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For those that have already taken Civil Procedure: What were your best tips and tricks for surviving the class and doing well on the exam?

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I just paid attention in class, had a good TA, made my own outline based on class/casebook notes and did fine without ever touching a supplement.

I think an important word of caution in Civ Pro re: supplements is that some of them do things (like the Erie analysis) differently- the E&E has a different approach from Acing Civ Pro (not sure about the others), and really what you want is to do things the way your professor does them, so either ask your professor if they recommend a supplement or figure out which one matches the way your professor teaches the class. Freer is supposed to be the go-to supplement for Civ Pro (similar to Chemerinsky for con law), but it's incredibly comprehensive and I found Acing Civ Pro to have everything I needed in a much shorter, more manageable version.

My prof drew up charts/maps for Erie and PJ stuff, and that was invaluable for saving time on the exam and knowing exactly how to structure the analysis. So maybe create your own maps of how the analysis should proceed for the big stuff.

For most of the other stuff, my prof emphasized how much is there in the Rules if you just read them correctly. So knowing the kinks of key Rules, and how to read quickly the ones that you don't always frequent, helped, too.

doctoroflaw91 wrote:For those that have already taken Civil Procedure: What were your best tips and tricks for surviving the class and doing well on the exam?

My best tip is don't psych yourself out. Civ Pro is really not that bad overall.

Glannon EE and I know a good group of people who raved about the Barbri lectures. I think I listened to a portion of Eerie on it and it was solid. That's really all you need just work hard in the class/pay attention etc., but do get the Glannon and follow it as the semester progresses because it really is helpful. Oh and there is another Glannon multiple choice book that is very good as well, although not as useful as the EE.

Good luck!

doctoroflaw91 wrote:For those that have already taken Civil Procedure: What were your best tips and tricks for surviving the class and doing well on the exam?

I studied my teacher's past exams pretty intensely and was not surprised at all when the exam came around.

On the issues spotter portion, I knew I would see...

PJ;
Erie;
Joinder; and
Preclusion analyses...

...and probably a SMJ question as well.

If I hadn't studied/written past exams, I probably would've done substantially worse.

Glannon and Freer are also highly recommended. Give Barbri a $50 deposit (probably non-refundable, but would go toward a future bar prep. course) and get access to their online videos.

Civ Pro Sum & Substance by Arthur Miller + Glannon E&E.

Acing Civ Pro 3d saved my life so hard I feel like I owe it more money.

Learn to love it. I didn't use supplements or anything, but took really good notes.

One of the things I did for the exam which may have been the smartest move I ever made in my short law school career, was I made a a chart for the fact pattern where I wrote down each party, their minimum contacts, their domicile state, and whether their claim was a Fed Q and other stuff like that. Took about ten minutes to do, but it really helped keep everything in order when the fact pattern got complex.

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First Offense wrote:Learn to love it. I didn't use supplements or anything, but took really good notes.

One of the things I did for the exam which may have been the smartest move I ever made in my short law school career, was I made a a chart for the fact pattern where I wrote down each party, their minimum contacts, their domicile state, and whether their claim was a Fed Q and other stuff like that. Took about ten minutes to do, but it really helped keep everything in order when the fact pattern got complex.

Would you mind explaining exactly how you took advantage of those charts on the exam? My Civ Pro course didn't get into jurisdiction until this semester so it's relevant to my interests.

fourtyacslaw wrote:

First Offense wrote:Learn to love it. I didn't use supplements or anything, but took really good notes.

One of the things I did for the exam which may have been the smartest move I ever made in my short law school career, was I made a a chart for the fact pattern where I wrote down each party, their minimum contacts, their domicile state, and whether their claim was a Fed Q and other stuff like that. Took about ten minutes to do, but it really helped keep everything in order when the fact pattern got complex.

Would you mind explaining exactly how you took advantage of those charts on the exam? My Civ Pro course didn't get into jurisdiction until this semester so it's relevant to my interests.

I want to emphasize how low impact this shit was... spent about ten minutes on it but it was a TON of help.





Not attached: Erie flow chart, Supp Jurisdiction flowchart. Just an example. This stuff didn't take long for me to do, but it was immensely helpful come exam time. Take the five minutes per and profit.

