One of my friends who is taking the Texas bar told me that he has already had the Barbri 3-day. As you Barbri takers are probably aware, the test is in the book marked "Simulated MBE" and the answers are in the back as they are in all of the PMBR and Barbri books. What surprised me, though, is that he said that you have to turn in your answer sheet so Barbri can grade it. No, you don't.
Much like the SAT, LSAT, and now the MBE do with their test takers is create bogus sections so they can determine the testability of various things (these are also known as the "experimental" sections, which don't count for anything). While that is all well and good for the test takers, it is a perfect example of companies trying to get something for nothing. Here, they are using people who have paid them to take their test (and the various schools/services that the test takers have to pay to get the results) to get free research. As anybody who has taken Economics 101 knows, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Yet, that is exactly what Barbri is trying to do and is largely accomplishing.
My marketing research experience does not compare to that of a professor I had who worked for some big econometric firm that processed clients like Ford, Bic, and the like. He told us once that the amounts of money that these companies pay firms like his to better understand their market share is staggering. And for good reason. Customer retention is big business. So is developing a product that sells.
So when I hear Barbri wants to capitalize on us poor unknowing law students by "grading" our scantron sheets for us, it is infuriating. It's no wonder they are being broken up as a monopoly and for good reason. At least the lawyers against them have shown that their piddly offer at settlement is not fair and rejected it. I would have jumped on this bandwagon also, but I'm just one year too late. Other bloggers have commented more intelligently on the Barbri lawsuit saga than me.
Bottom line, don't let Barbri grade your test. It accomplishes nothing. Except save them some money, the savings of which they certainly aren't passing on to their customers.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Don't succumb to Barbri's efforts at free research!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The question of when to take the PMBR 3-day
Depending on where you live and/or are taking the bar, PMBR offers its 3-day course roughly once a week from the end of June to mid-July. As you PMBR takers are aware, there is also another full length MBE in the back of the blue book. PMBR suggests you take 3 full-length MBEs prior to taking the real thing (theirs, Barbri's and the one in the back of the blue book). I tend to think this is good advice, regardless of the crappiness of some of their questions and the rumors I keep hearing that the PMBR test is harder than the real thing. As I will reemphasize in the end, doing more problems probably isn't a bad thing.
When should you take PMBR 6-day or the PMBR 3-day or both. As far as the 6-day, my comments on this subject have been exhausted. Know thyself and don't be suckered if you don't need to be. I think the 3-day is enough, if not more than enough.
The 3-day is probably just as worthless as the 6-day, but may be worth the 200 bucks or so nonetheless because you will get all the materials and a little simulated practice won't hurt. Whether you should take it early or around the 4th or later again depends on how well you think you are prepared. Taking it in June may be tricky because I think this is only offered in very few places then, and you may not have covered all the multistate materials. At the same time, it may be a good gauge to see where you are at.
I think taking it in July early or even at the end (with most everybody else - I think July 13-15 or something like that is the latest and most commonly available) is okay also. By then you probably would have had Barbri's 3-day, which I suspect is equally as helpful. The point is that you are sitting down through a mock simulation and doing 200 problems over 6 hours. Whether the other two days are worth it depend on your study style.
So, I wouldn't let PMBR scare you into thinking the 6-day is worth it, unless you probably need the reinforcement or a kick in the gears to shift into "bar study" mode. For that matter, the 3-day may be excessive if your bar course doesn't plan around it, and if you're disciplined and already are doing well or don't feel you need the extra practice, it's probably not worth it. But then again, a few more problems never hurts either.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Judge pants suit tossed
I'm not sure this has come to a surprise to anyone, but the suit where the judge attempted to take his cleaner to the cleaners got flushed away today: Judge tosses $54 million suit over missing pants. I wonder whether this or Paris Hilton being released from jail will make for bigger news.
And a victory to the anti-drug war with the 6-3 reversal of the so-called 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case: 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case limits student rights. The full opinion can be found here. Bottom line (from reading the syllabus): Advertising or promoting illicit drug use in schools is beyond First Amendment protections. Doesn't seem too surprising. Neither does Thomas's concurrence that implicitly forgets about stare decisis.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
In one month....
