Should I buy Gilbert Law Summaries? Forum

[stuffedburrito]

I am starting law school in August, and I was wondering if I should buy Gilberts for all my 1st year classes NOW? I've found that used ones, which have no writing in them, costs about 10-20 dollars. Should I just buy all of them now, or is it a waste of money?

[TTT-LS]

.

[the lsat hax0r]

No. Get outlines from 2Ls and 3Ls.

[chalyse]

how is that done?

[06072010]

sexual favors. or asking them. Whatever.

[Ipsa Dixit]

At my school you can also get some outlines through the web site of one of the student groups.

[chalyse]

thanks, ipsa that sounds a lot easier than 'asking them' when 'them' is unknown/unmet at the moment. it would be a great help to get a peek at one prior to starting law school - i'll head off to investigate!

[06072010]

I guess the point TTT was making was that there is no need for a 2L outline over the summer.

A) You likely don't know your professor yet.
b) reading another professor's outline is retarded
c) casebooks and material change year by year

If you're really hankering for summer reading, just find a old E&E and skim it. I don't think reading the E&E's and doing all the exercises planet law school style is helpful. I know there is a lot of pre-law school jitters, we all had them. I have found that there is a stronger correlation to success from posting on TLS than there is to pre-law school reading. If you're posting on here, you're probably a self-selected hard worker obsessive type. Those people fair well in law school. Don't sweat it!

[chalyse]

alright, thanks good advice all around. i may try to peek just to see what a typical outline is like, without feeling the need to figure it out or study it (a nice bookmark for august when i do need to find them and focus on it). i do appreciate both the helpful pointers, and admonishments not to over-heat ... though it helps to have a very general sense of sources needed for the program, i know too well how easy it is to 'spend it all before the real event begins'.

follow-up question: my contracts e&e just arrived and it looks a bit daunting ... this is on top of course books and outlines? by skimming, you mean i'm good if i just familiarize with main sub-sections (maybe getting the gist by reading first sentence of all)? how did all you approach them?

[aguyingeorgia]

PKSebben is the father of my baby.

[06072010]

The K's E&E can be really different from how your professor teaches. For example, many casebooks and professors start with remedies.

Don't try to get into the details of contracts. Focus on general overviews of offer, acceptance, and what remedies are available for breach. Getting into 2-207 battle of the forms is pretty daunting without the professor and casebook help, so just try to zip through and get a road map of what will be covered. You'll be hitting the E&E again during the semester, so it's helpful to try and find where all these things lie in the grand scheme of things.

[Ipsa Dixit]

I wouldn't even skim the E&Es before law school. Maybe look at the table of contents and the introduction, but that's about it. Skim wikipedia for a broad picture. Don't do more than that.

I use supplements when I don't know what the text book is saying after reading it, if the professor tells us some concept is going to be tough, or when I leave the class dazed and saying to myself, "What just happened?"

[chalyse]

lol i once left a class and immediately hugged the first tree i found, my head was spinning so much!

thanks for the road map, guys, sounds just right.

for the record, what is 'k's'?

[Ipsa Dixit]

K = Contracts

[chalyse]

wootness! a relief to know i was starting to conjecture that ... just the first in many, many acronyms and code words to learn, i am sure. thanks!!

[lwpat]

I wouldn't worry about specific courses or the E&E's right now. Read Planet Law School but with a grain of salt. Then take the free tutorials for West and Lexis to get the hang of citations and legal research. Schedule Leews about midsemester if possible or order the CD. Any of John Delaney's books are good starters. Concentrate on improving your legal research and writing skills. Here is a helpful site

http://www.law-school-books.com/legal-writing.html