what i did: outlining

Denise posted recently about how she was having trouble with outlining, so I decided to make outlining the second entry in my ‘what I did’ series rather than posting more about NYC. The first entry, on notetaking, is here.

1. Outlining was key for me, but I learn by writing and rewriting in my own words, not as much by aural or visual means. This meant that formal discussion groups and study groups were not very good for me (though I did a lot of informal discussion that was helpful). Making flow charts and using colored graphs or pens was also not useful for me. To learn it, I had to write it. I know for a fact that it is possible to have a good 1L year with short (or no) outlines, flow charts, color graphs, weekly study groups, etc. Outlining doesn't work for everybody.

2. I started my outlines about halfway into the semester and worked on them steadily until finals. I usually finished my outlines 24 to 48 hours before the exams, but there were two I barely finished before the exam (night before) and one I finished three full days early. I did not wait until my outlines were done to do practice exams. Often I modified my outline after taking a practice exam.

3. First semester, I started one outline, Civ Pro, too early. I found myself playing catch-up at the end of the semester when I had to rework entire sections. I didn’t have a good grasp of the material yet and my outline was less about legal concepts and more about short case briefs. Not coincidentally, my first semester Civ Pro grade was my lowest of the year.

4. The hardest part in starting the outline for me was organizing it. I found that the first half of the outline took more than twice as long as the second half. It took me a very long time to figure out how to organize my outlines in general. Due to this factor, my first semester outlines were more work than my second semester outlines, even though my second semester outlines were longer.

5. I found looking at other students’ outlines from prior years (but with the same professor) useful as a starting point for figuring out how to organize the outline.

6. I used outlines from prior years as a secondary reference if I didn't understand the textbook or my notes. I found the outlines considerably more useful than study guides like Glannon's or Gilbert's. My school maintains a bank of student outlines from prior years, so I had a prior year outline for almost every one of my classes.

7. If my notes or reading disagreed with a student outline, I used a formal study guide as a backup reference. However, by the time I got to this point I usually had to go to office hours anyhow. I found study guides like Gilbert's and Glannon's to be of limited use. The one exception was Torts, because in that class Emmanuel’s was keyed to my casebook. I found the case summaries in Emmanuel’s helpful because my Torts class covered many cases and I stopped briefing Torts cases early on in second semester.

8. I used MS Word (sigh. dang monopolies.) on my Mac. If I got stuck on something, I highlighted that section using MS Word's highlight function, brought my laptop to my professor's office hours, and clarified the issue in office hours. After office hours I reworked that section.

9. I only went to office hours if I had questions on my outline. I didn't find office hours too useful otherwise because without having outlined a subject, I couldn't ask useful questions about it. (The one exception to this was that once I started doing practice exams, most of my professors were very accommodating and freely went over my answers with me, which was invaluable feedback.)
 
10. I know some outlines are strictly organized by rule, subrule, etc. I didn’t really do that. I instead made a list of points (and related subpoints) based on class notes and the notes following the cases. I did include rules, but mostly what I did was group information that I thought was important for each topic.

11. My longest outline was about 90 pages, and my shortest was about 35. I’m wordy. Also, my outlines represented the majority of my work in each class since I didn't spend time in study groups or discussion groups.

12. I'm generally a solo studier, and wrote my outlines on my own. However, my classmates and I sometimes emailed each other sections of our outlines for review or to help clarify something. This was useful, because sometimes my friends would spot errors or point out something that I had missed.

13. My professors tended to rely heavily on the notes following the cases in the casebook. Therefore I included that information in my outlines. If a professor referred in class to a particular note (which I would know from my class notes or, if there was a direct quote, from my highlights in my book), then it definitely made it into the outline. The rest of them made it in if I thought they were interesting and/or important.

14. As I wrote my outline, I frequently reread what I'd already written, but I tried not to rework anything unless it was clear that I had misunderstood a section.

15. It took me a long time to figure some of these things out. I don't think I really hit the outlining groove until second semester, though I liked my first semester outlines (except for Civ Pro).

Postscript: I was thinking about posting a short segment from one of my second semester outlines along with embedded comments about the structure (such as why I included this or that). Would that be helpful?