Make sure that if your school doesn't give you your free CALI CD during orientation that you seek one out. Your school's CALI contact or someone in your library should be able to help.

If you are going to one of the few non-CALI member schools, write emails to your administration and tell them that you would like to see your school become member of CALI and have your friends do the same.

What is the CALI CD?
The CALI CD contains all of CALI's 600+ lessons in 32 subjects of law. It is not a demo CD, it is a complete collection of all CALI lessons. CALI Lessons are interactive, computer-based tutorials written by law professors. All CALI Lessons are listed here. Generally, the lessons are broken into different components of the different subjects. ADDED 7/38/2006: See what other students said about CALI Lessons and how the lessons helped them in this post.

Note that all CALI Lessons are available on the web with a password as well as from the CD. I suggest using the online lessons as they are gauranteed the most up to date. You should probably only use the CD when you don't have an internet connection. In order to get online access to CALI Lessons, also free to CALI member school students, get the authorization code from your school's CALI contact. Again, someone at your library should be able to help you with this as well.

Suggestions of how to use your CALI CD and CALI Lessons.
This is important because when I got a CALI CD during 1L orientation and before working for CALI, the CD was given to me with little explanation. I think a lot of students end up with this CALI CD as one of the many things they are given during orientation and have no idea what purpose it serves and, because of this, never try it or just forget about it.

Some pointers for how to use the CALI CD:

1. Don't throw it away when you get it during orientation!
2. Use the online lessons when you can and save the CD for times you don't have an internet connection, as mentioned above.
3. Run through the CALI lesson on a given topic before class discussion on that topic.
4. Alternatively or in addition to 3, run through the lessons on a given subject after that topic was discussed in class as reinforcement.
5. Use CALI lessons as a refresher during the weeks before exams.

How to access CALI Lessons before law school starts.
If you're not attending law school this fall or just want a head start on using CALI lessons, you can buy a subscription to CALI Lessons at learnthelaw.org.