(Part 3) Top products from r/LawSchool

I tried out lots of supplements my 1L year and by far the best contract book, for me at least, was Farnworth's student-version treatise:

http://www.amazon.com/Contracts-Edition-Textbook-Treatise-Paperback/dp/0735545405/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/191-9403539-3481154

It's $45 but I think it's worth it. As with all hornbooks its a bit dense but it's very readable and it is very helpful with pretty much everything you'll do for the common law of contracts. It's detailed enough, even as a condensed version of his 3-volume-treatise, that you'll be able to use it for many years.

As for the UCC, if you get into it, the Sales and Leases E&E was very good. Some E&Es are good, some aren't so good, but I liked that one a lot. The other good E&E was the Civ Pro one by Glannon.

By the way you probably don't need supplements at the beginning of your 1L year; they'll come in handy once youre a month or two in and beginning to get the hang of things. I would advise you take the time at the start of the semester to check them out in your law school's library and see if they actually help you before buying any.

I totally concur with OP, supplements are supplements, not replacements. Read the case book, then read the relevant chapter from the supplement to ensure you got everything you were supposed to get out of it. Once you are getting everything out of the casebook in the first pass, you can discard supplements entirely if you like.

Best supplements, in my opinion:

• Introduction to Civil Procedure by Richard Freer
  
  
• Understanding Contracts by Richard Ferriell
  
  
• Understanding Property by John Sprankling
  
  
• Constitutional Law by Erwin Chemerinsky
  
  
• Understanding Criminal Law by Joshua Dressler
  
  
• E&E for Torts
  
  You can quibble on some, but any law student worth his salt will recognize Dressler on crim and Chemerinsky on con law as the best. Freer on Civ Pro is very well recognized as well. I like the Understanding series for contracts and property because they are still succinct yet more in-depth than the E&E's. I like the E&E for torts because the Understanding book for that class isn't especially good.
  
  If you don't like any of the above, the respective E&E would be my second choice.

I took the class in the fall and had decent success. I can't remember the guy's name who wrote the supplement I used but I'll track it down and get back to you. I'm pretty sure the guy's name is zinnecker.

edit: I found it. he co-authored the Q and A book. This was super helpful for me because my exam was multiple choice.

I recommend this to everyone, and it helped me get the A+ in Civ Pro, and an A in Civ Pro II: Acing Civil Procedure.

It gives you easy to remember summaries of all the topics in a way that's digestible for an Exam. My issue with Erie was that the cases made it seem far more complex than it actually is. This gave me a good overview, as well as helpful examples to make sure I understood all the edge cases that might come up on an exam.

It also helps give you the layout for the actual standard for Personal Jurisdiction. I often found it a bit confusing to understand what applied now for Personal JX, and this helped clarify that as well. Very helpful, and very cheap compared to other supplements.

Like most of us, I struggled with transitioning from non-legal, academic writing to legal writing. This book definitely helped me become a much better legal writer and I feel will assist you here. I refer to it regularly and it will be the first book to go in my office this fall (Appellate Practice).

>The ideas she gave including manipulating our facts so our case could apply to strong caselaw.

While other responses here are correct in that some feedback from professors is definitely stylistic and shouldn't be treated like objective truth, it sounds like your analysis lacks advocacy which does require some creativity. Being able to concede a "bad fact" but place it in a context supporting your legal point is a skill which will strengthen your overall brief.

This might not be exactly what you're looking for, but I found the Glannon guides helpful for a more interactive study aid. They have sections explaining the legal concepts followed by multiple choice questions with detailed explanations of which answer is right. I haven't actually used the Con ones yet (although I'm planning to before my exam), but I found them really useful for other subjects because they engage my brain more than just reading something. There's two for Con - one dealing with Governmental Structure and Powers and one for Individual Rights.

I highly recommend Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation's Top Advocates for law students and new attorneys. My briefs are objectively better because of this book. Cheers!

I second this. This should supplement your casbook nicely with an easy to read format. Additionally, Dressler's black letter outline is helpful for learning the common law.

Our professor gives us "assessments" and one of them was on RAP. I used this and it explained it pretty well.

I'm sure your library has it, but yeah I would say just grab all the books you can at the library and just dive right in.

Yeah, this dumb thing:

https://www.amazon.com/Bluebook-Uniform-System-Citation/dp/0692400192/ref=asc_df_0692400192/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312142542416&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7517880010963350880&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052538&hvtargid=pla-316724181971&psc=1

This has pretty much everything citation-wise and you'll use it a lot during your 1L legal writing classes.

