Law School Discussion

Two questions:

1. Does your school have sections and if so, are you ranked within or without?
2. Does your school rank the 2nd and 3rd years or just the first year?

Thanks,
Jen


I go to Wake Forest.  Our 1L class is split into 4 sections of 40 students.  In the end we are all ranked against each other.  Our 2L and 3L classes are ranked within the whold 2L or 3L class as well.

Righgt now, I am sitting across from a JD/MBA in my summer internship who is screaming that this is the most statistically absurd process he has ever heard of and that all sections should be ranked only within their section.  To rank everyone together is unfair because we all didn't have the same professors while ranking within the section would produce the "proper" top 10, 25, 33, etc for each section and therefore the school.  If you rank the whole school together and you had one section where the professors all graded to the middle then no one in that section had a fair chance of making it to the top, etc...


I understand his argument but I explained that it doesn't really matter because how would you rank the 2Ls and 3Ls.  They are all in different classes.  And he said, "What!?  Why does your school rank the upper classes1? Most schools only rank the first year!"  He likes to scream a lot.

I am taking Federal Income Tax this fall as a pre-req for a class that I am taking in the spring.  Anyway, math is not my strong suit so I'm assuming Accounting or anything tax related won't be either.  I want to get a tax study book early and read before class starts so it'll be a fair fight between me and the Econ and Accounting majors, I'm imagining, are in my class. 

Can anyone recomend a good Federal Income Tax study aid?  And while I'm at it, what about:

Real Property Security
Evidence
Debtor/Creditor (Bankruptcy)
Banking Law
Secured Transactions
Law & Economics
Administrative Law

There's a lot on 1L study guide recomendations but I didn't see a whole lot for upper level classes.  I'm really looking to see if there is a particular book etc... that everyone loves or hates.  *If you're wondering about my class load we register for a year at a time and if I see a good deal on a recomended book I'd like to go ahead and buy it, so I've listed most of my fall and spring classes. 

Thanks in advance,
Jen

**I posted this over in the General Board but I wasn't getting any responses so I thought I'd try it over here.