Case briefing is a learned skill, which takes time to master. It doesn’t have to be long, and in fact should not be more than half a page long. Yet many law students abandon case briefing after a few weeks in law school. To help you understand how to master this simple yet important skill, I have prepared a case briefing demonstration video. Below you will find the three cases I used, which I highly recommend you read before watching the video. To get the most out of this demonstration, read the cases first, case brief them, and then watch the video. Compare your result with mine. You should find that you have more time to complete case briefs, and you will also be helping prepare for your finals using the IRAC exam writing method.
There are ways to write rule statements on exams that get top grades. Many students don’t know how to do this, even though it’s not a difficult skill to master. Specifically, students fail to provide thorough rule statements. A thorough rule statement is one that accurately defines the primary issue, each relevant word in the issue, and any related issues.
Fact Pattern Example
Brad and Bella are in the same high school math class. One day before class, Brad thinks it would be funny to pull the chair from under Bella as she is sitting down. He quietly goes to Bella’s chair, and just as she is sitting down he pulls the chair out from her. Bella falls on her rump, but is not physically hurt. Bella is quite embarrassed by Brad’s action. Discuss all causes of action Bella can bring against Brad.
Poor Rule Statements
A poor rule statement for this question might read: “A tort occurs when someone intentionally hits someone else.” The rule discusses parts of a battery, but fails to mention the tort by name. It also fails to identify, let alone define, all the relevant terms. It is not enough to identify some amorphous intentional torts and fail to specify battery.
Average Rule Statements
An average essay answer might read like this: “a battery is the intentional contact of another in a harmful or offensive manner.” This is a good basic definition for battery. However, it fails to define the three key elements of battery: intent, contact, and harmful or offensive. You may want to watch this video on battery for a deeper understanding of this tort.
Superior Rule Statements
A superior essay will have a rule statement like this: “a battery is the intentional contact of another in a harmful or offensive manner. Intent is defined as someone who desires the act, or has knowledge to a substantial certainty that the contact will occur. Contact is defined as the physical touching of a human being. And finally, harmful or offensive is measured by what society deems as harmful or offensive.” As you can see, in addition to the average rule statement, you must also define intent, contact, and harmful or offensive. Why? Because these three key terms will drive your analysis.
IRAC Method
Remember, it is not enough to use the IRAC method in an answer. Even average answers tend to use IRAC, but they miss out on points because they fail to define necessary key terms. You don’t have to define obvious words like “is” or “the.” But you do need to define every term that judges and lawyers find significant. And by significant, I mean words that can be disputed at trial.
Application
Finally, don’t forget that a great rule statement is only the first step in getting a good grade. Some students have superb rule statements, and then bomb the application section of their essay. It is imperative that you apply the facts to the rules to get higher grades. This isn’t the only thing that differentiates the average answer from the superior answer, but it is a significant factor in students receiving lower grades.
How to Improve
The best way to improve is through practice. You need to take short practice exams and then get feedback on how you performed. Most professors will not review your practice exams, so get help from your academic support department or private tutor. Also, create a small group for the sole purpose of taking practice exams. If you’re not in a group, you may want to watch this video on law school study groups.
The rule dump is the number one mistake students make on their law school exams. This is when the student throws out as much information from the course that they can remember, hoping that some of it will stick. Usually the rule dump, also called a brain dump, occurs all on the first page of the essay. Let me explain why professors hate it and why it is hurting your grade.
College Exams
In college, the best grades go to student answers that have lots of information. This is because most college professors test students on knowledge retention. In other words, if you demonstrate that you read the material you get a good grade. That exam writing style will not work in law school.
Law School Exams
While law school essay exams do require you to know the law, that is only the starting point for a well written essay. Law school exams are testing you on higher level thinking skills. In fact, law school professors grade exams by allocating most of the points to those exams that apply the rules to the facts. So here is what law professors think when they see a rule dump. We start asking ourselves, does this student understand the issue or is the student trying to throw everything they know into the answer because the student is confused. For more information on the levels of learning, you may want to look at this article on Bloom’s Taxonomy from Vanderbilt.
Relevance
On a business associations exam testing on vicarious liability, the facts clearly state that Mat is an employee. Some students will then provide a rule dump with all of the rules needed to establish that someone is an employee, like the level of control between principal and agent. But none of that was necessary as the facts provided that Mat is an employee.
