Ray's J.D. (Juris Doctor)

IMPORTANT NOTE!:

I highly recommend that when you complete 1L... STOP. Do not go into 2L until you pass the FYLSX.

Assuming you take it and pass on the first attempt, you will have lost a couple of months of study, but what you do not want to do is start 2L and NOT pass the FYLSX by the third administration. If you do not pass the exam by the third attempt, you lose the 2L work and have to start that over from scratch.

On the upside, it should be easier, but on the downside, you wasted the time and money. If you STOP after 1L UNTIL you pass the FYLSX, you can devote 100% of your time and effort in preparing for the exam... because, until you pass it, you can't get credit for anything past 1L!

FYLSX "Curve":

No one tells you this - I will! The FYLSX is curved. Look over the past statistics from the California Bar. Only about 20% or so of those who take the exam (on average) pass it... every single administration!

It is not really a "curve" but a scale, but it has the same effect.

Are we all that stupid? I doubt it! The fact is that you not only have to be good with the process, but you have to be better at it than 80% or so of everyone else taking the same exam, because, on average, only 20% or so will pass... every single time.

Introduction

So, you made the decision to study law via what I call, "The California Option." The primary reason to go this route is because, for folks like us, there is no other viable option, and we cannot possibly justify pissing away a large fortune of cash to an ABA school.

Since we are budget minded, I am going to offer my personal suggestion to you right up front... do not waste any money on anything that you do not NEED for the study of law.

Let me explain my theory. We HAVE to invest a minimum of 216 hours per course, per year, in this program. If you have more than a few items to use in that endeavor, you must divide your time among the items you have. I find that to be painfully expensive, but worse, it is ineffective, and inefficient, and a waste of my valuable time.

You are free to spend however much money you want, and acquire all of the materials that you want, but I prefer to invest ALL of my available time and effort into the FEWEST materials that I absolutely must have, and at the lowest cost possible!

If you agree with that theory, low cost, highly effective and efficient use of your time and effort to obtain the best understanding of the material you MUST know cold to be successful, I congratulate you on your intelligence and financial prowess!

1L Materials

I give you the link to the school website, and a link to the page, Bookstore. This should keep the information up to date, right from the school.

If you scroll down that page, you will see the "required" materials for each year of law study.

For 1L, of the items listed, I would suggest that you only "need" the Gilbert's Law Summary's for Torts, Contracts, and Criminal Law.

You might like to have the Black's Law Dictionary as well, I find mine to be useful, but it is not mandatory, because we can look up 100% of everything we might want to know... and probably faster, using Google, Wikipedia, and the Internet in general. That said, I use my Black's Law Dictionary enough to have made it worthwhile to have purchased it.

You WILL want to purchase what I refer to as the California Bar Essay Book, because it covers almost every single course in one book. I'll give you the link - Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam.

If they update the book, you should get the newer version, I certainly would! With that, I want to advise you that the book will not impress you initially, and you might hate me for recommennding it to you - but here is the kicker... I felt the same way about it when a buddy of mine recommended it to me! After using it initially, I was still unimpressed, but this very book, and evolving the way I use it with the Gilbert's is what got me up to speed quickly, after having lost two months time in 3L! I credit this book for helping me get caught up, and ahead by the end of the 3L year (when I first acquired the book)!

I did discuss this book in great detail (on another page), but I will probably make a page just for it... I find it to be fantastic!

You also want to pick up my One Sheets/Definition Sheets (no cost to you to use), the 16 pages of imperfect perfection that can get you prepped to pass the First Year Law Students' Examination - the road block that will stop you dead in your tracks after 1L.

Let's download the following things:

Print these out! Here are the links to my:

One Sheets / Definition Sheets, and
Exam Version of the One Sheets.

Watch the video about my One Sheets / Definition Sheets.

Watch the video about the Exam Version of my One Sheets.

Of the other items listed, you will most likely want to grab the Fleming's 1L Survival Kit. This is expensive, but it has so much useful information in it. I will cover how to use it in the Plan of Attack Page.