ZiefBrief

Preparing for Exams with CALI

Zief librarians are starting to see a surge of interest in the library's exam preparation materials, so it seems like a good time to remind students that some of the best exam prep material can be found online on CALI.  The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction has hundreds of online tutorials written by law professors covering first-year and upper-level law school subjects.  Many of these lessons include multiple-choice questions that allow you to test your comprehension of different legal concepts.  Most of you should already be registered for CALI because LRWA instructors require students to complete a CALI lesson early in the fall semester, but if you need the student registration code or would like some help accessing CALI lessons, contact a librarian. 

Legal Blogs: Inspiration for Finding Law Review Topics

The annual hunt for law review topics is another seasonal activity revealed by ZiefBrief's current usage statistics.

Immersing yourself for a time in the legal news is a great way to get at least a kernel of a topic. The following collections of law blogs let you skim a vast number of posts in a short time, so that you can get a sense of what's new, hot, and — most important of all — interesting to you.

• Alltop.com's "Law" category - current headlines from about 150 major legal blogs, all displayed on one page for easy skimming
• LexMonitor - a daily review of legal blogs, with the option of browsing by topics ("channels")
• Justia's BlawgSearch - currently covering over 2800 legal blogs in 62 categories
• ABA Journal - current legal news and a Blawg Directory

For more ways to get a foothold on your law review topic, see our previous post, Summer Reading - Finding Paper & Law Review Topics.

Once you have that kernel, you can flesh it out with the techniques outlined in chapter two ("Inspiration: Choosing a Subject and Developing a Thesis") of Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students (3d ed. 2005).

Summer Reading - Preparing for Law School (2008)

Based on ZiefBrief's statistics, many newly-admitted law students spend these summer months mining Google for tips that will help them survive the beginning of law school. We believe that the best way to spend this summer is relaxing and doing something fun that you won't have time for once law school starts, but there's no lack of advice out there if you want it. Lately we've learned of —

• The Wish I Would Have Known blog - advice for law students by law students
• A Very Short Reading List for Incoming 1Ls - from the Law Librarian Blog
• The Summer Before Law School? - from Alan Childress on the Legal Profession Blog

Our previous "Summer Reading" posts have more —

• Summer Reading Before Law School (2007)
• Summer Reading: Bracing Yourself for the First Year of Law School
• Summer Reading Before Law School - Dean Brand's Recommendation

New CALI Lessons for Upper-Level Students

If you're taking Evidence this fall and need some extra help with hearsay (and who doesn't?), check out these new CALI lessons:

The Definition of Hearsay and the Federal Rules:

• Part 1: Substantive Rules and Hearsay Dangers
• Part 2: Statements and What They Assert
• Part 3: Hearsay Arguments

You can also find a complete listing of CALI lessons by subject on the CALI website.

Brand New CALI Lessons

We stopped by the CALI booth at AALL to pick up a list of new CALI lessons just released for the 2007-2008 school year.  We'll be featuring a list of selected links to these lessons by subject area throughout the week. What are CALI lessons?  They are online, interactive tutorials about specific academic legal subjects by law professors and law librarians.  There are a wealth of CALI lessons on first-year and bar topics, and CALI has even created a list of CALI lessons by casebook.  If you're a faculty member or currently enrolled student at USF, you can contact any reference librarian to obtain your CALI registration code and start reviewing or taking CALI lessons.  If you're an incoming first-year student, you will receive the CALI registration code during orientation week.

First up -- Legal Concepts, Legal Research and Legal Writing:

• Podcast from Professor Douglas McFarland: "Advice to a 1L"
• Podcast from Profs. Grohman and Brown:  "Preparing for Your First Semester at Law School"
• Professor Diane Murley's interactive lesson:  "Where Does Law Come From?"
• Professor Sarah Gotschall's interactive lesson:  "Introduction to Search Logic and Strategies"
• Professor Rebecca Trammel's interactive lesson: "Plagiarism: Keeping Out of Trouble"

Good Luck to Those Tackling the Bar Exam!

Even though I've been immersed in New Orleans' restaurant and music scene for the past four days, I was jolted back to my work life in California when I noticed that there were quite a few passengers clutching BAR/BRI study guides on my flight back to San Francisco.  The bar exam starts tomorrow, and the Zief staff will be sending good thoughts to all of our recent graduates who begin the exam tomorrow!  Good luck to all of you!  You can do it!

Summer Reading Before Law School (2007)

Every summer, legal bloggers seem to love to give advice to soon-to-be One Ls about what they should read during the summer before law school.  ZiefBrief tackled this topic last June, and you can review our 2006 summary of recommended pre-law school reading at this earlier post. Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, readers have been weighing in with their favorites (Volokh's recommendations are here), and one of the commenters, Marina, has started keeping a very helpful list of the books recommended by Volokh Conspiracy readers at Lists of Bests.  My recommendation:  Richard Kluger's Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality.  And of course, we've got Simple Justice at Zief.

Another Cure for Final Exam Stress - Law School in a Box

Tired of studying for law school exams? Anxious about passing the bar exam? Tempted to chuck it all? Consider this alternative:

Law School in a Box

This simple product from Mental Floss is said to be "the #1 rated boxed law school in the country!" and it purports to contain, in one small metal box, everything you really need to practice law. It's even got its own diploma ("with real Latin words" - ZiefBrief checked, and it's true!) and a suitably condensed bar exam.

So enough with the $100,000 in tuition and fees, enough with the exhaustive text-taking tips. For $14.95 the Mental Floss people will give you an escape from academic drudgery and, ah, some unique legal credentials.

Law School Exam Advice Tops Lawsagna's Menu

As finals approach, Lawsagna, one of ZiefBrief's favorite sources of advice on ways to study and learn, is serving out exam preparation advice.

In Exam Tips, Lawsagna's Anastasia collects links to her previous posts on studying for and taking exams, and also refers readers to other blawgs for more tips, techniques, and advice.

Don't forget the low-tech as well! The Zief Law Library's own Succeeding in Law School< [PDF; 2 pages] handout lists a bunch of — yes, books! — with great material on doing your best in law school finals.

Lawsagna Dishes Up Advice on Briefing Cases

Lawsagna, a blog that's all about innovative and useful ways for law students to study and learn, is talking about briefing cases today.

In her post What's in your brief? Anastasia offers 7 succinct tips on becoming better at briefing cases, and she links to several other useful sites as well. If you'd like to tune up your case-briefing skills, check it out.