carsondalywashere wrote:skatch wrote:carsondalywashere wrote:Are there supplements recommended universally for 1L classes, or does it depend on what professor you have?
It highly depends on the professor. Using a supplement for Redish's CivPro is an incredibly stupid idea, for example. I would recommend starting off by not using supplements and only purchasing one if you're just not able to understand the material in a course through the reading/lecture/office hours. The time you would spend reading a supplement is probably better spent focusing more on that stuff anyway.
Lmao, good to know. I read in a TLS guide that reading supplements early in the semester can be a good way to get a lay of the land for the course. Is there any merit to that idea?
I'll start with the standard "do what works for you" line on using supplements generally, but I'd strongly recommend against reading in a supplement ahead of where the professor is in the course. If you do that, you might find out your professor explains things in a different way and then you'll have to unlearn what you read in the supplement and get on board with how your professor teaches the material. If you want to get a lay of the land and see how everything fits together, just take a look at the syllabus and quickly skim the readings to get a feel for the course's structure. The only two valid reasons for using a supplement IMO are (1) when you've legitimately been paying attention, doing all the reading, and going to office hours and the material is still making no sense and (2) when you feel like you need to practice writing exam answers (which shouldn't even happen until mid-October at the earliest) and you don't think the your professor's practice exams are enough.
I think supplements are a major pitfall in 1L because using them makes you feel like you're doing more, which feels good when everything is scary and new and you have no idea what you're doing. Working harder is a good thing, but your time is probably better spent engaging more with the reading, paying better attention in class, and going to office hours/TA hours more often. In my experience, I've found going "outside" the readings/lecture (with the exception of outlines and old/practice exams
for your professor) has not generally been an efficient use of my time, and since 1L is so busy, you need to be spending your time as efficiently as possible.