I used:

Glannon's E&E + Freer's audio lecture + reading my Civ Pro casebook twice = A

For studying for the test I just listened to the Freer lecture and went over an outline I made. I recommend marathoning the Freer lectures over a two day period, and relatively close to your test. I think that really was the final nail in the coffin. I felt like Freer cleared up the few issues I had, and provided me with an even clearer view on the things I understood. Come test time I could have done the test without a copy of the rules (which were provided with the closed book exam).

Does your prof recommend a particular supplement?

Also taking civ pro now, I think you can think yourself into thinking that it's tougher than it is. Some of it is tricky, like PJ (especially stream of commerce), but some of it like venue and SMJ is pretty straightforward.

Unlike the poster 2 above, I say ditch the textbook as early as possible. It is a worthless mass of paper, ink and glue. I also like to champion Freer's treatise. I think it is by far the best thing out there (for me it was far superior to the E&E and Freer's audio). In fact, I think it's the best supplement in law, period. Flowcharts are also credited here.

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sublime wrote:

stillwater wrote:Unlike the poster 2 above, I say ditch the textbook as early as possible. It is a worthless mass of paper, ink and glue. I also like to champion Freer's treatise. I think it is by far the best thing out there (for me it was far superior to the E&E and Freer's audio). In fact, I think it's the best supplement in law, period. Flowcharts are also credited here.

So far Freer has been the best supp I have used in any class.

Also, does anybody have any tips on closed book exams specifically? I am just not sure I want to bank on being able to memorize a decently complex flowchart. I think we will have the rules and statutes but that is it.

mine was closed-book. just have to go with the old-fashioned memorization method. know the mechanical rules so you can execute them without looking them up (joinder rules, etc.). I find these harder to keep sorted than PJ (because the latter you can use the cases and construct a loose framework for analysis on the fly. Erie is another one you will probably need to figure out an analytical approach before the exam.

TL;DR: sorry, will have to memorize.

sublime wrote:

stillwater wrote:Unlike the poster 2 above, I say ditch the textbook as early as possible. It is a worthless mass of paper, ink and glue. I also like to champion Freer's treatise. I think it is by far the best thing out there (for me it was far superior to the E&E and Freer's audio). In fact, I think it's the best supplement in law, period. Flowcharts are also credited here.

So far Freer has been the best supp I have used in any class.

Also, does anybody have any tips on closed book exams specifically? I am just not sure I want to bank on being able to memorize a decently complex flowchart. I think we will have the rules and statutes but that is it.

Just a few weeks into the class, I largely ditched the casebook in favor of Freer's book. I typically read and take notes from Freer's treatise, and then skim the relevant cases in the book, just on the off chance that the prof springs some small detail from the book on us. Once you've gotten through a semester of law school and are successful in understanding how to read and analyze cases, I don't see the point in laboring for six hours over a casebook reading when you can get better information in an hour or two.

If it's open note exam, make a flow chart. If not, memorize a flow chart.

I used Freer Supplement + Barbri lectures by Freer. The EEs were MONEY for the hypos at the end of every chapter.

That being said, both Freer and EE are amazingly bad at explaining Erie/providing analytical synthesis. Still trying to figure out just wtf Erie is.

Virindi wrote:If it's open note exam, make a flow chart. If not, memorize a flow chart.

I used Freer Supplement + Barbri lectures by Freer. The EEs were MONEY for the hypos at the end of every chapter.

That being said, both Freer and EE are amazingly bad at explaining Erie/providing analytical synthesis. Still trying to figure out just wtf Erie is.

Yes, Virinidi, I've noticed both of those supplements are relatively poor on Erie as well. I've tried googling some Erie flowcharts, but each one seems to take a slightly different approach, which has me confused

doctoroflaw91 wrote: Yes, Virinidi, I've noticed both of those supplements are relatively poor on Erie as well. I've tried googling some Erie flowcharts, but each one seems to take a slightly different approach, which has me confused

For Eerie, I think the best advice is to follow whatever analysis procedure your professor personally uses in class. I tried to reconcile the process my professor used with a few canned flowcharts and those from other profs at my school, and it was a waste of time. Go to office hours if you must, but figure out your prof's steps in detail and make your own flowchart.

We haven't done Erie yet, not until spring break. We did spend a month on PJ though. How's Glannon for Erie since I might as well preview it over the break?

Over the top wrote:We haven't done Erie yet, not until spring break. We did spend a month on PJ though. How's Glannon for Erie since I might as well preview it over the break?

Erie is the main reason why Glannon is helpful.