2024 the best law schools review
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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.
Publisher : John Delaney; Revised edition (February 1, 2012)
Language : English
Paperback : 235 pages
ISBN-10 : 0960851453
ISBN-13 : 978-0960851454
Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
Dimensions : 8.5 x 0.5 x 11 inches
Reviewer: Clovis
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Must-Get Resource BEFORE Entering Law School
Review: 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 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 EXAMSYour 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 METHODIn 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 discussion 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 discussion 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 BOOKYou 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, and exam performance. It is a strange if not deficient way to exclusively measure law school performance, but it is the system.Reading this book and preparing in earnest will provide you with an understanding on how to analyze complex legal material. You need to learn the material and work with it daily. Reading a case and briefing it is not sufficient to do well. Law school is not college; it is a challenging and complex job.Your ability to issue-spot on law exams should improve, which is a critical exam-taking skill. The author explains how to anticipate issues, identify primary and secondary issues, and how to explain and illustrate the issues you spotted. Spotting issues, though critical, is not sufficient on law exams. You will be expected to supply a lawyerly analysis of each and every issue as it relates to the fact pattern on a law school exam. Serious preparation, a whole lot of practice, and a bit of luck are all necessary.You will also learn to outline, and I would not rely on others' outlines in law school. The most important part of outlining is the process of studying, creating your own outline. It will be how you learn the material, and you should use a good hornbook in making your outline. Outlining is not sufficient in law school. The best outline in the world will not help you if you do not prepare and practice regularly.The book will help you with understanding your own learning strategy, which is vital to know prior to entering law school. You need to know how to study, prepare, and practice law school exams prior to entering. The book also provides excellent practice essay exams with answers.CONCLUSIONI confidently recommend HOW TO DO YOUR BEST ON LAW SCHOOL EXAMS for those interested in preparing for law school. I have read many and varied "law school prep" books and courses. Many are inadequate, some are useless, and others provide bad advice. Success in law school is determined by one and only one measure: the final exam. If you are considering or are about to attend law school, it is wise to pick-up this book to better understand and prepare for law school exams. Law school is an intellectual privilege, although I am somewhat skeptical of its value after the first-year.You must get-through (survive) law school to practice law. I wish you the best of luck in the endeavor. Never forget to pursue Justice and defend the Constitution.Goodness... long review!I hope the above was helpful.
Reviewer: Devon C.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Book
Review: This book has instilled newfound confidence in my exam-taking skills, and has given me a framework for preparing.I read Getting to Maybe prior to the semester (I'm in my first semester of 1L) and found some of the information to be slightly confusing and unclear. I have read several reviews of GTM stating that it's best to read it after starting law school, as much of the information cannot be fully appreciated without some background in law, and so I believe that this may have been the cause of some of my confusion (GTM is quite highly regarded amongst law students).I may go back to GTM in the future, but for now, I think that Delaney's book is, and will be, sufficient. I really enjoyed his examples of strong and weak arguments, and the categorizations he used for different test types. I haven't actually taken a final yet, but I know that the CIRI(P) format will be very useful. I had a hard time with IRAC, but Delaney really spells out his own format in elementary fashion, leaving nothing to question.One caveat is that the book was a bit slow in the beginning, but this may have come as a result of some of the other information I've accumulated on the exam-taking process and necessary skills from the Internet and GTM. Overall, this book is golden.The book came in a very thin package, and was slightly bent even though I purchased it new, but this is more on Amazon than anything, I believe. I hate it when I see 1-star reviews based on packaging over content! Other than that, I would highly recommend this book, as well as Delaney's Criminal Law Advocacy book. I'll be purchasing his other title soon as well, just because his books are so easy to read.
Reviewer: J.P. Moore
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Book in very good condition, arrived quickly and was an excellent resource.
Review: Book in very good condition, arrived quickly and was an excellent resource. This is the first type of book like this that I've ordered in several years. The information was light and a very easy read.
Reviewer: Ramon L. Roman
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: How to do your best on Law School Exams
Review: Purchased this book to use as preparation for answering Law School exams. I followed the methodology in my answers for the exams but so far it has not made much of a difference in my grades. Could have done without it.
Reviewer: rlc
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: handbook to exam success
Review: I am a first year law student at a top ten law school. I greatly appreciated the format and content of this book. Law school is a guessing game - you are taught the material but everything else is up to you to figure out how to write law school exams. This might sound simple but there is an entirely different set of skills necessary to writing out these exams. Mr. Delaney's book very carefully walks students through the process of writing the exams and succeeding. It is very clear and provides insights not taught or explained in class. THIS INFORMATION IS THE SECRET TO DOING WELL. No matter how hard you learn and study the material, you need to know the style and format that professor's value in grading exams. Mr. Delaney's experience and techniques achieve the lofty goals of teaching students how to write for exams. I believe the most valuable portion of this book are the examples; Mr. Delaney calmly and meticulously walks through dense fact patterns and explains how to transform your basic knowledge of the law into "A" exams. If you want to succeed at a top law school, you need to know how to write exams. This book teaches you how. Thank you Professor Delaney for helping me to succeed.
Reviewer: DGH
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: You are missing out on valuable insight about law school exams if you don't get this book.
Review: This book is easier to understand compared to other 1L books I have purchased. I definitely feel more confident knowing what is expected when I take my first law school final. John Delaney shares valuable information that is detailed and specific. I have incorporated this book and other books by Delaney into a vigorous 1L study plan so I can be as prepared as possible. In addition, If you are taking any Pre-Law classes as an undergraduate, understanding and implementing the tools from Delaney's books will put you well ahead of the rest of the class -