cliff notes for law school? Forum

[unclej]

when I was in high school, we had something called "cliff notes"
I am sure you know what I'm talking about.

Is there an equivalent thing for law school? It would also be nice if it had lots of examples. I cant learn unless I am given lots of examples.

so ideally, the cliff notes should say
rule: blah blah
for example, if John pushes Ed into a swimming pool, blah blah
but if Ed falls by himself, blah blah

[lawhopeful10]

when I was in high school, we had something called "cliff notes"
I am sure you know what I'm talking about.

Is there an equivalent thing for law school? It would also be nice if it had lots of examples. I cant learn unless I am given lots of examples.

so ideally, the cliff notes should say
rule: blah blah
for example, if John pushes Ed into a swimming pool, blah blah
but if Ed falls by himself, blah blah

There are lots of supplements for each subject that provide examples and answers. The best bet though is to wait until you get to school and talk to upper classman who had your teachers. My teachers were really clear what they wanted so I really only used a supplement in Civ Pro.

[Robb]

This post helped me a lot:

I'm pretty pissed the invispress ones don't go with my current casebooks.

in case anyone doesn't know: http://www.invispress.com/law/

Im a big fan of their con law briefs.

I love the briefs there.

Generally, there are three primary sources:

1) Supplements
2) Case briefs (as in the link above) <-- This seems to be what you're thinking of, at least in terms of a quick outline of the rule that comes out of a case
3) 2L/3L outlines

I use each to serve a slightly different purpose. I use outlines when making my own outline, to check what I have down and see if I'm missing anything they thought was important, or including things that they deemed to be useless. Often I don't end up changing my outline as a result, but it does make me think about it. I don't like to use outlines during the quarter because I feel like it takes the work out of figuring it out, and I never really learn anything unless I figure it out. Supplements are basically really long outlines, with lots of extraneous information that you don't need. (Kind of like your casebook... only... Supplements have more information, and they're easier to understand...) They provide the extensive examples and problem sets, along with answers, that you're looking for. Those I do use during the quarter, as a supplement to my notes. Sometimes I'll glance at them before I do the reading, because placing a hard case in context can really help. Briefs serve three purposes for me: 1) when you didn't/don't have the time to do the reading, they give you the information you need to understand what is going on in class (for most people they probably help with cold calls, too, but I'm helpless in that department regardless of briefs/reading/supplements/outlines); 2) when you did do the reading, but you're having a hard time trying to synthesize it, it often helps to look at a brief; and 3) when you are making your outline for that one day when a memo was due that you didn't do the reading for or skimmed on the treadmill and don't remember what that case was, it can refresh your memory.

You have to be very careful with briefs and supplements, because they often don't address what your professor actually thinks is important. I don't know if this is true everywhere, but for me Understanding Property was great, and paralleled the course fairly well. The torts supplement was useless. Crim, Civ Pro, I've found to be somewhere in between.

[la_flauta]

when I was in high school, we had something called "cliff notes"
I am sure you know what I'm talking about.

Is there an equivalent thing for law school? It would also be nice if it had lots of examples. I cant learn unless I am given lots of examples.

so ideally, the cliff notes should say
rule: blah blah
for example, if John pushes Ed into a swimming pool, blah blah
but if Ed falls by himself, blah blah

There are lots of supplements for each subject that provide examples and answers. The best bet though is to wait until you get to school and talk to upper classman who had your teachers. My teachers were really clear what they wanted so I really only used a supplement in Civ Pro.

I used supplements quite a bit. I substituted language when need be, but they were great for practice problems and when I needed a concise breakdown of a topic. Our Property prof was brilliant but dry and he often wandered off on subjects we knew would not be tested on his closed book/outline exam. As such, having a supplement with everything about future interests neatly presented (in chart form!) was incredibly useful.

My contracts book followed the Short and Happy Guide to a T. I practically outlined from it alone. Coincidentally this was my best grade.

I had a family emergency just before the civ pro exam and used the Sum and Supplements series to listen to on the plane. It made me feel like I was being productive without being overly taxing on my nerves.

I didn't need one for Torts or Crim, but I used flash cards with friends.

The Chemerinsky supplement for Con Law was incredibly useful as I started suffering from major insomnia and that class was early, meaning my class notes weren't very coherent in parts. I sat next to a saint though, which helped.

[prezidentv8]

when I was in high school, we had something called "cliff notes"
I am sure you know what I'm talking about.

Is there an equivalent thing for law school?

Yes. They are called "Bob's Notes." Here are the Bob's Notes for all of law school:

Don't go to law school.

[It's A Lion]

http://lawschoolcasebriefs.com/

[2807]

You can google many of the cases.

Also, Oyez.org has great short summaries for most of your con law basics.