Yes that is exactly right play the game. Professors have their biases opinions etc and if you can throw in something they liked to talk about during the semester they probably will be happy if you write it. If you go to class everyday and really pay attention you can get a feel for how they think etc and play into their personality and you will get good grades. I have my answer published as the model in 7 classes and I think a lot of that had to do with using a few quotes the professors really liked. I knew the law of course, but it is an anonymous exam and if you put in writing that you were really listening you might get a brownie or point or two. Don't do that on the bar that is when you go by the barbri book, but don't go by BarBri in law school.
I don't know how many 1L students said I just listened to teh BarBri lecture and read this supplement that supplement and the other and although they can be helpful the law is not as black and white as it should be. Your taking the professors exam and every professor has a slightly different spin on the law and thinks different things are important so instead of trying to find an outside source that your professor is unaware of pay attention to what they are saying. In law school you are taking an exam on the professor not always the law. Obviously you need to the law to some extent, but reciting what Chemerinsky says in his MPRE lecture on your school's Professional Responsibility exam is not going to get you anywhere, but so many students try so hard to look for a shortcut when the key to success is quite simple. Read the pages your professor assigns, pay attention in class-no internet, and get a feel for how professor who is writing and grading your law school exam thinks.
I think the skill of learning to understand what the person in authority wants is key to being a lawyer. When you pass the bar you are going to go in front of judges and they will have their own style and often vastly different views on the law. I have worked for a few judges now and seen it first hand and I certainly saw it through reading cases. I mean Justice Thomas has his own way of viewing things I love him, but I remember in Con-Law reading the facts and already knowing he was going to the lone dissenter. If he was Superior Court Judge you were going in front of you would need to know how he thinks, because whether the judge is right on their black letter law when they put an order in it's over absent going through the time and effort of an appeal. You would be a lot better of knowing the judges style and thought process opposed to going in with what a textbook somewhere said.
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