law school confidential: my thoughts
I finally finished Law School Confidential. Well, sorta. I skipped over a few chapters — nay, over entire sections — of the book. The thing is, probably about two-thirds of it just doesn’t apply to me at this point. The parts that I did read, however, were good as far as gaining a basic understanding of what to expect in law school.
The first section of the book, entitled “So You Wanna Be a Lawyer,” deals with deciding whether to go to law school, how to get a good LSAT score, the application process, choosing a law school, and paying for it. I skipped right over this section; clearly I’m beyond this.
Part two is called “The First Year, They Scare You to Death.” Now that’s more like it. This section is full of advice regarding what you should do before you start law school, such as moving to your law school’s city plenty early and getting into shape. I dog-eared the page that lists recommended supplements/commercial outlines for each 1L course. I mean, is this universally true, regardless of the professor? I have my doubts.
There’s a helpful chapter that briefly explains what you’ll learn in each 1L class, followed by a chapter on book-briefing cases. This is also dog-eared in my book. I absolutely love the idea of color-coding my casebook with highlighters. Seriously, thinking about it makes me have an OCD-gasm.
Next, there are chapters on law school etiquette, preparing for exams, getting a 1L summer job, making the best outline to take into exams (also dog-eared: case maps vs. bullet outlines), and the law review competition. Speaking of law review, how many of you competed? How many of you succeeded? If you competed and didn’t make law review, are you still glad you put forth the effort? If you didn’t attempt it, do you now wish that you had? Discuss.
The rest of the book deals with your 2L and 3L years and the bar exam. I flipped through all this, but I didn’t really read much of it. Just thinking about 1L is causing me enough stress, without having to start worrying about the barzam and actually finding a job. I may or may not refer back to these last two sections at some future date, but at this point I can’t bear to read them.
So, all in all, I think Law School Confidential is probably a worthy read. If the color-coded-highlighting-of-the-casebook briefing method ends up working for me, that alone will have been worth the price of the book. If any of you seasoned law students out there have experience with this book briefing method, or any other general thoughts regarding Law School Confidential, please comment.
COLOR-CODED WITH HIGHLIGHTERS??? **swoon**
Hi, my name is Law School Ninja, and I’m an office-supply-aholic.
I’ve also read LSC – and loved the level of detail covered in the highlighting advice. Even if I don’t use 100% of the suggested actions – it gave a good view of what to expect and types of tactics that can be used to study well.
I’m now reading Getting to Maybe – if you have not read it yet, i would suggest it. It speaks more about law exams and what type of information in a lecture is likely to be tested. Another detailed account that should help put us pre-1Ls on the right foot from the first day.
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Dude. When I read about the colourcoding with highlighters, I remember smiling, like, really wide. I was reading that part while drinking mimosas at some cafe & I think I scared the table next to me.
Cos me and Office Max? BFFs. Yesterday, I went to Walgreens and saw a HUGE tub of highlighters, and the outside of the tube said $0.79 and I thought the entire tub was for only 79cents.
I was wrong, and made me really really sad. ahahaha 
Ok end randomness now, heee!
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Supplement recommendations generally ARE pretty universal regardless of prof. I mean, it’s one body of case law; you can’t really say that Case X argues that privity is unnecessary in an adverse possession claim between two successive possessors, because it is and the case says that. You know what I mean? There will be arguing points, but the basic rules of law will be the same.
However, some profs may fudge it a little. Our Crim prof flat out told us that he didn’t care for certain sections of the common law or MPC: like, we weren’t responsible for knowing legal impossibility and factual impossibility because it was all the same. Stuff like that. So for his class, supplements didn’t help at all because he was so particular, and you had to learn from your notes, which was fine. But the general principles (what is homicide? How does it differ from manslaughter? Are mistakes of fact allowed in such and such offenses?) would be the same, so if you for some reason didn’t know those (ie, you slept through class) the supplement would help there.
Me and Andy/BobBlahBlawg both had Getting to Maybe, and we LOVED it. Great book for how to do well on law school exams, which will be like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Come to think of it, maybe I should do a GtM review like you did for LSC.
Yes, I think I will.
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I use the technicolor method.
For me:
Green=facts
Orange=issue
Yellow=rule/reason
Pink=holding
I write my briefs using the same colors so they are easily scannable by me when called upon.
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While Supplements are general in the coverage of each topic you should keep in mind that you should find a supplement that helps YOU understand the material.
For instance, Examples and Explanations offer good hypothetical situations set in paragraph forms but don’t really summarize the law for you as well as other supplements. Black Letter Law books offer good capsule summaries of each topic within a course and usually also include more detailed coverage of each topic. I usually check out Amazon customer reviews for my actual textbooks because a lot of people will suggest which is the best supplement based on the book you are reading.
You also will have some teachers who teach in unorthodox manners, my Property teacher taught us more philosophy than Property and my supplement helped me get my worst grade in law school b/c I gave him the law and he wanted the philosophy.
Color coding is the best (and prettiest) method I’ve used for case reading. There are also good websites out there that offer you brief synopses of cases which I’d suggest reading as a refresher before class but after you’ve read the entire case in the book, these really help give you the bottom line of the case.