That leaves me wondering if the student understands the issue or not. And guess what happens when there is uncertainty? Students receive lower grades. It is possible that the student understood the issue, but because the student employed the brain dump method that student ended up with a lower grade. The learning point here is that you should only provide the rules that are needed to answer the question.
Conflicts
Another problem with the brain dump is that you might provide different rules that appear to conflict with each other. This will also cost you points. For example, suppose that you are writing a negligence essay. There are absolutely no facts provided in the question to indicate that the victims are children. Some students will then discuss the attractive nuisance doctrine. This leaves me wondering if the student understands the question or not.
Hidden Rule
A third problem occurs when the rule that is needed to answer the question is hidden with several superfluous rules. The professor might miss it completely or not appreciate how you wanted that rule applied to the fact pattern.
Keep in mind that law school is a professional school, preparing students to become lawyers and not professors. When you bring your case before a judge, or discuss your case with a partner, that judge or partner only wants to hear about the law relevant to the case—not everything you know about the law. Judges, partners, AND professors are busy people, so only provide the rules you need to answer the question.
Finally, since all exams have some kind of time limit, you are wasting precious time discussing rules that, at best, will be ignored, and at worst, will cost you points.
How to Avoid the Rule Dump
The best way to avoid the rule dump is by using the IRAC Method. This is where you discuss each issue separately: state the Issue, provide the Rule, Analyze the facts, and give your Conclusion. Unfortunately, many students misunderstand how to use the method, so you may want to read my article on Nested IRAC, which explains in detail how use IRAC on a law school essay exam. Before any exam, you need to practice using IRAC. In addition to taking law school exams, incorporate IRAC into your daily class preparation by using the FIRAC Case Briefing Method.
Are you considering tutoring services to help you next semester? Maybe you got your grades back and you didn’t do as well as you wanted. Or perhaps you just want to do better with a little extra help. Whatever your situation, law school tutoring services can help you reach your goals.
Law School Professors
Law schools don’t provide the individualized attention you need to reach your full potential. At many law schools, professors are not available, will not discuss with you how to write law school exams, or will not review your practice exams. This is because most law schools reward professors who write law review articles. Not those who spend time helping students. Or, you may have a tenured professor who just doesn’t spend a lot of time at the law school anymore.
Academic Support Department
If you’re lucky, you’re at a law school with an academic support department. The professionals in these departments tend to have a great deal of expertise, which can help you improve. But most of these professionals are overworked, assisting more students than they can reasonably help. This means that they do triage, creating workshops on general topics like note taking and IRAC. And if you schedule a meeting with one of them, the meetings are usually short because they are booked in back-to-back meetings.
Law School Tutor
A law school tutor will spend the time you need working for you, listening to you, and figuring out where you need help. One-on-one law school tutoring is powerful because you’re not like everyone else at your law school. You came to law school with certain skills, knowledge, and abilities that are different from your classmates. Some of your classmates already have strong writing skills. Some of them were in majors, like philosophy, that emphasized the critical thinking skills needed in law school. Others went to private prep schools, which taught them how to study better.
Let me use an analogy. You are in a race with your classmates. As you prepare to start the race, you all are placed on the track, but not all at the same starting place. Many of your classmates are starting the race closer to the “A” grade because of the advantages they brought with them to law school. Unfortunately, law school is not a level playing field. But you can learn how to outrun your classmates if you train the right way.
Self-Help
Now don’t get me wrong, going to your academic success department, reading some books, and watching videos on this channel will help. But most of your classmates are doing the exact same thing. For example, I recommend that you read Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School, a resource I’ve assigned for years. But you need help to run past your classmates in the law school race. And trust me, this is a race in every meaning of the word. Why? Because your professor will assign grades based on a forced curve, where there are few winners. Everyone will be ranked, highest to lowest. Those in first, second, and third place get A’s, and everyone else gets lower grades based on how they performed relative to the other students in the class.
