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Hello everyone. I was wondering if any of you have tried out any programs such as Supermemo or Mnemosyne for memorizing information during law school. I have dabbled with it, but never stuck to the program, which is basically a daily routine where new cards are shown to you to be memorized. I'm a 0L now, but wanted to gather whatever tools I could for the coming storm this fall. It seems like it would be a good fit for having to memorize mounds of information in the form of BLL.

Any comments?

rofl

Leeroy Jenkins wrote:rofl

What a well thought out and useful reply. Thanks for sharing.

It's not a horrible idea, but rote memorization is really not the problem in law school. You need to learn by doing - organizing / condensing an outline + taking practice exams. Many (often most, sometimes all) law school exams are open book, and many (often most, sometimes all) reward application and not memorization.

What prompted this is watching the documentary "A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar." In preparing for the bar exam, these law graduates were struggling with tons of index cards to memorize the law. This is what I'm talking about, I guess. Then again, I am a noob. Thanks for your advice!

orko60 wrote:What prompted this is watching the documentary "A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar." In preparing for the bar exam, these law graduates were struggling with tons of index cards to memorize the law. This is what I'm talking about, I guess. Then again, I am a noob. Thanks for your advice!

Law school =/= bar exam

I'm a big fan of the SRS method for fact- and language-learning. I haven't seen anyone who's adapted it to the type of material law school tests but you may be able to modify some of the ideas found here:

http://www.xamuel.com/category/language/srs/
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

"Rote memorization is not really a problem with law school"

If only the world understood how wrong statements such as these really are... I don't work for Supermemo, but I feel very strongly about education; programs such as Supermemo show a gap in the educational system, a gap that nobody wants to fill, and hinders mankind's overall intellectual progress.

All memories are subject to a steady decline in retention; if you learn something but do not review it, you will logically forget it (This is called "the forgetting curve"). While some information you regularly use will be remembered, this only applies to a small portion of what is learned (You don't review everything you learn at the same time). Information that is not regularly reviewed will be lost; the same information you spent valuable time learning will soon is gone, along with the time, money, effort, etc. that was spent learning it.

Before knowledge can be applied, it must be at your mental disposal (How can you use knowledge if you cannot recall the knowledge you are supposed to use?). The statement "We should not focus of memory, but on application" represents one of the many misguided and ignorant reasons that spaced repetition programs such as Supermemo are not being used by educators. 100 years from now, spaced repetition will be implemented on every level in the educational system.

I am through with waiting for society to discard their outdated teaching methodologies. Who knows how much more society would have advanced if the forgetting curve had not been so woefully neglected in the field of education?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve

http://books.google.com/books?id=mNk72s ... &q&f=false

For right now, Supermemo (And other programs similar to Supermemo) is the only option the general populace has if they strive for a near-perfect retention of acquired knowledge. While most of society is at present being held back by the clunky and ineffective education machine and the biases associated with it, no longer is it necessary to try and work within such a flawed system. If you have the necessary self-discipline, programs such as Supermemo will reward you with a near-perfect retention of knowledge.

Laughing Squid wrote:"Rote memorization is not really a problem with law school"

If only the world understood how wrong statements such as these really are... I don't work for Supermemo, but I feel very strongly about education; programs such as Supermemo show a gap in the educational system, a gap that nobody wants to fill, and hinders mankind's overall intellectual progress.

All memories are subject to a steady decline in retention; if you learn something but do not review it, you will logically forget it (This is called "the forgetting curve"). While some information you regularly use will be remembered, this only applies to a small portion of what is learned (You don't review everything you learn at the same time). Information that is not regularly reviewed will be lost; the same information you spent valuable time learning will soon is gone, along with the time, money, effort, etc. that was spent learning it.

Before knowledge can be applied, it must be at your mental disposal (How can you use knowledge if you cannot recall the knowledge you are supposed to use?). The statement "We should not focus of memory, but on application" represents one of the many misguided and ignorant reasons that spaced repetition programs such as Supermemo are not being used by educators. 100 years from now, spaced repetition will be implemented on every level in the educational system.

I am through with waiting for society to discard their outdated teaching methodologies. Who knows how much more society would have advanced if the forgetting curve had not been so woefully neglected in the field of education?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve

http://books.google.com/books?id=mNk72s ... &q&f=false

For right now, Supermemo (And other programs similar to Supermemo) is the only option the general populace has if they strive for a near-perfect retention of acquired knowledge. While most of society is at present being held back by the clunky and ineffective education machine and the biases associated with it, no longer is it necessary to try and work within such a flawed system. If you have the necessary self-discipline, programs such as Supermemo will reward you with a near-perfect retention of knowledge.

There's one other option for "near perfect retention of knowledge": writing shit down. Since pretty much every law exam on the planet will let you bring notes, I'm not sure that memorization is an advantage.


Oh, and two more things: 1) I call BS on not working for stoopermemo and 2) IBTB

Renzo wrote:Oh, and two more things: 1) I call BS on not working for stoopermemo and 2) IBTB

In Before The Bituminous coal act?

mikeytwoshoes wrote:

Renzo wrote:Oh, and two more things: 1) I call BS on not working for stoopermemo and 2) IBTB

In Before The Bituminous coal act?

Is there such a thing as a bituminous coal act? Don't tell me to google, either, cuz I don't care that much.

Renzo wrote: Since pretty much every law exam on the planet will let you bring notes, I'm not sure that memorization is an advantage.

I wish this were the case. However, I have 0 classes that allow notes. I get to do them all closed book from memorization (we did get a copy of the FRCP though). Broad sweeping generalizations FTL.

Dman wrote:

Renzo wrote: Since pretty much every law exam on the planet will let you bring notes, I'm not sure that memorization is an advantage.

I wish this were the case. However, I have 0 classes that allow notes. I get to do them all closed book from memorization (we did get a copy of the FRCP though). Broad sweeping generalizations FTL.

Well, yours are the pretty much in 'pretty much every exam.' But never fear--in all of my finals thus far, I have looked at my outline zero times, even though I was allowed to bring it to all of them. If you have to look shit up mid-final, you are already failing.

Renzo wrote:

mikeytwoshoes wrote:

Renzo wrote:Oh, and two more things: 1) I call BS on not working for stoopermemo and 2) IBTB

In Before The Bituminous coal act?

Is there such a thing as a bituminous coal act? Don't tell me to google, either, cuz I don't care that much.

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