Interesting article on 1L tips

[martincmm]

This article touches upon handling the Socratic Method.  It's entitled, "Law School First Year Tips"

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1165160/law_school_first_year_tips.html?cat=9

[gzl]

This article touches upon handling the Socratic Method.  It's entitled, "Law School First Year Tips"

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1165160/law_school_first_year_tips.html?cat=9

Meh.  Terrible description of the socratic method combined with advice that sums up as: "outline, make sure you do well, and think about pimping bar prep courses on your campus."

My advice: if your outline begins to look anything like a story with you as the story teller, scrap it and start over. 

[martincmm]

Thanks for the comments, but how is it a terrible description of the Socratic Method?  What about it was unrealistic or incorrect?  Preparation is important for this form of class room instruction.  If it's something different than that, what is it, in your opinion?  Also, outlining is one of the most important things you can do. Ask anyone whether he/she didn't do one.

 


 

[TheDudeMan]

Thanks for the comments, but how is it a terrible description of the Socratic Method?  What about it was unrealistic or incorrect?  Preparation is important for this form of class room instruction.  If it's something different than that, what is it, in your opinion?  Also, outlining is one of the most important things you can do. Ask anyone whether he/she didn't do one.

 


 

I never outlined throughout law school and did rather well at a national university.  It's better to find a good online from somewhere else for that class/professor and adapt it to your particular class.  Then you spend more time learning the law and applying it to practice problems.

[gzl]

Thanks for the comments, but how is it a terrible description of the Socratic Method?  What about it was unrealistic or incorrect?  Preparation is important for this form of class room instruction.  If it's something different than that, what is it, in your opinion?  Also, outlining is one of the most important things you can do. Ask anyone whether he/she didn't do one.

 


 

From the website: "The professor will ask questions about a case opinion for which the student attempts to respond with answers. Those answers may turn into a barrage of additional questions by the professor, and so on and so forth."

Makes it sound like it's a bunch of random questions, or just MORE questions about other things in the case or... any number of things.  And the advice given for how to deal with it is: "be prepared."  While both might be accurate, neither is very descriptive or helpful.  The socratic method is usually oppositional, usually targeted at exposing underlying assumptions the student isn't aware of, and often intended to produce a self-contradiction.  It's not just random questions, and the advice about being prepared is fine as far as it goes, but quite a few students are shocked to learn that thinking requires more than memorizing facts.  That's why the socratic method fries some.  Being prepared means more than knowing specifics about the case, etc etc... be prepared to argue the case, be prepared by knowing what assumptions underlie key statements, be prepared by __________ (fill in the blank.) "Be prepared" by itself means next to nothing.  And finally, sure, outlining is a good idea for most.  Everyone's heard that by their second lecture though.

[Cher1300]

One other thing you missed - do practice exams - LOTS of them!!!  If your professor allows you to do some of their old final exams, even better.  Otherwise, at least try some commercial ones just so you can learn to spot the issues.  The first year or semester is really about learning how to spot issues on your exam through hypotheticals and learning how to analyze both sides of the issue.  From my experience, this was more helpful than just outlining and briefing.  While you need to know and memorize your rules through your outline, it may difficult to pass - let alone get a C - unless you did at least a couple of practice exams.