Law Tutor Qualifications
So how do you find a good law school tutor? If you type “law school tutor” in your search engine, you’re going to find many options. Look at the qualifications of the tutors. By qualifications, I mean what have they have done during their career, not where they went to law school years ago. The law school someone attended is based on a standardized test score and undergraduate grades, not the tutor’s ability to help you succeed in law school today. Also, the grades they got in law school is not relevant. Why? Because you are not them. You do not have the same knowledge, skills, and ability that they did when they attended law school. Finally, remember that anyone can create a website and begin selling law school tutoring services. Use your critical thinking skills before you hire just anyone with a pretty ad to help you.
Ideally, you want somebody who’s taught thousands of law students. A law school professor makes the best tutor because he or she understands law students. The professor has worked with students, developing strategies to help struggling law students succeed. Also, law professors have written and graded exams, which helps them in providing their expertise to you.
Testimonials
Look for online reviews or testimonials. Has the tutor helped students throughout the country? Have they helped students at unranked law schools up to the elite law schools? What are others saying about them.
And finally, do you trust the tutor to do a good job? Sometimes you have to take a chance, so look for a free introductory session or a money-back guarantee.
Cost versus Benefit
Tutoring services are not cheap, at least from qualified tutors. You need to ask yourself: how much are better grades worth to me? Law students are coming out of law school with huge debt loads, with many now graduating with over $200,000 in debt. A tutor can help with higher grades, which can lead to law review, moot court, and other law school honors. And usually, once you’ve mastered law school exams and are getting better grades, you won’t need to continue with a tutor. But till then, you may want to weigh the cost and benefit of tutoring services.
Tip from a Law Student
I was lucky enough to go to a school that, had excellent professors, who were willing to meet with me. But occasionally I found that I needed help. In one class, for example, I needed a tutor, but I hadn’t planned for it in my budget. I ended up earning my lowest grade in law school, and now wish I could have found a law school tutor.
So here is my advice: set aside some money at the beginning of the semester in case you need law school tutoring services. Place this future expense in your budget, and spend a little less money on going out. And if you don’t end up needing a tutor, that’s a little more money in your pocket at the end of the semester!
Looking for exam day tips? It’s the end of the semester and most of you are preparing for final exams. DON’T PANIC! By following these 10 exam day tips you can improve your grades. The principle behind these exam day tips is simple: calm students outperform nervous and tired students every single time.
Let me tell you about John (name has been changed), one of my friends at the elite law school we attended. John is very intelligent but he had one problem: he got overly nervous before exams. On the first morning of the bar exam I noticed that he was frantically reviewing his materials. During the lunch break he rushed to his car so he could study more. And I am sure that he spent every free moment that evening and the next morning reviewing his notes. He flunked the bar that time and also the next two times he took it. I can assure you that John was prepared and would have passed the bar exam the first time if he had remained calm.
Here are your exam day tips:
Tip #1
Remain calm and trust yourself. Did you go to class? Have you prepared the right type of outline? Did you make flash cards? Have you done the hard work before the exam? Did you watch the videos on my YouTube channel?? If you did all of that, then trust that you will perform to the best of your ability.
Tip #2
Get a good night’s rest so that you can perform at your highest level. In fact, watch a TV show or do something else to relax, and get your mind off the exam. If you go into the exam tired and stressed, you will get a lower grade.
Tip #3
Last minute cramming will confuse you rather than help you. I get the strangest questions from students within the last 24 hours before an exam, questions that make no sense and aren’t usually tested on the exam anyway. Last minute cramming will actually result in lower grades, not higher ones.
Tip #4
Eat a well-balanced breakfast as studies show that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This doesn’t mean to have a huge, protein- and carb-loaded, sugary feast for breakfast, but you want to have something in your system so that your brain operates at its optimal level. Check out this article for more detailed info on why breakfast helps your brain
perform better.
Tip#5
Before you leave home make sure you have everything you need for the exam, such as your laptop, pen, paper, or books. In fact, if you can, pack all that stuff up the night before so you don’t have to worry about it in the morning.
Tip#6
Plan to arrive early. I recommend getting to school at least one hour early as you never know what might happen, whether that is bad traffic, a flat tire, or a speeding ticket.
Tip #7
Stay comfortable. One way to stay comfortable is to dress in layers, as the exam room may be too hot or too cold for you. Also, if you need to go to the bathroom during the exam, then go to the bathroom. Don’t worry about losing five minutes of exam time for a bathroom break; otherwise you will be distracted as you think about how desperately you need to go to the bathroom.
