The Law Preview question (a beaten dead horse?) Forum

[WonkyPanda]

So, I have gone through a few of the Law Preview topics that have popped up on TLS and I still can't come to a conclusive answer on whether it is worth it or not. I guess the only special circumstance for me is that my LP course would be paid for by a scholarship. The only thing I would be wasting is my time and gas money to commute to LA.

Does the fact that it is free make it even more worth it to take LP? If not, what books, beyond 'getting to maybe', would you recommend to supplement the stuff that LP would teach me?


Thanks!

[fatduck]

it's not so much this

--ImageRemoved--

as this

[WonkyPanda]

you, sir, made me laugh out loud. A job well done!

[gin]

I've always thought it's a big scam. From what I've read and from what attorneys have told me, at LS they don't expect you to have any knowledge and start from the basics. IMO they are trying to use people's fears to make money
I'm just a 0L so who knows. All I know is that I'm not wasting my time on that

[071816]

I've heard LEEWS is useful, but who the fuck knows?

[billyez]

I'm just gonna copy and paste my answer:

If you won it and decide to go, do two things; first, and most importantly, remember that these Professors are not the Professors that will be teaching you in law school. The Professors did a decent job of reminding us of this, I recall. The meat of the course is them teaching you substantive doctrine, which I think is meant to give you some insight into the subjects - but that's all it should be seen as and its value should be deemed limited (if you want to be cynical, which I'm not, you could also say it's just there to "pad" more days into the course so you pay more and feel like you're more prepared).

Second, don't take notes and if you do, limit it to one page. You're going to see people typing and getting all gung-ho about it. Don't. I was one of those people typing maddeningly for the first few days and it's just not worth it. You're not going to remember all of this and you're not going to sift through it once law school starts. These Professors are cramming a semester's worth of information into one session - information, mind you, that you're law school Professor may never cover - and besides, the goal should not be to retain all this information, it should be getting a feel for some of the subjects, in my opinion.

What's far more helpful is when they actually start going over how you should study and attack exams...but not only are the guides here less bloated, they seemed to cover the same basics. Start outlines early. Do more than just spot the issues. Do practice exams. We sort of know these things already. By far, the best is when you actually do an exam and get it covered in class by one of the Professors. It'll just be a standard issue-spotter, but this was gold. Make sure you do that assignment and pay attention when it's covered.

I also note that Law Preview is focused on selling a very structrured and specific type of program. It's true that this sytem has worked for people before. They'll likely have a LP intern who was in last year's class who used this system and will state that it was helpful (hint: Ask this person which parts of the system they actually used and which ones they scrapped on the day the headline speaker of the program isn't there - that's why he leaves on those days in the first place). What this does not mean is that this system will work for you. To their credit, they told us this and then went enthusiastically back to extolling how great this plan is. Do not be fooled. It's a very "bash the brain in and make a brief for every case" type of strategy. It is not one size fits all and it's not necessary.

Oh, one more thing. Please, please, don't be that guy who wants to get his last bit of pre-law gunning in before he starts law school. Ask a question, sure, but know that the opinion of the Professor speaking just doesn't matter come exam time. I feel a little bad saying that but...I think it's accurate.

[choochoo]

I did LP last summer, and I agree with billyez for the most part. While the actual content you learn during LP won't end up being that helpful, the strategies they teach you can be beneficial. I briefed all the cases first semester and was in the top 10%. The biggest benefit to me was learning how to read cases during LP and figuring out what's important so I could hit the ground running on day 1 of school. Some of my classmates had never seen a case before the first reading assignment, so I thought I was more efficient from the beginning. And while the content you learn isn't very in depth and likely isn't taught in the same way your professor will teach it, having some exposure to each subject gave me a little bit of confidence. And it was nice to have learned some of the big cases for each subject (ex: Palsgraf for torts). And everyone has heard about the usefulness of outlines before starting law school, so it was nice to actually see examples and have a strategy for how to outline. I didn't end up using any of the outlines from upperclassmen at my school because they were all so bad.

Overall, I'd say it was worth it for me. So if you would only be spending your time and gas money, I'd say it's worth it. They also give you supplements for almost every class.

[schooner]

Overall, I'd say it was worth it for me. So if you would only be spending your time and gas money, I'd say it's worth it. They also give you supplements for almost every class.

The OP might be able to recoup the cost of gasoline by selling his pristine copies of the supplements (or by not having to buy them himself).