Study Aid(s) Crazyness!!!

[JD_LawSchool]

I have read Planet Law School II.  I also plan to get LEEWS..good decision?  Besides that, that is where my certainty ends.

They (PLSII) tell you to get study aids.  But at this point, my head is spinning as to what study aids to get.  There are so many out there.  Emanuels, Gilberts, Examples and Explanations, High Court summaries, legalines, hornbooks, the ABC's of the UCC, Second Restatement of Torts and Contracts, etc.  I don't even know what the difference is in half of them.  Plus, I read that some study aids are keyed to the casebooks?  Should I get these supplements now before school starts?  If so, which ones?  Or wait to see how things play out after school commences?

Is this a trial and error procedure?  Get some study aids and see how you like them?  Or are there a certain set that most first year students tend to rely on?
Any help and insight would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[Law9486]

I would definitely wait until school starts to buy anything. Some people love study aids and others hate them, so I would wait to see what feels best for you. As far as what to buy, heres some suggestions:
-Ask a 2L who had that professor and see what they used.
-Pick your aid based on what type of exam it is. E&E's have great short answer questions.
-Look around your professors office. I had two professors that had study aids in their offices and those books were prefect matches for those classes.
-Look around your library. Ours has a section of study aids. This will allow you to see what everyone else has used, but it will also let you look at them for free.
-Get ones that match with your book. You assume the professor picked the book because it states the rules as they like, so the study aid which states the same thing would be best.
-Look through old posts on the boards about certain classes. Certain books are known for being good for certain subjects (ex. Gilbert's on Property.)

[wardwilliams]

I only used supplements for 2 classes, Torts and CivPro. I used Examples & Explanations for both and I thought they were great. However, I did just as well (actually a little better) in the classes that I didn't use supplements. You will have all the information you need to get an "A" right in the casebook and your notes from class--spend the time reading your casebook and integrating your notes into an outline that you would have spent reading a commercial outline.

[tortfeasor111]

I would definitely wait until school starts to buy anything. Some people love study aids and others hate them, so I would wait to see what feels best for you. As far as what to buy, heres some suggestions:
-Ask a 2L who had that professor and see what they used.
-Pick your aid based on what type of exam it is. E&E's have great short answer questions.
-Look around your professors office. I had two professors that had study aids in their offices and those books were prefect matches for those classes.
-Look around your library. Ours has a section of study aids. This will allow you to see what everyone else has used, but it will also let you look at them for free.
-Get ones that match with your book. You assume the professor picked the book because it states the rules as they like, so the study aid which states the same thing would be best.
-Look through old posts on the boards about certain classes. Certain books are known for being good for certain subjects (ex. Gilbert's on Property.)

Don't wait until school starts to do LEEWS.

[lawmama09]

I agree with waiting until school starts to get the supplements. A couple of our profs actually recommended ones they thought were especially good, so to me, it makes sense to see if any of yours do that. I didn't really buy many, but our school's student services office has a small selection of them that you can check out for free. See if your school has something similar, so you can at least check them out before you decide which ones to buy. I usually ended up getting Examples and Explanations if I borrowed anything. I used them as a review during finals on concepts that I didn't feel quite as comfortable with (e.g. proximate cause in torts). A lot of people in my class read supplememnts instead of the casebook, which I don't think is helpful at all.

Other ones I found helpful, but only during exams, were the Q & A books and the flashcards. Our study group would just drill using them before we did any practice exams. I also coughed up the cash for Chemerinsky's Con Law supp. Not the one keyed to the casebook, but the general one. It was pricey, but helpful since our Con Law casebook was not very good and the professor was also not the best. Since I'm taking Con Law II next year, I'll get some extra value out of it, and it also had a decent section on takings that I read for my property exam.

[JD_LawSchool]

Thanks for the advice from everyone.  Keep the suggestions and comments coming:-)
It seems that it is trial and error; get a feeling of what works for you and try different study aids out until you find your panacea.  I only fear that with 1L grades being so important, I will be under the gun and behind on time as the first semester goes on - as I wander aimlessly browsing potential study aids.  Hence I wanted to get them this summer before school starts.  But from what I have read, that would be taking shots in the dark at costly supplemenets that I may not even use.  Thanks again for the advice and insight....

[brightline]

LEEWS is highly recommended. I did the cds in the first two weeks of law school. It is probably best to do them a week or two before school starts.

The E+E's are gold. Those are good intro's to a subject and you'll be able to understand them before school starts. If you want to prep beforehand, these are the best thing going. Follow the prep schedules in the book if you want to do these.

Gilberts and Emanuels are just two types of Commercial Outlines...you don't need to get those before school starts. I used mostly Emanuel's for my 1L classes, though some of the Gilbert's are written by your casebook author. In that case, you might want Gilbert's instead.

High Court Summaries, Legalines, and Casenotes are canned briefs. These should be keyed to your casebook. You can wait until school starts for these.

Hornbooks = a waste of money, big, expensive, and dense.


To save money, check amazon, half.com, ebay, etc. for used copies

Here is the PLS yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/planetlawschool/

[randomdude]

FWIW, I did really well at a top school.

Here are my recc's:

CivPro: Glannon E&E (everyone says this)
Crim: Dressler (Lexis)
Crimpro: Dressler (Lexis)
Property: Sprankling (Lexis)
Contracts: Not sure, but definitely NOT E&E. Lexis was ok.
Torts: Don't know.

I really liked the understanding series.  Canned briefs are stupid.  Yes, you can use them if you don't have enough time to read the case.  A MUCH better strategy would be to figure out how to read a case fast enough that you wouldn't ever need them.  With practice, you can get everything you'd need in 5 minutes.  Skim.

As for using any of these before the fall, maybe read Glannon. You would never buy a restatement, by the way, since they aren't study aids, everything you'd need is in your casebook, and what you don't need is in Westlaw/Lexis.

[philibusters]

FWIW, I did really well at a top school.

Here are my recc's:

CivPro: Glannon E&E (everyone says this)
Crim: Dressler (Lexis)
Crimpro: Dressler (Lexis)
Property: Sprankling (Lexis)
Contracts: Not sure, but definitely NOT E&E. Lexis was ok.
Torts: Don't know.

I really liked the understanding series.  Canned briefs are stupid.  Yes, you can use them if you don't have enough time to read the case.  A MUCH better strategy would be to figure out how to read a case fast enough that you wouldn't ever need them.  With practice, you can get everything you'd need in 5 minutes.  Skim.

As for using any of these before the fall, maybe read Glannon. You would never buy a restatement, by the way, since they aren't study aids, everything you'd need is in your casebook, and what you don't need is in Westlaw/Lexis.

The understanding series is good for getting the big picture, but if you are the type that naturally gets that, but has trouble with the details, you might want something with more blackletter law, it all really depends.

[1LMan]

If you, or anybody is interested, I have Gilbert's for Civ. Pro. and Contracts, E and E for Torts, and the law in a flash series flash cards for Civ. Pro. (sets I and II) as well as for Torts for sale.