A Guide to 1L Supplements: The Key to 1L Success Forum

[TFR]

A Guide to 1L Supplements: The Key to 1L Success

As a 1L this time last year, I was completely lost and determined to succeed. I turned to and experimented supplements, which helped propel my GPA to the top ten percent of my law school class.

Profs will try to scare you into not using supplements and reading cases. This will not get you above median. You need to know the rules and how to apply them. Briefing cases is a start, but if you wake up late in the game not doing anything else, you may be in trouble. Therefore, I highly endorse the use of supplements, based on my own personal experience.

CAVEAT: Know what your Prof says, listen to class, and have an old outline from your Prof. Supplements may get you an A-, but to get an A/A+, you need to throw in some of your Profs. Quotes and cases learned in class to support the rules.

TIP: Look at an old exam before studying. This will help “key” your studying towards your final exam, the outcome of which, will determine your career to a large degree. Example: if your Civ Pro Prof. gives a multiple choice exam, Glannon’s Guide will be a lot more helpful than Examples and Explanations.

TIP2: In order to save time for supplements, buy a keyed casebrief book. This is a book that will have pre-written briefs and take a small fraction of the time to read, compared to the casebook. There are 3 lines: Casebriefs, High Court Case Summaries, and Legalines. In my opinion, high court case summaries is the best, most accurate, and easy to read. Legalines comes in second, and is good because it will have additional material as well. Casebriefs format did not work that well for me.

I. Supplement ratings by subject:

1. Civil Procedure:
a. Note: this is a Course in which the rules change, so get the latest edition.
b. Examples and Explanations Civ Pro: 10/10. This is probably one of the best law school supplements ever created. Read this to learn the subject and prepare for the exam. Written as a treatise, with examples and explanations to test your knowledge and teach you how to write an exam.
c. Glannon’s Guide to Civ Pro: 10/10. Similar to E&E but tests your knowledge with multiple choice questions. Excellent supplement. Breaks down a complicated subject into a clear and simple one.
d. Rich Freer’s BarBri Lecture: 8/10. If you are lost, listen to this. It will give you the best overview for CivPro possible and he is entertaining as can be. Not a 10/10, because many rules/topics may be missing from the lecture.
e. Inside CivPro: 6/10. Good for a decent understanding, and more in depth view of CivPro.
f. Gilbert’s CivPro. 7/10. Use this after you know the subject for review. The diagrams are amazing, come exam time.
g. Rich Freer’s Student Treatise: NR. I have heard excellent things about this book. I have not used it, so I cannot rate it.
h. CrunchTime Civ Pro: 9/10. Excellent for exam review. I would use this after EE/GG CivPro.
i. Acing CivPro: 10/10. Excellent to come up with an attack plan for the exam.
j. Siegel’s Civpro: 8/10. Very good for week before exam practice.

2. Contracts:
a. Note: K’s is a subject that doesn’t change much, so older editions should be fine.
b. Examples and Explanations K’s: 6/10. This is unnecessarily long. Otherwise a decent supplement
c. Gilbert’s K’s: 8/10: An excellent overview and outline format. Highly recommended.
d. Chirelstein Concepts Insights on K’s: 6/10. TLS rates this as much better, but from personal experience, this will only help if your prof is more theoretical. If you will be dealing strictly with hypos this isn’t necessary.
e. Whaley’s Sum and Substance Audio on K’s: 9/10. The audio itself is slightly unclear, otherwise this is probably one of the best supplements for K’s in my opinion.
f. CrunchTime K’s: 8/10: Excellent for before exam.
g. Acing K’s: 9/10. Excellent for an attack plan, but may be missing some topics or subtopics.
h. Glannon’s Guide to K’s: NR. This just came out, I believe, but I would take a look at it, because the others were good.
i. Epstein Barbri Lecture on K’s: 7/10. Not that thorough.
j. A short and happy guide to K’s: 6/10. Not in depth enough. Good for a brief overview.
k. Siegel’s K's: 8/10. Very good for week before exam practice.
l. Q/A k's: 8/10. Very good for exam practice.

