Frequently asked questions.
How long DOES JD Launch take?
The intro course takes, on average, between 2-5 hours to complete, depending on whether you complete the full-length practice exam (which we highly recommend). Each blackletter course (Torts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, and Contracts) takes around 20 hours if you complete every lesson and attempt every practice problem. While we recommend completing the entire course if your schedule permits, the lessons and practice problems are modular to provide flexibility for time-crunched students to skip around and focus their energy on areas of weakness.
When should I start?
The truth is, it’s different for everyone! Our courses are designed to meet a variety of scheduling constraints and personal goals. For most students, the ideal time to complete our Magna or Summa courses is the summer before law school, treating them as a foundation that your law school coursework can build upon. That said, the majority of our students don’t hear about us until they get to campus – and some inevitably procrastinate until a few weeks before exams. While we certainly can’t recommend that, we also get it. Life happens. If that’s you, take a deep breath and know you can still get a ton out of our courses whenever you start. Our lessons are modular, allowing you to skip around as needed to focus on the areas where you’re weakest. And while we strongly recommend taking every practice problem and comparing your answers to the models, you can always skim problems if you know them well or are simply out of time. Regardless of where you are in your prep – and how much time you have left – incorporating JD Launch into your remaining study time will make you more efficient, more prepared, and more confident when it counts.
How do the courses work?
JD Launch uses an intuitive, user-friendly dashboard that walks you through a series of short video lessons and written lessons followed by a series of practice problems (“hypotheticals” in law-school speak… that will make sense later!) and model answers drafted personally by our founders. The problems get harder, longer, and more complicated as you go, building to a full-length law school exam and model answer at the end of each subject.
Can I take it with a friend or study group?
Yes! If you do, we recommend focusing your time together on taking practice problems and reviewing and discussing your answers and the model answers as a group. If you send us a note at contact@jdlaunch.com with a list of your study buddies, we may even give your group a discount…
Will JD Launch work for my law school and professors?
Yes! We have mentored hundreds of students at dozens of law schools and keep close tabs on new developments in legal education. We have consistently observed an “80-20” rule where nearly every professor at every school teaches the same 80% of material, at least when it comes to the core 1L blackletter courses. We have carefully tailored our courses to hit the 80%, while giving you the skills, frameworks, and strategies you need to tackle the remaining 20%.
I would sign up, but it’s outside my budget
Okay, this isn’t actually a question. But we understand this concern and want to address it head on. You might be surprised by the range of reactions we get to our pricing. Many find it shockingly low (expecting something in the $3 – 5k range given the breadth), but some find it on the high side, and our guidance is to compare it to the overall financial investment you are making in law school, and the range of financial outcomes it might produce. For the typical student, law school tuition and fees cost between $25k – 85k per year (depending on eligibility for financial aid and merit-based scholarships). Living costs are at least another $40k in most cities, and textbooks and supplements run another $5k or so. With costs that routinely exceed over $100k per year, it’s no wonder the average law student graduates with $160k in debt. On the other side, the median starting salary for Big Law in a major market is $225k (plus ~$20k bonus), and the mean annual pay for equity partners at the nation’s top firms now exceeds $7 million – per year. How are these promising associates given the opportunity to pay off their debt, with an opportunity to climb the ranks and potentially make millions of dollars per year? With rare exceptions, it’s by earning excellent grades your first two semesters of law school (and not totally blowing it at OCI). With that context, spending a few hundred dollars on a course that helps maximize your $300k (or more) investment and increase your chance at a $245k to $7M+ salary seems like a bargain.