Customer Reviews

The Complete Law School Companion: How to Excel at America's Most Demanding Post-Graduate Curriculum

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've bought several similar books in an attempt to get some idea what to expect and how to attack law school. This is by far the best one. I feel much less anxious about starting law school next fall. The author gives specific systems for mastering breifing cases, preparing course outlines and preparing for exams. The emphasis in this book is to develop a system where you continually learn through excellent organization throughout the term so there is no burst of frantic studying before the exam. This book will continually be a good reference throughout my first year in law school. Its the only book you need!

I bought this book, and four others like it, prior attending law school. Of the five books, this was by far the best one. I have since passed it on to a friend who is using it to prepare for school, and I am about to order another copy for my brother who is also about to go to law school. What this book has that the others did not is a plan. All of the books described well what to expect in law school. What they did not do, and what this book did an excellent job doing, was provide a plan and system so that you are prepared walking in the door for that proverbial Scott Turow first day as a One L. This is the only preparation book you need to read before school starts.

I bought this book before starting Harvard Law School in 1995 and followed the author's recommended system (more or less) throughout my three years there. Suffice it to say, I graduated cum laude (and just a few tenths of a point below magna -- darn!). The system Deaver specifies in this book (which is fairly ambitious) is excellent for anyone who is detail-oriented and has the discipline to stick with it. After your first semester, you may find that you can ease up on the regimen somewhat, but Deaver's way is the right way to start. My only qualification is that the book doesn't have much on the use of computers, which can make law-school life a whole lot easier (especially a lap-top). But I found Deaver's system easily adaptable. His single best piece of advice: when studying for exams, don't skim your outlines or memorize your outlines, but *read* them again and again to absorb their substance. It works (even for the bar exam)!

I read this before starting law school and was impressed by its guide to academic success. Unfortunately, after starting law school, reality set in and the book's weak points became very clear; namely, the lack of any discussion of using computers in law school.

It's tough to differentiate this book from the shelves of other similar books, all promising you the knowledge of how to succeed in law school. The problem is that each person has their own way of learning, analyzing and remembering information. What is suggested in one book may be totally useless to one person, yet may be a revelation to others.

This book is of some use for those entering law school, if only to see an outline of learning habits for those anally-retentive enough to follow it on a daily basis. But my experience was that all the self-help books become useless once I developed my own study skills. And, while these sorts of books may be good for 1Ls, they are not very useful for 2Ls or 3Ls.

The lack of incorporating computers into one's learning skills is the absolute weakest aspect of this book. Without laptops and online study guides, many current law school students would be totally lost.

This book is incredibly helpful for those planning on attending law school and are unsure of what to expect. Instead of merely urging discipline, Deaver details a concise plan of action with outlined strategies for study. The author is never pretentious and does not assume the reader has vast amounts of knowledge of the law prior to reading the book. I literally could not put this book down.

I can see why this book is still in print so long after it was first published, because it's advice is invaluable. This book is not just another "what law school is really like" type of thing (although some of that is in there), but focuses mainly on helping you understand those elements of law school which are vital to excelling.

I found four things to be extremely useful. First, this book explains clearly and simply how to write a coherent brief. It gives you a basic outline to follow and tells you how to identify the relevant information in a given case. Second, this book gives a strategy for outlining class notes, textbook material, and other sources in such a way that if you follow the author's advice, you will always be on top of your classwork and will have a huge advantage come crunch time. Third, this book shows how to do well on exams using the outline mentioned above. And fourth, this book gives some good advice on writing papers.

In addition to this, the beginning of the book is a pretty good introduction to preparing for law school, and the end of the book has some good stuff for law school students. I don't regret having bought this book, because now I feel I have a sound strategy for entering law school which I think will help me hit the ground running.

Having graduated with high honors from one of the top five law schools, I relied on this book and several others to identify the appropriate approach to taking law school exams. I applied the approach as follows: (1) read only those assignments provided by the professor (ignore commercial outlines, etc.); (2) take extensive notes of everything the professor says in class (and do not write down any student comments or student answers to Socratic questions); (3) organize your notes of the professor's lectures into your own outline; (4) read the professor's prior exam files, including any student answers selected by the professor as "model answers"; and (5) practice taking the professor's old exams in the few days leading up to exam day. The rationale is that your professor will be looking for you to spot those issues that he or she views as important. The more of these issues you spot, the higher your exam grade will be. Ditch those commercial outlines and study group meetings. In addition to the Companion, you should also prepare for law school by conditioning yourself to what its competition will feel like. Two excellent books that accomplish this goal are Scott Turow's One L (Harvard in the 1970s) and Scott Gaille's The Law Review (2002 book about competition at The University of Chicago Law School).

I bought this book prior to starting law school. I thought the book gave sound advice, and I planned to use the system described in the book. When I arrived at orientation, the faculty outlined the methods they had observed highly sucessful students using over the years. The advice nearly matched the system in the book word for word. Of course, everyone in my class got this information, but the program my school has instituted is quite rare among law schools. I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for an edge in law school.

I bought this book, and while I'm not exactly sorry that I did, I don't think it's the best of the plethora of similar books out there. Deaver spends a great deal of time outlining his system, which he used WITHOUT A COMPUTER. While the system is easily adapted to a computer format, it makes many of his points about what kind of paper to write on and such useless.

I also found his description of a study system less easy to follow and less promising than that described in _Law School Confidential_, which I recommend highly.

Overall, I'd say if you're a really anal-type looking to have a system laid out to follow to the letter, this book might work for you. For me, I just wanted something a little more flexible and with more information about why the author likes a certain method of studying.

I picked up Jeff Deaver's guide shortly before I started law school as a One L (first year law student for the uninitiated). Largely, I was looking for information on how to 'brief' a case, which is essential to surviving the case study method Socratic technique that most law schools employeed. The chapter on briefing was concise and easy to read. It was a good starting point. That is also a good way to describe this book: 'a good starting point.'

Deaver attempts to describe everything from why you might want to become a lawyer, taking the LSAT, studying in school, taking a law exam, and finding employment. It is a great overview. On top of that, Deaver doesn't sugar coat anything. When discussing motives for going to school, he discusses the potential wealth to be gained from the profession without reservation or apology. He makes sure to mention the work involved as well, and warns that law school is not the place for the uncommitted.

Anyone who reads this book will probably realize that Deaver has laid out a comprehensive plan for studying and getting through classes. As some other reviewers have mentioned, the method is a bit out dated with advent and rise of computers, but his methods can easily be adapted. After having have completed a couple of weeks of my first year, I have found his ideas to be helpful. However, I have had to manipulate his method to suit my studying method, which I am sure he would approve of.

I would recommend this book for anyone thinking of going to school. It provides plenty of things to think about and other things to research before making the commitment. For the studend that has already been accepted, this is a decent primer for the upcoming school year.