Sum & Summary, Emanuel, Casenotes, Law in a Flash, AspenLaw StudyDesk?

[taplinb]

It appears that 1Ls study Civ Pro, Contracts, Torts, and another subject or two. Have any of you used AspenLaw study aids, Sum & Summary audio books, or any other supplements to help you master the material? I am interested in the relative merits of Sum & Summary, Emanuel, Casenotes, Law in a Flash, and StudyDesk for these subjects.

[LawLady]

Wow  - could you have posted this a few more times?  If you read this board (which is for STUDENTS and GRADUATES, not PRE-LAWS) you would find that different things work better for different schools/profs/way people learn. 

If you learn better by listening, the tapes might work.
Most people don't recommend using "canned" briefs like in Casenotes because they learn better by doing it themselves. Some feel differently.
Study desk has been reviewed here before.  I don't like it, but some do.
Law in a Flash may work better for learning Civ Pro rules, but are a little iffy on teaching you application.  They also might have cards that have nothing to do with what your prof teaches, so you will have to weed those cards off.
Sum and Substances and Emanuel are OK for some.  I don't use them.  I prefer Gilbert for Property, but didn't use for anything else.

Some people get straight A's without using a single supplement. 

You are the only one that knows what works for you.  It is trial and error.  For some, they figure it out early and do very well.  For others, you do OK, and make some adjustments after your first semester.

[taplinb]

Didn't realize that cross-posting would be seen as obnoxious (or even noticed). Learning. Dupes deleted.

As to your remark about STUDENTS, I am one, now that I have been offered admission and plan to accept it, and my questions pertain to success during law school, not before. Everything I have heard suggests that it's best to hit the ground running. You may know how. Posting to a board of fellow newbies would strike me as a waste of time.

Thanks for the substantive responses. Always good to learn from one's elders.

[red]

I'm a 2L and one of those people who has done very well without using study aids.  I would strongly discourage you from getting study aids until you get to school, see your professor's book list and start to pick up on your professor's style.  There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, study aids are often keyed to a particular case book.  Therefore, it would be really silly to buy a study aid now, when another aid would be more useful when you know what books you will be using.  Second, it can get really expensive to load up on a bunch of study aids.  Therefore, it would make the most sense to me to wait and see if you actually need them.

We were assigned the Civ Pro E&E, and actually had reading in it, in addition to regular casebook reading.  That was the only place where I found a study aid exceptionally useful.  Otherwise, I have found that the concepts in law school are not so difficult that you can't figure them out by reading your material once and taking good notes in class.  After that, a serious effort at outlining and some practice exams at the end of the semster seem to do the trick for me.

That said, I know others who like to use the study aids for outlining.  I guess there are a few that read the aids along with their regular reading, (but I could imagine better uses of my time other than doing reading that was not assigned).  In fact, I don't even buy the supplements the professors recommend.  I only have the one for Crim Pro because a friend is lending it to me, as I had a few questions regarding policy issues.

In sum, don't bother getting study aids now.  If you feel that you must when you get to school, look for aids that your professor recommends.  Otherwise, talk to some 2L's at your school and see what aids are good for what classes.  It is my understanding that certain aids are better for certain subjects. 

[slacker]

Didn't realize that cross-posting would be seen as obnoxious (or even noticed). Learning. Dupes deleted.

As to your remark about STUDENTS, I am one, now that I have been offered admission and plan to accept it, and my questions pertain to success during law school, not before. Everything I have heard suggests that it's best to hit the ground running. You may know how. Posting to a board of fellow newbies would strike me as a waste of time.

Thanks for the substantive responses. Always good to learn from one's elders.

This presumes:
a) no students post on the pre-law board; which is a fallacy.

b) that studying prior to school will help you. I'd suggest this is, for most, a fallacy, also.

I believe the advice from Red, which is wait to see what you need, is good advice.

And personally, I don't really consider you a student until you've actually attended law school, your current sense of entitlement not withstanding.

[brewha]

Didn't realize that cross-posting would be seen as obnoxious (or even noticed). Learning. Dupes deleted.

As to your remark about STUDENTS, I am one, now that I have been offered admission and plan to accept it, and my questions pertain to success during law school, not before. Everything I have heard suggests that it's best to hit the ground running. You may know how. Posting to a board of fellow newbies would strike me as a waste of time.

Thanks for the substantive responses. Always good to learn from one's elders.

This presumes:
a) no students post on the pre-law board; which is a fallacy.

b) that studying prior to school will help you. I'd suggest this is, for most, a fallacy, also.

I believe the advice from Red, which is wait to see what you need, is good advice.

And personally, I don't really consider you a student until you've actually attended law school, your current sense of entitlement not withstanding.

I'd carry it a bit further and not consider someone a "student" until they have returned the second semester after learning their grades from first semester.  Anyone can play law student first semester and bomb the finals.

[slacker]

I'd carry it a bit further and not consider someone a "student" until they have returned the second semester after learning their grades from first semester.  Anyone can play law student first semester and bomb the finals.

Good point...although most schools have some sort of a grace period on academic probation, so if you really muck it up first semester, you've got a bit of chance to redeem yourself (or they've got a bit of a chance to earn more tuition) on your second semester.

[taplinb]

Was it Woody Allen who wrote that a Jewish fetus isn't considered viable until it has graduated from Med or Law school? Not that I know many Jewish people or am particularly interested in starting something ethnic. It's just an old joke that seems apropos to some of the postings here.

Anyhow, having completed my first real assignments for Torts and Contracts, I consider myself a student, sense of entitlement nonexistent. It won't be "real" for another two weeks, until classes start, so flame on. I'll be in the books by then, or chasing a preschooler, and not so much here.

Good luck to all, even to those for whom the feeling may be, or have been, mutual.

[lwpat]

Get the Examples & Explanations or the Glannon Guide for all of your courses. You can usually find them cheap at Amazon and you don't necessarily need the latest edition.

After that I recommend Exam Pro or Seigles. Both have essay questions with excellent model answers.   

[brightline]

I used Emanuels for all my first year courses. I used them more as a reference tool than anything else. I only looked things up when the prof was unclear on something or when I needed to get the black letter rule of something very quickly. Then I would go to the index of Emanuels and find exactly what I needed. I did not read the Emanuels cover to cover or even all of it for the sections that were covered in class.

I used casenotes heavily first semester and moderately second semester. Since I don't read cases much if at all anymore, I don't use them anymore. Casenotes are much more convenient and quick than reading the entire case blind. First semester, I would read the casenote, then skim the case. If there was something super important from a specific case, I would highlight my casebook during class.

It's important to note that cases are a very small part of the law school picture. If you waste too much time on them you will likely be in trouble when grades come back. What matters most is how to take exams and how to analyze fact patterns, not reading and briefing cases ad nauseum.

I only used Law in a Flash for Torts. They were good for a last minute quick review but not something I'd recommend as a primary method of learning. In general, I think flash cards can be very counterproductive. The law in the flash deck for Torts is decent though. I can't say much about the others because I never looked at them.

My favorite study aid by far is the aspen examples and explanations series. I would spend time reading these and doing the questions for the sections covered in class...during the semester, not at the end. The rest of my time was spent outlining and working practice exams.

I did well enough to transfer from a tier 2 to a T14.