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Disclosure: 0L

I picked up Open Book on Amazon after seeing it on ATL and reading great reviews on Amazon. It's a new book and written at a more basic and straightforward level than Getting to Maybe. I read that GTM was too in-depth for a 0L reading and that, while interesting, 0L readers couldn't get full use from it.

Here's a great discussion on ATL with the authors of Open Book : http://abovethelaw.com/2014/04/why-i-ne ... aw-school/

I felt that skimming GTM was useful before school, and helped my exam performance. However, on your first read you will notice that the authors use substantive examples from Torts, Ks, ConLaw, etc. Those aren't terribly useful until you've actually started LS. The best way to read GTM as a 0L is to skim it, and take away the general principles of the book. Then, over Thanksgiving break, thumb through it again. You'll get a better understanding of it after two reads.

It's no magic bullet. It's worth a speed read before law school, but almost everything it says is common sense. It basically tells you to embrace the uncertainty of the majority of legal issues you might face.

Your main problem with law exams will be trying to type a lot of words.

I'll summarize my best advice for good grades in law school:

1) Do your homework
2) Don't drink yourself into oblivion

Just saved you $9.95.

Law school exams haven't changed in probably the last century.

CounselorNebby wrote:I'll summarize my best advice for good grades in law school:

1) Do your homework
2) Don't drink yourself into oblivion

Just saved you $9.95.

Who does their homework? (Just saved you $600 in casebooks.)

I read quite a few 0L books and didn't find any of them very helpful other than GTM, and GTM was only marginally helpful. I think it portrays a pretty accurate picture of what professors want you to do on exams, but I don't think that you can fully grasp that until you get a couple months of classes under your belt and start taking practice exams.

CounselorNebby wrote:I'll summarize my best advice for good grades in law school:

1) Do your homework
2) Don't drink yourself into oblivion

Just saved you $9.95.

Like... neither of these are true.

GTM is okay, but it's largely common sense. Basically, instead of hating the grey areas, embrace them. Could be worth a read, and it gives you some examples you can use. People do fine without it, people who read it don't do well, etc.

I do think that reading it before 1L is largely a waste of time, though. I'd say the best time to read it would be ~midway through first semester when you start thinking you know shit - it will help you kind of shift gears into thinking about the exam.

First Offense wrote: I'd say the best time to read the TLS forum would be ~midway through first semester when you start thinking you know shit - it will help you realize you don't

Fix'd

Somewhere on here there's an outline someone wrote of GTM. Just read that.

mushybrain wrote:Somewhere on here there's an outline someone wrote of GTM. Just read that.

This?

And stocksly33's reply here

didn't read GTM, did great. Read Planet Law School II, didn't tell me anything that ATL, TLS, and other blogs didn't tell me before

Those guides are the most useful for students who are clueless about what law school is like...(e.g. the kids that believe everything on the brochures)

Ultimately your exam-writing/prep is going to be governed by your (1) professor and (2) the specific class. There's no magic bullet guide that'll help you crack the code for all your classes or something. So skim through GTM if you'd like, some of my friends said they liked the book. But don't get complacent and think you'll do great just cuz you read GTM (or LEEWS..or PLS II..or whatever new guide is out there)

Yes

When I was an 0L, a rising 2L shared the best take on GTM w/ me and it rang true thru my 1L so far: read it to make you feel better, maybe give you some confidence, but that's all it's going to do. You gotta know what the hell your talking about in the first place before you worry about how to take an exam. Read it to give you some perspective and make you feel good to be proactive, but other than that, it's kind of worthless to 0Ls.