How important are notes cases? Forum

[uvahooo]

For one of my classes we have a lot of notes cases. Sometimes the professor talks about them... sometimes she doesn't. This is class is torts. Do I have to include the nusances in my outline? I have all the notes of which cases she talked about in class. Or should I just include all the notes cases (and there are a lot of them) in my outline?

[uwb09]

Two of my professors reference the note cases a lot, and have told us that they expect us to know the rules from these cases. They have also stated that being able to reference to these cases when applying rules on the exam will separate you from someone with a similar grade who didn't do it

moral of the story, if you are that unsure prob ask your prof, but if you are constantly referencing certain note cases/cases cited to in main cases in class, it prob wouldn't hurt to throw a short mention of it in your outline, certainly won't hurt you

[stocksly33]

My torts class is the same way...

if the notes discuss something substantive, i add it into my outline. for all the case references... i add the name of the case and a 1 sentence summary at the end of my case notes. if the prof mentions anything from the notes in class, i bold it in my notes (and i'll review those in more detail come crunch time).

I assume the case references in the notes are 90% a waste of time. but i bet for about 10% of them, the prof may model part of their exam fact set to those notes.

for Ks and civ pro, i only read the notes for substance because my profs don't emphasize them.

[traehekat]

If it is part of the reading, and if the note cases establish some rule or nuance to some rule, I include it.

[kalvano]

If

1) The professor assigns it as part of the reading and
2) References it in class

Then it's probably a good idea to be familiar with the case and the rule.

[zeth006]

Just do it.

[king3780]

I had a final last year with an essay question that had a fact pattern very close to a note case that we were assigned, but didn't actually discuss in class.

[Brawndo86]

I never included them in my outlines first semester, and the other outlines I got from 2Ls in spring rarely had them either. Occasionally a professor would mention that he or she liked to see people include pertinent ones on exam questions, but I never found out if it paid off because most of my classes don't get any exam feed back

[Compaq1984]

My opinion of note cases is that they are mostly good for giving you similar instances where a concept applies and/or giving you cases where there are exceptions to that concept.. Helps me gain a better/full understanding of concept more than anything...

[Amy wineBerry]

My civ pro and torts professors spend a significant amount of time on the notes; sometimes, more time is devoted to the cases in the notes section than the actual cases. If I just breeze through the notes, I end up sitting in class like this . If I don't read the notes carefully, I'll simply circle the cases referenced in the notes section. That way I can skim and scan quickly upon cold call.