Law Students

If you are a 1L, your professor probably expects you to write down the legally significant facts, issue, legal rules, and holding of each case.  But in preparation for the final exam, which may either be open book or closed book, a detailed case brief will only slow you down.

One of the best way to prepare for the law school exam is organizing and condensing your class and reading notes.  When I was a 1L, I was told that I should do a super outline of all class and reading assignment notes about a month before the actual exam.  I did not know where to start and when I did finish my notes, it was overly detailed.

Here is my advice to  current law students as to how to prepare a good final exam outline:

• Start outlining your notes early (e.g., weekly or biweekly).  
• When you finish a section of law (e.g., premise liability - Torts; mistakes - Contracts; Dormant Clause - Constitutional Law; Future Interests - Property; Murder - Criminal Law), write down the main rules of law (based on the holdings of cases).  
• The rules of law should be written in a concise manner.
• Facts may be helpful, but focus only on legally significant facts to help the issue spotting process.
• Create a table of content and categorize each rule of law (and relevant case).
• Write down (and categorize) any hypotheticals the professor during class.  Make it brief and to the point.  It may re-appear on the exam.