I just finished 1L year and I told my friends all throughout the year to start their outlines early. I see too many of my peers go into exams with textbooks, 100+ pages of notes and folders full of supplementary material from the internet... I went into that same exam with a 14 page outline... (I'm from USyd in Australia :) )
Truth. It's not hard to understand why, though. Shorter/focussed being better is totally counter intuitive. And it's completely different than college. Hard to blame people. But you can't say we don't warn them!
I always do an outline and then distill that down to a shorter study guide. My outline may run 14+ pages, but my study guide will be approximately 1/2 as long as the outline. I also keep up to date on my outline every week, then begin the study guide when we finish a topic.
Hi I'm currently in Yr11 planning on doing my Bachelor of Arts/Laws at USyd, do you recommend Sydney as I'm currently looking through my options for the best uni. Thanks in advance!
Hi T111, I’m doing law in UTS and I just have to ask: 1. Is it better to take notes from the textbook or lecture or both? 2. Typed notes or handwritten?
I have a degree in Accounting; I have no desire to be a lawyer, but I find your videos interesting, insightful, and informative. I need to get my lawyer friends to look at your videos to see what they think.
I stopped briefing my cases entirely and started practice questions early on. Also, focusing on the outline alone is key. This has helped me a lot as it prevents me in getting behind.
I am on my first year law in Auckland, NZ. Your videos are so relevant and indispensable even though your legal system is civil law system and mine is common law. The gist of everything you said about law school is so useful. I really appreciate you taking time to help “clueless” law students like myself. :)
All the videos you do are so helpful. I find a few of them a bit confusing because i am only 14 and haven't exactly learned any of the definitions of things like 'outline'. if you could do a video on explaining these things for people like me who want to be a lawyer of some kind when they grow up that would be so helpful. I tend to note down everything that is helpful, could you also leave the notes like bullet pointed on the side of the screen. I understand i am asking a lot but it would be very helpful for people like me when it comes to this kind of information, Thanks.
Holly, it's great that you're taking an interest so early! You are way ahead of the game! We have a future video planned for explaining a lot of the vocab you run into in law school. But don't worry, you'll have a ton of time to learn everything you need to know.
+Holly Britton An outline is similar to what you do for a paper. You start with a topic and then break it down into elements. Here is an example from my outline for my Evidence class: A. Inferences vs. Presumptions 1. Inference - common-sense conclusion to which a reasonable person could come from the facts 2. Presumption - a legal inference based on rules of law; states that once a certain fact is established, the presumed fact must also be established unless disputed and rebutted by the other party a. Created to resolve difficult fact issues (res ipsa) b. Further social policies c. Means to produce proof is in the hands of the opposing party d. May be PERMISSIVE or MANDATORY i. Permissive - court will instruct that a jury MAY conclude the presumed fact if it was not contested ii. Mandatory - court will instruct that a jury MUST find the concluded fact if it was not contested For each topic we cover in class, I break it down into pieces so I can understand the topic and see it laid out in from of me. I also keep a running glossary of terms I need to know with a definition of the word. I know you can look the terms up online, or just buy a Legal Dictionary, but I've found I retain the information better if I write down the definition myself.
@@maggie2880 thanks for asking. I actually start my year in about a month from now! Since being in law school for two years (the comment time will switch in a few weeks to reflect two years not one), I have learned that legal eagle is a quack. The things he teaches does not work, and his methods are outdated. Sure, you can outline, but that takes so much extra time. I found a better method is to brief every case for a class in one document, then write notes between the cases for the relevant information. I’m currently rank 1 in my class, and I do what I said. I don’t recommend wasting time with Devon’s stuff. Money and time is better with BARBRi or any other source of law school information.
@@butters6295 thank you for responding ! I’m glad I read this because I was totally gonna try his 3 point thing instead of case briefs haha!! Your method makes sense. What is BARBRi?
@@butters6295 It is difficult to sort through all of the different information I’m getting how to prepare for law school properly. There is a lot of conflicting information. Guess that in itself is good practice !
At the end of the day, there is no “method” for doing well. Just read all the cases and pay attention in class. Once you get home, review your notes. What I do is hand write notes in class, then type them all over the weekend into my living document. Technically, it can be classified as an outline, but it’s more of a group of briefs with general rules as notes. It works because a test is going to have similar facts to the cases you study. It is helpful if you can flip right to your brief for that case, then write the rules that are related to your set of facts from the test. Barbri is a free software you can sign up for. It has videos and practice tests. Many professors actually have used questions from barbri, so it is like getting to see the real test before taking the test. Good luck. Law school is hell, but it’s worth it
I’m starting law school next school year and I cannot stress how true this is! I haven’t started law school yet but I apply your tips in my subjects here at uni and they all work and I am now studying smart! Thanks so much!
