Choosing the Right Study Aid

It is very easy for law students to get overwhelmed with the wide variety of study aids that are available both in hard copy and electronically. Here are some points to consider when choosing a study aid:

• What specific tasks do you want to accomplish with the study aid? You want to be clear about your purposes. Study aids fall into categories:

1. commentaries explaining the law in depth
2. outlines explaining the law with less depth
3. very condensed summaries explaining the law with even less depth
4. visual organizers to depict the law pictorially
5. practice questions in various formats with answer explanations
6. memory aids to learn rules and definitions
7. combination study aids that include multiple categories of material

• How often should you use study aids? Some guidelines include:

1. Choose the depth of explanation to match your depth of confusion. With more confusion, you need more detailed explanation.
2. It is typically better to read a commentary at the time you are confused and not wait until later in the semester.
3. It saves time to read just the topics or subtopics about which you are confused rather than everything covered in a semester course.
4. Reading more than one commentary is usually inefficient because you gain little additional knowledge/understanding. Only read a second commentary if you are still confused after the first one.
5. Complete as many practice questions as possible. Very easy practice questions may help you as you learn the material. However, you want to complete harder practice questions as you learn material more deeply.

• How closely does the study aid align with your professor's course? Study aids are typically written for a national audience and include topics that a specific professor will not cover. State-specific courses may not have as many study aids available - CA and NY being the exceptions that publishers seem to favor.
• Does your professor recommend specific study aids? Some professors list in their syllabi the study aids that they think match their course material or test questions best.
• What sources of study aids may be useful to you for lower costs? You may have more aids available than you realize:

1. Your law school may have a study aids library for short-term circulation.
2. Your law school may have a subscription to one of the publisher's electronic study aid collections.
3. Upper-division students may have study aids to lend to you - be careful about the edition in case the law has changed.
4. Your professor may have worksheets, practice questions, and other materials on a course website.
5. Your law school may have an exam database with professors' released exam questions.
6. Your state board of bar examiner's may post on its website various past exam questions for the state's bar exam subjects.

• Do other students who have had the course previously have suggestions on study aids? There are a few things to consider when they make suggestions:

1. Their learning preferences may vary greatly from your own learning preferences.
2. A professor may have changed books or the emphases in a course since they had the class.
3. You want to test run a study aid if at all possible before purchase to see if it works for you - see the above point for some options to do so.

Study aids can be a valuable resource to law students. However, care is needed in the choosing so that the timing, task, and specific content are all considered. (Amy Jarmon)