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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:32 pm
by cantexplaingottago
freekick wrote:How important is getting Understanding Criminal Law by Dressler (the optional book) for Garvey? Should get it or wait to see?
Crim is hands down the easiest, most straightforward law class you will ever have. Supplements are unnecessary.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:09 pm
by freekick
cantexplaingottago wrote:
freekick wrote:How important is getting Understanding Criminal Law by Dressler (the optional book) for Garvey? Should get it or wait to see?
Crim is hands down the easiest, most straightforward law class you will ever have. Supplements are unnecessary.
Thanks! Some respite for the purse.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:39 pm
by chargers21
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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 5:51 pm
by Lavitz
chargers21 wrote:Any thoughts on:

Contracts - Rachlinski
Constitutional - Dorf
Criminal - Margulies
Civ Pro - Clermont
Lawyering - Freed
Only prof I had here in 1L was Clermont. I enjoyed the class, but the subject matter can be difficult to wrap your head around, and it doesn't help that Clermont's pretty eccentric. Our exam essay was literally just an article from Above The Law with the question "what would you do if you were the attorney in this article?" Because the exam is open book but you can only bring in the casebook, rules book, and his black letter outline, I'd advise taking as many notes in the books as possible. This includes the correct answers to the iclicker questions he asks during class and the answers to any of the questions that appear scattered throughout the casebook. You should also tab everything, because the multiple choice part of the exam is essentially a treasure hunt. I think the only supplement I used was Siegel's multiple choice questions, and I read his black letter outline multiple times. I also know people who loved the E&E as well as Freer's CivPro treatise. And, for the first day of class, just know that Sibbach has a dilemma.

I love Dorf and took 3 classes with him, but I didn't have him for ConLaw. All I can say is that, as a 1L, I imagine you'll feel intimidated by both Dorf and the subject matter, but don't worry because nobody else knows what's going on either.

And I hear Rachlinski is fun.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:07 pm
by chargers21
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Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:47 pm
by Lavitz
chargers21 wrote:
Lavitz wrote:
chargers21 wrote:Any thoughts on:

Contracts - Rachlinski
Constitutional - Dorf
Criminal - Margulies
Civ Pro - Clermont
Lawyering - Freed
Only prof I had here in 1L was Clermont. I enjoyed the class, but the subject matter can be difficult to wrap your head around, and it doesn't help that Clermont's pretty eccentric. Our exam essay was literally just an article from Above The Law with the question "what would you do if you were the attorney in this article?" Because the exam is open book but you can only bring in the casebook, rules book, and his black letter outline, I'd advise taking as many notes in the books as possible. This includes the correct answers to the iclicker questions he asks during class and the answers to any of the questions that appear scattered throughout the casebook. You should also tab everything, because the multiple choice part of the exam is essentially a treasure hunt. I think the only supplement I used was Siegel's multiple choice questions, and I read his black letter outline multiple times. I also know people who loved the E&E as well as Freer's CivPro treatise. And, for the first day of class, just know that Sibbach has a dilemma.

I love Dorf and took 3 classes with him, but I didn't have him for ConLaw. All I can say is that, as a 1L, I imagine you'll feel intimidated by both Dorf and the subject matter, but don't worry because nobody else knows what's going on either.

And I hear Rachlinski is fun.
Thanks for the tips! From my casual searches, it seems like I definitely got some very intelligent professors and most certainly not the worst ones possible. Would you recommend the multiple choice guide that you used in Clermont?

Constitutional law is what intially got me interested in law school, and in spite of not planning to do anything down that path anymore, I'm hoping that at least my naive interest in the subject will help with the fact that it'll be completely over my head. I heard Dorf is an absolute genius.
It depends. Different things work for different people, and there are a lot of potential supplements for CivPro, so it's hard to recommend specific ones. I had Clermont in the Spring, so I already knew I wasn't terrible at CivPro before deciding only to use Siegel's and the BLO. And since I only used Siegel's right before finals, I'd definitely hold off and wait to see how you feel about the subject before getting it or anything else. If you decide you need something to use during the semester to clear up any areas of confusion, either the E&E or Freer would be a good choice. If you prefer interacting with the material by writing out answers to example short questions, then maybe grab the E&E. If you don't think that's necessary for you to learn, I'd grab Freer (or something else). There's no need to buy a ton of supplements to have ready on day one. It won't matter in the grand scheme of things if you're unclear about some things at the beginning of the semester. You'll have to go over everything again before finals anyway.

Yes, Dorf is an absolute genius, and he's also great at basketball and pie-eating contests.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:50 pm
by cantexplaingottago
Lavitz wrote:And I hear Rachlinski is fun.
Had him for Civ Pro 1 and can confirm, he's a madman. His energy reminds me of Robin Williams. Can't speak to how accessible Contracts will be with him, but you'll certainly get some great quotes from it.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:10 am
by eshnunna
Rachlinski does short answer exams. He also gives you a ton of past exam questions and their answers so you can just practice those.

