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Getting to Maybe- How to Excel on Law School Exams

5 stars (Icing on the cake) - This is an entertaining book with good insights on taking law school exams (I particularly liked Fischl & Paul's hilarious debunking of that stupid old IRAC bromide that professors like to give to all those foolish 1Ls). But some Amazon reviewers seem to think that Getting To Maybe is some sort of magic cure-all. It ain't. Unless you have spent a year or two perfecting your writing and analytical skills through continual practice, merely perusing this book will do nothing for you come exam time. If, however, you are already well versed in basic lawyerly analysis, this book will give you an edge. Here's what you need to do in order to score well on a law exam: 1. Extricate the key facts from a fact-dense problem. (Watch out for red herrings!) 2. Spot and specify all legal issues that arise from these key facts. 3. Intelligently apply all applicable legal rules to the issues. 4. Interweave key facts into elements of the applicable rules. 5. Insert appropriate policy discussions that support the rules. (Take notes and study up on each prof's particular hobby horse and demonstrate extensive familiarity with it on your essay exams.) 6. Integrate ALL of the above skills with succinct, first-draft legal writing skills within the allotted time (usually about 50 minutes per problem). Think fast, write fast--and do both well. Getting To Maybe is particularly good at developing point number 5. It is somewhat spotty at most of the others. But what it does, it does very well indeed. And, as far as law-related books go, it's a fun and funny read. So, after you have mastered the basics of black-letter law and learned to think clearly and write well, what this book has to teach you will be yet another arrow in your quiver. Just don't think it's your entire arsenal. Further recommendations: Pre-law and 1L students should read all the books in the Examples & Explanations series and carefully work through ALL the problems. The single most useful...
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