By the way, I have one story related to bathroom breaks. A law students was afraid of losing anytime on the exam because of bathroom breaks, so he purchased adult diapers to avoid having to get up during the exam. Please, DON’T do this! It’s actually good for you to get up for five minutes, go to the bathroom, and get your blood circulation moving again.
Tip #8
Yawn before and during the exam as it is a calming technique—and it works!
Tip #9
If you are extremely sick on exam day then get permission to take the exam on another day. I’ve had dozens of students get a low grade because they didn’t know they could request an accommodation. Sure, there are those that abuse the system, but when somebody is obviously sick then they are entitled to take the exam on another day. Just make sure to contact the Registrar, or other authorized person, who can give you permission to take the exam on a different day.
Tip #10
If you are excessively nervous and can’t calm down, consider seeing a mental health counselor, a pastor, or medical professional. Another friend of mine, who also went to an elite law school, failed the bar three times before she went to her doctor. With medicine to calm her down she passed the exam the next time she took it. There is no shame in seeking help from a professional when it is necessary.
Conclusion
These exam day tips can help, but don’t forget to use the IRAC method for your essays. Also, make sure you understand how professors grade so that you can prepare for the exam. Now, use these exam day tips and good luck on your exam!
Are you wondering whether you should join a study group, or if you’re in one, how to make it work better? There is an ancient Japanese proverb that says: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” In general, that is true. But study groups that are not designed well can lead to pooled ignorance.
Advantages
One advantage of study groups is that it creates accountability. If you know you must complete a group project by a certain date, you’re going to get it done. But if you’re not convinced, here is a scientific article on the benefits of small groups outside of the classroom.
Here are seven tips for successful small groups.
Tip 1
One, set a time limit and the number of hours you will meet. For most of the semester, a one hour meeting, two or three times a week should be enough. As you get closer to finals, you will want to increase that amount. But any more than that and you will probably be wasting time.
Tip 2
Two, focus on discussing the confusing areas, not everything that was discussed in class. All too often, a study group can morph into a social group. While we all need community, too much social interaction defeats the learning aspect of the group, as group members start gossiping about others and griping about professors. That’s just not productive.
Tip 3
Three, trade outlines. Before your meeting, decide on what part of the law you are going to work on and then at the meeting, swap outlines. Everyone has to prepare their own outline, but by trading them you can expose gaps in your understanding and discover errors.
Tip 4
Four, do practice exams and then grade someone else’s essay. Doing a practice exam, without feedback from someone, is practically worthless. Take an old exam, or a commercial practice exam. Once you complete the exam, trade it with someone else in the group. Each person will grade that other person’s exam, and you have to agree to be brutally honest in your grading. Now, here’s the magic with this approach. Not only are you getting feedback from someone else, but you are grading someone else’s exam so you will be more objective. Unfortunately, when we grade our own work, we are often unable to see the flaws. But when you grade somebody else’s exam, you see more of their problems than they do. And by spotting that other person’s problems, you develop a more critical eye, which will help you when you take your final exam. If you need some practice exams, there are some exams you can download for free at this exam bank.
Tip 5
Five, eliminate distractions during your sessions. This means either turning off your phones or turning them to airplane mode. You may have to agree to place all your phones in the middle of the table to prevent distractions.
Tip 6
Six, review the law by asking each other questions about the law. You can make a game out of this, where two of you take one side, and two on the other. You might even want to use flashcards, which will help you expose gaps in your knowledge–I recommend the creating a Leitner box, which is an advanced flashcard method. The key is for the study group to focus on the rules of law that are likely to appear on the final exam.
Tip 7
Seven, assign tasks. Divide the work evenly and in a way that each member knows exactly what they are responsible for.
Membership and Don’ts
So who should you include in your study group? Limit the group to 3 or 4 people. Two is not enough, and when you start getting to 5 and above, you create a situation where some members may not fully participate. You get the freeloader problem. The members of the group should have similar goals, be focused, and motivated. Remember, the study group is helping you prepare for the final exam and is NOT a therapy session. Also, look for a bit of intellectual diversity in the group. If you’re all progressives or you’re all conservatives, you are more likely going to develop group think. By mixing it up a bit, the group will be stronger as you bring your differences with you to the table.
