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1. SUBJECT SUMMARIES
Subject summaries, such as West Publishing Company's Nutshells, are a shorter and less expensive alternative to hornbooks. Like hornbooks, subject summaries are written by experts in the area, provide an overview of an area of law in narrative form, and are available for a wide variety of subjects. Some summaries include sample questions and answers, which provide an opportunity to test your understanding of the subject. Because conciseness is a feature of subject summaries, they are necessarily less detailed than a hornbook and do not provide an extensive citation of authorities.
However, subject summaries do discuss the key cases in the area and provide some historical background.
Subject summaries also can be helpful in preparing for exams. Because an exam can test three or more months of course materials, remembering and organizing them can be challenging. A subject summary can help refresh your memory about the key cases and put the different parts of the course into a coherent whole. The concise narrative style permits relatively fast reading, which is important in the last few days before finals. The drawback, however, is that the discussion may be rather general and may not address all the concepts covered in the course.
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2. SUBJECT OUTLINES
Subject outlines are popular with law students for three main reasons. First, outlines organize their subject matter in a straightforward manner. In this way, they provide an overview that helps students see how the different pieces of the subject fit together. Second, the outline is relatively brief. Therefore, students can read an outline section quickly, which is helpful for class and exam preparations. Third, because outlines present the material in more than one way, including summaries and practice questions, the material may be more readily understood and remembered.
You must be careful, however, not to let these benefits become detriments. Because this type of study aid provides an outline of the subject matter, you may be tempted to rely solely on it, rather than preparing your own outline. Outlining is an important step in learning the subject matter, especially during your first year of law school. Additionally, because the outline is relatively brief, it often states the law in a simplified form. -Your professor will expect you to have a more detailed knowledge of the law from your course work.
3. CASE BRIEFS
Commercial case briefs are an entirely different type of study aid. Rather than providing a comprehensive description of a particular area of law, Blond's Law Guides, Casenote Legal Briefs, and other commercial case briefs are primarily collections of briefs of cases included in the major case books. The case briefs are designed to help students understand and interpret the cases. They also can help students learn to brief cases by providing examples.
Students normally use commercial case briefs to supplement their reading of cases in the casebook. After reading a case and interpreting it, students may check their interpretations of the case against the case brief. In this way, students first independently analyze the case, thereby strengthening their issue spotting and analytic skills. They then further strengthen those skills by comparing their conclusions with those of the study aid author and by assessing the merits of the author's conclusions.
Commercial case briefs may provide a tempting alternative to reading and analyzing the cases in your casebook, especially when you are pressed for time. By reading a commercial brief, however, you will not learn the essential skills that come from independently analyzing and briefing cases. Moreover, cases can be interpreted in different ways. Relying on a commercial brief eliminates the opportunity to find a better or more creative interpretation. In class, you also will be unable to cite specific language in the case to support the position you have taken based on the case brief because you will be unfamiliar with the opinion.
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