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Outlines to be done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. What is everyone doing/has done to best absorb the material?

I've been making flash cards for a lot of the BLL law, and the outline provides the context and nuances.

Take practice tests and/or create hypos and work your way through them. Law school tests aren't about who knows more BLL, they're about who can better apply the law to the facts.

I've been converting much of my outline into flashcard format. My civ. pro. final is first, in about a week and half, so I'm about halfway through memorizing the material. I make cards for each case (since my professor says he wants us to know and be able to reference any of the cases we read, plus note cases as well). I also make cards for each FRCP and important statute we covered. I don't make cards for the tiny rule subsections that are just mentioned in passing, but any rule that warranted any discussion in my cards. Finally, I make cards for key concepts/terms. Cases and rules are just points on a very big picture. These concept cards are the areas in between the points that allow me to see the big picture as I review. By going through the elements of this and that on a consistent basis, I find it branded into my memory and this will save me valuable time on the exam. But don't mistake this to be the only step. I need to now convert this into real exam performance on practice exams and see if I can apply this information I have drilled into my brain. Oh, and the biggest perk of making flash cards is you can always carry around your "outline", and review it whenever you have a a few free minutes without having to run to the computer.

I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I don't get it. Unless it's a closed-book exam, what's the point?

Making flashcards and memorizing them seems like wasted time to me. Take practice exams instead.

Read your outline once or twice a day in the couple days before the exam (and even the morning of the exam), and take practice exams with it.

spondee wrote:I don't get it. Unless it's a closed-book exam, what's the point?

Making flashcards and memorizing them seems like wasted time to me. Take practice exams instead.

I immediately ran for a practice exam when I started prepping, and realized I didn't know the intricacies and nuances of our course material well enough to lay out the kind of analysis that would lead to a top exam score. I know that practice exams are king, but its difficult to do them well if you have not yet truly mastered the material, which I feel like I am doing fairly well with cards. I'm hoping to have a solid week plus a few days to do nothing but practice exams and hypos given my newfound understanding of the material.

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

rad law wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

I have two relatively new professors, so they don't have any released PTs. I suggest getting together with a friend and sitting down to write your own hypos taking care to emphasize what the prof did over the semester. Then work through each other's hypos and discuss them after the fact.

OGR3 wrote:

rad law wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

I have two relatively new professors, so they don't have any released PTs. I suggest getting together with a friend and sitting down to write your own hypos taking care to emphasize what the prof did over the semester. Then work through each other's hypos and discuss them after the fact.

Google works wonders for finding practice hypos.

Last year I had all closed book finals. I memorized the outlines by repeating them orally while juggling and by just opening a blank word document and re-typing it from memory.

rad law wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

CALI lessons are pretty helpful

Write the rules out by hand over and over and over.

BriaTharen wrote:

rad law wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

CALI lessons are pretty helpful

I've been hearing this recently too. Might be something worth hopping on.

BriaTharen wrote:

rad law wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:I agree with one of the above posters. Having been through 1L, the best way to be effectively prepared (and in my estimation, the best way to learn the law) is to do tons of practice exams.

I wish I could do this, but one of my classes has no released PTs, and the other two have 3 apice. I don't want to blow my load too soon with a limited number of tests.

CALI lessons are pretty helpful

I've heard that too. I've been drilling myself on important areas with CALI for the last week or so; since I also have limited practice exams (and have been rationining them out accordingly) I'll have to wait and see if they're effective... So far so good, though. My one complaint is they sometimes hide the ball, so to speak, on certain topics, but that may just be part of the process.

Re: outlines...
My classess have been ridiculously varied in the amount of stuff we have covered; one class I have about 15 pages of notes (not counting case specific notes, of course) and the other I have 115 (admittedly the first is a year long class and the second is a 1 semester class - but STILL). As a result, I'm not too hell bent on memorizing all of maybe 5 concepts for the former class; the latter class on the other hand....