As several of my friends studying for their various bars across the country have pointed out in their away messages this weekend, the bar is exactly a month away (from either yesterday or today depending on where you're taking it). That means a month from tomorrow will be the multistate. Scary stuff.
In this past month, I've settled into a rather tedious study routine. I get up, I go to class from 9 to around 12 or 1. I break for lunch. I come back and review or outline what I did that morning until 5 or so. I break for dinner. Then I go back and do at least 50 multiple choice questions a night. This takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, then I spend the remaining amounts of my mental energy going over the problems. This repeats for days at a time, although some afternoons and evenings are less productive than others. Did I mention how much I hate going to the library now? Bar review has ruined the summer of '07.
I suppose I don't really need to change pace until after the 4th of July. By then my goal is to be done the red and most of the blue PMBR books. At 50/day, that shouldn't take too much longer. I think if you do 50/day, you can have 2000 done in 40 days. Counting the six-day PMBR, I reckon I'm over 1500 by now. That's even scarier.
The more frustrating thing is not knowing how many I should be getting right. Some days I get half, other times I'll get around 35/50 right. I have to hope that the real thing is at least similar or at little less nit-picky or otherwise I'm screwed.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Why I am never using Lexis again
I was speaking to one of my clerk friends the other day who reminded me to make sure I cash in my Westlaw and Lexis points before they expire since someone in our school lost 30,000 points last year because he thought they expired in August. Since I already have "cashed out," so to speak, I'm in the clear, but it did remind me of this rather annoying tale from last month.
I think I've made it clear over the past year how silly both Westlaw's and Lexis's attempts at stealing market share from unwitting students are, but think that Westlaw is the superior system and marketing tactic, although from a business perspective, neither is that great a company.
Regardless, I was trying to cash in what few points I have left on Lexis and figure that I am 100 points short of getting whatever the cheapest thing is on their limited gift menu, a $10 gift certificate or something like that. 100 points is the equivalent of about a dollar give or take a few pennies.
Around the same time, I similarly fell short of points on Westlaw, and my Westlaw rep graciously donated the requisite points and I was able to get whatever trinket I was trying for. Good for them. My identical request to Lexis came back with an email along these lines - "sorry, I'm unable to give any points since the semester is over." That's it. Nothing more, no good luck, nothing. I'm surprised they hire such incompetents. While I am a bit shocked, I am not surprised given the shoddy treatment our Lexis rep has given the few who actually have any interest in actually learning their system over the past three years. It's too bad that File & Serve has such a grip on lawyers, or else I would never use Lexis. Just Google and Westlaw.
Given that the value of 100 points is so minuscule, I am surprised they couldn't just award me the points. Not that I am entitled to them; frankly, I could care less. I supposed I could have answered five more fact or fiction questions right. It's just the principle of the whole thing. Are they that hard up for the $1 or so these points are worth? It's not like their product line is that great anyway.... I wonder if anyone else has had similar poor customer service encounters with Lexis?
New York noise ordinance suit? Seems like a 12(b)(6) claim to me
I see that over at Long Island, some neighbor is bringing what seems to be a private nuisance suit against her neighbor's noisy kids. She says they play too loudly as they are swimming in their private pool.
According to my Convisor materials, a claim for such a nuisance (which I would assume is a private nuisance), would need to cause substantial, unreasonable interference. I can't imagine that the average Joe would find kids playing in their pool in summer to substantially interfere with one's use and enjoyment of their land. Nor can I really imagine that they found some lawyer to actually take this case. Wouldn't the more rational thing to do be to go to the neighbors and calmly work this out? Talk about your hypersensitive plaintiff. I hope this is a multiple choice question in a month.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Some hearsay about the PMBR 3-day
I got an email today from one of my friends who is in the midst of the PMBR 3-day exam. She says that she recognized a few questions from the red book, but most were pretty original. That sounds fair enough.
She also said that the average score is a 95 out of 200, and they give you a 35 point curve. I guess that's good. I think DC needs a 135 to waive in, so basically one could take this to mean that if you got half right with the curve, that would be good enough to pass most bars.
I asked her also about the fact that the July 2007 MBE will grade only 190 out of 200 questions since they have gone the way of the SAT and other standardized tests in using us test takers as free research subjects. Will the score be out of 190 then and how will that effect the grading? According to the lecturer, the bar examiners will take this into consideration and add in a few more points on top of the normal curve. Well, that's good news.
