Prof. Yin's "two humps" theory.

Prof. Yin links to my "horrible law school outlines" post from yesterday and agrees, but anticipates that some students will respond with anecdotes about students they have known who did nothing in class all semester, then crammed with an outline and got a good grade, and students who went to class and tried to do things right and ended up with a bad grade. He has a theory and a "two humps" graph that you just have to go over there and read. It is probably true that you can try very hard to read and understand the cases and become quite confused. This is a scary feeling that puts you at a crossroads where you face an important decision: should I switch to a shortcut out of desperation to try to salvage my grade or will I work through this difficulty toward real understanding and intellectual independence? I wish applicants to law school could somehow be forced to give an honest answer to what they will do when they face this decision, so that seats in the law school could be given to the people who will go for the second choice.