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I am currently a 0L and I will be starting law school in early September. I know how important class rank is, especially in the first year, so I'd like to know what the best way for me to prep for law school would be. I found one course through google that is a week long. The website is lawpreview.com. I'd like to know if anyone knows of any other courses or other ways for me to prep before law school. I want to do hardcore prep in the 3-4 months before law school starts, so if anyone knows of any better and/or longer courses I would be very open to that. Aside from courses, I would love some other advice on how to prep for law school.

Thanks a lot!!

giantsfan564789 wrote:I am currently a 0L and I will be starting law school in early September. I know how important class rank is, especially in the first year, so I'd like to know what the best way for me to prep for law school would be. I found one course through google that is a week long. The website is lawpreview.com. I'd like to know if anyone knows of any other courses or other ways for me to prep before law school. I want to do hardcore prep in the 3-4 months before law school starts, so if anyone knows of any better and/or longer courses I would be very open to that. Aside from courses, I would love some other advice on how to prep for law school.

Thanks a lot!!

Best way to prepare: read TLS guides. Surf TLS.

Yeah, that makes sense. Most of my reason for making this post is to find out if there are any really good courses I should take. Thanks for the advice though.

giantsfan564789 wrote:Yeah, that makes sense. Most of my reason for making this post is to find out if there are any really good courses I should take. Thanks for the advice though.

You usually don't have a choice of classes during 1L. At least not during 1L fall.

ph14 wrote:

giantsfan564789 wrote:Yeah, that makes sense. Most of my reason for making this post is to find out if there are any really good courses I should take. Thanks for the advice though.

You usually don't have a choice of classes during 1L. At least not during 1L fall.

Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear. I'm talking about some sort of paid course that I would take to prep during the 4 months before I start law school. Like how someone takes an lsat prep course, only this prep course would prepare me to get good grades in law school, not to do well on the LSAT.

giantsfan564789 wrote:

ph14 wrote:

giantsfan564789 wrote:Yeah, that makes sense. Most of my reason for making this post is to find out if there are any really good courses I should take. Thanks for the advice though.

You usually don't have a choice of classes during 1L. At least not during 1L fall.

Sorry, maybe I'm not making myself clear. I'm talking about some sort of paid course that I would take to prep during the 4 months before I start law school. Like how someone takes an lsat prep course, only this prep course would prepare me to get good grades in law school, not to do well on the LSAT.

The general TLS consensus is that you are better of reading Getting to Maybe/Open Book. Some also recommend LEEWS (Legal Essay Exam Writing System). I'd probably just say if you read GTM and Open Book you will be providing yourself a good foundation.

If you pay money to prepare for LS outside of maybe buying GTM or LEEWS, you haven't lurked enough.

Would it be beneficial for an international student without much knowledge of the US Constitution to do some reading about it?

drawstring wrote:Would it be beneficial for an international student without much knowledge of the US Constitution to do some reading about it?

I don't think it's necessary. Most American students don't know much about the Constitution, either. See http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-m ... es-c,2849/

(If it makes you feel better, go for it, but you'll learn everything you need in class.)

LRGhost wrote:GTM or LEEWS

yeah, read these

theyre pretty quick reads

don't waste your time on any substantive law

do you recommend the leews book alone, or the audio program with it?

I thought the primer was sufficient and the audio was unnecessary.

YMMV

Nova wrote:I thought the primer was sufficient and the audio was unnecessary.

YMMV

that's what i figured, thanks!

Best thing you could do to prepare for law school is have some fun and chill out. Prepare yourself mentally to crack down for the next 4 months.

Trying to teach yourself the material before you go into class is just going to result in you confusing yourself with areas of the law you won't need and doctrines you won't fully understand. Knowing more than what you go over in class is going to hurt you on the exam. The professors don't want to see you get bogged down by issues and intricacies they barely even touched on. They want you to nail the areas they focused on and apply them the way they've taught them to you. You can't possibly know what areas they're going to focus on until you're in class.

I'm not kidding. 0L prep is a disadvantage. At best, you'll be slightly better prepared for getting cold called, which has zero impact on your grade. More likely, you'll cheat yourself out of being able to grapple with the material the way your professor wants because you already know the black-letter law at the end of the tunnel. That will make it far harder for you to recognize issues you don't fully understand, which in turn makes it harder for you to learn.