Check out http://www.quimbee.com (free and public) and/or LexisNexis or Westlaw when you are given access.
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For me:
Yellow=facts,
orange=issue,
pink=rule/reasoning,
blue=procedure,
I chose yellow for facts because they were the cheapest highlighters to buy.
Also, if your casebook has notes following the case be sure to read them. I had several profs who always discussed them and one prof who tested off the notes.
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master ninja Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 11:48 am
WOW. Thanks, guys! This is some really good information! I’m glad to see that the color-coding method is working for some of you. If you’re an investor, you might consider buying stock in Sharpie because I’m about to go crazy buying up colored highlighters.
I also have GTM and I’m starting it this week. I can’t wait to read your review of it, Huma. I’ve heard good things about it. Next week I plan on getting my textbooks, so once I have them in hand I’ll post about which supplements are recommended by LSC and solicit your opinions. Thanks again, and keep that advice coming my way!
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Law School Confidential was such a great book to read before I started law school. I forgot it even talked about the bar exam!
About book briefing…I may be in the minority on this, but really try, at least most of the first semester, to brief the traditional way. Why? Cuz reading cases is a skill, and it will make it easier to outline later in case your prof is really bad at going through the cases in class. When you get called on in class, you have to be able to distill the 10 pages into something fairly succinct. Some 1L profs also get a bit peeved if they call on you and see you flipping through the book a lot. By 2nd semester, I book briefed for half of my classes, and traditionally briefed for the other half. I didn’t notice any big difference in my grades based solely on that. But, I also slogged through the entire first semester briefing 90% of my cases for class. Another bonus? Some cases you see your 1L year you’ll have in case books later on (esp. Con Law), so it can save you some time later on (though cases can be in textbooks for different propositions of the law, it can get you up to speed if you’re low on time or the case is poorly excerpted).
About law review…If you think you’d have any interest in teaching one day or clerking for a judge, then try to write-on if you don’t grade on (some schools are different with that). If your school has a writing requirement, it’s a way to get that taken care of, and add stuff to your resume. That being said, it can be a pain of the ass, but it sounds like with your OCD, some of it might be up your alley!
I agree w/ Huma about the supplements. It sometimes does depend on the prof, and some will say which ones they like and don’t like. Go ahead and buy Examples & Explanations for Civil Procedure. You can get some great deals on Amazon.com for used supplements! I bought a lot of ones on the list, but really, I didn’t use all of them, b/c I didn’t have time to look at 2 or 3 different supplements for one class.
Best of luck! Now back to studying for the bar…
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Hmmm, where to start?
That list of supplements is not universally going to work. Not only will it depend on the professor (some warn you to not even dare to pick up a supplement and if you do there will be a price to pay: most profs. know all the supplements and consider taking away exam points if you expound on a topic they didn’t teach but your supplement went into depth on. you think you’re winning, but they’re going to teach you a lesson) but it largely depends on the casebook. Each professor chooses their own casebooks and even though the subject may be torts it is inevitable that each torts professor will choose their favorite book to teach from. If you don’t get the supplement keyed to your casebook you will regret it. You’ll go crazy trying to match things up.
Also, I wouldn’t bank on being able to take anything into any exam ever. A select few of upper level classes allow Codes but especially your first year they are trying to weed out the folks that can’t handle the memorization AND application aspect of law school and the stress it induces. They do it on purpose and it stinks, but it is what it is.
And last but not least: law review competition. I didn’t compete and as lackadaisical as it sounds, I’m glad I didn’t. That leaves the two other kinds of people: those that competed and didn’t win entry and those that were able to join the review. I know plenty of both and they are equally resentful. Across the board it was considered a frustrating waste of time. Those that did end up with a slot found themselves overburdened with meaningless work. They may change their tune if that title helps them get a job, but I’m not sure the ends will ever outweigh the means.
You’re going to do what you’re going to do. In almost everything that has to do with law school everyone (including myself, lol) has an opinion and will try to tell you the right way to do things. Its all a bunch of bull. You’ll figure out whats right for you on your own terms and you are the only person you should be listening to.
I think thats it
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Good comments
Not much else for me to chime in on! But that’s not going to stop me, because, dagnabit, I’m a 2L and I know it ALL!! Get used to that – 2 and 3Ls will all have advice for you. Some of it will be GOLD. And you’ll love them forever for it. Some of it is just plain trying to scare the 1Ls because somebody scared them. Take everything with a grain of salt – or a tablespoon – and figure out what works FOR YOU.
Okay…
Supplements – pretty universal, but sometimes profs will tell you which supplements work best. My Torts prof basically taught out of Understanding Torts and I would have cried without that book. If you can, talk to a student who had THAT class with THAT professor. Because it really does depend. Also, if the supplement is written by the author of your casebook, use that one! My Civ Pro supplement literally is what enabled me to pass that class, because the author really made his casebook make sense in the supplement. And for all Prof Civ Pro’s grandstanding about not relying on supplements, turns out he took almost all his hypos from THAT one!!!
