Organization of Notes Forum

[24secure]

I'm curious to know how people organize their notes. Last semester I just did case briefs and took moderate class notes and that got me into the median at my school (although I really screwed up Civ Pro).

This semester I'm looking to do better. In addition to doing case briefs and class notes, I've started taking notes from the assigned readings. For some classes, the book notes and the class notes don't necessarily overlap. First, does anyone else take book notes? If you do take book notes, do you just combine those notes with your class notes or does it work out better for you if you keep the two separate?

In regards to case briefs, I keep those separate from everything else, and that seems to work out well for me so I won't ask about that.

Thanks.

[emoticons777]

I use OneNote, which dictates pretty much everything

I have my four classes on the side, each further separated into Notes, Briefs, Outlines, Homework.
Under Notes, I separate based on topic (Ex. UCC Remedies, UCC Warranties, CL Remedies, CL Warranties, etc.) for the entire course. This helps when I needed to review something a bit more thoroughly toward the end of the semester.
For Briefs, I would google or Lexis a brief, copy and paste it into the tab. I would read the brief, then read the case, that way I wasn't guessing at what would happen/what I needed to pay the most attention to
Outlines, I pretty much did toward the end, and Homework, was just for my reference.

I take really thorough class notes, especially on hypos and I found those very helpful toward the end of the semester.

Disclosure, I don't have grades yet

[24secure]

Yeah I use OneNote and have pretty much the same setup that you do. Each course for me is its own notebook and then at the top I have it separated into class notes, supplemental and casebook notes, case briefs, and outline. I'm not sure if I should keep the top section like that or combine the casebook and class notes section.

I guess in the end it might not make a huge difference.

[macattaq]

You're right. If you think about the outline, and work backward from there, it should not make much of a difference how you organize them. In the short term, it could be more beneficial to write them all in one place, but it could be equally beneficial to keep them separate. I guess the method you choose will depend on how you organize the ideas mentally. Personally, I've found that writing my class notes over, on top of, and around my case briefs/hornbook/case book notes help me to keep concepts organized. At the end though, they'll all end up as one big outline. So, whatever process makes outlining (and understanding) happen quickly, efficiently, and intelligently for you is the best one.

[thesealocust]

edit: n/m

[98234872348]

One note will save your soul.

Confucius say: Taking better notes won't get you better exam grades, writing better exams will.

But, writing better notes is (IMO) a necessary component of writing better exams... Without the knowledge requisite to write better exams, improving your writing ability will not cause you to excel.