Awesome. So is that this book: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Property-Law-John-Sprankling/dp/1522105573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518013588&sr=8-1&keywords=understanding+property ?

This is great: https://www.amazon.com/Law-School-Exams-Better-Grades/dp/1531005454/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549377495&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=law+school+exams&dpPl=1&dpID=41YgGB4NBAL&ref=plSrch

The Bluebook is basically the U.S. legal citation bible. You won't find a U.S.-trained lawyer who isn't familiar with it, though proficiency will vary substantially. Fair warning, it's not really user friendly if you don't have some legal training or a general understanding of citation structure, but you can pick that up.

It's like a writing style manual, but exclusively for building legal citations. Blue pages are mostly for memoranda and briefs, white pages have more material you'll expect to use for professional articles / law review work.

I found this helpful. It's loaded with questions and explanations for the answers.

The only way to deal with the RAP is graphically. You can't answer it by thinking about it like a puzzle. It's sort of the real-life version of a LSAT logic game.

What you do is watch this video on how to draw a graphical representation of the times involved and conveyances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLTDCqR2mts

If you need to learn estates, pick up https://www.amazon.com/Students-Guide-Estates-Future-Interests/dp/1422498743

Not a lecture, but check out the Lexis "Understanding" series of supplement books. Property was the first class I ever used one of these books for, and I CALI'd it! They have it on Amazon here, but I'm guessing most law libraries would have it too.

This is my favorite pre-law school book. It doesn't try to teach you note or exam taking, but is a primer for the sort of reasoning you'll be doing in your classes.

I'd also suggest the Makdisi & Edwards books. My professor was one of the casebook authors and specifically recommended this one last year.

A Hornbook is a supplement that explains the legal concepts and black letter law in plain English. There is a Hornbook for every topic/course in law school. You'll want to keep these as a reference book post law school.

Example - (https://www.amazon.com/Contracts-Hornbooks-Joseph-Perillo/dp/0314287701)

Amazon Link

https://www.amazon.com/Contracts-Textbook-Treatise-Paperback-Student/dp/0735545405

Inside Administrative Law: What Matters and Why (Inside (Wolters Kluwer)) https://www.amazon.com/dp/073557961X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_IzE4kUHledzxH

https://www.amazon.com/Questions-Answers-Judge-Bruce-Markell/dp/1422483460/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DMZ9ACCZCNYVP6YKSPTG

Look out for some of the newer rules on multi-state transactions and DR name requirements on financing statements.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422498743/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I used this for my Property class.

I used this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073557961X

Have you tried the Edwards book? http://www.amazon.com/Estates-Land-Future-Interests-Guide/dp/0735576653

https://www.amazon.com/Siegels-Contracts-Brian-N-Siegel/dp/0735556865

You can probably find it at your school's law library. It has - maybe 100-120 or so MC questions and probably 25 essay questions. (Going from memory here, but it's in that neighborhood.)

https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Law-Black-Letter-Outlines/dp/0314927506

Jay Feinman, Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About American Law (4th ed. 2014).

How's my Bluebooking?

http://www.amazon.com/Acing-Civil-Procedure-Benjamin-Spencer/dp/0314166300

Law 101

https://www.amazon.com/Law-101-Everything-American-Fourth/dp/0199341699/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y7G3BPKCRQ6WW6ZCKMJ0

This book saved my ass on Future Estates

https://www.amazon.com/Possessory-Estates-Interests-American-Casebook/dp/0314183698

I’d make sure to do every practice question in the Glannon Guide


Edit: and thoroughly read the explanations regardless of whether I answered the question right or wrong, in addition to normal studying

This - it is indeed just flowcharts. If you want to spend some extra time, grab a copy of Estates in Land and Future Interests and walk through some of the problems. It also has several charts of the relationships in there.

So much snark in these comments. Don't read getting to maybe, it's a bunch a fluff and a waste of time. This book is short and to the point. Tells you what you need to know. https://www.amazon.com/Law-School-Exams-Better-Grades/dp/1531005454/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=guide+to+law+school+exams&qid=1572469025&sr=8-3

Supplements aren't essential, but they can be one of many tools you use. I rely heavily on supplements and have done very well in law school. Here are the one's I used for those courses:

Civil Procedure: The Glannon Guide and the E&E (also by Glannon).

Criminal Law: Understanding Criminal Law by Dressler.

Property: Understanding Property by Sprankling and Siegel's Property.