As far as the lecture, she says that it wasn't too much of a repeat from the 6-day and it wasn't too bad, although it was pretty long. Since I'm not taking it for another couple weeks, I'll see how I feel the next day whether my time is worth spending listening to a PMBR lecturer rather than study on my own.
For what it's worth though, she said it probably would have been fine if she didn't take the 6-day. To that, I will reserve my comment as to whether it is worth it at all until I take it. I suspect that my original idea that PMBR is probably not worth it at all if you are a disciplined studier will hold true, but we'll see.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
BigFirms to 190k? How many more billables does that add up to?
Since many of my cohorts in the bar review course have been abuzz as of late with the greedy threads that have been posted recently at Above the Law (e.g., Skadden rumors to $190k), I thought I would chime into the more ominous question that seems to be avoided on these threads: In terms of billable hours, with even the 18% increase in pay that came this year for most firms first-year associate salaries, how much more do the firms expect to get out of us? I shudder at the answer if we're already above the 2000-2100 range.
And while I have tried to stay as neutral as I can as far as these ridiculously high pay scales, sometimes it's tough to not think about. Playing around with the non-existent 2010 $190k starting salary, you figure that's about $114k AFTER taxes, and going by straight months/hours analysis, you're clearing nearly $2500/week. At my first job out of college, I was lucky to make that much in a month before taxes. And I worked in one of the top fifteen largest cities (not necessarily on the east coast).
So if anything good can come of these salary talks, it at least forces the rest of the country to at least consider following New York. Or it suggests that our economy is stronger than the Fed seems to be saying.... Obviously the majority of Big or even Medium firms won't match, but at least the ripple effect should help those in all the rest of the major markets (DC, Chicago, San Fran/L.A., etc.). What I really want to see is the rest of the firms fall in line with matching the Big Firms' $50k clerkship bonuses (or at least chipping it to a reasonable $35k, is that too much to ask?). Sure, you get what you pay for, but at what cost?
Monday, June 18, 2007
Sicko and the move toward a uniform copyright approach
As has been splashed across the front page of the Drudge Report this week, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko has been leaked to the Internet. Not only is it available via a torrent file, it is also been posted on Youtube. Ironically, Micheal Moore doesn't seem to care because he must not realize that his producers are in this to make money, and people don't generally pay for something they can see for free.
I've seen a couple of papers that have been published about this on SSRN, and even more have been published as it relates to the music industry. As far as television, the moving consensus appears to be that for so-called "free" shows, the onus falls on the one who uploaded the file, while the blatantly pay shows (e.g., movies and perhaps cable and pay-tv shows) may have dual liability.
While I don't have time at the moment to give my position on the subject, I would say that the short answer is that I agree that the copyright holder should be able to go after the uploader and perhaps the downloader who keeps the file, but probably not the casual online watcher. Whether YouTube or Google or whoever is also going to be liable remains to be seen, although my reading of the Grokster case would suggest that their liability extends only so far as their willful ignorance or outright disregard of copyright laws. I guess we'll see what the California courts decide at summary judgment.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Pirates part 3 and the un-disney like message it sends in the end
I saw the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie the other night. For a Disney movie, it was fairly violent. And long. It wasn't as good as the original, and if you have already seen the second, it all works out (sort of) in the end, so it's what you would expect and not really that great to go see in the theatres. The rest of this review would only make sense if you've seen the movie. If you want to see my comments about the last hidden scene (after the credits), you can click here.
Two things I didn't like about it, considering it's a kid's disney movie. Why did Orlando Bloom's character have to be the one who took over for Davy Jones? Seems sort of dumb. I thought that Jack Sparrow's "piece of eight" was something else and he was going to pull off a similar stunt to what he did in the original, so he would release Calypso.
I was expecting a little more out of the Calypso character than her turning into a giant and then making it rain. Very lame, even for Disney.
