Epic outlining email

[Marysa Lin]

Hi everyone, hope things have calmed down a bit. Here are some of my thoughts on outlining & finals. As always, Travis and I are here anytime if you guys have any concerns- there are no stupid questions!! We both stumbled through this last year. Please use us, your writing fellows, your ASIST tutors, etc. as resources. I've attached my outlines, but keep in mind that we had different professors. We will try our best to find outlines for your professors, but it can be tricky.

Outlining is as intuitive as it sounds -- it's not a special law school secret. But, the purpose of an outline here is distinct in that the process of outlining is much more important than the final product.

My process

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to organize my outlines. The class syllabus is a good place to start, but sometimes it makes more sense to organize outlines differently (chronologically, by subject clusters, etc). This is really important- don't discount it. It's helpful to look at other outlines for helpful and unhelpful examples.

In terms of actually writing my outlines, I spent the bulk of my time combining all my materials -- class notes, reading notes, case briefs, and information from supplements (more on this later). I created a super outline that was very, very long and from there, I outlined from my original outline. This is what we mean by the process of outlining. I was always combining info, eliminating redundant info, and cutting more and more from my original outline. Start with as much as possible and as you become familiar with your outline, you'll naturally cut out things you don't need.

I know details of cases seem important now, but once you think about the structure and purpose of law school exams, you'll start reducing case details in your outlines to the bare bones- just how you can use the cases, not what happened in them.

I ended up with several versions of my outlines, each shorter than the previous. I found it more helpful to make charts and tables than to use the formal outlining structure. Don't be afraid to break things up into manageable chunks or lists -- in fact, checklists were the most helpful thing to me during my exams. BUT, you can't make a good checklist until you make your outlines.

Law school exams

A brief note on law school exams- they are NOT like your undergrad exams! You'll essentially get a long story ("fact pattern") that presents a series of legal issues. Your job will be to find the potential legal problems ("issue spotting") and resolve them in a particular way (the prompt will often tell you to pick a side as a clerk or an associate).

So, regurgitating case briefs or rules will be totally unhelpful. You'll really need to understand how to use facts or rules to support your arguments. This seems very vague, but there's no traditional answer to these tests.

Try to outline in a way that helps you argue your point. As you go through the class, make a note of particular conflicting rules or undecided law. Professors will seize on ambiguities in the law to use for the test- the issues will be complex and nuanced with many potential arguments. They'll often be based on facts from real cases but with a twist, so knowing how cases turn on certain specific facts can be important when you use them during the test by analogizing or distinguishing.

Lastly, pay attention to the professor! Notice when they care about developments in the law and when they argue against cases. If they think something was decided wrong, highlight that! It can be easy to predict what a professor will test you on based on what they care about. Our contracts professor cared about the difference between UCC and common law, our Civpro professor cared a lot about revisions in the FRCP, etc.

Supplements

I personally found supplements to be very helpful for Civpro, but not for Torts and Contracts. It depends a lot on your professor. You can often ask your professor which supplements they suggest. The E&E for Civpro was amazing, as well as Acing Civil Procedure.

You should NOT wait until the last second to use these. Beware extraneous information -- professors will skip a lot of things included in the supplement. Use supplements carefully and strategically. It's always helpful to hear things described in different ways and they'll clarify how to use the information you're being presented with. If you guys want to check them out, I can bring in all of mine and you can flip through them.

Recommended next steps

Don't start outlining in a panic. The more thought you put into the process, the less time you'll waste and the more useful your effort will be. As you start finishing subject blocks in your classes, start collecting your materials. It's much better to work with too much information than with too little -- you don't want to spend November going back and re-doing work. You want to have a good enough basis in the information to start looking at supplements and thinking broadly about the course.

• Start scanning other outlines for good/bad examples of how to think about your outline
• Keep track of all your different notes
• Keep a word doc of questions you have as you start going through your materials
• Keep a word doc of times when your prof really seems to care about something or spends a disproportionate amount of time pointing something out
• Start tackling confusing topics with supplements, talk things out with your classmates, see how different outlines deal with them.
  

Final notes

This is an individualized process where you should use other people's examples as a starting point. Yes, it's possible to make an outline by frankenstein-ing other outlines, but from personal experience, it's best to undertake this very time-consuming and overwhelming process yourself. Use other outlines, but don't rely on them. Think broadly, don't panic. You will all be fine!!

--


Marysa Lin
J.D. Candidate, 2013
University of Southern California
Gould School of Law
B.A., Tufts University, 2010
marysa....@lawmail.usc.edu

[Marysa Lin]

Oh! One more thing -- BE CAREFUL when you use other people's outlines. They always contain mistakes (mine included). Understand that they're generally made under a lot of pressure by very sleep-deprived people. There is no guarantee that all the information is correct.

[Travis Potter]

Hi Everyone,

 We figured your hitting the time in the semester where you are overwhelmed by both the existential questions (why the hell I am in law school doing this to myself?) and the practical (what the hell are these exams I keep hearing about)? 

If you want to talk about it?! We’re here to take you out for a free cup of coffee. That’s right! Free Coffee and  fantastic (wel...maybe just ok) conversation.

 Just drop us an email and we’ll set up a time.  Small groups, individual, whatever you want.

 I also wanted to add a few thoughts to the fantastic outlining email marysa sent out earlier.

1.       Prioritize:  think about what classes, or parts there of, do and don’t make sense to you.  For me contracts was relatively easy.  I started with it when I did my outlines because it was easier to start the weird new process with a subject that wasn’t terrifying.  But  I spent the most time on the class that was the hardest (for me, Civ pro).  Think about what time allocation is the best for you.  This is also true for prioritizing between legal writing, class and studying.

2.       Using time effectively: this is actually a bigger problem for me this year.  I am often really ‘busy’ and feel the stress of working.  Unfortunately when I sit down to work, I am not using the time very effectively.  I find myself on facebook, email, etc…  Last year, when I was better at this, I found it helpful to block off time that I really dedicated to working effectively and then having free time.  This worked a lot better than the half working of having a book open in front of the tv or writing up outlining while gchatting.  Think about what works best for you.  Maybe it is working hard during the week and taking it easier on weekends

3.       Remember that others don’t know more than you do.  It can be helpful to talk things through with classmates, but think about whose opinions you trust and find helpful.  As you get closer to exams there will be lots of half information floating around and sadly some classmates that enjoy freaking other people out.  Do your best to filter the information and ask where other people are getting their info. 

4.       For outlining: I think the one addition I suggest is that you think about outlining as a two part process.  you use outlines, or whatever format, to help you remember and synthesize the information from each class.  You then will need to create new or modify those materials for what will actually get you through the exam.  I found it was helpful to have outlines done by the end of the semester and then use exam period for practice exams and creating the materials I actually wanted to take into the room with me (assuming exams are open book).  For me this was mostly flow charts and checklists.  I’ll send some of these around as you get closer to finals.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or we can help in any way.  Take the work seriously, but not yourselves.

 

Best

Travis

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Marysa Lin <marysa....@lawmail.usc.edu> wrote: