Study Aids

Your own work in actively reading and briefing cases, making your own outlines, and taking practice tests is the key to law school success. Study aids are useful when you use them to help you do your own critical thinking. They are inimical to your success when you depend on them for answers and expect them to do the work for you.

Don't Depend on Study Aids
You might notice that many of your professors do not recommend study aids. Why? Because many students use study aids as a substitute for active reading and wrestling with the concepts of a case. If you depend on study aids, you will not develop the critical thinking required for success as a lawyer.  Imagine a doctoral student in English who used Cliff's Notes instead of reading the actual literature!

When to Use Study Aids
Study aids can be useful when:

• You have already read and briefed the cases for class.
• You have struggled with a concept and want clarification.
• You are interested in a concept and want to learn more.
• You want to memorize numerous rules.
• You want to understand how concepts relate to each other.
• You want practice applying legal rules to different fact scenarios.

Why do some people call study aids "gouges"?
Have you looked at the price of a study aid recently? They aren't cheap. If you pay a lot for something that doesn't help you in your studies, you might feel like you were--well--gouged.

What different kinds of study aids are available?

Treatises or hornbooks. Treatises are fat, footnoted texts by noted scholars in the field. An example is Farnsworth's Contracts. Hornbooks are treatises in a series put out by West Publishing, identifiable by the green covers. An example is LaFave's Criminal Law.  These are authoritative and can be used with confidence.

Explanations of the law. These are more slender volumes, often by respected scholars, aimed specifically at law students. Some of the best are essentially hornbooks with few footnotes (Concise Hornbooks, Understanding). These also include thorough explorations of narrower topics (Concepts and Insights, Turning Points, Foundations) and concise summaries of black letter law (Nutshells).

Problem books. The best combine scholarly explanations of the law with problems (Examples & Explanations, Student Guides). Others merely offer essay, short answer, or multiple choice questions with model answers (Q&A, ExamPro, and Siegel's). Use with caution.

Commercial outlines. Examples are Sum & Substance Quick Review, Gilbert's, Roadmaps, the Professor series, and Emanuel CrunchTime. Use these with caution. Some are by noted professors are good explanations of the law; but others are by hack authors and should be avoided. Use with caution.

Flashcards. The flashcard method of asking and answering questions is very effective in memorizing rules, and can be a good way of practicing very simple hypotheticals.  Commercial flashcards can be effective when used for learning in a study group.  However, few, if any, are written by law professors, so the statements of law and explanations are not authoritative.  Use with caution.

Audiotapes, videotapes, and CDs. These usually consist of lectures by law professors. Examples are Sum & Substance and BarBri. For some students, they can provide valuable explanations and clarifications of the law. However, students who rely on audio materials often tend to organize poorly on exams and discuss irrelevant legal issues.  These are best used in the first three months of the semester; avoid using in the weeks before exams. Use with caution.

Canned briefs. Examples are CaseNotes and High Court Case Summaries. There are few legitimate uses of canned briefs. They are not good guides to briefing your own cases. It is not unusual for canned briefs to misstate the facts, include irrelevant facts, and even misstate the relevant issue and/or rule. Avoid.

Software.  CALI software, available free to law students on disk or on the web, offers programmed learning lessons written by law professors which test understanding with rules and hypotheticals.  The method is extremely effective, and the software is intelligent enough to adjust the lessons to individual users' strengths and weaknesses.  You can also find law-specific outlining and flashcard-making software such as Storelaw.  If software offers premade outlines, briefs, or flashcards, look for the same indications of reliability that you would apply to a book. 

Why do professors tell us not to use study aids?
Professors want you to think like a lawyer, and that requires learning how to read cases critically. Too many students rely on canned briefs instead of briefing cases themselves. If you do, you will handicap yourself not only on your exams but also throughout your legal career.

It is the process of making an outline that helps you internalize the substantive law and understand the connections between the parts. When students use commercial outlines instead of developing their own, they tend to copy and parrot the commercial outline, instead of really understanding the material.

Students who rely on study aids often perform poorly on examinations because they have not developed the skill of critical analysis. Often they waste valuable time discussing irrelevant issues which have not been covered in class, and they are usually weak in applying the law to the specific facts on the examination.

Why does the Academic Support Library lend out study aids?

• So we can talk with you about study aids, instead of pretending they don't exist.
• So we can show you the difference between good and bad study aids, so you can make informed and intelligent choices.
• Because study aids with hypotheticals are a valuable means of testing your knowledge and becoming acquainted with the types of facts that raise particular issues. If you write out answers to these questions, you will practice the skill of legal analysis.
• Because the right study aid at the right time can be a valuable learning tool.
  

How do I tell a good study aid from a bad one?

• Has your professor recommended the book? If so, use it with confidence.
• Is it a treatise or a hornbook? These are generally considered reliable. 
• Does the study aid identify the author?  If not, run, don't walk, in the other direction. 
• Is the author a law professor?  A professor who is willing to put her name on a book—and thus put her reputation on the line— is a good sign.  Books which identify the author(s) only as "J.D." or "Esq." tend to be unreliable.  If the author is a noted scholar or practitioner, the book will tell you so.  Do you really want to rely on a study aid that may have been written by someone who graduated last in their class?
• Is the book 3-hole punched or perforated?  Bad sign. This encourages you to put pages from the book, rather than your own case briefs, in your class notebook. Moreover, this indicates that, no matter what the introduction says, the publisher expects you to use the study aid as a substitute for doing your own case briefs or outlines.
• Is the book “keyed” to a casebook?  Bad sign. This indicates that the publisher is more interested in a profit than in a good explanation of the law. 
• Are there extravagant claims on the front or back cover?  Does the book purport to help you ace your final?  Does it give you a last-minute cramming study guide?  Bad signs. All these are all the law school equivalents of miracle weight-loss products.

How can a study aid be a good learning tool?

• When you are confused, reading the explanation in a good study aid can clarify the law for you.
• When used judiciously, study aids can help you understand the relationships among legal concepts.
• When used sparingly, study aids can help you start building your own outlines.
• When the study aid provides practice problems, writing an answer to the problem will give you practice doing mini-exam problems.

Caution: Some study aids, such as commercial flashcards, are a valuable source of hypotheticals that can help prepare you for exams, but their answers are often superficial, and sometimes wrong.  Use with caution.

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Last updated 2007-08-04