Advice for a 0L hell bent on being near the top of his class?

[jarhead]

sorry for the dumb question or if this has already been answered but all professors keep copies of their previous exams on file correct? because i've heard some people say that some don't. isn't that like understood, that there will be copies of exams on file so students can prepare? i know i can get A exams from other students but professors have been know to change their criteria from semester to semester

[jacy85]

Depends entirely on the professor.  Some are lazy and don't like writing new exams, so they hoard all theirs.  Others put their exams from the last few years with sample answers. Some profs provide exams but no answers (or might only give you a sample answer if you come see them).

[jarhead]

ok cool, someone on some other thread was saying something about professor, no exams on file, unfair advantage blah blah.

[TheNewGuy]

LEEWS is good. But the guy makes it WAY more complicated than it needs to be, and the CD is about twice as long as it needs to be. I highly recommend Delaney's book on exam-taking. It lays out the method you need for a basic law-school exam, and it also gives good pointers if you have profs who like policy arguments (about half of my 1L profs were like that).

I agree. For a program that purports to cut through the confusion, it obfuscates with unecessary tangents. I felt the book was more helpful than the CDs, but even the book rambled. I finished it, and took a few lines of notes regarding the whole LEEWS process... I guess Wentworth Miller couldn't make $200 on info that essentially would fit onto a bookmark, so he had to stretch it out a bit!

I haven't read the Delaney book-- thanks for the advice!

agreed about LEEWS- I was thinking I'd make my own little summary sheet of his key steps --- That's the one thing that's missing... I like the system though.

[wakaranai]

ok cool, someone on some other thread was saying something about professor, no exams on file, unfair advantage blah blah.

Very few of mine kept anything on file, but I think that's primarily because of the 8 main classes I took, only 3/8 had professors who taught that particular course at all recently at my school. Only one that I saw had an exam available that was in the same style as the current exam.

[broken]

Tag

[lefty3824]

First off, don't necessarily count on hard work getting you anywhere near the top of your class.  Iit really depends on how close you and the instructor are in terms of views and approaches.  I've seen students with a firm grasp of the material fall flat on their ass because they and the instructor differed on interpretations of the law or formatting of exam responses or whatever.

Given this, my number one piece of advice is to visit your professor as often as possible.  What I did was write down a list of questions from the day's reading assignment and take them to the professor in office hours.  Not only does this help you clarify the more confusing points of the material, but you can see how the professor approaches the subject.  My property professor, for instance, was focused heavily on policy implications.  I made sure I studied up on those aspects of her class, and sure enough I got the only A+ on the final.

As for outlining, there's no harm in starting the outlines early provided you rework what you've written as the term goes.  If you choose to start the outline at the beginning of the term, be willing to reorganize it whenever you add new sections.  I found the constant exposure to the material combined with the need to try and fit whatever I'd just learned into the structure of my outline really helped me understand and remember things when finals came.

Other than that, just do practice exams and see if you can get your professor to look over your answers.  Again, its really all about understanding what they want to see on an exam and giving it to them. 

On a slightly different, as a transfer student to my current university my advice on that is to apply early and don't give up hope if your first term grades aren't what you'd hoped.  I was only top 40% my first term, but I managed to up my GPA substantially the second term and now I'm going to a top 20 school.  Hell, even if you're not near the top of your class you can still likely transfer.  I had a friend who was barely top 50% and she's now at Cardozo.

Hope that helps, and good luck to ya!

[kilroy55]

First off, don't necessarily count on hard work getting you anywhere near the top of your class.  Iit really depends on how close you and the instructor are in terms of views and approaches.  I've seen students with a firm grasp of the material fall flat on their ass because they and the instructor differed on interpretations of the law or formatting of exam responses or whatever.

Given this, my number one piece of advice is to visit your professor as often as possible.  What I did was write down a list of questions from the day's reading assignment and take them to the professor in office hours.  Not only does this help you clarify the more confusing points of the material, but you can see how the professor approaches the subject.  My property professor, for instance, was focused heavily on policy implications.  I made sure I studied up on those aspects of her class, and sure enough I got the only A+ on the final.

As for outlining, there's no harm in starting the outlines early provided you rework what you've written as the term goes.  If you choose to start the outline at the beginning of the term, be willing to reorganize it whenever you add new sections.  I found the constant exposure to the material combined with the need to try and fit whatever I'd just learned into the structure of my outline really helped me understand and remember things when finals came.

Other than that, just do practice exams and see if you can get your professor to look over your answers.  Again, its really all about understanding what they want to see on an exam and giving it to them. 

On a slightly different, as a transfer student to my current university my advice on that is to apply early and don't give up hope if your first term grades aren't what you'd hoped.  I was only top 40% my first term, but I managed to up my GPA substantially the second term and now I'm going to a top 20 school.  Hell, even if you're not near the top of your class you can still likely transfer.  I had a friend who was barely top 50% and she's now at Cardozo.

Hope that helps, and good luck to ya!

As this post clearly demonstrates my overall point from earlier, do what you feel is necessary.  I have never, in my two years of law school, visited a professor in their office about class material or how to take their exams.  It will work for some people, but not for others.

[ohiostatelaw]

tag.

Holy crap, some of this stuff (such as these aids) I've never even heard of. Is this stuff we pick up and learn about as we begin 1L?

[4DClaw]

Most professors will not suggest study aids. In fact, most will recommend against using them. My CivPro professor actually suggested we use the E&E, but I think he's an exception. Most think the case method is all you need. The one thing to caution about supplements is that they sometimes use different terminology than your professor. And they also may give more weight to a minority view than your professor does. Bottom line: supplements are good and often essential for grasping concepts, but your class notes matter most. If there's a conflict between what your prof says and what your supplement says, go with the prof. That's why it helps if you can get a hornbook or commercial outline written by the same author who edited your casebook. That minimizes the confusion, since the terminology and points of view are more likely to be the same.

tag.

Holy crap, some of this stuff (such as these aids) I've never even heard of. Is this stuff we pick up and learn about as we begin 1L?