Law school outlining: everyone hates it but no one can avoid it. Even writing this blog post gives me anxiety! But when you get into the nitty gritty of outlining and develop a technique that works for you, you’ll find it’s really not that bad. The hardest part is holding yourself accountable by not procrastinating. Keep the following in mind to make sure you stay on pace!
Your Syllabus
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – your syllabus is where you should start every time. Your law school professors handcraft their syllabi to fit their class exactly, and by framing your outline the same way, you’re going to end up saving yourself a lot of time and a lot of unnecessary additions. As soon as your syllabus becomes available for a class, draft a shell of an outline ASAP. One of the most difficult things to do is start, so get it over with.
For example, let’s say you’re in a first year Property course. Your professor posts her syllabus a week before the first class. Don’t wait to look at it. Open it up, start your outline by creating a shell like the one below:
- PROPERTY OUTLINE:
- Chapter 1: The Concept of Property and Its Parameters – The Right to Exclude and Eminent Domain
- Chapter 2: Possession, First-in-Time, and Acquiring Property Interests
- Chapter 3: First Possession and Estoppel Principles
- [Continue Chapters]
Notice how I broke mine down into chapters, because that’s how my professor had done it. Other professors will sometimes break down their syllabi into topics. Just adjust to whatever method they use. I also like to use color-coding because it’s easier for me to visualize. I use red for my chapters (or topics), so when I go back to study later, I can easily differentiate between learning objectives and figure out more easily which chapters I have a better grasp on compared to others.
As you go through your semester, you are subsequently going through your syllabus. You can continue to add on to your outline with every assignment; here’s what I do:
- Chapter 1: The Concept of Property and Its Parameters – The Right to Exclude and Eminent Domain
- Topic – The Right to Exclude
- Rules:
- Case Summaries:
- Notes:
- Topic – Eminent Domain
- Rules:
- Case Summaries:
- Notes:
- Topic – The Right to Exclude
As you can see, I really like to continue to break things down to their simplest form. Chapter, topic, and then all of the rules, cases, and notes for that topic. Depending on how you learn, this will vary. A lot of times law students will combine rules and cases, which is fine. I like to separate it because when I’m doing a case summary, I get to list the rule again (hello, repetition!) and also include some facts that make it more likely to remember how courts apply rules when I’m taking an exam. Finally, my notes section is just things that my professors reallyyyy emphasize during class. Do they repeat a phrase over and over again? Write it down. Do they reference one rule over and over again? Make note of that. Your professors aren’t trying to trick you. What they focus on in class is what you will be tested on. Keep it simple.
In the event your professor doesn’t post a helpful syllabus, just make an outline from whichever book you’re using for that class. The chapter headings are generally the best way to categorize and you’ll get the same result.
How Often to Outline
To reduce cramming during finals period, you need to outline often. Sure, there are some law students I know who didn’t really outline all semester and then did it within a span of a week and got great grades. But these students were pulling all nighters, isolating themselves from friends and family, and were so visibly stressed out that I got stressed from just talking to them. That works for some people but it’s not the way I do things.
Putting in consistent effort throughout the semester helps to solidify strong habits that increase efficiency and are sustainable long-term. I try to outline once a week, every Sunday. However, I’d say the most common choice among my peers is to outline at the completion of every chapter/topic. This is a great choice because you’re dividing your focus consistently with how your professors teach. Plus, by practicing active recall of the concepts broken down the same way your syllabus breaks them down, you’re kind of “organizing” your brain. My choice to outline once a week is strictly personal preference. I like setting up a routine that is based on weekly repetition, so it works for me.
Quality Over Quantity
No matter what template you decide to use or how often you decide to outline, your primary focus should be on the content. Don’t just copy and paste all your case briefs in chronological order and call it good. Go through every rule, every case, every note you made and rewrite it succinctly and in a way that makes sense to you.
I love acronyms. I use acronyms for everything. Sticking with the theme of Property Law, an acronym that many 1Ls use is: OCEAN. This spells out the 5 elements of adverse possession:
- O
- Open
- C
- Continuous
- E
- Exclusive
- A
- Actual
- N
- Notorious
Acronyms are a quick and easy way to recall basic material from class, allowing you to spend more time on the harder-to-remember, more complex concepts.
Another important thing to think about is what your final product will be. When it comes time for your reading period before finals, the last thing you want is to have three different 75 page outlines for your classes. Trying to memorize those is not efficient, and for many, not possible. This is where condensed outlines and attack outlines can make a huge difference.
Having a longer outline that you repeatedly work on throughout the semester is more than okay. This is usually referred to as a cumulative or comprehensive outline. This should be your only focus for outlining up until about a few weeks before finals. Then, you can take your comprehensive outline and start condensing it even more. If you have a 75 page outline, try to get it down to about 10-20 pages. Doing this requires a lot of brain power because you’re trying to file things down to pretty general categories while simultaneously making sure you know the detailed substance of each one. This takes time, which is why you should wait until you’re wrapping up on the learning material for each class. Usually, I stop here. I work on my big, somewhat messy comprehensive outline all semester, and then go in and clean house to make it condensed and study the heck out of that. Others like to take it one step further by creating an attack outline.
An attack outline is very short. Around 2-3 pages. Super broad. Only the most important rules go on this one and the goal is pretty much complete memorization. I don’t use attack outlines because that’s not how my brain works. Memorizing does not equal learning for me. I learn through deep analysis of concepts and figuring out a way to connect them, creating for myself a really big picture of each class. You might not need to go as in depth as I do. That’s fine (honestly, I’m envious), but I would recommend starting law school using this method. After your first semester you can go in, reassess, and decide if you can get away with doing less, but it’s not worth it to risk those grades on the off-chance you’re one of the lucky few.
It’s no secret that law school is hard work. If you’ve done the work to get there, you can keep doing the work to succeed. Outlining periodically and efficiently will take you far, even if you struggle at first. Explore your options and do what works for you, not everybody else. Happy outlining! You’ve got it!
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