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course a: closed book, and i've heard the class goes over everyone's head. but i want to take the prof (interested in his scholarship, good relationship with fed judges, one of the big names here, among other reasons), and the curve is significantly more generous than course b (9% more A-tier grades)

course b: open book, professor has a reputation for being clear and straightforward. but not terribly interested in prof, and curve is worse

which would you pick in this scenario and why

Closed book. You're interested and the curve is better. It's not worth avoiding a class just because it's closed book - it's closed book for everyone. And it's not really significantly worse than open book, just different.

Don't choose a course based on the exam format dude.Unless it's a 12 hour take home.

Closed/Open book, IME, is not determinative of your grade. I booked a class closed book, got A's in a couple others, and my worst grade in Law School was closed book.

Just study for it like you study for other stuff, but your outline should be shorter and you should memorize (a) a list of the issues you're looking for in each question (and know how many issues are on that list so when you write it down as soon as your exam starts you'll know if it's complete) and (b) 3-4 mnemonics of element tests or factor tests, as applicable; write down what you memorized on scratch paper as soon as the exam starts.

I preferred closed book because then when I was done I was done. There was no outline to scour through to try to add little tidbits here and there.

Studying for the bar right now. Never had a closed-book exam so never practiced memorizing rules. Definitely wish that I had.

course a is going to be filled with obnoxious gunners and will probably be harder despite the curve adjustment

obviously you should take it

here's how to do 2l & 3l:
figure out a way to take the same course multiple times with only slight variations.
IP is very amenable to this. take ip survey. then take ip contracting. then take patent litigation. then take ip litigation and patent law. boom.

closed book burns you out a little bit more because memorization is slightly taxing on the brain, but it's a small factor if you like the class. one thing to consider is if you're comfortable taking tests you don't need to know very much to do okay. with closed book, you have to know at least a couple of laws.

I very much enjoyed closed book exams...more so than open book actually. The curve is much more generous if you are someone that knows how to take a law school exam and can memorize a bunch of shit. Of course, I guess this depends on you and your cohorts. I excelled at closed book exams and ended up median on one of 2 of my open books. YMMV.

I've only had one closed book exam, and was terrified (it was second semester) but it turned out to be my best grade that semester.

I love closed book exams. I have a really amazing memory so I see it as an advantage over many of my classmates. I'd say it depends on what your strengths and weaknesses are.

If you want to take the class and you don't feel like a closed book exam is a weakness, take it.