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Rating: 
Summary: The advice is useful but it won't get you an A
Review: I agree with the reviewer below. Although a lot of what the author recommends is useful it is definitely not the ticket to getting excellent grades. I followed everything he recommended and after one semester at a top 25 school I have a sub 3.0 GPA. During the summer I read all the Aspen books, listened to tapes, and did the LEEWS program. I even went beyond his advice and read the Gilbert outlines. Doing all this helped me learn the law but simply knowing the law is not enough. The LEEWS approach to writing an exam and writing your analysis was too simplistic. All my exams were open book so those who got As took it to another level. The LEEWS approach may work at much lower tier school where organization and simplistic analysis make you stand out, but if you try this at a top law school expect to gets Cs. Most of the people who swear by this book probably succeeded because they went beyond the advice given. It's an excellent book if you just want a basic foundation for your studying plan, but if you want to get As you must write "deeper" answers on your exams.
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Summary: WORST ADVICE EVER
Review: I am a recent (successful) graduate from a top tier law school who had a choice of the best firms to work for. I read Planet Law School (I) before I started Law School, thinking that it was my ticket. That was not the case; for me at least, the advice was all wrong. I learned to succeed in law school by letting go of Planet Law School and by letting go of my obsession with learning all of the details of every principle I encountered. Instead I made sure I had a thorough familiarity with all of the major principles. I stayed away from learning details because there is no time to discuss them in a law school essay or on the bar. If you simply read the Examples and Explanations (by Aspen) book for each class, make an outline from the book along with your professor's comments, run through the problems in the book, and do alot of practice essays, you will do very well in law school. Atticus Falcon, on the other hand tells you to focus on the details as much as possible; that, essentially, you should study for law school before going, study for the bar before graduating from law school, etc. Read the hornbooks? You have to be kidding me... Atticus thinks he could have done better in law school if he had only studied harder. He's wrong. Dead wrong. It's the kind of advice that makes law school so miserable for so many students: they study till their eyes bleed and then find their brains can't function on exam day because they are too bogged down with details to see the forest for the trees. If you are familiar with the concept of bounded rationality, then you know what I mean. Study smart -- learn only what you need -- only what you could possibly discuss in the course of an essay that demands you to briefly discuss 10-20 issues within the course of an hour or two -- and you will do very well. STAY AWAY FROM THE DETAILS, and whatever you do STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK. TRUST ME :) (and good luck, it's not as bad as Atticus might have you think....)
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Summary: Read this book three years ago .. and now I'm graduating
Review: I bought this book before I started law school, and in just a few weeks I'll be graduating. I would recommend this book to anyone planning on going to law school - read the recommended books (especially the Examples and Explanation series - I've bought them for every class I could), learn about study groups and outlines and study aids, but take the advice on the "horrors of law school" with a grain of salt. Maybe its because I went to a 4th tier law school (yet one I've very pround of!) but there was no back-stabbing, no in-class put-downs by professors, no hiding books - I went to a school were people actually give you notes if you miss a class - without you're having to ask for them - and where the rest of the class will chime in if someone is "on call" and doesn't know the answer (or as we say in class, "co-counsel"). In any event, be prepared to work your tail off for three years, but enjoy yourself too.
Rating:
Summary: A professor's point of view
Review: I have been a law professor for a long time. In addition to thinking about what makes students successful, I have read various studies on the subject. I have read both PLS and the new edition of PLS. Apart from inviting students to take a self defeating attitude towards law school (e.g., his open hostility and demeaning comments about law professors will surely discourage readers from using an invaluable resources), much of his advice will reduce a student's likelihood of success. I was initially amused and then distressed to think how a student following his advice would do on one of my exams: I certainly hope that my 1Ls are not reading this stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Take the advice, not the whiny rhetoric
Review: OK, there are a few very valuable things you can take from this book, and I'm going to tell you them here for free so that you won't have to read the cynical, soul-destroying rest of the text: 1. Know the law --generally-- before you start a given course & especially before going to class each day. Don't just try to deduce the law from the cases. Probably the best way to do this is to read Aspen's series including the famous two by Glannon on Torts and Civ Pro. Commercial outlines (Emmanuels, Gilberts, etc.) can fill in the gaps. 2. Make your own outlines & keep revising them as you go along. 3. Take the LEEWS course on audiotape before & again during law school. Don't just believe the simplistic "IRAC" advice that professors and upperclass students pass around. (BUT only for the exam-taking skills; his study tips border on the dangerous.) But that's it. Don't, don't believe the rest of "Atticus Falcon"'s bitter, cynical, childish ramblings about legal education. Is he right that there's a problem with legal pedagogy? Absolutely. Is it a massive conspiracy of evil law professors out to get students? No, probably just institutional sluggishness. But more importantly, how can this possibly matter to you? You can't change it. "Falcon"'s 'advice' sounds like the whinings of a high-school student who wants to change the rules but couldn't get elected to the student council. And who writes a book under a pseudonym anymore? Particularly such an obvious one? (He signs himself "Atticus Falcon, Member of the Bar, State of Flux") That's the sort of byline I would have come up with for an article in my high school newspaper, not a book which proports to give professional advice!
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