As far as learning how to write exams, your professors' past exams are going to be infinitely more helpful than GTM/LEEWS. Professors like different things. Some want a concise, correct answer. Some want creative issue spotting with corresponding counter-arguments, whether plausible or not. Some want triage, where you identify and resolve the most important issues. If you try to standardize, you're going to do worse than if you just mimic the style of a past exam sample answer.

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PennLaw16 wrote:Best thing you could do to prepare for law school is have some fun and chill out. Prepare yourself mentally to crack down for the next 4 months.

Trying to teach yourself the material before you go into class is just going to result in you confusing yourself with areas of the law you won't need and doctrines you won't fully understand. Knowing more than what you go over in class is going to hurt you on the exam. The professors don't want to see you get bogged down by issues and intricacies they barely even touched on. They want you to nail the areas they focused on and apply them the way they've taught them to you. You can't possibly know what areas they're going to focus on until you're in class.

I'm not kidding. 0L prep is a disadvantage. At best, you'll be slightly better prepared for getting cold called, which has zero impact on your grade. More likely, you'll cheat yourself out of being able to grapple with the material the way your professor wants because you already know the black-letter law at the end of the tunnel. That will make it far harder for you to recognize issues you don't fully understand, which in turn makes it harder for you to learn.

As far as learning how to write exams, your professors' past exams are going to be infinitely more helpful than GTM/LEEWS. Professors like different things. Some want a concise, correct answer. Some want creative issue spotting with corresponding counter-arguments, whether plausible or not. Some want triage, where you identify and resolve the most important issues. If you try to standardize, you're going to do worse than if you just mimic the style of a past exam sample answer.

Okay, so what would you make of the company "lawpreview.com" claiming that the median class rank of their students was 16%?
http://lawpreview.com/index.php/Student ... 35c5b9e69a

giantsfan564789 wrote:

PennLaw16 wrote:Best thing you could do to prepare for law school is have some fun and chill out. Prepare yourself mentally to crack down for the next 4 months.

Trying to teach yourself the material before you go into class is just going to result in you confusing yourself with areas of the law you won't need and doctrines you won't fully understand. Knowing more than what you go over in class is going to hurt you on the exam. The professors don't want to see you get bogged down by issues and intricacies they barely even touched on. They want you to nail the areas they focused on and apply them the way they've taught them to you. You can't possibly know what areas they're going to focus on until you're in class.

I'm not kidding. 0L prep is a disadvantage. At best, you'll be slightly better prepared for getting cold called, which has zero impact on your grade. More likely, you'll cheat yourself out of being able to grapple with the material the way your professor wants because you already know the black-letter law at the end of the tunnel. That will make it far harder for you to recognize issues you don't fully understand, which in turn makes it harder for you to learn.

As far as learning how to write exams, your professors' past exams are going to be infinitely more helpful than GTM/LEEWS. Professors like different things. Some want a concise, correct answer. Some want creative issue spotting with corresponding counter-arguments, whether plausible or not. Some want triage, where you identify and resolve the most important issues. If you try to standardize, you're going to do worse than if you just mimic the style of a past exam sample answer.

Okay, so what would you make of the company "lawpreview.com" claiming that the median class rank of their students was 16%?
http://lawpreview.com/index.php/Student ... 35c5b9e69a

I would place zero or negative weight to that claim, although if you really cared you should check the methodology.

giantsfan564789 wrote:Okay, so what would you make of the company "lawpreview.com" claiming that the median class rank of their students was 16%?
http://lawpreview.com/index.php/Student ... 35c5b9e69a

First of all, I'd question their methodology.

Second of all, I'd note that students who self-select into pre-law school preparation programs may be more diligent, more dedicated, and more likely to succeed independent of the supposed preparation they receive.

Third of all, I'd be extremely skeptical of a "study" that claims 99% of students said the course met or exceeded their expectations and they would recommend it to others. Only 88% of Americans agree that lizard people do not exist.

SPAM.

20140218 wrote:TTTT

at least spam on topic