THE PRINCETON REVIEW:  New York State BAR Review Course Marketing Pamphlet

MISSING
[Photo of twenty-something student]
Last Seen:         Entering the Law School Library, toting a large blue knapsack. 

 DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

Each year tens of thousands of law school students begin their legal educations only to disappear from the face of the earth.  Mothers grieve, boyfriends and girlfriends fret, while the police are powerless to stem the trend.

What’s behind these mysterious disappearances?  The Son of Sam is safely locked away, Ted Bundy is off the streets and the Unabomber’s postal meter has been confiscated. No, the threat is not external but from within.

In the mistaken belief that they must spend every waking hour studying, many law students suffer three-year, self-imposed exiles stretching from orientation to the last day of their last BAR exam.

Yes, law school probably appears an ominous place at this point.

And yes, law school requires a fair amount of work.

But law school shouldn’t ruin your life.

In fact, with a sensible and balanced approach, your law school years can be among the most interesting and rewarding of your life.  The key is to avoid becoming needlessly intimidated.     

Toward that end, we’ve included in this brochure some of the misconceptions that raise fear levels in first-year law students and other helpful information regarding law school life.

FALLACY ALLEY                               

• The Socratic method

Scared senseless that your name is on the top of your professor's hit list?  Don't go for the hemlock yet.  The fact is that few professors are likely to call on you in the random fashion known as the Socratic method.  This brand of domestic terrorism, made famous by Professor Kingsfield in Paper Chase, seems to be losing favor at most law schools.

Instead, you are more likely to face some sort of predictable routine - going through the class in alphabetical order, or by row, for example. These methods allow you plenty of advance warning as to your day in the sun, and thus enable you to prepare well ahead of time.  Many professors have abandoned the idea of mandatory participation altogether and rely instead on volunteers.

Why so easy?  Well, contrary to popular opinion, most law school professors were not trained at Idi Amin U. and do not revel in their students' discomfort.  Perhaps more importantly, calling on a host of unprepared and stuttering 1Ls is infuriating and just a big waste of time. 

Caveat #1

Some students are inclined to use their advance notice as a signal to get out of town, contract the flu, or become otherwise indisposed. Bad idea. Such obvious escapist tactics really irritate some professors and make you look like a weasel.  Don't be a rodent.  Besides, they're not going to let you slide that easily, so suck it up and get ready when your time comes.

Caveat #2

In classes that rely on volunteers, some professors will allege that participation can influence your grade.  Good bluff, but not really practicable.  Almost inevitably, your grades will begin and end with your finals.  Of course, speaking up in class keeps you involved and helps you understand the material.  But those who prefer to clam up are unlikely to face a mollusk deduction.

Caveat #3

When you do face the Socratic arrows, don’t be intimidated or become nauseated.  Like getting a shot from the doctor, the dread is far worse than the act, and it’s over before you know it.  Just do the best you can.  

•             Study Groups

Another component of the Paper Chase model, study groups provide one approach to wrestling with your first-year classes.  Can they be helpful?  Sure.  Are they essential?  Definitely not.  This is simply a matter of individual preference.  Some of you will benefit from hashing out the issues with other students and should give it a try.  If, however, you favor a more solitary approach to studying, stick with it.  Remember, your professors may even be available during the ninety minutes or so they set aside for office hours, should you require the human touch.

• Case Briefing

To brief or not to brief?  This is perhaps the most ubiquitous and gnawing of law school dilemmas.  And as with most questions, the answer is "it depends."  See what works best for you.  For some, highlighting with notes in the casebook margin will suffice. 

The lazier among you will go right to the "canned briefs" (briefs culled from supplemental materials).  Still others will find that you’re more comfortable and retain the most when you knuckle under and prepare them yourself.  Briefing all cases in all 1st year classes, however, is a herculean task that cannot be performed without forswearing The Simpsons, Letterman and Seinfeld.  This is not a sacrifice most law students are prepared to make.                                                                     

We suggest using the methadone approach.  Start off with a strong dose of briefing in order to get your feet wet and to instill self-confidence.  As the year progresses, decide whether or not you’re comfortable cutting back on your briefing hits, and adjust accordingly.  Who knows, you may eventually wean yourself off the habit altogether.

•     Law School Performance

Think back to your SAT and answer the following analogy.  Only this time, choose the one answer that does NOT match the stem pair.

