Student post by Sara Lee, 2L and W&L Law Library SLACer
Has everyone been mentioning hornbooks, commercial outlines, and other such supplemental readings that you have not touched? Do you have no idea what everyone else is talking about?
Here’s a quick and simple guide to some of the basics on study aids and supplements for law courses:
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- Keep in mind that supplements are meant to add to your understanding. If you don’t have time for them or haven’t touched one until the week before finals, that is okay!
- Think of hornbooks and nutshells as summaries of a topic, and commercial outlines as an organized discussion of the ideas and case law of a topic.
- Some popular study aid types and titles:
- Short & Happy Guides. Great for when you’re completely lost on a topic, chapter, or a class on the whole.
- “Acing” Series. Similar to the Short & Happy guides, these give you the broad overview.
- “Nutshell” Series. A more in-depth discussion of the topic.
- Examples & Explanations. Great for testing your understanding—provides topical overviews followed by short-answer questions.
- Glannon Guides. An overview with multiple-choice questions for review.
- Gilbert Law Summaries. Leading commercial outlines.
- High Court Case Summaries. Useful for case briefs.
- If you prefer audio study aids:
- Law School Legends. Recordings by expert professors breaking down the class—very useful for learning how to format your outline or exam answers.
- Sum and Substance. On a wide range of course topics.
Ready for more applicable practice? A selection of past exams from W&L Law professors are available on Box.
Many of the supplements above are available in the Reserve Room (Level 3 near the Circulation Desk) or online through West Academic Study Aids. You can also download some audiobook titles to your computer/device and access streaming audio recordings through the West Academic Audio app.
Hope this helps!