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Most of my exams are closed book. That means for me at least that my outlines are going to consist of only stuff that I plan on memorizing anyway. It seems to me that it might be better to just take an outline from somebody who got an A in the course with my professor and trim it down to what I plan on memorizing. This way while most people are making their outlines from scratch I could be committing my outline to memory. It would also give me more time to take practice exams. I could also review how each case applies the black letter law with the saved time.

Wise move or would I be shooting myself in the foot?

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Nothing's necessary. Everything's an opinion. There are pros and cons to making your own and pros and cons to not making your own. There are probably a lot of threads about this. Search for them.

I have always found that I study best by making outlines.

I learn better from actually making the outline than I do from reading outlines. As a result, for me it is necessary to make outlines. If you are different, if may not be necessary to make your own outlines.

chimp wrote:Nothing's necessary. Everything's an opinion. There are pros and cons to making your own and pros and cons to not making your own. There are probably a lot of threads about this. Search for them.

When I saw OP, I was going to comment and say "Nothing is necessary." Chimp beat me to it. Do be aware that most people learn a lot better when they create their study aids themselves.

For what it's worth, I don't do outlines; I actually write a 30-50 page essay on the cases and BLL of the course. That helps me an insane amount, because my retention's better when I write things in paragraph form, for some reason.

So TCR to the question "Necessary to make your own outlines?" is "Probably going to be very helpful, BUT FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU."

Memorize outline from someone else or make your own..It doesn't make a damn. Memorize rule statements. Pwn the exam.

You'll remember what you wrote better than just reading over someone else's outline. I always made my own, I recommend everyone make their own, but at this point, everything that could ever be said about this topic has been said, so I've got nothing else to add.

Didn't make my own outlines first semester 1L year (Contracts, Crim, Property): A-, B+, B+

Made my own outlines second semester 1L year (Civ Pro, Con Law, Torts): A, A, A-

Wasn't the only reason i went up, but I was more confident in knowing that everything I read/wrote down in class/felt was important was in the outlines and I wasn't missing anything.

jgc02a wrote:Memorize outline from someone else or make your own..It doesn't make a damn. Memorize rule statements. Pwn the exam.

This is my reasoning. My goal is to commit the black letter law and reasoning to memory anyway. I feel like I could better spend my time practicing applying the law with CALI and practice exams, rather than wasting my time actually constructing what I plan on memorizing anyway.

I guess I'll know when I get grades back if it was a good idea or not.