And the whole wedding thing was kind of hokey, but what I would expect from a Disney movie. I suppose it justifies the presumed sex scene toward the end. What I didn't like though was the fact that the movie appears to promote the idea of fathers leaving their kids behind for their job. This has to do with the final scene in the end, if you sit through at least another additional ten minutes of credits. There you see it is "ten years later" and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) and presumably his kid are waiting on the cliff and sure enough he pops up from the horizon. Give me a a break. As an adult, I know it's just a movie, but I just don't know what kind of message this would send to a little kid watching that movie. As I said, it seems pretty un-Disney like. I can only hope that these parents would use it to explain that it's just a movie, and you shouldn't abandon your kids or take responsibility for your actions or something.
So, this movie wasted 3 hours of my valuable time and was not worth the ten dollar ticket for admission. If you're going to suffer through it, wait for HBO or ABC to run it. You won't miss anything.
Read more!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Multiple choice questions continue to ruin my days
That's a bit of an overstatement, but I can't begin to explain how frustrating some of these questions are sometimes. From those in the course who I'm friends with or just in general, the feeling is mutual. At least I'm not the only one who finds PMBR's explanations completely worthless. For the questions that have two right answers, I say to PMBR, the real test doesn't intend to have two right answers and if it does, it's a matter of statistical anomaly, so why would you perpetuate this by putting such a question in the book?
Regardless, I've heard people who get 40/50 right, 10/50 right, half right and everything in between. I figure you need roughly 70% to pass (and, depending on your jurisdiction, a little more or less) after the curve (which you shouldn't bank on as being that significant), and that means you need about 35 or so right out of 50 BY THE END. I also think that some of PMBR's answers are wrong, and I'm not the only one, so I try not to let their fallacies piss me off too much. I also heard that PMBR expects you to shoot for 115/200 on their 3-day PMBR test, so I guess when that happens I'll see whether I'm in the meaty part of the curve or somewhere else.
My last complaint about PMBR deals with their use of air quotes in answers. They accomplish nothing. I've seen enough standardized tests to know that they put them in, but they are completely worthless. If anything, they are distracting because they make the sentence read as if the quotes actually mean something, which they do not.
I think I'm going to waste some time movie hopping. I certainly am looking forward to Die Hard 4, just to see some gratuitous violence and shoot-em-up-kill-em action on the big screen. It certainly will be more entertaining than doing multiple choice problems.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Bob Barker's last broadcast barely makes headlines
I saw today was Bob Barker's last day (although I know from the news it was filmed last week). Good for him. Like many people who grew up in the 80s (or 70s, or 90s, or the 2000s for that matter), my sick days home from school often were spent watching the Price is Right from 11-12 everyday before my mom's or my grandmother's "stories" came on.
Every so often I would see a show where all six games were won. According to the facts of the Price is Right on CBS's site, this has happened 53 times (or 75 depending on your source). My favorite Price is Right episode, though, went something like this. The guy guessed the first contest right to win the hundred dollar bonus and the prize and the chance at the game. He won the game (although I can't remember what exactly it was - not Plinko though). He spun the wheel and hit the dollar twice during the showcase showdown. Then he guessed his showcase within the $100 (which I think is now $250), and won both. So that was a pretty good day.
I never got to the price is right set, but one of my friends did and said it was a lot of fun. I wonder how heavy that wheel is to spin? The other thing the Price is Right taught me was that you "spay" not "spray" your pets. I think that was on a PSAT but I could be making that up.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
today is thursday?
I've noticed that more and more people (including myself) have started to drag through this bar review process. Less people are chirpy at 9 in the morning, and the library stress level has appeared to jump from yellow to a shade of orange. This is scary since there is still over a month to go. It took me about ten minutes to realize the day of the week (since everyday now is either a Monday or Friday, depending on your perspective).
I would say that the PMBR/Barbri questions are the highlight of my day but that would be a bold faced lie. In fact, the only thing they accomplish on a daily basis is ruining my already orange mood.
Monday, June 11, 2007
library shenanigans and PMBR errors abound
The highlight of my day today was that I had to tell a couple of undergrads to pipe down since a row of us were studying. They were cool about it. I suppose this balances out the time one of my friends and I were shushed by someone else who was probably studying for the bar. Except that the loud "shush" is merely passive aggressive nonsense that accomplishes very little except pissing off the shush-ees. Although I'm not surprised anymore that law students are pretty passive aggressive, I am a bit surprised that more don't simply try and solve their problems by talking first. Maybe that's indicative of the type of practice they will be getting into. I'm not of that sort and figured it would be more productive to just ask nicely to shut up.
I also have some major beef with a couple of these PMBR questions, particularly since I saw a nearly identical question in the Barbri book and the answers conflicted. Barbri's answers seemed much more reasoned and correct, so I will say that they trumped. Thus, if a police officer has a valid warrant, he can arrest you, so long as he was acting in good faith in executing the warrant. Seems like good 4th amendment sense, and it makes much more sense than PMBR's answer which seemed to say that you could win a false imprisonment suit against the police if the basis for their warrant was a false report that was never recanted. (This is the gist of Torts question #92 in the red book for those of you following along at home. PMBR's answer makes no sense constitutionally, and thus is patently wrong).
Perhaps if PMBR gave some logical reason for their explanation so that us bar studiers could actually learn the law of the particular question, I could see their point. But they don't, and usually don't, and their case law suggestions are completely pointless, so I stand by my continued assertion that PMBR questions are what they are - good enough, but not great by any means.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Hilton final comments with a tie to invasion of privacy, maybe
I have commented more than necessary on this Hilton mess. See my last entry for one such example. What's going to happen the next time she is pulled over for DUI and the minimum sentence is six months?
I think what bothers me about this case isn't that she got a valid sentence or that the media is making such a big deal out of it when there are bigger problems going on in the world, but with how the justice system is being portrayed. If anything, the media's cries that a double standard exists in California may have some merit.
Beyond all of this, who is telling this sheriff to give a press conference to explain his actions? And why would he possibly announce to the world that she is being released for some "mental condition?" Seems that's a little more pregnant of a response than say, for an "undisclosed medical condition" or "for reasons of privacy, I cannot reveal." Implying that's she's crazy seems to be borderline invasion of privacy, but again, I don't know what California's laws are and nor do I care. Maybe it's the truth, but I didn't think that was a defense to that tort.
In my humble opinion, the smarter move for him to do is to shut his trap, say "no comment," and move on. Speaking of which, time to do some reading.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
i'm glad i'm not taking the california bar
I feel sorry for my friends taking the California bar assuming they have some sort of essay that covers criminal law and procedure. Hopefully they won't be tested on sentencing (although I would be highly surprised if they were). If sentencing is part of the California bar though, any answer probably is a right one given the ongoing Paris Hilton debacle. Apparently she is now due back in court tomorrow morning after being released after just two measly days in prison for some sort of special medical condition that doesn't exist outside the general prison population apparently.
Here on the east coast, she'd be sitting in jail for a minimum mandatory six months by now. I can only hope for humor's sake that the judge orders her back to prison and forces her attorneys to file more hilarious emergency appeals that will be posted on sites like The Smoking Gun and that by the time the busy California courts get to it, her sentence will be over. I'm sure it will prompt other bloggers to chime their two cents in as well, with additional hilarity.
My original remarks on this Paris Hilton fiasco can be found here: the sentence and the frivolous appeal.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
bar review pass fail logic
Given that the bar exam is a pass/fail test, then theoretically, I only need to know 51% of the law in order to pass. This is the best thing I've come up with all day. Who cares about res ipsa, larceny, M'Naughten, or products liability when you only need to know half the law?
I remember PMBR making a similar argument. Paraphrased, it went something like this. There are 200 questions on the MBE, and most jurisdictions require you to get about 135 or so right (after the curve, which could be a stingy 7 points or a generous 20 points, give or take). Assuming you are in a generous year, you really only need to get 115 right. Of these, you should recognize about 10-50 from PMBR or Barbri (hence the PMBR infringment lawsuit), which leaves you to really only need to get about 65 right. This logic reminds me of the bit explaining why we're all so tired.
Anyway, all of this must be tempered with the fact that the judge in the PMBR case stated with an air of certainty that PMBR questions weren't always right: "As with a number of PMBE questions, the answer key here is incorrect, further undermining Mr. Feinberg’s claims that he derived his questions independently from authoritative legal sources."
I'm sure most are probably right, however, but given that PMBR (theoretically) did not participate in stealing MBE questions for 2005-2006 (also in the opinion), I can only hope that the various PMBR/Barbri questions at least give me enough familiarity with the subjects and how they are questioned that I can get at least a passing mark.