3. Property:
a. Gilberts Property: 10/10. Hands down the best supplement on property. Written by one of the authors of the Dukeminier Casebook.
b. Examples and Explanations Property: 9/10. Very good for learning the subject and practicing hypos.
c. CrunchTime Property: 8/10. Good, but not that thorough. I would look it over though, before the exam.
d. Glannon’s Guide to Property: 4/10. Very incomplete. Not highly recommended.
e. Barbri Franzese lecture: NR. Have not used, but have heard excellent things.
f. Siegel’s Property: 8/10. Very good for week before exam practice.
g. Q/A Property: 5/10. Decent.

4. Criminal Law:
a. Note: your prof. may teach your state law. If he/she does, supplements will not include that generally. You need to learn your state’s law. Latest edition usually not necessary.
b. Examples and Explanations CrimLaw: 5/10. Decent for learning the subject and practicing hypos.
c. Glannon’s Guide to Crimlaw: 6/10. Decent for learning the subject and practicing hypos.
d. Understanding CrimLaw: 9/10. Written by Dressler. Treatise format, but probably the best written material out there.
e. BLL Outlines CrimLaw: 7/10. Written by Dressler. Outline format, decent, but far from the best.
f. Sum Substance CrimLaw Audio: 10/10. By Dressler. This is audio, and as good as it gets. One of the best LS supplements out there.
g. Siegel’s CrimLaw: 7/10. Good for week before exam practice.
h. Acing CrimLaw: 5/10. Ok.

5. Torts:
a. Note: Latest edition is worth it, because of new law in products liability.
b. Examples and Explanations Torts: 9/10. Written by Glannon and an excellent supplement. Highly Recommended.
c. Gilbert’s Torts: 6/10. Not that great as the other materials by gilbert’s.
d. Glannon’s Guide Torts: 7/10. A good quick read, worth the read, but very lacking in terms of the problems given.
e. Concepts insights on Torts: 9/10. Excellent for the theory in torts. Will work well for hypos too.
f. Crunchtime torts: 8/10. Very good, but not the best crunchtime out there.
i. Siegel’s Torts: 8/10. Good for week before exam practice.
j. Acing torts: 6/10. Not as good as K’s or CivPro.
k. ExamPro torts: 5/10. similar to Siegel's, but siegel's is better.

6. ConLaw:
a. Note: in conlaw ALWAYS get the latest edition.
b. Chemerinsky conlaw: 10/10. The key in ConLaw. But not an outline format, very long. So you might need something else to break it down.
c. Crunchtime conlaw: 10/10. Excellent supplement. Read this before the exam. And during semester
d. Law School Legends Audio on conlaw: 6/10. Outdated. Too short. Good for overview.
e. Sum Substance Audio Conlaw: 9/10. Excellent if you are lost. But not up to date. Don’t rely solely on this.
f. Nutshell conlaw: 7/10. Good for a succinct overview.
g. Examples and Explanations conlaw: 6/10. Not as good as others.
h. Siegel’s conlaw: 9/10. Excellent for week before exam practice.
i. Q/A Conlaw: 5/10. Siegels is better.
j. Gilbert’s Conlaw: 7/10. Good for use as a kind of conlaw guide/index.
k. Acing conlaw: 5/10. Not the best acing formatting. It is more written like a treatise.
l. Inside Conlaw: 4/10. Not awesome, lengthy and if you like this format, stick to chemerinsky.
m. Emanuel's conlaw: 8/10. Very detailed briefs of all cases and very easy to read format. also comes out with a new edition yearly. If you are short on time, stick with the crunchtime series.
n. Nowak/Rotunda concise conlaw hornbook: 7/10. Similar to chemerinsky, but chemerinsky's is better.
o. Glannon's Guide to conlaw: 3/10. Not great.

[quiver]

Very good supplement overview. Let me just add that if your professor recommends a particular supplement, that supplement trumps all.

Also, for civpro: I used Erichson's Inside Civil Procedure and thought it was an amazing supplement (10/10 on my rankings) but that might have to do with the fact that my professor recommended it.

[thomas7669]

what do supplements add that an old outline(from somebody who aced the class with that professor), doesnt have? Debating if I should spend the money or not.

[JCFindley]

Thanks OP.

On prof recommendations, should I just consider it fact that if the prof wrote the case boot and a horn book on the subject that the hornbook is a must?

[Kage3212]

Did you really utilize ALL of these supplements? If so, how did you make time to go through each supplement? Additionally, how did you have the funds to buy all of them?

This seems like an insurmountable amount of work to go through each of these supplements for their corresponding courses.

