Siegel's or Glannon Guide for Property? Forum

[jjlaw]

I'm pretty sure my Property final will include both MC and essays, so I'm considering Seigel's because it has both MC and essays. I've read on TLS that Glannon Guide is also very good, but it only has MC. Which one is better?

[NoleinNY]

I'm pretty sure my Property final will include both MC and essays, so I'm considering Seigel's because it has both MC and essays. I've read on TLS that Glannon Guide is also very good, but it only has MC. Which one is better?

Never heard of Siegel's, so I'll default to Glannon.

[portaprokoss]

I had a similar final.

I used Glannon throughout the semester, topic-by-topic. And then I used Siegels during the last three weeks to prep. Glannon does a good job compartmentalizing ideas, while Siegel blends everything together and makes it a pain to separate.

I'd also recommend that you do real property in a flash as you go along. If you spend time on estates, you will want to buy estates in land and future interests by edwards. It takes a while to work through it, so I'd recommend starting the estates book 1 week before you start covering the material in class.

I thought that, for the most part, the cases in property weren't worth reading. An actual hornbook for property is over the top, the best organized supplement is Understanding Property, but the best written supplement is "property" by singer. The outline by Krier is not good, neither is emanuels, nor the E&E, nor the crunchtime, nor Acing Property.

If I could re-do property, this would be my routine:

1. Before classes start, read the Singer and Sprankling intro, and make a little mini, one page What-is-Property-? outline.

2. After classes start, read and outline from Understanding Property (structuring outline to match Sprankling's organization)

3. Don't read assigned case, but instead skim the notes after the case to see if anything wasn't mentioned by Sprankling or if the casebook uses difference nomenclature and adjust outline accordingly.

4. If you will be spending multiple classes on one case, if you don't understand something, or if you think you need some help with a difficult concept, go to Singer as a supplement to Sprankling (I wouldn't buy it, just use your libraries copy b/c you shouldn't need it that often).

5. Here is where you focus on the big picture. After every case, look at your mini, one page What-is-Property-? outline, and find where your case fits in: what "tension in property law" does the case illustrate? (E.g., Johnson v. M'Intosh--Natural Law Theory (Locke) dismissed in favor of legal positivism; individual needs (of indians) vs. societal needs). That way, at the end of the semester you can have a page in your outline that groups cases by big-picture concepts (e.g. right to contract v. restraints on alienation) and another page that groups the same cases by topic (e.g., adverse possession).

6. At the end of the week, do the chapter and problems in the Glannon multiple choice book (should only take about 30 min.) and spend some time going through the real property in a flash flashcards.

7. One week before you get to estates, begin working through the Edwards book.

With this method you will know the BLL cold. You will also be able to work with it quickly in a multiple choice format. You will also have a huge edge because you will be continually working with the "big themes" of property; this will prepare you to make policy arguments and name drop illustrative cases on your final. Oh, and it will only take you 1/3 of time, so you can free up more time for other classes, or booze.

I started doing this 1/2 way through the semester and it was the best decision of my life.

If anybody has any suggestions re: crim law, con law, or contracts, I'd love to read them.

[adonai]

I've said this before in another thread, but DO NOT BUY GLANNON GUIDE TO PROPERTY. It is horrible, and it is an absolute waste of time. I spent a few days reading this before my property final because I had really good results with the Criminal Guide (which is absolutely awesome btw) and it was just full of leaps in logic and just all around not smooth in transition. They quiz you with questions that include information they assume you should know, but didn't teach in that section or previous sections. I think my wasting time reading this will be the cause of a bad grade in property. However, if you really know your stuff and just want to use it for the questions, it might be alright to use. Just note that the questions are notoriously difficult and long.

[portaprokoss]

I've said this before in another thread, but DO NOT BUY GLANNON GUIDE TO PROPERTY. It is horrible, and it is an absolute waste of time. I spent a few days reading this before my property final because I had really good results with the Criminal Guide (which is absolutely awesome btw) and it was just full of leaps in logic and just all around not smooth in transition. They quiz you with questions that include information they assume you should know, but didn't teach in that section or previous sections. I think my wasting time reading this will be the cause of a bad grade in property. However, if you really know your stuff and just want to use it for the questions, it might be alright to use. Just note that the questions are notoriously difficult and long.

Teaching yourself the concepts from glannon guide to property would be a horrible idea. However, if you've spent the week learning the concepts and you just want a way to test your ability to handle the concepts, glannon guide is fine. If you are going to buy one, and only one, supplement, for the love of god do not make it the glannon guide. But if you use the glannon guide as a 30 min., end of the week review, it's great.

[jjlaw]

Thanks for the advice. Are hypos as important for Property as they were in Torts/Crim? I'm considering whether to get the E&E for property, but people don't seem to like that one either. What casebook did you guys have? I have Dukeminier, and I heard the Gilbert's outline keyed to Dukeminier was useful.

[portaprokoss]

Thanks for the advice. Are hypos as important for Property as they were in Torts/Crim? I'm considering whether to get the E&E for property, but people don't seem to like that one either. What casebook did you guys have? I have Dukeminier, and I heard the Gilbert's outline keyed to Dukeminier was useful.

I used Dukeminier, and I also heard the Gilbert's outline was useful. I thought the casebook was poor, and the Gilbert's was poorer. Krier's organization is shit. You'd be better off foregoing Krier and outlining from Understanding Property. I didn't realize that until Thanksgiving. The beginning of each chapter of Understanding Property has the chapter headings and sub-headings broken down...just make those the headings and sub-headings your outline headings and sub-headings and you will be much better organized than your peers who're using Krier...at least that was my experience.

It sounds like my experience was pretty close to yours: half essay/half m.c., Dukeminier casebook, everybody using Krier's Gilbert.

[memo2partner]

Get Understanding Property (lexisnexis). The Makdisi book is also good to work on future interests.

[keg411]

I liked both the Gilbert's and the Krier text. However, there is also an Emanuels keyed to the Krier casebook that is even better than the Gilbert's. But I'm generally a big fan of the Emanuels.

[Theking28]

does anyone know the best supplement for the singer textbook?

[jd20132013]

I've heard so many varying things on what supplement to use for property, still not sure what I ought to buy at this point.

[in_reverie]

does anyone know the best supplement for the singer textbook?

I'm in the same boat. I'm going with Understanding Property - I generally like how the 'Understanding' series is structured, and most seem to have pretty good things to say about it.

[morris248]

Understanding property and E&E for class and Siegles or Acing Property for exam prep. You can get them fairly cheap used.