how is the socratic method in 2L and 3L classes?

[T. Durden]

if anything, our 1L classes have become even more socratic as the year has gone by. the whole "no one briefs after 1st sem." thing is completely erroneous (at least in my section) given the detail / specificity of the responses that our professors still expect from us. we are required to know every fact, every twist, turn, and loop in the opinion, etc.. does this change 2L / 3L? i'v heard that most 3Ls don't read the cases at all - only go to lecture and then read supplements, etc. i can't imagine that most 3Ls walk into socratic classes unprepared, so this leads me to think that most of these upper level classes have dropped the socratic method entirely....

anyway, just curious [and completely sick of the time burner that is the 1L socratic method]

[unlvcrjchick]

I'm a 2L, and I can definitely say that the Socratic Method is not as strict as it was during my 1L year.  However, my Civ Pro II class is intermixed with 1Ls and 2Ls, so there is no surprise that this class is the most Socratic of them all.  My Con Law class is slightly Socratic (professor specifies anywhere between 2-4 students who will be on call during the day, and those students know beforehand what material for which they're responsible).  My Property II class is not Socratic at all. 

Also, my peers no longer brief (I never briefed, so nothing has changed there), and they, for the most part, read supplements.  We all especially read supplements in Con Law because our casebook is just dreadful and is very difficult to understand.  I find that you don't even need to read the casebook in order to do well on exams.  The most important thing to remember is to know the BLL and to do practice exams, although I'll admit that I've only done 2 practice exams so far, and that was in my Evidence class last year.

Sherry

[lincolnsgrandson]

Many of the upper level professors still use it, but with "notice."  For instance, one professor gave us a list at the beginning of the semester, so we'd know in advance which days we'd be called on again.  The first time I ever heard a law professor scream at a student was the following week, when the first student he called on said he didn't read the case.