Have you ever left class wondering what your professor was even talking about? The Feynman Technique will help you learn material faster and at a level where you will remember the concept for years to come. Professor Richard Feynman was a Nobel prize winning physicist who had the nickname “the Great Explainer.” By following four steps, you will learn a topic well enough to remember it on the final exam and the bar exam.
Step 1
Step one: write the name of the concept you want to learn at the top of a page (try to handwrite as much as possible; see this video for why handwriting your notes during class is better). As the semester progresses, come back to the document every time you need to add more knowledge related to that topic. For example, if you’re having problems understanding proximate cause, write that down. You might start off with the unforeseeable manner of injury, and then later in the semester come back to the unforeseeable intervening event.
Step 2
Step two: pretend you are teaching the topic to someone else, preferably a high school student. This means that you must make it simple enough for them to understand, including word choice and sentence structure. All too often, a law student will copy a rule verbatim from a case. While the rule statement may be accurate, how likely are you to remember antiquated language from the early 1900s or earlier? For example, when you take Business Associations you will likely read Benjamin Cardozo’s classic case Meinhard v. Salmon. Your professor will certainly focus on these words for establishing the standard of care:
Joint adventurers, like copartners, owe to one another, while the enterprise continues, the duty of the finest loyalty. Many forms of conduct permissible in a workaday world for those acting at arm’s length, are forbidden to those bound by fiduciary ties. A trustee is held to something stricter than the morals of the market place. Not honesty alone, but the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive, is then the standard of behavior.
That is some of the best legal prose I’ve ever read, but do you really understand what Cardozo is saying? Let’s take that language and make it simpler. Teach it to that high school student by stating it in modern English: “Partners owe to each other the highest standard of behavior.” And there you have it folks, a long phrase converted into ten simple words. When you are working on this step, make sure to explain the rule as simply and briefly as possible. And for some cool information on why teaching a subject will help you learn it better—and why oldest children, on average, are smarter than younger siblings—see this article on the protege effect.
Step 3
Step three: When you get stuck or are shaky on one of the concepts, go back and study more. This means looking at your books, doing more research, and talking to your professor. If you have multiple choice questions, work through those as well. Remember, if you can’t teach the material to a high schooler, you don’t know it well enough.
Step 4
Step four: Go back to step 1 and repeat the process. In other words, the Feynman Technique is about the process, not the end product. This is because we all understand material better when we teach it. I understood torts at a much deeper level when I taught it, and you will understand something better when you teach it. If you see a technical term, try to simplify it. Will that high school student really understand, without additional explanation, the terms “consideration by estoppel” or “negligence per se?” As you simplify the concept, you will begin to understand the material in a much deeper way that will help you not only remember it on the exam, but will also help you with issue spotting and multiple-choice bar exam questions.
Ultimately, if you’ve tried everything you can but are still having problems, consider looking for a law school tutor. There is no shame in asking for help, especially for something as important as your education.
Would you like to answer an essay question before you see it! Want to have more time on exam day to think through your answer? You can have 60% of your essay exam complete before exam day with this preparation method.
Ideally, you should already have three sets of notes, as I mentioned in my episode called “Three Sets of Notes Method.” In addition, you need to create a fourth set of notes, which I call your Exam Answer outline. This is an organizational tool that will allow you to move quickly during the final. Also, you will write a much stronger essay.
The Process
Here’s how it works. For each possible issue, you will write the ideal answer into your Exam Answer outline. Obviously you won’t know the names of the parties so simply use “Defendant” and “Plaintiff” for the parties involved. And while you do not know the parties’ names, you do know the law and how rules interact with each other.
Negligence Example
Let’s go through a negligence example. Ask yourself what the ideal first sentence of a negligence answer looks like. Then write out something like: “The issue is whether D was negligent when he committed the act against P.” On exam day, you will replace “D,” “P,” and “committed the act” with the facts from the exam.
The next sentence is your ideal rule statement, which you will pull directly from your rule outline. “Negligence occurs when a defendant owes a duty of care, breaches that duty, is the actual and proximate cause, and there are damages to the plaintiff.” Then wrap up the first paragraph with a brief conclusion. Because all the elements are met, D is liable to P for negligence. By the way, if you haven’t noticed, I am using the IRAC method, which I covered in an earlier blog post.
