What Law School Classes Are Like / How to Take Notes In Law School
I had no idea what to expect from law school classes. I knew that they would be taught using the socratic method, but I didn’t know how I was going to extract information while other students were on call. As a result, I essentially transcribed the entire professor/student dialogue during my first torts class. While this was insanely stupid for a lot of reasons, reading it may give you a good idea of what kind of questions you can expect to be asked.
Click here for my notes from the first day of class.
Now I’m going to tell you why these notes are bad.
1.) If I did want to take anything substantive out of these notes, I’d have to go back through the conversation and pick out the important parts. It would have been just as easy to do it the first time, while it was being said.
2.) As you can see, I prepped that brief with a lot of useless information. If you insist on writing real briefs (rather than book briefing as I’ve discussed in previous posts) try to keep facts to a minimum. My fear was that I would be called to state the facts and forget some of them, so I just wrote them all down. Really, I would have been fine if my facts for this case said, “Pharmacist gave D wrong medication, D got sick.”
3.) While coding my wiki notebook, it seemed like it would be an advantage to (1) have different wiki pages for homework / class notes; and (2) have separate pages for cases. I’ve determind that this was a bad idea because it adds an extra layer of decoding when I have to assemble my thoughts and create outlines. Now, I pre-design my class notes based on the book’s Table of Contents, and try to add both lecture and case notes to the proper sections. That way, there’s an overarching “picture” when I’m trying to understand an entire subject.
Here’s an example of what my notes tend to look like now.
As you can see, my notes now have structure. In addition, I don’t have anything more than absolutely necessary concerning cases. I have more notes in my books, but unless the case is Erie, or International Shoe, or something, rarely does a case require more than a short little blurb in my notes. You really need to learn how to create a happy marriage between lecture notes and brief notes before you can expect any kind of overarching theme to develop.
As always, questions on any aspect of law school are most welcome.
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Ah, the great Prof. Kahn, demonstrating her prowess with the socratic method. Thanks for that, it was entertaining.
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Haha. It’s amusing to see that now, isn’t it? I can’t believe I took notes like that, but it’s great for entertainment purposes.
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Thanks for the differing examples of your notes! I’ll try to aim for the latter on the first day…although I’m sure it’ll resemble the first a bit more for awhile!
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No problem. You’ll fall into your own groove of note-taking after you get past the, “holy crap, I might be called next” stage. Good luck with 1L!
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Thanks for the tips! I’m also glad to hear (in your previous posts) that Law School Confidential was helpful. Miller’s methods seem great, and I can’t wait to put them to use this week.
Have any of your classmates found “Getting to Maybe” helpful for exams? I’m in the middle of that book right now.
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Hey Ryan. I’m glad you found the advice useful.
As far as exam prep goes, I honestly have no idea. Even if you go to a normally friendly school, the atmosphere tends to change around crunch time. People outside of study groups are generally pretty secretive of exam prep techniques / books.
I didn’t really read anything to prepare for exams. Usually the professors or the school will make old exams available. I found that to be the most useful — especially if they had provided a key. The annoying part of law school is that every professor wants something different on an exam. The trick is figuring out what kind of responses a particular professor is looking for. The problem with all those books is that they often like to give advice like, “never joke on an exam!” However, if you looked at my Contracts exam, you’d find a joke about quantum electrodynamics, and you won’t hear me complaining about that grade anytime soon.
Good luck.
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Hi, thanks for the examples.
I’m a 0L right now, and wondering how your classmates knew what to say to the questions posed by the professor. Obviously there was pre-class reading, but it seemed as if these kids knew what they were talking about even on their first day.
Where are the “Uhhhhhhhh’s” and “I have no idea’s”???
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 10:29 am
@Grateful, That’s a great question, and I will give you the answer that should ameliorate your concerns as soon as I get home from work. Fear not.
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@Grateful, Okay so here’s the deal.
#1 – Not only are you reading cases, but hornbooks and supplemental notes within the textbook that should give you a better understanding of the material. In addition, a lot of people took law classes in undergrad so they bring outside knowledge to the class.
#2 – Those conversations definitely did not go as “smooth” as they appear. I was incorporating the professor’s ideal answers into a lot of the dialogue for my own reference. There were definitely a lot of long pauses, uhm’s, uhhhh’s, and general fumbling.
Either way, don’t worry about it. I don’t know of anyone that was terribly caught off-guard by their first class. In fact, there was a collective agreement that after this very class that things were going to be a lot easier than we’d expected.
Good luck!
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