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Summary: best prelaw and 1L book out there
Review: this is the best book for pre-law and 1L students....ignore everyone else's advice. This book condenses advice down to a thin book.
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Summary: It's Really Very Simple
Review: When one wonders at the brilliance of a virtuoso pianist, for example, it is very easy to forget that she got to that point by breaking complex pieces down into smaller and smaller pieces and then practicing them until she could perform them exceptionally well. It turns out that it's the same thing with acing the first year of law school, according to Shana and Henry Noyes.In deceptively simple prose, the Noyeses break down the "first year" experience into its basics: how to read a case, how to brief a case, cite cases, do research, etc. Certainly as important as what they point out as important (which they do with exceptional clarity), is what they point out is a waste of time (the "dicta" at the back of each chapter). Things like recopying notes - a waste of time, they note, that could be put to better use by actually thinking about what went on in that class. (Thinking, they argue, is avoided at all costs by some "first years" who will find anything to keep them busy.) Some of the strongest chapters are on legal writing - how to organize papers, the conventions of legal writing, what research is necessary and what isn't, and navigating the arcana of legal citations (don't worry about most of the rules until you make Law Review). And capping it off is a modestly offered example of how to write an Outline: their outline of criminal law is a model of elegant simplicity. (These two are good.) This book came out too late to help most of the first year Class of 2000. Not too late for the son a friend, who purchased it a week before his final exams, and thought it a great investment. Just think how he could have performed if he had this book on the first day.
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Summary: Why we wrote this book.
Review: When we started law school, we knew nothing about how to study the law. Most first-years don't. And, like most first-year law students, we mistakenly thought that our professors would teach us how to study the law. They don't. As first-years, we were shocked and dismayed to discover that under the Socratic Method, law students are not taught how to study the law; they have to teach themselves. In hopes of getting some guidence, we read all the so-called "law school primers," but none of them helped. None of them explained the basic tasks that we needed to learn, like how to read and brief cases, do legal research and writing, outline our classes and write exam answers. We ended up doing what all first-years do--teaching ourselves, through trial and error. In the process, we wasted an enormous amout of time and suffered from nearly constant stress. In this book, we give to you the product of all those countless hours of work. This is the book we needed but couldn't find when we were first-years. Read it and save yourself a tremendous amount of time, anxiety and fear. Law school doesn't have to be painful. In ten short chapters, this book will teach you what you need to know to ace your first year of law school.
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Summary: One of the TOPS of its kind...
Review: Yes, it does have solid info. Yes, it will be helpful, and sure, you can find these things out on your own -- after you've gotten a few bad grades!!! So why let the worst happen when it's all nicely condensed in great format in this book? I suggest adding it to your "pre-law school library" if you can - and to your "law school references" if you're already there!
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