Monday, June 04, 2007
you know you are studying too much for the bar when....
...you watch sportscenter and think the danica patrick grab from the race over the weekend is a good example of a battery where a claim of self-defense would be too late because of the delayed response.
there are obviously more, but that one jumped out at me when i was watching PTI today.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Starting law school in the fall? Congrats
If you're starting law school in the fall and are (for whatever reason) looking for something to do this summer, here are my suggestions for what they are worth.
First, buy everything you can used or new from Amazon rather than your law school bookstore. At the end of the semester or the school year, you can sell them back through Amazon if you want- you'll save tons of money. If you are really business/tech savvy, you should learn how to do it, and your friends will want you to sell their books for them and pay you a fair 25-33% commission. You should get the books by sometime in August and you are, in most cases, buying them from other law students. Study guides (as explained below) can be bought at any time.
As far as a study routine your first year, I would outline Fridays until I was done, so I generally recommend to do the same, meaning outline on Fridays, or, as may be slightly more effective, to outline as you are finished on topics. The important thing is to keep up with it.
As far as volunteering in class, I think you'll get more from listening your first semester and for that matter, your first year. It will be obviously within the first few days of class who (and in some cases, there will be a group of ten) who constantly volunteer for everything. In my experience, these are the ones who don't usually walk the walk when it comes to grades. Of course, there's a time and a place. You should volunteer when appropriate. When it is your day to be called on, do your best and everybody will be glad it wasn't you. At a graduation party the other week, we were joking with the guy in our section who was called on the first day for Pennoyer v. Neff, but he did a good job explaining it.
I typed all my notes the first year and typed all my exams. I would definitely type all my exams and obviously do your outlines on your computer, but second year and third year, I handwrote all my notes. I feel i got a much better comprehension since i found it's much easier to type and not listen than to actively listen and write things down. I have successful friends who do both and obviously i have tried both and prefer writing - it's a matter of preference really. See what works for you by flipping a coin. I would stick with whatever method for at least a month though (in the beginning), if not the first semester altogether.
As far as finding a study group, that's sort of a matter of circumstance - chances are the library people who you will see most often will probably not be study group material until they realize you are smart, which won't happen until you grade on to the law review and are considering various other options. The secret is that anyone can do well in law school if you are willing to do the work, so with whatever group you wind up being a part of, just be the anal one in the group who forces everybody to meet on Sunday afternoons to go over stuff. By the first month, it will be so routine that you will all do well the first semester.
After the first year, your study group probably becomes more of a social group than anything else, but it's still good to have someone to talk to about stuff. You'd be surprised how much you bounce off of other people as far as coming up with odd scenarios and really digging into the material. In the end you have to learn the material yourself obviously, but it's good in the beginning to find a group of 2 or 3 (4 max plus yourself) who will ultimately be your closest law school friends. Of my study group, two graded on to law review, two wrote on, and we had 3 out of the top 10 in our graduating class, including the valedictorian, and the fourth was in the top 15. Anyone can do well if they are willing to put in the work.
Use the study guides for supplements. Read all you can, in depth, the first two weeks or month so you really get your head around the stuff since most of it is new. Glannons for Civ Pro and Torts is particularly great for supplemental reading. By mid-semester if not faster, and definitely by the second semester, you will have learned what and how you need to read.
My only other advice is to treat law school like a job - develop a routine and stick to it. If you have one or two tv shows to watch, you still can, just make that a reward. While I tend to watch a lot of tv now, I certainly didn't my first year. Work an 8-6 day six days a week and review with your study group either Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Follow this advice and you'll develop a routine that works for you, trust me. Learn the material and the final will be fair, tough, and you will do fine. Don't worry about the curve, if you work hard, you will be on the front end of it. If you're at a top ten school, you should be able to roll out of bed and beat half the people, which is really all you need. If you're at a lower tiered school, you need to work a little harder, but it's all the same.
If your grades wind up being less than you expect, that's fine also - you can still write onto the law reviews and what not and position yourself to succeed. If you don't do well, you should seriously consider cutting your losses because it may not be worth the debt for the job opportunities that present themselves afterwards. Again, this is a personal decision as well.
