Taking notes by hand Forum

[taylorswiftfan]

For those who wrote your notes by hand for in class notes and casebook readings, did you have a separate notebook for class notes and casebook readings? Or did you write all your notes by hand in the same notebook for each course?

I realized that come exam time it might get annoying and time consuming on an open book exam to flip through two different notebooks, an outline, and a casebook....

Would appreciate the advice on this from current or just graduated law students.

[DoveBodyWash]

wasn't allowed to have laptop in class for any of my spring classes. But I actually just used one notebook and wrote all my notes for all my classes in that one notebook. I just wrote "Con Law, January 10th" or something at the top of each session. And then when that notebook ran out I just started a new one.

This worked fine for me just because i was too lazy to carry around or keep track of 3 note books. And also because none of my courses needed a full notebook for itself.

It also kinda forced me to review my notes at the end of each week and log them into a word document because I knew i would be screwed if I waited until the end of the term to do it all at once.

[beepboopbeep]

For those who wrote your notes by hand for in class notes and casebook readings, did you have a separate notebook for class notes and casebook readings? Or did you write all your notes by hand in the same notebook for each course?

I realized that come exam time it might get annoying and time consuming on an open book exam to flip through two different notebooks, an outline, and a casebook....

Would appreciate the advice on this from current or just graduated law students.

We were allowed to have laptops, but I handwrote because I'd just play games all class if I brought my computer. Used one notebook for each class and compiled it all at the end of the quarter, with a line down the middle of each page (reading notes on one side, corresponding class notes on the other, so I can do little diagrams and map out how things relate). It's worked out pretty well so far. But you've gotta figure out what works for you and adjust as the quarter goes on. I thought I'd do weekly transfers of my handwritten stuff to my computer, but I found it wasn't really effective because I didn't have the mental distance from the material to really synthesize what the readings were about on an abstract level.

Assuming you're a 0L - you'll probably only rarely refer to anything but your outline on exams, even on open book tests, and often you don't really have time for much of that. The idea of making outlines and taking practice tests is so you can just think and write - every thing else takes away time that could be spent earning points. I think I've looked at a casebook on exactly one exam so far this whole year, and that was because our prof threw in some question about a one-sentence note case that no one had in their outlines.

[DoveBodyWash]

with a line down the middle of each page (reading notes on one side, corresponding class notes on the other, so I can do little diagrams and map out how things relate).

shit that's pretty smart...dat UChicago difference

[Nova]

wasn't allowed to have laptop in class for any of my spring classes.

[DoveBodyWash]

wasn't allowed to have laptop in class for any of my spring classes.

i know right? Just after i bought a new laptop for school. They admitted that they were being paternalistic but were just like "too bad deal with it"

It wasn't harmful per se, it forced me to pay attention since i didn't have anything to distract me. I just HATE writing by hand, so my notes ended up being just a shit ton of arrows and flowcharts

[sublime]

..

[lawhopeful10]

I never took notes or highlighted while I read. My teachers always went over what was important in class so there was never a need. If your teacher has intense cold calls that can make it a little tough but generally you shouldn't care at all about cold calls anyway. As far as typing or handwriting notes it really just is a matter of preference. Whatever note taking strategy you use I think the best thing you can do is to just write down stuff that will help you on an exam. You have to look at an exam first to know that and as a 1L you will likely be nervous and a little over-inclusive which is fine. I found however most people took way too many notes and thus had way too large outlines come finals time.

[ymmv]

wasn't allowed to have laptop in class for any of my spring classes. But I actually just used one notebook and wrote all my notes for all my classes in that one notebook. I just wrote "Con Law, January 10th" or something at the top of each session. And then when that notebook ran out I just started a new one.

This worked fine for me just because i was too lazy to carry around or keep track of 3 note books. And also because none of my courses needed a full notebook for itself.

It also kinda forced me to review my notes at the end of each week and log them into a word document because I knew i would be screwed if I waited until the end of the term to do it all at once.

This. Except I waited until the end of the semester to turn my notebook into my outlines, and it wasn't a problem. Ultimately only about 10-20% of your notes are going to be useful for the exam anyway, so it's really not much more of a hassle than laptop note-taking is. For most exams you will want a 20-page maximum attack outline anyway, since you almost never have time to be searching through the 100-page behemoths. Exceptions are things like 24-hour exams where you can afford to have much more thorough notes transferred.

[DoveBodyWash]

This. Except I waited until the end of the semester to turn my notebook into my outlines, and it wasn't a problem.

Yeah I waited until the end of the semester to outline Con Law, it wasn't hard per se, i just had to go through the notebook and rip out the Con Law pages so i could see them all at once.

Ultimately only about 10-20% of your notes are going to be useful for the exam anyway.

So true. My entire torts class was essentially boiled down to one page (one-sided). Literally just the elements of each tort.

[ymmv]

This. Except I waited until the end of the semester to turn my notebook into my outlines, and it wasn't a problem.

