A friend of mine who is taking a bar preparation course (three guesses which one) said something to me that made me think. Something to the effect of "if torts were taught this way the first time around, I would have understood it so much better...I would have nailed the final."

I think he's right. And I think this is an argument for preparing yourself for law school prior to your first semester in law school by learning some basics. (More Below)

Prelaw Advisor points us to a Wall Street Journal article (" How Obscure Law School Places Grads at Top Firm") about Detroit Mercy School of Law.

Detroit mercy, a fourth-tier school according to US News, is apparently placing some of its students in top law firms because of some creative work by Dean Mark C. Gordon.

Update: Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a post about the Journal's article mentioned above.

Some bloggers have recently posted some random thoughts about the whole one final exam tradition in law school (here and here). It's some pretty interesting stuff.

You'll find this a lot with law school, though. People complain and complain about the system, but change is slow. Read more below...

Toplawstudent blog offers a link to a list of memorization tips and tricks. Memorization like this is pretty crucial for closed book exams.

Through my many years in school, I have learned another great mnemonic technique along the way. To find out, see below...

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These two articles,"Bridge-and-Tunnel Firms Hike First-Year Pay, Bulk Up on New Hires" and "The Paychecks Aren't Bigger in Texas: Firms Won't Pull Trigger on Raises" (both reprinted by nylawyer.com...may require free username/password)), have some information on the New Jersey and Texas markets for new-hire associates at big firms in those regions.

Legal Underground points us to this new alternative to law school. Only 14.95!

Don't forget to check out our 600+ CALI lessons at cali.org, free to you if your school is a member of CALI (which it likely is since nearly all US law school are...and if it's not, bug your school's administration about it!).

CALI lessons really are a great way to reiew for exams.

Also, check out our Law School Exam Advice Post for a wide variety of law school exam podcasts, advice, and tips from around the web.

Good luck!