Now, write the second ideal paragraph, which in this case involves duty of care. “The first issue is whether D owed P a duty of care. Duty of care is a legally recognized relationship between the parties, and is measured by the reasonably prudent person standard. In this case D owed P a duty of care because….” At this point you’ll have a blank, which you will fill in on exam day. Then the last sentence will read: “This element is met (or not met) because D owed (or did not owe) P a duty of care.”
Negligence Per Se
You will do this for each element, but don’t stop there. You also need to create alternative paragraphs, depending on the issues that might appear on your exam. For example, before you get to the final exam, have you thought through how to deal with negligence per se? I ask this because when you have a negligence per se question, you need to discuss the negligence per se AND the reasonably prudent person standard. And you need to do this because it is always possible that the court will deny the negligence per se instruction, leaving you with having to argue the reasonably prudent person standard. This means you need to have an ideal paragraph for this possibility.
So work through negligence per se, using this approach, and end the negligence per se paragraph with something like this: “Plaintiff should be able to establish duty through negligence per se. However, if the court finds that negligence per se cannot be used, then Plaintiff can still prevail under the reasonably prudent person standard.”
There are other areas that you also need to think about. Where does res ipsa loquitur fit into an exam? On a criminal law exam, where do you discuss premeditation? On a contracts exam, where do you discuss a UCC distinctive?
Final Advice
You can wait till exam day to think about all this, but if you plan it all out in advance, now when you have time, you will know exactly how to structure your essay answer and understand the connections between the different rules. This approach will also give you more time to focus on the analysis portion of the exam, which is where most professors award points. For some additional ideas on how to structure a pre-planned essay, see this guide on how to structure an essay.
By the way, if you have an open book exam, you will truly have a huge advantage over your colleagues that haven’t done this.
Do you need to learn how to make a law school outline? Your outline is, nothing more and nothing less, than your blueprint for doing well on the exam. This means understanding law school exam grading, which I cover in detail in the episode called Law School Exam Grading.
First, let’s discuss what you should NOT do when creating a law school outline. A mistake that many law students make is to take their class notes, rearrange them a bit, and then place them into their outline. That is not an outline, but rather a rearranged set of notes.
Also, do NOT include facts from cases discussed in class. The only thing you need from cases discussed in class are the rules from those cases.
So now let’s talk about what should go into an outline. The first thing you need is a framework for the course. I recommend that you take the table of contents from your assigned book, or the course syllabus, and use that as a starting point. You might change the format as you go along, but you need to have something to get you going.
The Rules
Second, place the rules that you learned into the outline. The rules and exceptions to the rules need to be as concise as possible, and written in your own words. For example, suppose you have a case from 1894 and the case states the rule as follows: the wrong inflicted, when the defendant so did with intent, and with force that contacted the victim’s person, must result in adequate compensation for that injury. Now let’s take that archaic language and write something like this: A defendant’s intentional action will result in the defendant paying for all damages. So see what I did there? I took that old language, rearranged it, and turned it into something that we can understand today. Generally, law school exams will only test you on the black letter law.
Third, if the professor tells you, or strongly hints that something is going to be on the exam, then make a note of that in your law school outline.
Fourth, if you know your professor will test you on policy, place the policy arguments in the outline. More on what to transfer from your class notes in the episode “Taking Notes in Law School: The Content.”
Fifth, think about the size of your outline. Since the outline is the primary tool you’ll be using to crush your final, it must be useable. This means short and to the point rule statements that you can use on the exam. Think about it. You will remember a 15-word rule statement a lot better than a 22-word rule statement. This article provides a good example of what an outline could look like.
When to Look at Another Outline
Finally, when you have worked as hard as you can and you believe you have the perfect law school outline, then, and only then, look at an outline that someone else created. As I noted in my last episode, “Why Create Your Own Law School Outlines,” it is critically important that you first work on the outline by yourself because that will help you learn the law better. When you see the differences in the two outlines, don’t just make the changes. Think about the differences. Ask yourself, why is there a difference? You may find that your outline that you wrote is better in a particular area, or, you may find that you missed something. Once you’ve discovered your errors, go back and find out why you made those errors as that will reveal gaps in your knowledge, and potentially in your understanding of the law. If you stop and reflect, you will learn the law in a way that will help you get a higher score on the exam.
Those who rely solely, or heavily, on commercial outlines created by others create the illusion that they know the law. But they are failing to make the connections that are necessary to get high grades.
Have you wondered when to use law school study aids? Perhaps you have heard some 2Ls or 3Ls talk about certain study aids that helped them get an A in a class. Maybe one of your friends bought one of those 3L’s study outlines. If you are considering using a commercial study aid, please read this first to learn how to effectively use these study aids.
Commercial Law School Study Aids
A commercial study aid is anything other than what you created. This can be outlines, hornbooks, treatises, notes from a prior year, case briefs, audio, video, anything that you did not create is what I include in the concept of a commercial study aid.
In my first week of law school, my professors told me to never ever use law school study aids. I now understand why they gave their students that advice. This was because most students use study aids that hurt their chances for success. For example, study aids used the wrong way will create a false sense a mastery that results in lower grades. I’m not telling you that you will fail law school. But you may remain a B or C student when you could be an A student.
Canned Case Briefs
The one study aid that you should never use is the case brief. A case brief is when someone else has read the case and provided you with the relevant facts, issue, and rule of law. Since this is the one study aid that I am telling you to avoid, let me tell you why. The sole purpose for reading cases is class preparation. So in all likelihood, your professor will cover the case in class. It is okay to go to class not fully understanding every case you read as long as you truly worked through it and tried to understand it before class. If you want to learn more about this, check out my video on how to brief a case.
Most students believe they have to go into class as experts or their professor will destroy them. That may have been true years ago but today, the vast majority of professors will work with students if they are struggling with understanding a case as opposed to not having read the case at all. It is through struggling through the law that you learn, not by reading someone else’s notes. (For more information, watch my video on how law school professors operate).
Available Law School Study Aids
Now let’s look at all the resources that provide the black letter law. These resources include hornbooks, treatises, outlines, audio, and video. My recommendation is that you use these resources to help you understand the law. For most students, you should probably read one of these resources first and then read your assigned cases. That way the case will make more sense to you. After all, you learn the law better if you read a case in its legal context.
Audio resources in particular can be used very effectively. For example, you have to get to school, that means you either walked there or drove there, taking some time to get to class. Don’t waste that time! Use your time effectively. Audio can be a great way to use that down time rather than listening to the radio or something else as you’re driving into school.
How to Use Commercial Outlines
Finally, let’s discuss commercial outlines. DO NOT USE someone else’s outline, whether purchased or not, without making your own law school outline first. You are going to learn a whole lot more if you condense your notes and turn them into your own outline instead of relying on someone else’s thought process. Now, you did not hear me say to not use someone else’s outline, period. What I tell you is to struggle and make your own outline first. Once you have put your best time and effort into creating your own outline, and you are convinced that you have the best outline possible, then look at someone else’s outline to see what they have done. Then you can make changes to your own outline. Certainly you are going to miss things but you do not want to look at someone else’s outline first and then not do the hard work because then you don’t learn and you remain that B or C student.
The primary reason why most people that use law school study aids never reach their full potential is because they never struggle with the law, which is how we learn. Many students become satisfied with their grades, believing that they can’t do better because they just didn’t understand the material, the professor was too hard, or the exam wasn’t fair. While a B student will graduate law school and pass the bar exam, the best jobs and opportunities go to A students.
Fact Pattern Example
Superior Rule Statements
How to Improve
Keep in mind that law school is a professional school, preparing students to become lawyers and not professors. When you bring your case before a judge, or discuss your case with a partner, that judge or partner only wants to hear about the law relevant to the case—not everything you know about the law. Judges, partners, AND professors are busy people, so only provide the rules you need to answer the question.
Tip #4
Tip 5
Step two: pretend you are teaching the topic to someone else, preferably a high school student. This means that you must make it simple enough for them to understand, including word choice and sentence structure. All too often, a law student will copy a rule verbatim from a case. While the rule statement may be accurate, how likely are you to remember antiquated language from the early 1900s or earlier? For example, when you take Business Associations you will likely read Benjamin Cardozo’s classic case Meinhard v. Salmon. Your professor will certainly focus on these words for establishing the standard of care:
