The rumors are true: law school is expensive. One of the added expenses of going to law school is, of course, the casebooks, study aids, and other supplies you’ll need to purchase before classes start.
We’ve asked Richard Andrade, Founder and CEO of BarristerBooks.com, for his advice on how to save money on law school casebooks and study aids. Check out the full interview below.
Save Money on Law School Casebooks & Study Aids
Law school casebooks and study aids are expensive and students can easily spend $1500/semester for these books. Knowing what you know about the law book publishing industry (and law student budgets), what is the least expensive solutions for students to acquire the books they need?
Traditionally, used books have provided great value to students, who were often willing to sacrifice some book quality for savings. However, with the advent and increased professor adoption of digital supplemental series, like Connected Casebook, it’s hard to purchase a used textbook with an unused access code. And purchasing a used textbook and access code separately often costs more than just purchasing the book new. This also applies to renting textbooks, unless you can guarantee you are renting a new textbook with unused code.
If a student is comfortable with the format, digital textbooks are often priced more cheaply than their print versions. This applies to most of the 15,000 digital law books that we offer at BarristerBooks.com.
Finally, look for value in unexpected places as well. For instance, some titles are available in less expensive loose-leaf versions, if you don’t mind that format. Or consider that BarristerBooks.com offers a 1% rebate on every order placed under a customer account, so in addition to the regular price breaks we apply to publisher list prices, returning customers already have an additional discount waiting for them on their next checkout.
Best Selling Study Aid for Torts
What is your best-selling study aid for Torts and why do you think it’s so popular?
Right now, we’re seeing Law In A Flash: Torts as a very popular study aid choice. Students find the self-testing and visual reinforcement aspects of the flashcard format as very powerful and useful. They are also very portable, so you can stick some cards in your pocket and study wherever you happen to be.
Mastering Property Law
Estates In Land and Future Interests can be one of the most confusing parts of a 1L Property course. What study aids do you recommend to master these arcane rules?
That pesky Rule of Perpetuities, am I right? Estates in Land and Future Interests: A Step-by-Step Guide by Linda Edwards is a great resource for law students. And, again, the Law In A Flash: Future Interests product really hones in one the trickier aspects of that legal area, which lends itself to learning via clarity and repetition.
1L Summer Reading Recommendation
If you had to recommend one book for an entering law student to read the summer before starting 1L, what would it be?
Programs like Law Preview, that help prepare law students for law school, are valuable, and books in that topic area, particularly teaching about legal reasoning, are helpful as well. John Delaney’s Learning Legal Reasoning: Briefing, Analysis and Theory, is a well-respected title in this regard and highly recommended.
Examples & Explanations for Civil Procedure
Joe Glannon’s Examples & Explanations for Civil Procedure is considered a must-read by most law students (and professors). Why do you think this resource is universally loved as a tool for learning Civ Pro?
It seems like it should be a no-brainer, but the most successful legal study aids are really good about simplifying legal concepts. But there are not a lot of study aids out there that do an exemplary job of that. Glannon’s Examples & Explanations: Civil Procedure was one of the first to do it really well, and still does. Students read that book and the scales start to fall from their eyes in terms of grasping important concepts.
Best Resources for Law School Exam Prep
Practice makes perfect and students are always looking for a new (never-ending) source of practice law school exam questions. What books/resources do you recommend for: (a) law school essay exam questions and (b) law school multiple-choice questions and (c) law school short answer questions?
The Q&A series is pretty much the go-to series for multiple choice study aids on many law school topics. For short answer questions, I like the entire Examples & Examples Series, which emulate Glannon’s Civil Procedure method with great success. You should also check out the Finz Multi-State Method if you’re looking for practice MBE-style questions.
Incorporating Emanuel 1L into Your Study Routine
What is your best advice for incorporating Emanuel 1L outline series into a law student’s study routine?
I would suggest, rather than stowing it away until exam crunch time in order to harness it for outline writing, consider using those study aids starting in week 1 and utilizing them to build your outline as you work through the semester. This means that, at exam time, you don’t have to build an outline from scratch, you only have to review the one you constructed over the last 12 weeks.
Get Access to Study Aids, Resources & More with Law Preview
Law Preview 1L Summer Prep Courses cover everything from proven exam-taking strategies to core 1L material. Plus, students gain access to the most popular law school study aids included with registration.
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Ready to take the first step toward law school success? Register for a Law Preview Law School Prep Course today.