I learnt my mistakes during the first sem of law school. I really hope to be able to make the outline from day one. 7 semester left 😭. "It's a marathon, not a sprint,"
LegalEagle With University of London International Academy. Certificate of Higher Education in The Common Law attempting Criminal Law and Legal Systems and Methods
This is helpful! I've been super stressed about going into 1L -- currently reading a bunch of books on how to prepare.. A lot of the books say to brief every case, what are your thoughts about that?
Currently a year 1 law student has been a month in the uni and I wanna thank you for this golden tip. Do you have some tips to how to read more effectively specially the cases? Thank you.
To borrow the chess analogy, briefing every case is like trying to learn chess from studying games. Outlining is like trying to learn chess from an opening book. Both work.
The link doesn't lead to the document "Download the Ultimate Guide to Crushing Finals: " ➜ www.legaleagleprep.com/finals is there a current link? Thanks
Hey, I'm currently a law student in Germany. In German Law exams are always the same: you get a case and you need to solve it extensively and in detail by arguing who is in the right and why someone is in the right in that specific case. Most of the time you only get one case or situation, however you want to call it, and solve it properly with an Assessment (sometimes 2 cases). So in Germany, we solve cases all the time for preparation for the exams. My question is, how are Exams structured in the US? Thanks for the video.
Hard to tell from that description whether the tests are different or not. Check out my video on what you need to know about law school exams (its from a US perspective).
Will do! And the tests are most certainly not easy, because you never know what case is in the test. And basicly because you need to solve the cause in detail, you need to know a lot of things to solve it properly, then again there thousands of different case szenarios haha. Also what really annoys me in germany are the standarts for the grading. There a 18 points to get, but only 15% get 9 points or better. What is the point of having 18 points, when it is almost unreachable. Thanks for answering!
@@ferlou2373 you did not get what i meant. In the 60 plus years the system has been established there was no one ever who got more than 16.06 P. out of 18 P. Just to put it into perspective, out of 15.000 law graduates yearly only ~15 will graduate with more than 13.99 P. That is far more than just to differentiate at the top; this is literally a broken grading system like every professor will confirm.
@@luk303 Ich habe durchaus verstanden, was du meintest. Ich habe dir nur nicht zugestimmt. Das Bewertungssystem ist nicht kaputt, und entgegen deiner Aussage würde mir damit nicht jeder Professor widersprechen. Eine Änderung des Notensystems würde nicht mehr für die Studenten bewirken als der Wechsel von 1-6 zu 15-1 Punkten in der Oberstufe. Die letztendliche Notenskala der Zeugnisse (ob das jetzt 1-18 oder 1-16 und die Punkte 17 & 18 gestrichen sind, weil sie nur selten erreicht wurden) ist VOLLKOMMEN egal, weil die Bedeutung der Noten relativ zu den anderen erzielten Noten ist. Die Bezeichnung schadet nicht, demonstratio non nocet! Angenommen man änderte die Skala zu 1,0-6.0: Die Großkanzleien würden genauso wie der Staat immer noch die Top 15% der Studenten wollen. Ob diese jetzt durch 9+ Punkte wie jetzt oder
I see and hear about outlining EVERYWHERE. But I see absolutely NOTHING about what constitutes an outline, or what one looks like. So, what's the point of all these posts and videos???
I don't really have an opinion on which commercial outline brand is the best. Generally I think they are all pretty good. It's a judgment call based on your preference and what your professor covers. I would always try to get an outline that is keyed to my casebook, though.
I don't recommend studying the substantive law before starting law school. You won't remember it, your professor will probably teach it differently, and it will contribute to burn out. At most, learn about law school issue spotting essays, and learn how to write them.
I am about to enter degree in Law this September. I get really confuse that is outline is similar to notes? Like making notes before lecture and revise it also add up more information from the lecturer on our notes after the class. Is that an outline? Or I got it wrong??
While this is helpful, i would like to point out that not everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. You know why? Because some are less financially able than others. This might mean that they are working part-time on top of law school. Others work full-time (like me) because im the breadwinner and i cant turn my back on my family responsibilities. Some also live alone, which means they exert more time keeping themselves alive (cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc) than a law student who lives with a spouse or a family member. This might not make sense if this isn't your reality, but it is mine and a lot of my law school friends. We all have different 24hrs in a day becsuse we all have different lives. A single, well-off law student who lives with their family might have a total of 12 hours of "free" time which they can devote to law school and studying, while i only have a total of 7 hours for law school and studying because im poor, i have a full-time job, and live alone. So no, not everyone has the exact same 24 hours. Just pointing that out for perspective.
So...every class has a 20 page outline??? How about actual content discussing the actual outline...and less discussions about the mystery of the outline?