Briefing – Color coding works for a lot of people. I’ve never really done it, but who knows…maybe I’ll do it this year
My reading comp. is very good, so I would just highlight in one color and right notes and signals in the margins. Like somebody already said, I would really encourage you to start out by fully briefing your cases. At least the first few weeks. You need that time to figure out what is REALLY the holding of the case and what you’re supposed to be pulling out. You can still highlight away, but don’t rely solely on that for the start. Eventually, almost everybody I knew switched to book briefing. I know I did. I didn’t need those written briefs anymore, because preparing for class became second nature. It just takes a little time.
Law Review – We haven’t had our write-on competition yet, but I have decided NOT to do it. I have no desire to add more stress to my life, and the benefits don’t outweigh the downsides for me. So…that’s that for me and Law Review. That said, I worked as an editor/research assistant for one of our journals this summer so I’ve done the cite-checking, Bluebooking, and copy editing work for this journal and love it. But I’m going to keep doing that as a work-study, because this journal doesn’t have a student staff. Same great experience (minus the possibility of publication), totally without the stress and drama.
Here I am, taking over your comments again
You’re going to do great, Ninja!
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Hey Ninja,
This is my recommendation to you. You will read every case at least three and probably more than that. The first time around read it through, no highlighting. Sometimes you spend inordinate amounts of time trying to figure something out only to realize after reading to the end of the case that it doesn’t matter. Get yourself a copy of Black’s Law Dictionary and look up EVERY word that you don’t know and write the definition INTO your case book. You will be looking up every other word in the beginning, but it’ll get easier as you go along. Professors, especially in the beginning LOVE to ask what random Latin phrases mean. Also, words have different meanings in law land and the real world, so if you suspect that something has a slightly different meaning in the law, then you should look it up (like assault and battery. trust me.).
Second time around, highlight. For me:
Red: Procedural history
Pink: Facts
Orange: Rules/Law (with specific case names circled. Sometimes professors will ask what so-and-so case would say on the topic and it’s a random rule in the middle of the case)
Yellow: Issue
Green: Holding
Blue: Reasoning
I actually bought crayola thin line markers that way I could write in the margins after I underlined. After awhile, you will stop using some of the colors. You’ll fumble through initially trying to figure out the difference between a rule and the reasoning, but it gets easier as you go along.
Especially with the reasoning section after the holding, NUMBER each reason the court uses to arrive at their decision.
After that, brief the cases especially in the beginning. Here’s an example of one I did. By this time in the semester, I had stopped writing the facts down.
https://www.google.com/notebook/html?nbid=BDQJ1SgoQiaXk3s8j
In cases where there were multiple issues, then I had those numbered. Then I had separate sections for the rules that applied to each of those issues, the holding for each of those issues, and then the reasons for those holdings. When you just book brief, then it’s hard to pick these separate issues out, especially when the questions are being fired at you.
Get yourself some supplements. You don’t have to get the ones that professors recommend necessarily. I’ll let you know which ones are good if you’d like.
As for Law Review, I finished my write-on. It’s one of those annoying things that you have to do even if you have no real desire AT ALL to do it. Part of me thinks that law schools make it so prestigious so that people will try out. It’s pretty important to do. There is nothing that employers look upon more favorably than journals. Even if you don’t make it onto a journal, you can at least say that you tried. It sucks and the work is annoying and boring and it takes up a ton of time, but it’ll be the single most important thing in landing a job.
When you get to law school, this is one thing that I wish that someone had told me at the beginning. You are reading EVERY case for a reason. It either represents a rule or an exception to a rule (or in cases where there is no consensus, it’s illustrating both sides of a rule). When you brief, outline, organize your notes, you need to recognize if it is a rule or an exception. I recently sent a bunch of things to a friend of mine showing how to structure your outlines based on this, so e-mail me and I’ll pass it along. When you read cases, try to organize things in your head not as individual cases, but rather rules. For exams, you will rarely need to know the facts of cases, only the rules they are attempting to illustrate.
Hope this helps! PLEASE e-mail you and I’ll pass things along!
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I started out with full-on case briefs, typed into OneNote all neat and pretty. But that takes TIME. Especially when professors recommend you read a case at least twice, if not three times to really GET it. So within a couple of weeks, I started book briefing.
My book briefing technique is as follows:
Yellow = facts (for the same reason as Kel’s)
Green = procedural history (how the case got to the current court)
Orange = issue or question presented
Blue = holding and disposition of the case
Pink = rationale/analysis/reasoning
I also underlined important dicta, and circled words I needed to look up in my Black’s law dictionary. Plus, I took notes in the margins – especially when there were multiple issues or points of reasoning. It made getting called on in class MUCH less terrifying.
My only other advice about supplements is that if your professor recommends something but doesn’t require it, it’s probably a good idea to check it out. You may be able to use it in the library before you go to the bookstore and buy it. My Crim Law professor recommended a book that I didn’t look at until the last few weeks of the semester. It was then I discovered she’d basically been teaching from this supplement all along. Some professors use those supplements as starting points for their exams, too.
Good luck with your first year!
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