          LUNAR : MOON
 

          A) SOLAR : SUN

          B) AEROBIC : OXYGEN

          C) TERRESTIAL : EARTH

          D) AQUATIC : WATER

          E) LAW SCHOOL GRADES : LEGAL ABILITY

Answer choice (E) is correct.  There is no clear relationship between law school performance and your ability to practice law (or to pass the BAR for that matter).  So don’t confuse the two.                                                                                                      

                                                                          STUDY AIDS

The American film classic Animal House features a scene depicting a statue located on the campus of picturesque Faber College.  The inscription below the statue reads simply:  "Knowledge is good."  Had Faber been a law school, the inscription would have gone on to read: "...and study guides are knowledge."  This leads one to the indisputable syllogism that study aids are good.  Buy them, borrow them, steal them (with the intention of returning them of course lest you fulfill the elements of common law larceny).

Such supplemental materials are not the law school equivalent of Cliff Notes, and you are not "cheating" by working with them.  Used in conjunction with (and not as a substitute for) your casebooks, the study guides serve several important functions.  As you will soon learn, the casebook approach favored by American law schools focuses on the presentation of case material as a means of introducing and elucidating particular legal principles.  Sometimes it actually works.  When it doesn't, your study guides will go a long way toward filling in the blanks.

In addition, these materials will prove an invaluable asset when it comes to preparing for finals.  It's the night before your Civ Pro exam and you're clueless about "pendant jurisdiction." Don't have a seizure - just look it up.        

Law school study guides come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Students of the more paranoid variety sometimes feel that they need to sift through every one in order to be completely prepared.  This Yertle the Turtle approach is silly and, as with poor Yertle, is likely to lead to your downfall.  Instead, choose your study guides according to your needs in a particular subject, e.g. a quick overview, a detailed outline, practice exam questions.

Following is a brief overview of the some of the most popularly available materials:

 A.   LEGAL OUTLINES

1) Emanuel Law Outlines:  Presents course material in a comprehensive, outline form that generally tracks the subject sequence followed by most casebooks. This nuts and bolts approach includes:

•  legal principles and explanations
• facts and analyses of the leading cases in each area of the law
• ·examples that illustrate/clarify material

In addition to the main outline, each Emanuel also includes:

• table of cases - helps you to quickly ascertain the facts/significance of cases you’ve forgotten
• subject matter index - for quick access to specific areas of the law
• capsule summary - an abbreviated version of the main outline
• sample essay & short answer questions

ASSESSMENT:  Probably the most useful and effective product overall. The capsule summary is particularly key for quick and comprehensive test preparation.  Students looking for a slew of practice questions or requiring only case notes might look elsewhere.  Otherwise, you can’t go wrong.        

2) Gilbert Law Summaries: These outlines essentially replicate the content and format of Emanuel. Though there were a few distinguishing characteristics in the past, these seem to have been abandoned in favor of a more uniform approach.  Gilbert has even aped Emanuel by naming its mini outline the “capsule summary as well.  Aren’t there copyright attorneys at these places?

ASSESSMENT:  Ring Dings or Ho Hos, Whoppers or Quarter Pounders, Hydrox or Oreos, Quisp or Quake (ask your older brother), it’s really your preference.  Although the layout used by Emanuel makes its content somewhat more distinguishable and easier on the eyes.  

3) Black Letter Series:  Another solid subject outline that includes a series of practice questions at the end of each section as well as - you guessed it - a “capsule summary.”

ASSESSMENT: The questions following each section provide effective reinforcement.  The outline itself is good, though its layout is somewhat less efficient than those of the Big Two.

4) Blond's Law Guides:  Another contender vying for your review dollars, these guides also offer information in outline form.  They are distinguishable primarily for their book-like size, and include:  

• a compilation of relevant cases with facts/issues/analysis at the back of each section
• flow charts - demonstrating step-by-step legal analyses that you need to apply in a given area of the law

ASSESSMENT:  Strictly second tier material.  Although some of the flow charts are effective, the outline itself is somewhat less thorough than those of its rivals.  Also, the back loading approach used in presenting the cases isn't really an improvement unless you're using the material as a canned brief source (in which case you can probably do better with one of those items listed below).  Finally, the book is loaded with mnemonics to assist in memorizing the elements of various legal principles.  As you will learn three years from now, the dreaded mnemonics game plays an important role in studying for the BAR exam.  But this isn't the BAR, okay MAN (which of course is our way of remembering that Mnemonics Aren't Necessary).  Besides, some of the mnemonics are just plain lame, e.g.” Real Athletes In Heat Or Cold Intensely compete,” is unlikely to come to mind when trying to remember the elements of Assault (Reasonable Apprehension & Immediacy of Harmful or Offensive Contact & Intent).   

