The Paper Chase - which I also read ( it is adapted from a novel) and saw the television series on PBS (which is even better - because Ford is better developed as is Kingsley), is one of the reasons I decided to go to law school. It and Scott Torow's One Law.
I loved The Paper Chase. The TV series is the best of the three though.
Is law school like The Paper Chase?
Not really.
I was disappointed.
It wasn't anything like the movie. Of course I didn't get into Harvard, I went to the University of Kansas School of Law - which is a good law school, but it's not well Harvard. And it has more students. We had a class of 200. Most of any previous year.
Were study groups a thing?
Yes. Except it's more like discussion groups. You are discussing the case. In law school, you get books of case law. You are reading the judicial opinions and rulings on court cases and analyzing the precedent that the judge made his ruling on and determining how the judge came up with that rule.
In class - the professor will call on you, request a reciting of the facts of the case, and a determination on how it should have been resolved and why. Often, the professor will give you a case and ask you how it should be resolved based on the precedent of the case you were assigned to read the night before.
The cases -- kind of read like stereo instructions. It's not easy reading. And you don't know who will be called on in a class of about 50-100 students.
The point of the study group - is to provide socialization and a means to discuss case law. Except people are competitive and selfish assholes - and it seldom went that route.
I found them unhelpful and gave up.
Law School is kind of like high school on steroids. I hated law school. I think I would have loved grad school - I like writing research papers and presenting them. I'm actually extremely good at that. That would be easy. No, law school, unfortunately was mostly multiple choice and essay tests, with the goal of training everyone to pass the Bar Exam. The Bar Exam is a two day multiple choice and short essay timed exam from hell.
My dyslexia hit the wall in law school. I'd figured out how to compensate up until law school.
There were classes that weren't test oriented. Not many, but they existed - or I think I would have flunked out. As it is, I got a C average. I got A's and B's in everything that did NOT have a multiple choice test and wasn't taught by socratic/lecture method. It was so obvious - that my guidance counselor told me to go a psychological testing organization that could determine and prove that I had a learning disability - in order to get special compensation for the BAR. They even told me where to go, and how to go about it.
The Socratic method.
Only works with law school, I think. You are arguing case law. Basically it is a way to teach people to think critically, argue a point based on facts, and do it on their feet. Kind of like teaching debate. I mean law is a professional vocational school kind of like med school or police academy - you aren't teaching people to become professors, you are teaching people to defend criminals in court cases, present facts at a trial, write wills, draw up contracts, negotiate contracts, etc. And preparing them to take a BAR EXAM or professional exam.
I can't see doing it for English Lit, Russian, Archaeology, Media Studies, etc.
But if you are teaching future litigators, negotiators, mediators, advocates, and well lawyers? Yes, the socratic method when done correctly helps. It taught me how to negotiate and argue a point based on factual data and precedent.
No complicated romances in law school that I knew about. I dated, but it never went anywhere. (*cough*Kansas*cough). Students bombing out? Rarely. It wasn't HARVARD, it was the University of Kansas. People might quit, but honestly all you needed was a C to graduate and get JD. Law school was kind of boring in that regard - no soap opera stuff - but keep in mind we had over 100 students, everyone lived off-campus, and was studying all the time or doing internships. We did drunken karaoke. But that was about it.
Men and women totally unprepared? No. It's not that intellectual. If you could take multiple choice tests and write essays, you'd be fine. Again, high school on steroids. Very disappointed in the intellectual level of the student body.
I don't know what an top-tier Ivy league law school would have been like.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 02:03 am (UTC)I loved The Paper Chase. The TV series is the best of the three though.
Is law school like The Paper Chase?
Not really.
I was disappointed.
It wasn't anything like the movie. Of course I didn't get into Harvard, I went to the University of Kansas School of Law - which is a good law school, but it's not well Harvard. And it has more students. We had a class of 200. Most of any previous year.
Were study groups a thing?
Yes. Except it's more like discussion groups. You are discussing the case. In law school, you get books of case law. You are reading the judicial opinions and rulings on court cases and analyzing the precedent that the judge made his ruling on and determining how the judge came up with that rule.
In class - the professor will call on you, request a reciting of the facts of the case, and a determination on how it should have been resolved and why. Often, the professor will give you a case and ask you how it should be resolved based on the precedent of the case you were assigned to read the night before.
The cases -- kind of read like stereo instructions. It's not easy reading. And you don't know who will be called on in a class of about 50-100 students.
The point of the study group - is to provide socialization and a means to discuss case law. Except people are competitive and selfish assholes - and it seldom went that route.
I found them unhelpful and gave up.
Law School is kind of like high school on steroids. I hated law school. I think I would have loved grad school - I like writing research papers and presenting them. I'm actually extremely good at that. That would be easy. No, law school, unfortunately was mostly multiple choice and essay tests, with the goal of training everyone to pass the Bar Exam. The Bar Exam is a two day multiple choice and short essay timed exam from hell.
My dyslexia hit the wall in law school. I'd figured out how to compensate up until law school.
There were classes that weren't test oriented. Not many, but they existed - or I think I would have flunked out. As it is, I got a C average. I got A's and B's in everything that did NOT have a multiple choice test and wasn't taught by socratic/lecture method. It was so obvious - that my guidance counselor told me to go a psychological testing organization that could determine and prove that I had a learning disability - in order to get special compensation for the BAR. They even told me where to go, and how to go about it.
The Socratic method.
Only works with law school, I think. You are arguing case law. Basically it is a way to teach people to think critically, argue a point based on facts, and do it on their feet. Kind of like teaching debate. I mean law is a professional vocational school kind of like med school or police academy - you aren't teaching people to become professors, you are teaching people to defend criminals in court cases, present facts at a trial, write wills, draw up contracts, negotiate contracts, etc. And preparing them to take a BAR EXAM or professional exam.
I can't see doing it for English Lit, Russian, Archaeology, Media Studies, etc.
But if you are teaching future litigators, negotiators, mediators, advocates, and well lawyers? Yes, the socratic method when done correctly helps. It taught me how to negotiate and argue a point based on factual data and precedent.
No complicated romances in law school that I knew about. I dated, but it never went anywhere. (*cough*Kansas*cough). Students bombing out? Rarely. It wasn't HARVARD, it was the University of Kansas. People might quit, but honestly all you needed was a C to graduate and get JD. Law school was kind of boring in that regard - no soap opera stuff - but keep in mind we had over 100 students, everyone lived off-campus, and was studying all the time or doing internships. We did drunken karaoke. But that was about it.
Men and women totally unprepared? No. It's not that intellectual. If you could take multiple choice tests and write essays, you'd be fine. Again, high school on steroids.
Very disappointed in the intellectual level of the student body.
I don't know what an top-tier Ivy league law school would have been like.