Yes, law school will be stressful, but you can manage it. You should do whatever doofy law school stuff they offer (e.g., Halloween parties, St. Patty's day parties, etc.) so you meet the rest of your class. Don't be the one who always volunteers, but like I said, take a stab at the softballs the profs lob to you since nobody else will. If you have a question, don't be afraid to ask it; I always felt stupid not asking things and relieved when someone asked the same question as me. You may develop the idea that your questions unfairly benefit the class, but that philosophy is a mistake - most people aren't paying attention. You should ask if you're confused or utilize office hours if you feel that more appropriate. There will be plenty of competitiveness, just rise above it and try not to contribute to it.
Presummer reads:
Law School Confidential. I highly recommended to read this book in the summer before you start. Lots of people will probably read this one but if you stick to their routine (and mine outlined below), you'll do fine. If you get only one book on this list, this is the one to get.
The Brethern. I think I bought this used for like five bucks.
One L. It's okay but law school (and Harvard) really isn't like that anymore. If you do read it (and it's not bad, I would also watch the movie The Paper Chase to get the opposite perspective on the same professor).
Acing Your First Year of Law School. I thought this was a good pre-orientation summary on how to brief stuff.
Getting to Maybe. This gives you a summary of how to take tests for law school - I found it somewhat useful. I had a friend who was on the verge of failing out, read it on my advice over spring break and graduated a couple of weeks ago. She studied a lot more also.
I also read "How to succeed in law school" and "Slaying the lawschool dragon" because someone gave them to me for free. They were okay but I wouldn't have bought them.
From Here to Economy. This is sort of an economics for dummies book, but i found the review of economic theory as a good backdrop for a lot of classes.
The point of all of this is that you need to get used to reading a lot because you will be doing more reading over the next three years than you ever had. Expect to either need glasses before you graduate or a stronger prescription.
Study guides:
Civ Pro: Civ Pro is like learning the rules to Monopoly without actually having ever played the game. Nevertheless, I would recommend Glannon's Civil Procedure book and Emmanuel's Civ Pro. The combination of the two got me an A. This is also the only Emmanuels book I would recommend, as I found Gilberts to be much more useful over my three year career.
Torts: Glannon's Law of Torts should be useful for about half the course depending on your professor. Gilbert's Torts book is a good supplement for the rest.
Property: I would get Gilbert's Property book although I hardly ever used it. Our professor had Sprankling as a supplement which was a great synopsis for much of the course.
Crim Law: I used Gilbert's and I got an A-. It was good enough.
Contracts: I bought Emmanuel's per Law School Confidential's recommendation but I would get the Gilbert one instead. I prefer Gilbert's over Emmanuel's because there are a lot more problems in the back of the book. Either one should be fine though. I would also recommend the example and explanation book for Contracts although I didn't use it. The two in our group that did got As in the course.
Con Law: There are two example and explanation books (Individual Rights and National Power) - I would get them both.
At the end of the semester, you may want to buy Siegel's multiple choice books (I have a couple of them) which are pretty good but you have to differentiate between what your professor taught and what the book gives as the answer. I suppose you have to do that for everything but I found that less of a problem during the semester with the Gilbert supplements and examples and explanations books than anything else.
Also, as far as what version to buy, the law (except for maybe constitutional law) hasn't really changed too much so you should get the cheapest versions you can find - the updated versions may be good for your ego, but for a fraction of the price, you can get the older version which is just as good. For textbooks, you usually don't have that luxury though, so I would get whatever version your prof assigns.
I bought a new laptop for law school. If you don't already have a PC laptop, I got a Dell, but as long as you have a built in wireless card (your school should tell you which one they recommend) and XP Pro, you should be fine. Some people have macs and they work fine also, but they aren't compatible with exam soft (although it depends on the school since I know the newer macs can run both platforms). I also bought a laser printer for under $175 (including shipping) and it didn't run out of ink until spring semester of my second year. You probably will have to buy a printer cable also - i would get one at least 6' (since my 3' has proven to be a pain in the ass most of the time).
Eventually you'll get access to Lexis Nexis and they have a bunch of commercial outlines to download, some of which are okay as supplements. The more useful outlines come from upper classman who have taken the course with that professor. I strongly recommend that you make your own outlines, however.
I think that's it. Good luck.
