Law school classes begin this month

Here’s some sound advice for incoming 1Ls from the Res Ipsa blog: Ten Tips for Future Law Students: How to Succeed in Law School

An interesting comment in response to the somewhat counterintuitive tip #10 (“ Don’t underestimate the value of after-class review or overestimate the value of reading for class.”):

This is a start toward the transformational notion, which is this: read the cases ONLY after the class which has discussed them.
…

Think about how many times you read a case, only to have the professor not reach it. Do you reread the next time, or just rely on the first read? Never happens with the ‘read after’ method. Think about how many times you read a case, only to not quite grasp the essential point. Never happens with the read after method, as the class has just provided the point, which you can reinforce with the careful ‘after read’.

You’d think this would cause a problem with class participation[but] that’s overrated anyway …Turns out that the best preparation for stellar class participation is a thorough understanding of the previous few day’s work; the ability to reference back intelligently, along with some modest fancy footwork, serves perfectly well.

Listen carefully, read after. It works.

                                           -posted by brian

On the other hand, Professor Kingsfield expects you to do ALL your reading before class