Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.076
EAN num: 9780960851454
ISBN number: 0960851453
Label: John Delaney Publications
Manufacturer: John Delaney Publications
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 166
Printing Date: 1988-11
Publishing house: John Delaney Publications
Sale Popularity Level: 51928
Studio: John Delaney Publications
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Product Description:
How To Do Your Best on Law School Exams shows you, step-by-step, how to practice and excel at the two core law-exam tasks: spotting issues and resolving them with succinct lawyerly arguments. This popular and widely recommended Book emerged from teaching countless courses and grading thousands of exams over many years at the New York University Law School and at the City University Law School. In building-block detail, it shows you how to practice decoding of the typical multi-issue exam essay. It enables you to add an exam lens to your learning and outlining, so that you are practicing issue-spotting and step-by-step writing of lawyerly exam arguments throughout the semester and also illustrates many blunders that constantly appear on law exams. It includes many actual exam problems with illustrative 'A' and occasional poor answers, and detailed comments explaining why exam arguments are excellent, mediocre or poor.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
i havent taken a law school test yet so i dont exactly know how applicable delaneys points are. What i can say is that the book is pretty comprehensive though. It tells you what skills you will need to develop for law school and describes ways in which to hone in on them. all in all i would have to say it's one of the most important books anyone could read before/during law school and is definitely worth its modest cost
Rated by buyers -
In this day in age, where law school prep has become an industry of its own, you find yourself wondering which ones are worth paying attention to, and which ones are worth ignoring. Delaney's book definitely belongs in the prior category. It's helpful, but it's also not overly complex. I love how he explains ideas with concision and gets right to the point. As a law professor, his words have instant credibility.
I highly recommend this book to any 1L, whether you're looking to survive very first year or make law review.
Rated by buyers -
well worth your time and money.... also make sure you read Planet Law School II by Atticus Falcon (especially before law school)
Rated by buyers -
First, I should begin by saying what has turned out to be true. Law school is tough. It is extremely challenging, the amount of information is overwhelming, and the in-class atmosphere is unnerving. It is, I believe, more different and difficult than most undergrad and grad students realize.
Second, your time constraints will be intense. If you undertake an earnest effort to read your cases, properly brief, use resources such as hornbooks and outline, you will probably not have enough time to develop the skills necessary to write an effective exam-answer during law school.
Last, it is why this book is so important to read and prior to entering law school: difficulty of exams, complexity of material, vast amounts of information and reading, intense time constraints, and most importantly, your grade will be determined by your final exam performance.
SOME COMMENTARY ON LAW EXAMS & SOCRATIC METHOD (*WARNING*)
I would be disingenuous and perhaps remiss if I did not seize a good opportunity to complain about law school to those considering attending law school. Do not fret, I will try to be brief. I think after the very first or second semester of law school, you acquire the analytical skills, discipline, and ability to read and understand complex material at a maximum level. I am skeptical that a second year of law school is necessary, let alone a third year. The second-year should consist of skills development, job-training, and some classroom work. The third-year should be eliminated or optional for those that want more education or specialization (such as an LLM). Most (all?) countries do not have law schools in the way the United States does; instead, students study law as undergrads or earn a master's in law.
LAW SCHOOL EXAMS
Your law school grade is, exclusive of everything else (class participation, research papers, group projects, etc.) based on the final exam. You will not obtain credit for research papers, drafting memorandum, participating in class, or for group projects. Your entire grade is based on the final. It is a bizarre if not backward way of measuring a person's ability to think like a lawyer.
It behooves you to develop exam-taking skills now if you are a serious student and hope to succeed in law school.
SOCRATIC METHOD
In some respects, I think my speaking ability has slightly diminished as a result of the socratic method. I find it especially jarring when a law student is called-on to recite a fact-pattern or passage. I think it is completely unnecessary for students to have to read paragraphs and mostly a waste of time. If some of you were like me, you probably participated in class actively as an undegrad or grad students, were always well prepared, and most-likely shined in class discussions. Law school is more challenging to shine in class because the amount of material is considerable and complex, and the professor will ask you questions that will probably tongue-tie you. And this will occur in class, surrounded by nearly 100 of your classmates, depending on your school. You are, however, expected to be well-prepared for class and you will be called upon at random.
I dislike the socratic method because it makes law students unnecessarily neurotic and undermines learning. In business school, for example, students' participation was often (but not always) grounded in real-life experiences that enhanced discusion and added flavor to debate.
Law school classroom discussions are an altogether different atmosphere, and I think a rather deficient method of teaching.
As an aside, I wish law schools would format classroom participation in a similar way such as at the London School of Economics. You attend a lecture by a professor for around an hour or so. You can ask questions during the prof's lecture but it is primarily the prof's perspective on the material. Then in the evening you attend a group discusion with a Ph.D. candidate, where participation is the focus. Everyone has an opportunity to speak, raise questions, engage in debate, and so forth. You attain a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the subject material and acquire strong communication skills in the process.
The combination of your grade being based solely on the final exam and the socratic method make law school a much more challenging, stressful, and somewhat confusing experience than it has to be. Be prepared.
USEFULNESS OF THE BOOK
You are the individual responsible for your education and grades. I find classroom learning, in law school, to be inadequate. I have found learning from casebooks to be particularly inadequate. Law school is about YOU, the law student, and less about reading cases and fretting about the socratic method. It is about YOU in terms of your skills, abilities, ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
The book was excellent, and service second to none. I recommend this to friends all the time.
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