Re: SMU Class of 2016
Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 5:24 pm
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Crespi is a genius. Easily one of the smartest people I have ever met, and amazing at Contracts. All he does is lecture, he will maybe call on 2 or 3 people over a semester. He lays everything out and goes over. He will also provide you with a bound book that has every exam he has given and the best answer for that exam. He allows this book to be brought in to the exam, and he does re-use fact patterns. Good for you if you can spot it. However, because he gives so much material to help you study, the curve is insanely tight. 2 missed points can be the difference between an A and B+.BVest wrote:Sec. 1
K - Crespi
Crim - Palacios
Civ Pro - Martinez
Property - Gaba
Torts - Mayo
Crespi:
I've not had the opportunity of a class with him yet, but I have sat in on his classes twice. He came to law later in life, having been an economist in the White House prior to going to law school. He doesn't believe the traditional law school method is particularly effective. As a result he mainly lectures. Further, his lectures are very structured in that he tells you what rule/doctrine he's going to discuss, he gives the black letter law, gives the history for how that came to be, gives the statutory (if any) and case law authority for the rule, and gives a hypo or two. The way law should be taught, IMO. [ETA: obviously I haven't taken his exam either, but as I understand he also tells you pretty much what will be on the exam and even provides a lot of what you'll use as your outline; while helpful, this also tightens the curve and makes the exam more about, gasp, applying the law to the facts.]
Didn't have her for anything, but she's kind of nuts from what I hear. If you don't like criminal law after taking her class, take some Crim Pro classes with other professors, because you'll probably like it again after that.BVest wrote:Palacios:
Also a lot of lecture, but some cold-call Socratic. Her powerpoints will be the heart of your outline, but you will want to do some cutting and you will want to be very familiar with the outline and have good tabs so that you can access the information quickly. Will ask some uncomfortable and directed questions in class, but will also allow you to opt out entirely for the portion on rape. She asks review questions at the beginning of class which you are prohibited from writing down, because this is how she quality-checks mult. choice questions for the exam. The last two years, partway through the semester she got mad, stating that she had been informed that someone had been writing them down and quit giving them. I don't know if that's true or a good stunt, but there you go. We'll see if she starts the semester with them this year. Exam was about half mult choice (many verbatim from outline) and half essay -- one essay with long pattern of facts of an ongoing crime that morphs into other crime: Who can be prosecuted and for what? Open book/notes, but nothing commercial. Be sure to print everything she puts on TWEN that's not her slides just in case there's a question about something there that's not in the book or the outline.
Never had him.BVest wrote:Sec. 2
K - Rogers
Crim - Bridge
Civ Pro - Dorsaneo
Property - Gaba
Torts - Ryan
Rogers:
Really nice guy and very approachable. Uses Socratic but in very friendly manner. Only had him half a semester and did not have his exam.
Bridge is a bastard, and I don't know but maybe one or two people that liked him. But his exams are super straightforward, no hiding the ball at all.BVest wrote:Bridge:
Old school (Socratic with stand to answer). I didn't have him so I could be corrected, but I think he let people know before the class in which they were on call.
BVest wrote:Ryan:
Young and smart. Cold-calls students to review cases. I get the impression she was a little meaner and more sarcastic if you were wrong in the past (upper level students made comments to that effect), but for us you knew you were wrong if, during your answer, she put her hands together, squinted, tilted her head, and said "wellllllllll..." Amazingly there were some in the class who didn't pick up on that signal and would keep going. If you're answering and she says that, shift gears. You're wrong. Essays were heavy issue spotting, but nothing taken off if you spotted the wrong issues as well, as long as you got the ones she wanted. And she wanted FULL tree analysis of each issue, including multiple jurisdiction possibilities. Open book/notes, but nothing else.
BVest wrote:Sec. 3
K - Anderson
Crim - Palacios
Civ Pro - Thornburg
Torts - DePianto
Anderson:
Lucky devils. I hadn't heard how Anderson is doing but he had oropharyngeal cancer this past spring (he'll likely, and with good reason, make a PSA for HPV vaccines). Anderson is very Socratic and if you're answering and he says something that makes you think you're wrong, DON'T CHANGE COURSE. He's just arguing the other side. Odds are pretty good that you're right and if you change course he'll poke gentle fun for not having conviction. Anderson will cold call, but only after he has given an opportunity for volunteers. If you're antsy about being cold-called, raise your hand when you are confident about the answer to a question. If you've raised your hand a few times, he will never cold-call you (with the possible exception of a call-back, e.g. if you and he had a debate during the class discussion on Peevyhouse and some other case raises issues similar to Peevyhouse, you might get a "of course Smith here doesn't think so, isn't that right Smith.")
