garinold]

Essentially what the title says. My professor is an adjunct that just jumps all over Article 9 in class working with hypotheticals, which has essentially left us with limited if any class structure. I talked to him once after class and we are going to be responsible for the vast majority of Article 9 come final time. Trying to outline Article 9 just seems to be unworkable at present.

I purchased a supplement called "Mastering Secured Transactions UCC Article 9", which essentially translates Article 9 into the English language. However, in highlighting this supplement I can see that studying it will be somewhat ineffective since it will be too dense. Distilling this supplement into a workable outline seems like its going to be a pain in the ass almost equal in magnitude to distilling Article 9 itself. Plus I understand that there are specific rules of perfect & priority that will be implicated depending upon what collateral you're working with, and thus having an outline formatted along those lines seems like it would be most effective.

I don't know. It could be that I'm a 3L and I'm just so sick and tired of this stupid law school studying/outlining bullshit and I have just lost the will to continue with the shit. I just want there to be an easier way to going about this. I tried looking at past outlines from other law students and they all contain giant gaping holes in material that I know I will be tested on, and I just don't trust them.

If you know of an easier way to come up with an outline for secured transactions than outlining Article 9, a supplement that translates it into English, please help!

Thanks

[morris248]

You already have the best supplement.

For an outline this may help

--LinkRemoved--

For exam study try Questions and Answers Secured Transactions

Questions and Answers Secured Transactions

[Garinold]

I appreciate the feedback dude. This outline looks pretty concise and yet it is comprehensive. It doesn't cover default, which I know I will be tested on. No big deal though, I suppose I can online that on my own.

Thanks, and more is always welcome

[ToTransferOrNot]

It seems like you're trying to figure out a way to study for an Article 9 class without mastering all of Article 9. You're not going to be able to. You study for this class the same way you studied for the Article 2 portion of your 1L contracts class: master the code. That's about all there is to it. fwiw, I got the high grade in my sec. trans. class by briefly looking at the E&E; but otherwise, I just dredged through the Code over... and over... and over again.

[Garinold]

It seems like you're trying to figure out a way to study for an Article 9 class without mastering all of Article 9. You're not going to be able to. You study for this class the same way you studied for the Article 2 portion of your 1L contracts class: master the code. That's about all there is to it. fwiw, I got the high grade in my sec. trans. class by briefly looking at the E&E; but otherwise, I just dredged through the Code over... and over... and over again.

Ahhhhh..........I'm getting that feeling. It doesn't hurt to look around the internet though to see if someone has done it already for you and outlined it

[ToTransferOrNot]

It seems like you're trying to figure out a way to study for an Article 9 class without mastering all of Article 9. You're not going to be able to. You study for this class the same way you studied for the Article 2 portion of your 1L contracts class: master the code. That's about all there is to it. fwiw, I got the high grade in my sec. trans. class by briefly looking at the E&E; but otherwise, I just dredged through the Code over... and over... and over again.

Ahhhhh..........I'm getting that feeling. It doesn't hurt to look around the internet though to see if someone has done it already for you and outlined it

Of course not, and I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't look for those kind of resources. What I am saying, though, is that I think code-based classes - even more than other classes - benefit from your doing your own outlining, because it forces you to really grapple with the Code. I don't think trying to study off a pre-made outline will serve you well.

[Garinold]

It seems like you're trying to figure out a way to study for an Article 9 class without mastering all of Article 9. You're not going to be able to. You study for this class the same way you studied for the Article 2 portion of your 1L contracts class: master the code. That's about all there is to it. fwiw, I got the high grade in my sec. trans. class by briefly looking at the E&E; but otherwise, I just dredged through the Code over... and over... and over again.

Ahhhhh..........I'm getting that feeling. It doesn't hurt to look around the internet though to see if someone has done it already for you and outlined it

Of course not, and I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't look for those kind of resources. What I am saying, though, is that I think code-based classes - even more than other classes - benefit from your doing your own outlining, because it forces you to really grapple with the Code. I don't think trying to study off a pre-made outline will serve you well.

I get that. I usually do make my own outlines and have usually done well with statute heavy courses. It is just that secured trans is much more difficult than any other course I've taken in law school, and while I know the process I'm "supposed" to take, it just sucks so bad I'm dragging my feet. Made this post hoping someone can help me out.

[Snooker]

I took this as a 2L and got an A. I think we used the same book - it's that thin casebook with names like Solid State Bank and such, right?

I made my study for this class totally hypo-driven like the course was structured. The Article 9 statute is actually quite clear and was really one of the great success stories of the uniform laws. If you look at the "treatise" on Article 9, the actual content about the law is very thin. What you need to learn is how to apply all of these highly technical rules. My approach was:

(1) understand what the law is and statutes say, down to the fine details, cold. It's not a huge amount.
(2) understand quite instinctively how to solve a hypo when you see it. Know the book hypos. Law in a flash and other resources are also good.

As for organizing an outline, it shouldn't be so tough. You need commentary about how the law works, and you need all of the hypos and how your professor analyzes the statute.

[dood]

secured transactions was the only class i did not outline for and it was taught at my law school (gw) very much as u describe. in fact i believe its the best and easiest way to teach art 9.

mastering sec trans book is ok and so is e&e. but here is the thing: its impossible to literally test ALL of art.9 - ur professor is going to write problems very similar to what she goes over in class. this is where supplements fail. mastering is too in depth and covers everything - wastes ur time. e&e is too easy and wont prepare u enough - it only provides questions constrained to one art. 9 sub-section.

my suggestion: go to class and actively think through every example and really learn applying art. 9 to those specific facts. take very detailed notes and study for the exam by redoing/testing ur self on all the examples ur prof has gone over. on the actual exam it is my opinion u should consult nothing but art. 9 - the nuances of secured transactions are often lost when u try to paraphase or try to group things by similar fact patterns.

secured transactions was my favorite class in law school and yes, i did get an A. just takes intense concentration to really learn how to attack every problem in a step by step methodically way. repeating examples worked best for me. good luck. hth.

edit: i believe the guy above me and i are on a similar page.

[Garinold]

I appreciate the feedback. At this point I'm getting the feeling that I might be fucked. We're half way through the course and to be honest, I'd have to start from scratch at this point and redo all the assignments and everything since I've been outlining from the Mastering Secured Transactions book. That being said I need to write a seminar paper over the course of this next week and weekend, plus I have an interview the following week and have no idea when I'm gonna have a large enough amount of time to go over all of the entire course that I've kind of skimmed and not really paid attention to.

The casebook I have is Steven L. Harris & Charles W. Mooney. I'm thinking at this point I should just go back over all the problems we've done in class and outline the corresponding rules so I'm not going over the rules that we haven't covered. I don't know what I should do at this point. I'm probably fucked...

[angie979]

I know this is an old post but I recently used it to get advice on studying for Secured Transactions so I thought I'd add to it. I took advice to purchase the Glannon Guild to Secured Transactions which is wonderful! I also found this cool interactive West site that gives exercises with explanations so that you can test yourself on key areas: http://www.ruschsecuredtransactions.com/eExercises.asp.

[Miller32]

Kind of off-subject, but how much detail to bar exam secured transaction questions? If I'm studying that, any recommendations? I'm trying to avoid getting bogged down in unnecessary detail.