He's engaging but can get off track pretty easily.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:01 pm
by Lawschool305
Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 3:22 pm
by freekick
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Also interested in this.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:41 pm
by cantexplaingottago
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Pretty sure I got a B instead of a C in Con Law simply because I tried. I sounded like an idiot every time I did it, but I participated to the best of my ability in that subject. But there's no way to prove this either way.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:57 pm
by mjb447
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Almost certain I got at least half a letter grade in a class or two due to participation but, again, there's no way to be sure.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:59 pm
by hopefuljumbo23
freekick wrote:
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Also interested in this.
Tebbe wrote checks and check pluses next to people's names. I glanced at his seating chart and noticed this. I think he rated cold calls, and took them into consideration when he graded exams. Just speculation though. He never said this directly.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:02 pm
by freekick
:shock:
So much for the mantra: Don't prep for cold calls; prep for exams.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:29 pm
by Lincoln
One professor told me that in rare cases where a student's grade on the final exam obviously does not reflect the subject-matter knowledge and work ethic the student showed in class, the professor might bump the grade. The example used was "if the consistently best student in terms of class participation writes a B- exam, so that it's pretty clear the student just had a bad day, that student might get a B or B+ as a final grade."

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:28 pm
by Lacepiece23
Lincoln wrote:One professor told me that in rare cases where a student's grade on the final exam obviously does not reflect the subject-matter knowledge and work ethic the student showed in class, the professor might bump the grade. The example used was "if the consistently best student in terms of class participation writes a B- exam, so that it's pretty clear the student just had a bad day, that student might get a B or B+ as a final grade."
I still think this is bullshit to this day.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 5:01 am
by tyrant_flycatcher
freekick wrote:
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Also interested in this.
Rarely if ever. But my guess is many professors look to class participation to determine who receives the CALI.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 8:43 am
by hopefuljumbo23
tyrant_flycatcher wrote:
freekick wrote:
Lawschool305 wrote:Most of my professors have stated that they may bump up grades slightly for class participation. Does this actually happen, and if so how often?
Also interested in this.
Rarely if ever. But my guess is many professors look to class participation to determine who receives the CALI.
Yeah, possibly. That being said, I know someone who CALIed a bunch of classes and is like the quietest person ever in class.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:40 pm
by runinthefront
I believe it was BHS who told me that a couple years ago the school looked into how frequent grade bumps (either up or down) happened and it happened in less than 1% of classes over a one year period. She was making the point that although profs threaten/entice students with grading bumps, it rarely (if ever) happens.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 1:38 pm
by Lavitz
I agree with Lacepiece. I think the class participation bump is largely a bunch of mythical BS.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 5:35 pm
by Clamence
I know this thread is for 0Ls to ask questions that 1Ls can answer, but there seems to be a small amount of 1Ls discussing stuff, so I'm posting this here. If it shouldn't be here, my bad.

We have to pick electives for next semester. Is there a consensus on whether or not we should pick an "easy" elective or an interesting and useful but "hard" elective? I put them in quotation marks because I'm not entirely convinced anyone can tell what is easy and what is hard anyways. But, for instance, should I be looking to take Evidence or Business Organizations, two classes that should probably be taken by any law student, or should I go for some relatively uncompetitive niche class? Would it look good to take Evidence or Business Organizations? Or would nobody care that I waited till my second or third years for that?

I know there's pretty much nothing revealing here, but please don't quote.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 5:52 pm
by runthetrap1990
Pick whatever elective has the best curve has been my go to advice. Whether you take BizOrgs or Evidence will depend on who teaches because that impacts the curve of the class and your probabilities for falling on the right side of it (e.g., Colb Evidence has a great curve but her exam is structured that your margin of error is razor thin). If one of the niche/interesting classes has a solid curve (and be sure there is some history/data to make a good determination of the curve), I would pick that over others because you can take bizorgs/evidence/admin/etc in 2L and 3L - and at least in my experience no one will care when you take those "core" classes.

ETA: at the end of the day you're still being compared against your 1L peers - taking a useful class with a bad curve will only hurt you when compared to your classmates who took a soft curved class, regardless of its long-term utility.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 6:49 pm
by Bigredbear
wouldn't take evidence because 4 credits

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 7:29 pm
by cantexplaingottago
Clamence wrote:I know this thread is for 0Ls to ask questions that 1Ls can answer, but there seems to be a small amount of 1Ls discussing stuff, so I'm posting this here. If it shouldn't be here, my bad.

We have to pick electives for next semester. Is there a consensus on whether or not we should pick an "easy" elective or an interesting and useful but "hard" elective? I put them in quotation marks because I'm not entirely convinced anyone can tell what is easy and what is hard anyways. But, for instance, should I be looking to take Evidence or Business Organizations, two classes that should probably be taken by any law student, or should I go for some relatively uncompetitive niche class? Would it look good to take Evidence or Business Organizations? Or would nobody care that I waited till my second or third years for that?

I know there's pretty much nothing revealing here, but please don't quote.
What others have said--it's really dependent on who's teaching it--but also keep in mind that Biz Orgs is a prereq for A LOT of other transactional courses. Check the course catalog to see what your future desired classes require and see if you can take that prereq now.

Also, if you're just looking for something easy, Fed Tax with Green is crazy easy. He reuses the same in-class questions every year, their answers are readily available in most outline banks, and the exam is a rehash of the in-class questions. Further, in the past he's recorded every lecture and made them available, but I don't know if the administration is going to keep letting him do that because literally half the class never shows up.

Re: Cornell 1L taking questions

Posted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 7:33 pm
by runthetrap1990
cantexplaingottago wrote: Also, if you're just looking for something easy, Fed Tax with Green is crazy easy.