Closed book mult choice/essay exam
Thornburg is also awesome. She's extremely knowledgeable about Civ Pro, but she manages to convey it in a very non-confusing way, which is quite a challenge with Civ Pro. I would also take her for Texas Procedure when you can pick your own classes. Genuinely nice person.BVest wrote:Thornburg:
Lucky devils... again. What a great teacher. If you're like me, you won't have put everything about Civ Pro together until the last week or so before finals, but she delivers all the information you'll need and leaves out the unnecessary stuff. Also, she recognizes the different demands on our time and lets off the gas a little bit around the time the brief draft and final are due in the spring. Her exams are all essay (open anything except electronic or other people) and she grades by a rubric. Her curve is very fair, looking for larger gaps in raw scores in which to divide up the class. Buy her Q&A and use it. It has really good basic concepts in the earlier questions for each section and then good rule application examples in the later questions. My study group was struggling with our outline for this in the fall and then she had her review session with a powerpoint which we fleshed out.
Counter-point - I hate study groups and never got anything out of them. If you have in the past, great. But don't feel the need to be in a study group because everyone else is. Don't let the difference in the way material is presented in law school freak you out and completely change your study habits. You know what works best for you, so stick with that and don't be afraid to go ask teachers for help during office hours.BVest wrote:General tip:
Get a study group together early and start outlining as you finish sections in your various classes. Schedule a time (e.g. Friday PM) that you meet every week in a library group room or an empty classroom for this purpose. Throw in some sample questions from supplements. Don't form the group right away... pay attention to who you're hanging out with to study who is studious and who is distracting.
Just to be clear (because re-reading my post it was a bit ambiguous), Ryan was super-nice to us. I only include the bit about upper-level students' thoughts because it came as such as shock to us when we first heard it. It was nothing like our experience. She even did a mid-semester evaluation the first semester to see how things were going... perhaps she had received bad evals before and didn't want to do so again, but I can't imagine she got much in the way of negative feedback from our section. She is working on tenure, so evals do count in some small way, but I think she's just the kind of person who values doing a good job and wants to do better if she gets negative feedback. She's always very welcoming at office hours as well.kalvano wrote:BVest wrote:Ryan:
Young and smart. Cold-calls students to review cases. I get the impression she was a little meaner and more sarcastic if you were wrong in the past (upper level students made comments to that effect), but for us you knew you were wrong if, during your answer, she put her hands together, squinted, tilted her head, and said "wellllllllll..." Amazingly there were some in the class who didn't pick up on that signal and would keep going. If you're answering and she says that, shift gears. You're wrong. Essays were heavy issue spotting, but nothing taken off if you spotted the wrong issues as well, as long as you got the ones she wanted. And she wanted FULL tree analysis of each issue, including multiple jurisdiction possibilities. Open book/notes, but nothing else.
Ryan is easily one of my top-5 favorite professors at SMU. Sweet lady, great teacher, extremely smart, and willing to help you outside of class if you need it. Be thorough on the exam, but you'll do well if you can spot issues. I have nothing but nice things to say about Ryan, and I wish I could go back and take a couple more classes with her.
I forgot to mention RE Thornburg that she keeps the bookshelves outside her office stocked with civ pro supplements that she's received over the years which you can borrow and return. Swing by and peruse it sometime. She's also extremely helpful during "office hours" (I didn't actually know when her office hours actually are, but she was always there when I would email with a question or to set up an appointment) and willing to take questions after class until the room is needed by another class (that may be different with evening classes, I realize).kalvano wrote:Thornburg is also awesome. She's extremely knowledgeable about Civ Pro, but she manages to convey it in a very non-confusing way, which is quite a challenge with Civ Pro. I would also take her for Texas Procedure when you can pick your own classes. Genuinely nice person.BVest wrote:Thornburg:
Lucky devils... again. What a great teacher. If you're like me, you won't have put everything about Civ Pro together until the last week or so before finals, but she delivers all the information you'll need and leaves out the unnecessary stuff. Also, she recognizes the different demands on our time and lets off the gas a little bit around the time the brief draft and final are due in the spring. Her exams are all essay (open anything except electronic or other people) and she grades by a rubric. Her curve is very fair, looking for larger gaps in raw scores in which to divide up the class. Buy her Q&A and use it. It has really good basic concepts in the earlier questions for each section and then good rule application examples in the later questions. My study group was struggling with our outline for this in the fall and then she had her review session with a powerpoint which we fleshed out.
I know you posted this before registration and now it's too late but I spoke to some 3Ls about Norton and they said he was a pretty easy prof but also boring. I'm taking him too because I dont have a choiceTheJanitor6203 wrote:Could anyone tell me how hard BE with Norton is and if having business knowledge going into the course is important or not?
For which class? My big old "Post O'Outlines" has an A- Environmental Law outline.thisiswater wrote:Anyone have a Gaba outline they would like to share?
It would be awesome if y'all could update the google doc with info from the spring semester. Thanks.TheJanitor6203 wrote:I think the first link wouldn't allow you to edit so if you tried, I'm sorry. I think this one will work though.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Sy ... sp=sharing
Sorry, for propertykalvano wrote:For which class? My big old "Post O'Outlines" has an A- Environmental Law outline.thisiswater wrote:Anyone have a Gaba outline they would like to share?