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I don't know about the rest of you, but when I outline I try to synthesize and see how things piece together. I try to be concise so if something comes up in an exam that sounds familiar but I can't quite place it I can flip through my outline and find the exact term or phrase I'm looking for. And quite frankly, the process of creating the outline is what really matters since that's when everything is refreshed in my mind.

Some of my 2L classmates like to constantly post on Facebook how they're constantly studying and outlining. No one can seem to figure out what the hell they're doing until 1 a.m. every night starting at five weeks before finals start. Today I got an answer, from one of their FB statuses:
"After 4 months of my semester pregnancy and tons of hours of labor with [redacted], I just gave birth to a 92 page poverty law outline. Proud mother, indeed."

First of all, poverty law sounds like the stupidest class ever. Second, what the hell is in this outline? Full briefs on every case? What could the possible utility of this outline be?

lol i'll bet the people who take poverty law will need a good poverty lawyer one day

You sound like you're just insecure and trying to convince yourself that you know how to take exams better than other people. I got all A's first year with very long outlines. Different things work for different students.

blsingindisguise wrote:You sound like you're just insecure and trying to convince yourself that you know how to take exams better than other people. I got all A's first year with very long outlines. Different things work for different students.

Maybe I'm insecure, but that's not the point. I'm not saying my way is right and theirs is wrong... I just really can't wrap my head around how a 92-page outline is useful.

Long outlines are generally useless.

king3780 wrote:

blsingindisguise wrote:You sound like you're just insecure and trying to convince yourself that you know how to take exams better than other people. I got all A's first year with very long outlines. Different things work for different students.

Maybe I'm insecure, but that's not the point. I'm not saying my way is right and theirs is wrong... I just really can't wrap my head around how a 92-page outline is useful.

Admittedly, 92 sounds a bit long (especially if it's not a five-credit class), but if you have a well organized enough outline (table of contents, tabs, etc.) it can be nice to flip to the appropriate section and find the glossed-over note case that's exactly on point.

BTW you are extra douchey for mocking someone for wanting to go into PI law.

What they don't tell you is they used a 36 point font to impress people on facebook.

92 pages is close to writing an entire book. Not a textbook but a book nonetheless.

Who care what other people do? Other people aren't taking my exam for me.

My property outline will be close to 60 pages for the exam. My torts outline might not even be a page.

blsingindisguise wrote:

king3780 wrote:

blsingindisguise wrote:You sound like you're just insecure and trying to convince yourself that you know how to take exams better than other people. I got all A's first year with very long outlines. Different things work for different students.

Maybe I'm insecure, but that's not the point. I'm not saying my way is right and theirs is wrong... I just really can't wrap my head around how a 92-page outline is useful.

Admittedly, 92 sounds a bit long (especially if it's not a five-credit class), but if you have a well organized enough outline (table of contents, tabs, etc.) it can be nice to flip to the appropriate section and find the glossed-over note case that's exactly on point.

BTW you are extra douchey for mocking someone for wanting to go into PI law.

Bro, you are all about busting my balls tonight. I have no problem with public interest law, I just think poverty law is a stupid sounding name for a class.

be a gangsta like me and go into all your exams without an outline

My 9 Page Property Outline > My Friends 115 Property Outline

Cupidity wrote:My 9 Page Property Outline > My Friends 115 Property Outline

115? this just keeps getting more and more crazy....what is the longest you all have actually seen?

Cupidity wrote:My 9 Page Property Outline > My Friends 115 Property Outline

115?! For property? Damn. Must not be someone in my section, since my entire notebook for the semester wouldn't add up to that much. Outline under 10 pages must be sweet. Mine is like 40 pages, but I want to make a 3-4 page summary outline that I can actually use during the test.

Conlaw is a different beast. Every sample outline I have is like 100-120 pages. Even an ultra condensed version would still be a good 50 pages or so.

My property outline is about 60 pages and the rest are shorter at around 40 but I find that making the outline is really the point of the exercise. I don't really use it for test day (except for civpro) but then tabbing works really nicely.

I utilized both long and short outlines.... I had some outlines that were about 110 pages, but obviously they were a little more than a mere outline (I copy pasted a lot of my lecture notes). However, with a good table of contents they can be just as easily navigable as a short outline. Sure, half the time it was unnecessary to have such a large outline because I already knew most of the material. I think the main reason I carried a bulky outline into almost every exam was just in case there was a question I was stumped on and a smaller outline would not be enough to pick and pull large substantive thoughts from to help come up with a decent answer. There were a few times a professor pulled from some small nuanced section that we barely covered in class that my smaller outline did not answer, but was found within a few pages of my larger outline.

Bottom line is that different things work for different people. Some people are confident in having a small condensed outline and nothing else. I am not one of those people... I prefer going into an exam knowing that I have a bulky outline that I can navigate easily to the appropriate section and pull from a elaborate explanation in my notes if needed. It worked for me seeing as how I received mostly As. There were also plenty of people getting As using a small outline and nothing else. Just do what makes you feel comfortable and don't be so concerned about other people.

My friends Con Law outline is 132 pgs. Mine is 15.

My property outline < 5 pages
...I'll let you know how it goes.

I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

TaipeiMort wrote:I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

causation hates you

Always Credited wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

causation hates you

lol'd

Always Credited wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

causation hates you

I don't see the causal statement I am making.

TaipeiMort wrote:

Always Credited wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

causation hates you

I don't see the causal statement I am making.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc?

Nicholas Nickleby wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:

Always Credited wrote:

TaipeiMort wrote:I knew a guy who would read every single case twice, and then he would write really long briefs for each case. He would also write 60-90 page outlines for most classes. He did so because he loved the law and all of its details.

He is clerking for the Supreme Court now.

I now use his outlines and get good grades.

causation hates you

I don't see the causal statement I am making.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc?

You realize this fallacy only applies to deductive reasoning, yes? Any sane person relies on post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning (induction) every day of the week.

Different things work for different people. My outlines are usually 30-40 pages. Some of my friends make 150-200 page outlines, others make 15-20 page outlines. It doesn't matter. The point of a making an outline is that you learn the law very well when you're putting it together; the final product itself often doesn't help much during an exam.