   5)  in a nutshell:  One of the few major study guides that offers a truly different approach.  Looking more
  like a novella than a standard outline, in a nutshell is a pocket-sized paperback that presents material in
  largely prose-like fashion rather than terse outline form.  Some practice exam questions and answers are
  also included.

ASSESSMENT:  Both very good and not-so-good, depending on what you're looking for.  The plain talk approach is refreshing and quite effective.  It’s best for gleaning a general overview at the start of your class, or for assistance at the end if you just didn't get the big picture.  They are particularly handy for travel reading - on a train or bus - or when you're away for the weekend. 

6)  Sum & Substance:  Had enough REM and Smashing Pumpkins?  Tired of Joan Osborne and Mariah Carey?  Why not try a little Arthur Miller on Civil Procedure (no, not the guy who wrote Death of a Salesman!).  This series provides a 4-5 tape, lecture-style presentation covering the basics of each subject.  Of course, even 5 tapes cannot include all the material covered in the 60 or 70 hours of your class, so don't expect to find every detail.

ASSESSMENT:  As with in a nutshell, these tapes provide solid topical overviews.  They are particularly useful for the Stairmaster and Lifecycle crowd, or for commuters.  Pop on the Walkman and voila.  Their major drawbacks are the user’s inability to easily move around the tape in order to locate specific topics, and their fairly steep cost (about $50.00).          

B.  CANNED BRIEFS

1) Casenote Legal Briefs:  A more apt name might read Nothin’ But Briefs. Each page in the book contains a single case, using traditional briefing format with blank space for you to add your own notes or comments.  If this isn’t user friendly enough, it comes with perforations so that you can slip it right into your notebook.  Different editions are keyed to specific casebooks. 

ASSESSMENT: As a quick reference for case materials this certainly does the trick.  However, if you’re looking for anything beyond the cases you’ll have to go elsewhere.        

2) Legal Lines:  Mirroring the approach of the competition, these are keyed to specific textbooks.  Here, the briefs are supplemented with a bit of an overview of the specific area of the law.

ASSESSMENT:  It’s a trade-off.  Lacks some of the user friendliness of Casenote Legal Briefs but provides more of the context surrounding the cases.                                                    

C.  OTHER MATERIALS

1) Law in a Flash:  Between 400-600 mini flashcards with questions on the front and answers on the back.  They are grouped according to subtopics so you can concentrate on weak areas or jump around from one subject to another.            

ASSESSMENT: Thorough and really useful in exam preparation, particularly for studying on the go.  Of course if you need to practice writing essays, this is not the thing.

2) Hornbooks:  These are hefty treatises - sometimes as large as the casebooks themselves - with in depth explications of the law in a given area.  They are actually useful after you begin practicing.  Until then, they are way expensive and way unnecessary.

ASSESSMENT: Waystful

THE MISER ADVISOR

As you are undoubtedly discovering, law school is a severe financial as well as well as emotional drain.  A few saving suggestions:

• ·While there’s nothing finer than a pristine book, used (or “pre-owned” in today’s parlance) books are often available at a substantial discount.  Get to the bookstore early in order to snag those with minimal highlighting and notes by the previous owner.  Of course, finding one with good notes is always another approach.
• Even more so than with casebooks, used is the way to go with study aids.  You can also look to second and third year students for hand-me-downs.  After all, nobody is likely to discover a new tort, and landmark constitutional cases don’t flow regularly from the Supreme Court.   Therefore, publishers produce new editions only occasionally.  Why pay new money for old law?  
• Excepting cups of coffee, you will buy more highlighters during the next three years than anything else.  They are designed to dry up like the Sahara faster than you can say “res ipsa locquitor.”  Find the brands that last the longest, find the best deal on them, and buy what seems to be a ridiculous number of them. 

IN CLOSING

Remember, law school is a marathon, not a hundred yard dash.  By the time you’re admitted to practice, it will be the year 2000!  Don’t let the rest of the century get you down.  Learn and enjoy.  And when it’s time to get ready for the BAR, give us a call at 212- ____