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What do I need for first year law? Good books?

I’m starting first year law after making the decision of changing my degree from criminology and criminal justice at Bangor university.

I want to know what are my needs and essentials that will really help me? The best books needed. I haven’t received my timetable and blackboard yet as the delay in changing degree so I cannot access any materials so I have this weekend only to sort out what I need to get started for Monday!

Thank you!
Reply 1
Hiya! From my experience the most important part to excel in a law degree is to have a good examination/assignment routine, meaning to have an approach to exams and assignments that works the best for you and accommodates your strengths/weaknesses.

Surprisingly, I personally found that textbooks are not the end-all-be-all. That’s because even with good textbooks you will still have to rely on journal articles/reports/case judgements like 95% of the time. For example, for international public law I didn’t rely on the textbook because it is quite an opinion-based subject that depends on the writer, and I couldn’t find textbooks that worked for me.

That said, generally the revision books and case law textbooks (e.g. case materials) are normally helpful. You would want to look into each textbook and see if it’s working for you, which meant that you could get them a month or a few weeks into your course. Though some courses do give a primary textbook and tend to give reading lists on it.

I should also say that it is unnecessary to spend a lot on textbooks unless you have worked on your examination/assignment routine first. This is something that I really wished that I would have known in my first year. Good luck mate!

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