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I keep hearing that I'm supposed to make my own outline. I'm assuming that I'm supposed to make it for a particular purpose, and that there is a particular structure that would work best. I have no idea how to form this mythical ideal structure out of the notes I've been taking on cases for the last week.

So..... What's the best way to approach creating an outline?

IB drink until November because 1L.

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Organize by section in the casebook

Ex: Torts

Assault: cases you read that have to do with assault.

Big picture.

Battery: same as above.

Negligence: sections for the duty, breach, causation, and damages using the same formula as above.

Use supplements to practice.

Good luck friend.

The most important aspect of the outline is the rule of law gleaned from each case. Throughout the course, you'll be reading cases that will build upon previous rules you've learned, and all of these rules will be the tools you'll need on your final exam when your professor creates hypothetical facts and puts them into the final exam. Legal analysis is all about taking the facts provided to you, and connecting them with relevant rules of law. Once that connection has been made you then form a logical conclusion based upon the facts and the rules. So, as you are creating your outline, pay close attention to the rule you learned from any particular case; if by the time you take your final you have a good understanding of all the rules, you are setting yourself up to excel on an essay exam.

I would organize stuff by main topic, so "Intentional Torts." Then I would have subheadings for the various sections ("Assault," "Battery") with the main rule, cases and a couple lines about each case, then a single sentence summing up the rule of the case. Then any policy that may be applicable. Rinse and repeat.

Look at the table of contents in your casebook. That is basically an outline of the subject matter and it'll help you see the big picture. You can start there and then fill in the details with your notes from class. I always waited until closer to the end of the semester to outline because you'll have a better grasp of things at that point and just building the outline is a great way to review/study.

Also - number the pages and create a table of contents (if you can use the outline on the exam). For some of them I even create an index. Ultimately you want to know it well enough that you don't have to rely on it much, but it helps to reduce the time it takes to find something if you need to. By the way OneNote can make this process pretty straightforward. I recommend it.

But right now just focus on taking good notes. Outline later.

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Just look up other outlines until you find a format you like.

MarkinKansasCity wrote:I keep hearing that I'm supposed to make my own outline.

Just FYI, make an outline if it works for you--it definitely does for a lot of people--but don't do it because you're *supposed* to. I wasted a lot of hours in my first year trying to put outlines together before realizing that that's just not how I study effectively.

for most classes, literally cut and paste the syllabus into an outline doc. Then either do a case based or subtopic based outline within that format.