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stop trying to get ahead and get a life

I've been trying to figure this out myself also. In How to Get into Law School, Susan Estrich says that is really depends on the professor that you are taking the class with because every professor has their own style and focus. From what I've read on other threads on TLS it won't help that much to read these before school starts. I think you might be better off reading Getting to Maybe and just glancing over the ones you listed in your post.

1. Joshua Dressler is the god of criminal law.

2. There's not much to be gained reading this stuff before school rather than in conjunction with your course and what your prof actually assigns. If you're going to crack these books open, I would suggest just reading the introductions. Anything more and you will probably won't retain enough to be any value, will vaguely learn things that will not help you in your courses because the prof doesn't even cover them, and once you are burned out and disillusioned with law school, you will feel disappointed you didn't spend your time having fun.

3. I am waiting to see if TTT-LS will make an appearance in this thread.

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My suggestion: read Getting to Maybe & after that just enjoy the summer.

What about reading something, anything just to get a feel for the language we'll be commonly seeing?

Chill.

It's not even the summer. If you must read something, I suggest the E&Es, Getting to Maybe, and Law School Confidential.

I never read any supplements, other than getting to maybe (which I found less helpful than other students did: personally I thought most of the concepts were pretty intuitive based on just the first month or two of material in law school). BUT one thing I did try was listening to lecture audio. Dressler has a 7 CD lecture series for crim that was really good, and Arthur Miller's civ pro was good. I can't remember who I listened to for Torts. Basically, I had a summer job that required me to be in the car about two hours per day, and I was so bored that the CDs were a blessing.

To be honest, I concur with everyone else here, that you don't see any content benefit. What you will learn from a supplement will be pretty cursory, and you will learn it too quickly to really suck anything at all in. I remember going through all of the crim CD set in a week, and then being shocked at the snail pace of law school when it started. But I also realized that it's done that way for a reason. I mean, consider doing it. I learned some material pretty well from the audio. In fact, I know a good deal about products liability and defamation that was never covered in my class, and I haven't seen that material in 6 months. Anyway, some people will say that having a cursory exposure before starting school is beneficial, and obviously I did it so I can't say it didn't help at all, but it doesn't FEEL like it did. The only real benefit was that it calmed my nerves and taught me a lot of vocab, but that's pretty easy to pick up.

One very real problem with reading supplements not keyed to your class, or not in step with the professor's progression, is that you will learn some BLL that is flat out different from what your prof will teach. Every now and then it will be a real pain in the ass to get the old out and get the new in.

During the semester, I would just keep up with reading and class, and whenever I got confused about a topic I would ask the prof. to recommend a hornbook and I would read the relevant chapter. I was able to stay pretty sane during the semester and ended up 3.82 (though still waiting on 1 grade) at T10. I just don't think you need to do much else.

*head explodes* (as I pretend I'm TTT-LS)

I actually read all those books before school started + wikipedia + all the other books recommended (GTM, LS confidential, 1L...). As other threads have covered 0L reading and epic gunner status, I must admit I forgot most of the details and had to reread all of them, often twice. Granted I have the highest grades, but it is hard to gauge how much it really helped me. It certainly made me feel more confident (though I was still super insecure and nervous). I do admit it gave me a great picture of the forest and allowed me much greater focus in knowing what to do.

Most of those books are fine. I don't think it matters whether you read the hornbook, or the E&E, or another supplement, they all give you a good picture of the subject.

Do the world a favor and kill yourself now.

I pretty much agree with Arrow. My grades could have been slightly higher, but I don't think it had anything to do with studies. It had more to do with slight variation in exam strategy.

I would only recommend Getting to Maybe. I simply don't think it's worth the effort to read all that beforehand.

I think it would be helpful to read up on American History though; it could really help in ConLaw.

Have you actually seen the Chemerinsky Con Law book? I have it now -- it's not something you're going to just breeze through over the summer and retain anything. Not to mention, my class is only hitting a small portion of what is covered in there, so you're going to do yourself a disservice by attempting to get anything from it.


You should really take the time to read books that you want to enjoy -- you're not going to have as much time to read outside material. Thus, you should cherish it now while you have it!

