Attending a Law School "Boot Camp" - Opinions? Forum

[ksllaw]

I've been apprised of the existence of something that's called a "law school boot camp."

I believe I remember hearing that there were multiple types/brands and that they charge several thousand dollars. I'm curious whether anyone has enrolled in one before and what their experiences were like?

+Did you find them helpful for preparing you for law school?
+What types of things are offered in a boot camp type course?
+Would you recommend a particular company?
+Are there any drawbacks to these boot camps?

One possible drawback I remember reading was that the camps may teach you an approach to law that is not what professors may want and you end up having to relearn the material all over again (the way your professor wants you to know it). In this case, the boot camp might potentially hinder your understanding of the law and cause confusion.

What opinions do people have on the subject?

[Tom Joad]

Sounds like a scam. The law school material isn't hard to learn. Learning how your professor wants you to analyze fact patterns is what law school exams are all about. Some guy teaching you the law, but not how your professor wants it won't be of any help.

[Lasers]

Sounds like a scam. The law school material isn't hard to learn. Learning how your professor wants you to analyze fact patterns is what law school exams are all about. Some guy teaching you the law, but not how your professor wants it won't be of any help.

very much this.

[bdm261]

I've been apprised of the existence of something that's called a "law school boot camp."

I believe I remember hearing that there were multiple types/brands and that they charge several thousand dollars. I'm curious whether anyone has enrolled in one before and what their experiences were like?

+Did you find them helpful for preparing you for law school?
+What types of things are offered in a boot camp type course?
+Would you recommend a particular company?
+Are there any drawbacks to these boot camps?

One possible drawback I remember reading was that the camps may teach you an approach to law that is not what professors may want and you end up having to relearn the material all over again (the way your professor wants you to know it). In this case, the boot camp might potentially hinder your understanding of the law and cause confusion.

What opinions do people have on the subject?

I've been considering this too. Something called "law preview." I have heard mixed reviews, I think multiple companies offer some form of prep class and some are better than others.

I read a lot on here about something called LEEWS (law essay exam writing system) that's basically a DIY prep course and it seems to be highly recommended.

[nmcdgt]

Waste of money. Enjoy the time you have before you start law school. Doing well on an exam is a combination of knowing what your professor wants (what material is important and what type of answer he or she likes), having a good grasp on the material (which everyone will after a semester of studying it), and learning how to write a good exam (which there are other ways to learn and probably won't come from the "boot camp" at all).

Having some random tutor teach you concepts from first year classes that may or may not be covered by your professor will give you a shallow background on material you're going to spend plenty of time relearning at best, and confuse you and make you focus on unimportant information at worst. If you want to learn to write exams, take practice tests during the semester and, if you really want, do LEEWS or read Getting to Maybe. Trying to learn the actual substance ahead of time (i.e. reading supplements, law preview, etc.) is just unnecessary IMO.

[dietcoke0]

Nothing will prepare you for law school. If you want a "boot camp," just read something like One L or 1L of a Ride just to an idea what school is like. I can't imagine anything an in person thing will do to help you. You'll get what you need to know in the first month.

[JamMasterJ]

If you go to a top 75 school, you don't need that shit. Just read GTM and sit by the pool

[rinkrat19]

I went to Law Preview for free. I don't regret going, although I'm not sure it helped a ton. By about day 3 I had given up taking any kind of notes and was just sort of listening while web-surfing. 8 hours a day of lecture was rough.

I did learn how to brief a case, which was nice for the first two weeks of class when everyone else was freaking out about how to do that. Of course, by about week 5 no one's briefing anymore anyway. So it was more just a head start.

It was interesting how good professors can make their subjects WAY more interesting...that's not really a thing in engineering classes. The prof was Yale was awesome and made me totally bummed I had no shot of going there.

So basically, if you can go for free or cheap or you literally wouldn't miss the $1500, go ahead. Otherwise, meh.

[dingbat]

I went to Law Preview for free. I don't regret going, although I'm not sure it helped a ton. By about day 3 I had given up taking any kind of notes and was just sort of listening while web-surfing. 8 hours a day of lecture was rough.

I did learn how to brief a case, which was nice for the first two weeks of class when everyone else was freaking out about how to do that. Of course, by about week 5 no one's briefing anymore anyway. So it was more just a head start.

It was interesting how good professors can make their subjects WAY more interesting...that's not really a thing in engineering classes. The prof was Yale was awesome and made me totally bummed I had no shot of going there.

So basically, if you can go for free or cheap or you literally wouldn't miss the $1500, go ahead. Otherwise, meh.

This. My school offered a mini-bootcamp to a select group of students. It was 8 * 3 hours.
Learning how to brief a case gave me a bit of a leg up on my fellow students for the first week or two. Everything else was a complete waste of time.

[typ3]

If you want a boot camp on law school, go hang out at your city's skid row or eat some glass. Anything to leave you in pain and jaded.

[ProfVRandall]

Ben Lerer Thank you for putting the question out there. We too think that summer bridge programs that focus on the law instead of skills and habits are not that useful. I taught law school for 30 years and developed and conduct academic support programs long before the ABA required them. Students who do not perform as well as they want are just as intelligence but generally have study skills, writing skills, reading skills and reasoning skills issues.

We also believe that it takes more than 4 or 5 days to develop the necessary skills which is why our program is 120 hours of study over 8 weeks.

Many entering students think law school is like undergraduate or graduate school, it is not. In most academic programs, students are offered a number of opportunities for formative assessment before they are given a grade; However, in most first year law school courses students are graded at most twice in a semester (in many only once). By the time a student learns that they are under-prepared for their exams, it is too late to make a difference.

Further, in most academic experiences evaluations tend to reflect the work students did in preparing for classes over the course of the semester. Imagine, however, a music class where students studied music theory by listening to and discussing the work of masters. For the whole semester students listened to music and discussed the music they listened to. Then, at the end of the semester, students are asked to play the piano. To make matters worse grades, are assigned on a curve, comparing each student’s performance to the performance of others; so that students with prior knowledge of the piano, or a natural ability, will do better without regard to relative effort in preparation.

This is like law school, and it is no wonder that many students enter their exams unprepared and then under-perform. Please take a look at our program, it is far from being a scam and is unlike any other summer bridge program available.

mod edit: link removed

[UnicornHunter]

I would pay to not sit through 8 hours of law-school related lectures.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Don't necro old threads, folks.