[quiver]

On prof recommendations, should I just consider it fact that if the prof wrote the case boot and a horn book on the subject that the hornbook is a must?

I wouldn't say it's a must, but if you're going to get a supplement I think that would be the best one to get.

[JCFindley]

On prof recommendations, should I just consider it fact that if the prof wrote the case boot and a horn book on the subject that the hornbook is a must?

I wouldn't say it's a must, but if you're going to get a supplement I think that would be the best one to get.

Thanks Q

[TFR]

Did you really utilize ALL of these supplements? If so, how did you make time to go through each supplement? Additionally, how did you have the funds to buy all of them?

This seems like an insurmountable amount of work to go through each of these supplements for their corresponding courses.

A. Time: I spent more time on the better ones, which one is able to gauge after a few chapters. I used the time people spent on briefing cases for one class to go through a 1/3 of a supplement. Briefing cases can take 2-3 hours+ for each class, this time is better spent going through supplements. Instead, read a keyed casebrief to your casebook. I will edit my OP to include casebrief info.

B. Funds. If you buy a new edition and keep it in good condition, you can usually resell it on Amazon/Half.com for close to the same price. If it is a subject in which an older edition is fine, you can usually get it for 4-5 dollars on amazon.

[TFR]

Thanks OP.

On prof recommendations, should I just consider it fact that if the prof wrote the case boot and a horn book on the subject that the hornbook is a must?

If you mean your prof. wrote the hornbook, by all means read it.

If your prof. says don't read supplements unless you read this hornbook (a 4,000 page one thats similar to the casebook), I would take a look at it, but it might not be "the one" to get.

Either way, a supplement that goes through hypotheticals will do things that the hornbook ur prof. mentioned might not.

[TFR]

what do supplements add that an old outline(from somebody who aced the class with that professor), doesnt have? Debating if I should spend the money or not.

An old outline will help you memorize the rules for your prof.'s exam and have things that are important to your prof. in it. A supplement, however, will aid you in learning the material if you are lost, help you work thru hypos that might appear on ur exam, and give you a different, sometimes more helpful viewpoint. Law school cost 80k a year (w/ COL), a few hundred bucks more investment might be worth it, depending on ur situation.

[sojuteacher]

For perspective, just posting this for people considering buying supplements; not trying to argue with OP. Everyone learns differently, but I did just as well as OP and I didn't buy any supplements.

The only supplement I used was the online CALI lesson on freehold estates for property, because for me it is a complicated area of law and it was really hard to understand from the casebook and the lecture.

The rest of the time, if I didn't understand a case, I just re-read the case. I feel like you can miss out on developing the skills you need to be a lawyer if you just turn into a supplement that digests the case for you.

Of course, supplements can be great for certain people,. Just wanted to post this as a public service announcement for 0Ls and new 1Ls who may have doubts about buying supplements; again, not trying to argue with the OP.

[TFR]

For perspective, just posting this for people considering buying supplements; not trying to argue with OP. Everyone learns differently, but I did just as well as OP and I didn't buy any supplements.

The only supplement I used was the online CALI lesson on freehold estates for property, because for me it is a complicated area of law and it was really hard to understand from the casebook and the lecture.

The rest of the time, if I didn't understand a case, I just re-read the case. I feel like you can miss out on developing the skills you need to be a lawyer if you just turn into a supplement that digests the case for you.

Of course, supplements can be great for certain people,. Just wanted to post this as a public service announcement for 0Ls and new 1Ls who may have doubts about buying supplements; again, not trying to argue with the OP.

OP here: agree with you 100% on the lawyering skills from casereading, and thanks for the perspective. My post is what worked for me, and meant more as a guide to the right supplements, if a 0L/1L feels they need them (i.e. lost and feels like casereading doesn't work for them from early on). Different things do work for different people.

[Geaux12]

I apologize for the seemingly stupid question, but how should I approach reading my E&E's, Crunchtime outlines, hornbooks, etc?

Should I simply read the E&E's cover to cover in order? Should I be jumping around to the relevant section we're covering in class? What about hornbooks? In what manner should I use the Crunchtime books?


I've got them all sitting in front of me, and I want to get started now at the beginning of October...but it's daunting. How should I begin tackling them?

[TFR]

I apologize for the seemingly stupid question, but how should I approach reading my E&E's, Crunchtime outlines, hornbooks, etc?

