Used or New Casebooks? Forum

[joetheplumber]

Is it better to buy a new casebook or will an old casebook with highlighting suffice cause those casebooks are EXPENSIVEEE

[071816]

I would buy em used unless you're one of those people who feels the need to write a bunch of shit in their books.

[shock259]

No reason to buy them new

[bhan87]

I bought all new Fall semester, then i tried a mixture of new and used for Spring semester. This might just be me, but I tended to focus better with the new books. The fact that the pages were clear of another student's writing made it easier to put in my own notes.

A book with only light highlighting is fine, but steer clear of books that have either been a. over-highlighted (I had one book where a few cases were ENTIRELY highlighted... in DARK GREEN) or b. have lots of notes in the margin. If you can get a relatively clean used book, I say go for it.

[bloobook]

.

[lifestooquick]

Depends on the person. I budget for new casebooks because I'm one of those with a highlighting system and lots of margin notes and other people's highlighting and crap stresses me out. I am in the minority on this though.

[Lycurgus]

Used. If you follow the advice on this site you should spend that money you save on highly-praised supplements.

[Mick Haller]

after 1L year, I didn't buy the casebook at all for professors who did not cold call. 3 outlines on Outline Depot for $30 + used E&E or Emanuel's outline for $20 = all you need.

[Perseus_I]

I bought old versions of used casebooks for about $4 a pop. For Con Law, I did not even use the casebook. I looked up the cases on WestlawNext during class to follow along. A+

FYI, the one thing you should never buy is supplements. These are not useful except as an occasional reference (and can be a huge time sink), and you can usually find the good ones in the library.

[joetheplumber]

I see. What about older versions of casebooks.

[Mick Haller]

FYI, the one thing you should never buy is supplements. These are not useful except as an occasional reference (and can be a huge time sink), and you can usually find the good ones in the library.

Honestly, I agree with this. I never really found E&E all that useful. For some courses, a canned outline like Emanuels or Gilberts was good, but they were often too long and too dense to be time efficient. Crunchtime is probably the best canned outline.

Outlinedepot outlines are definitely worth the time and money, in my opinion. The best study material is your class notes, so be sure to take good ones.

[NotMyRealName09]

Depends on the person. I budget for new casebooks because I'm one of those with a highlighting system and lots of margin notes and other people's highlighting and crap stresses me out. I am in the minority on this though.

I bought all new Fall semester, then i tried a mixture of new and used for Spring semester. This might just be me, but I tended to focus better with the new books. The fact that the pages were clear of another student's writing made it easier to put in my own notes.

A book with only light highlighting is fine, but steer clear of books that have either been a. over-highlighted (I had one book where a few cases were ENTIRELY highlighted... in DARK GREEN) or b. have lots of notes in the margin. If you can get a relatively clean used book, I say go for it.

These - used textbooks could have been highlighted by some idiot a-hole, focusing on all the unimportant crap, drawing your eye to something not worth focusing on. I don't care who you are - if something is highlighted, your brain will think it is important. And then there is the inexplicable "I highlighted everything" used textbook, which may as well have highlighted nothing. For all core classes I only bought new. But, I also only underlined in pencil and made notes in the margin (book briefed) - highlights seem to over-emphasize.