A Guide to Study Materials

When you need support understanding the law and/or concepts:

West Academic Study Aids

• Hornbooks
  • Big, dense, and detailed. Often a simplified version of the author's major treatise.
• Short & Happy Guide series
  • Quick reviews of important rules and policies.
  • Cover the basic 1L, and some 2-3L, subjects.

Aspen Learning Library

• Examples & Explanations
  • Gives correct answers for practice, but also explains why other responses are wrong.
  • Good for understanding nuances of black letter law.
• Casenote Legal Briefs
  • Succinct statements of rule of law/black letter law.
  • Descriptions of facts and important points of the holding and decision.
  • Each title is keyed to the current edition of a specific casebook.

Lexis Digital Library

• The Understanding series
  • Concise and comprehensive overview of a subject area.
  • Many citations to primary and secondary sources.
  • Longer than Nutshells, but shorter than Hornbooks.

When you need support in understanding substance through organization:

West Academic Study Aids

• Acing series
  • Organizes material through roadmaps, checklists, and "points to remember."
  • Walks you through approaching essay questions and creating a complete analyses of legal concepts.

Aspen Learning Library

• Emanuel's CrunchTime series
  • Especially helpful for visual learners.
  • Uses flow charts to explain substance and organize material.
  • Provides short answer, multiple choice, and essay practice questions.
• Glannon Guides
  • Teaches through explanation and includes hypotheticals for illustrating application.
  • Explains both correct and incorrect answers.

CALI

• Lessons
  • Self-paced, interactive tutorials that cover narrow topics of law.
  • CALI library holds over 1,000 lessons categorized by 1, 2, and 3L topics.

When you need practice:

Law School Exams

• The Law Library maintains a database of previous exams and essay questions for many classes and instructors.
• You can access the database using the link above, or from the Library's homepage under Quick Links and Law School Resources.
• Remember you need to be on campus, or connected to the VPN, to access these materials!

West Academic Study Aids

• Acing series
  • Organizes material through roadmaps, checklists, and "points to remember."
  • Walks you through approaching essay questions and creating a complete analyses of legal concepts.

Aspen Learning Library

• Examples & Explanations
  • Gives correct answers for practice, but also explains why other responses are wrong.
  • Good for understanding nuances of black letter law.
• Emanuel's CrunchTime series
  • Especially helpful for visual learners.
  • Uses flow charts to explain substance and organize material.
  • Provides short answer, multiple choice, and essay practice questions.
• Emanuel Law Outlines
  • Outlines the law, gives exam tips, and offers opportunities for self-practice.
• Glannon Guides
  • Teaches through explanation and includes hypotheticals for illustrating application.
  • Explains both correct and incorrect answers.
• Law in a Flash - See Spaced Repetition below.

CALI

• Lessons
  • Self-paced, interactive tutorials that cover narrow topics of law.
  • CALI library holds over 1,000 lessons categorized by 1, 2, and 3L topics.

Lexis Digital Library

• Questions & Answers series
  • Multiple choice and short answer questions with answers and explanations.
  • No summaries of the subject area.

Quimbee

• Flash cards
  • Turn on spaced repetition, and the algorithm will weave studied cards with new cards to improve long-term memory of concepts.
• Essay practice exams with model answers, and multiple choice questions.
• Law school success guides for preparing for exams, writing exams, and acing exams.

Spaced Repetition

• Study Emanuel Law in a Flash cards.
• Self-assess your grasp of 1L course topics and let the algorithm alert you when it's time for a review.
• Curate your own flash card decks, and share them with other students.
• Subscribe to decks curated and managed by your course professors.