Should I simply read the E&E's cover to cover in order? Should I be jumping around to the relevant section we're covering in class? What about hornbooks? In what manner should I use the Crunchtime books?


I've got them all sitting in front of me, and I want to get started now at the beginning of October...but it's daunting. How should I begin tackling them?

Different people work differently. Personally, I went with the supplements cover to cover in a few days, rather than jumping around with the class.

In regards to which books first, I would start with the EE/hornbook/treatise. then proceed to crunchtime/acing and from there to siegels/q&a

[theaether]

thanks for the guide it was very helpful and I am ordering many of the books you rated highly. I did have a question though: is there a torts supplement that covers workers compensation and no-fault auto insurance? I only have the E&E so far and I did not find it in there.

[nshapkar]

I bought two supplements in the middle of the semester...do you think it would be better to start where we are at the moment, or start reading it from the first topic covered?

[TFR]

thanks for the guide it was very helpful and I am ordering many of the books you rated highly. I did have a question though: is there a torts supplement that covers workers compensation and no-fault auto insurance? I only have the E&E so far and I did not find it in there.

Although, I am not 100 percent sure, see concepts insights, forms functions of tort law, Crunchtime (and prob emanuels) for workers comp. To the extent you cannot find something, unless ur prof. spent an inordinate amount of time on these topics, or u r really confused, class notes are prob. ok, bec. these aren't that "testable" areas.

[TFR]

I bought two supplements in the middle of the semester...do you think it would be better to start where we are at the moment, or start reading it from the first topic covered?

It depends, if you are feeling confident i would start wer u r. If you are lost, it depends on the topic. For civpro, K's, crimlaw, torts, I'd start from scratch. For conlaw and property, u can prob start at next/last major topic

[nshapkar]

I bought two supplements in the middle of the semester...do you think it would be better to start where we are at the moment, or start reading it from the first topic covered?

It depends, if you are feeling confident i would start wer u r. If you are lost, it depends on the topic. For civpro, K's, crimlaw, torts, I'd start from scratch. For conlaw and property, u can prob start at next/last major topic

Yeah it's for civpro and property...CivPro I am very lost on so I'll probably start from scratch and attempt to be cought up by the end of the month. For Property though, I think I'll start one section back and catch up.

For me these are the two hardest classes. I have both E&Es for them, are there any other supplements worth buying? I've read about 15 pages of the property E&E and am already feeling a lot better than I was a few days before I got the book. CivPro E&E just arrived last night so I couldn't really take a look at it.

[TFR]

I bought two supplements in the middle of the semester...do you think it would be better to start where we are at the moment, or start reading it from the first topic covered?

It depends, if you are feeling confident i would start wer u r. If you are lost, it depends on the topic. For civpro, K's, crimlaw, torts, I'd start from scratch. For conlaw and property, u can prob start at next/last major topic

Yeah it's for civpro and property...CivPro I am very lost on so I'll probably start from scratch and attempt to be cought up by the end of the month. For Property though, I think I'll start one section back and catch up.

For me these are the two hardest classes. I have both E&Es for them, are there any other supplements worth buying? I've read about 15 pages of the property E&E and am already feeling a lot better than I was a few days before I got the book. CivPro E&E just arrived last night so I couldn't really take a look at it.

For civpro, listen to the freer BarBri lecture (5 hours). Its available to barbri students, or buy law school legends lecture by rich freer. You will be in a much better place after that. Then read the EE. Acing civpro before exam.

For property, the Gilberts is number 1. EE is very good as well.

[nshapkar]

For civpro, listen to the freer BarBri lecture (5 hours). Its available to barbri students, or buy law school legends lecture by rich freer. You will be in a much better place after that. Then read the EE. Acing civpro before exam.

For property, the Gilberts is number 1. EE is very good as well.

Thank you so much for all of the useful information. Last annoying question, I have a gift card for amazon and I could get the Gilbert Property book...is it worth it to have both the E&E and Gilbert for property? So far I've found the E&E useful, however, if Gilbert goes in more depth or is clearer, I'd be open to it. Might it be counter productive to be using two supplements for the same course?

[mh013]

Thanks, this breakdown is awesome

[sublime]

..

[colonelnerd]

tag, anyone found torrents for any of these? I'm not having much luck

Reminder: TLS is not the place to try and circumvent copyright laws. User has been warned.

[racrfish]

Tag.