Yeah I waited until the end of the semester to outline Con Law, it wasn't hard per se, i just had to go through the notebook and rip out the Con Law pages so i could see them all at once.

Ultimately only about 10-20% of your notes are going to be useful for the exam anyway.

So true. My entire torts class was essentially boiled down to one page (one-sided). Literally just the elements of each tort.

Oh yeah, torts especially. We only covered negligence in mine (didn't even mention intentional torts), so a single page for Duty/Breach/Causation/Damages/Defenses with a couple of RST and major case cites was really all that was necessary.

I think my longest outline was Property, like a eighty pages give or take, and that was only because our professor was way more interested in in-depth analysis and comparison of each case we studied than in substantive P law. Also it was a long exam.

[Rahviveh]

I think everyone should at least try to take notes by hand. Someone in another thread posted a link showing that people learn better if they take notes by hand. The professor only says 3-4 things in the entire hour that's important anyways, and if you take notes by hand instead of transcribing it's probably easier to pick up on those. On the other hand, some people don't need to and are good at typing notes rather than transcribing. I bet it would make it way easier on outlining too.

On a couple days I forgot my laptop I tried taking notes by hand and I thought it was way better, but I didn't want to switch over mid-year.

Casebook notes are pretty useless though, IMO.

[Spartan_Alum_12]

Coming from engineering background in undergrad, it was basically impossible to type notes, so I was used to hand writing notes. I continued this in 1L and actually think it helped me take in the lectures better. I just can't focus typing notes for some reason. Absolutely type exams though.

[beepboopbeep]

Casebook notes are pretty useless though, IMO.

Probably depends on prof. Some of ours just love going on their own tangents so much that you'd never get the BLL without taking some reading notes (unless using a supplement), and then they go and test on BLL anyway.

But yea, writing things out by hand = you can't write everything down, so you have to pick what's important = synthesizing the material better. I'm pretty convinced my grades would be much worse had I taken notes by laptop. But, doesn't work for everyone.

[Rahviveh]

Casebook notes are pretty useless though, IMO.

Probably depends on prof. Some of ours just love going on their own tangents so much that you'd never get the BLL without taking some reading notes (unless using a supplement), and then they go and test on BLL anyway.

But yea, writing things out by hand = you can't write everything down, so you have to pick what's important = synthesizing the material better. I'm pretty convinced my grades would be much worse had I taken notes by laptop. But, doesn't work for everyone.

Now that I think of it I take that back. In one class my prof was so useless that I had to force myself to do the casebook readings and my entire outline was from the casebook notes + the supplement.

I think the lesson for 0L's is to get more input in advance, about what to expect from each prof/class. Some professors, their lectures are an incoherent waste of time and you don't even have to take notes. A lot of professors spend significant time covering things they don't plan on testing. I had done some solicitation of upperclassmen on this issue, but I wish had done more.

[encore1101]

I generally would type out the casebook readings, print them beforehand, and refer to them as needed in class. I'd take notes by hand and compare the two (my typewritten notes from the reading and my handwritten notes from lecture) either later that day or that weekend, and "incorporate" what I had written in class into what I had typed before.

I'd have a separate notebook for cases, though.

[chem!]

with a line down the middle of each page (reading notes on one side, corresponding class notes on the other, so I can do little diagrams and map out how things relate).

shit that's pretty smart...dat UChicago difference

Cornell notes FTW.

[taylorswiftfan]

I generally would type out the casebook readings, print them beforehand, and refer to them as needed in class. I'd take notes by hand and compare the two (my typewritten notes from the reading and my handwritten notes from lecture) either later that day or that weekend, and "incorporate" what I had written in class into what I had typed before.

I'd have a separate notebook for cases, though.

What do you mean by a separate notebook for cases? Aren't case books only filled with cases?

[taylorswiftfan]

Also, thanks to everyone who responded. This was very helpful.

[chipotle123]

Also, thanks to everyone who responded. This was very helpful.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... tier-.html

[ph14]

I only took notes by laptop, aside from a couple of classes that banned laptops during 1L, and I did very well in law school. It's all about what works best for you.

[totesTheGoat]

I used the left page for case briefs and the right page for notes. There was a ton of wasted space, but it was organized.

I ended up switching to computer 1/2 way through spring semester because i couldn't write as fast as i can type. I also gave up on written briefs of cases after fall semester, because it was better to just do a quick glance at the beginning of class to refresh.

[michaelbluth]

In no-laptop classes, I type and print reading notes before class. Outside of those classes, I never write anything by hand, and I actually find handwriting to be really painful. My handwritten classnotes are useless. In no-laptop classes, I take notes anyway and beg friends to scan-and-swap with me. (My typed notes are great, though.)

[romanticegotist]

If i took notes on reading:

black pen for reading notes, blue pen for class notes. All in the same notebook and I didn't focus on making it pretty because it was all typed up weekly anyway.

I do think that hand-writing notes is TCR though.