I would also counsel waiting. Our professors were more than happy to recommend a supplement for their particular class (generally accompanied by the words "I couldn't have gotten through law school without it"). Wait until you know what's going to work for your particular version of torts, contracts, etc. because the supplements get really expensive in a hurry!

If you insist on any reading (I suggest you don't do any) I would say stick with the simplest and most general supplements. Go with emanuel's instead of hornbooks, and even then try to go for the big picture. You seem to be a total freak, so maybe make very general outlines (like 3-4 pages) with an emphasis on the big picture. Don't focus on details, even if you remember them your prof may be more nuanced than the text you read. If that is the case you may actually be hurting yourself by trying to do too much too soon. I think a big picture approach may be helpful, but treatises and hornbooks may force you to unlearn what you've read and then learn it again the way your professor prefers (I have not had one professor that starts with the begining of a casebook and work straight through, they all prefer to set up the concepts in their own way). If you try to do too much you've made everything more difficult than it would've been had you done nothing at all.

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I'm mostly going to agree with everyone else, but for a different reason. I still haven't read any of those (or anything else beyond the casebook), and I'm doing fine. I think it's incredibly ridiculous to be buying and reading anything that you may well find to be nothing more than a redundant waste of time once school starts. Wait and see.

-Pufer

RATRATRAT wrote:My suggestion: read Getting to Maybe & after that just enjoy the summer.

second that.

LawSuitUp wrote:

RATRATRAT wrote:My suggestion: read Getting to Maybe & after that just enjoy the summer.

second that.

Thirded. And to add: also read whatever you want (for pleasure). You'll have less time to come fall.

SYNESTER wrote:stop trying to get ahead and get a life

Probably the words of someone who did not have a 4.0/176.

Pretty much agree with everyone else. My advice is to wait to use those supplements once you start school. It is not going to benefit you all that much to read them over the summer because you probably will not understand what you are reading nor will you remember them once you begin your classes. When you do use the supplements, you will want to read them with your professor's perspective in mind, so it might actually be to your disadvantage to read them over the summer. I would suggest reading 1L, Getting to Maybe, and Law School Confidential. I suggest "1L" because it will scare you into studying, so that you can do very well your first semester. These books are helpful on providing a glimpse into how to mentally prepare yourself for law school, which I think is more important than trying to study the concepts. Good Luck!

Arrow wrote:*head explodes* (as I pretend I'm TTT-LS)

I actually read all those books before school started + wikipedia + all the other books recommended (GTM, LS confidential, 1L...). As other threads have covered 0L reading and epic gunner status, I must admit I forgot most of the details and had to reread all of them, often twice. Granted I have the highest grades, but it is hard to gauge how much it really helped me. It certainly made me feel more confident (though I was still super insecure and nervous). I do admit it gave me a great picture of the forest and allowed me much greater focus in knowing what to do.

Most of those books are fine. I don't think it matters whether you read the hornbook, or the E&E, or another supplement, they all give you a good picture of the subject.

Having the highest possible grades is the only thing that matters. I don't understand why more of you aren't willing to read these supplements over the summer.

LawandOrder wrote:
Having the highest possible grades is the only thing that matters. I don't understand why more of you aren't willing to read these supplements over the summer.

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I agree with you that the highest grades possible are the only thing that matters. I guess for me, it worked well to use the supplements throughout the semester (E & E and Emanual), as I finished in the top 2% after the first semester. If it works for someone to read through the materials over the summer, great. But, for some people it may be overkill.

LawandOrder wrote:Having the highest possible grades is the only thing that matters. I don't understand why more of you aren't willing to read these supplements over the summer.

Because I don't think it would help, at least not for me. I have great grades and I still haven't read all of those supplements, much less did I do it over the summer. Law school isn't that hard to manage your time in, you will have time to read those supplements along with your reading during the semester.

Look at it this way, you aren't being graded on your knowledge of the area of law the day you set foot on campus, you're being tested on it after a whole semester on the subject. So both you and the students who read the supplements over the course of the semester will have read them come exam time, and it's going to be a lot more beneficial to read them along with the readings and class discussion because they will make a lot more sense then. And having read them twice won't help, IMO, if one of those times was while you had nothing else to go on. Read by themselves before you have any experience in law school those supplements are at best going to provide very little insight and at worst going to confuse you and give you wrong preconceptions of that area of law.