From the first day of law school you will hear a variety of ways to make an outline. Some people make a 2-5 page outline (a skinny), while others are well over 60 pages. ASFs are asked how they make theirs, and how it helped with their success. However, it gets overwhelming and confusing when they aren’t telling you exactly what they put into their outline, how they set it up, or how they incorporated their notes. After all, it is the first week of class when you start talking about the overall need for an outline. You don’t know any of the material, and are barely acclimated to the new environment of law school. It becomes even more stressful when you realize that your outline is going to be the key to your final exam, some representing 100% of your final grade.

However touching the material as much as you can throughout the semester will help you a lot in the long run. You don’t want to just be memorizing material the week before the exam, you want to know it.

So how exactly do you “touch the material” and commit the information to your long term memory? Well first, it would be helpful if you are not playing catch-up with your work. It’s beneficial to have time set aside where you can review the material that you have already seen.

After reading for class, close your book, and try to summarize the material and cases that you just read. Then right before class, skim through your readings again, and make small changes to your summary.

After a week of classes review your notes, and summaries. Create a separate document where you can list out concise thoughts, rules, and examples of the subject matter.

Once you have finished a sub-subject area, write out detailed CREAC citing to the case and examples from class. You can have your professor read this over to ensure that you understand the material, and can adequately explain it.

Then, once you finished a section of material, you can combine these mini CREACs into an overarching explanation of the law.

You can read and review these CREACS before class, and after a week of new material to understand what you’ve learned, what you’re currently learning, and what is yet to learn. This constant repetition and review will aid you in grasping the material, committing it to your long term memory, and with your writing voice as you prepare for finals.

TIP: Make sure to take good notes on examples given in class, and provided for on Canvas. You can write sample exam answers for these as well and have your ASF or professor review them.

Now, you can put these together for an exam style outline, which will definitely help you be prepared to write out your exam answers. However there are a couple other ways that you can outline. You just have to find what makes the most sense for YOU. A generic Roman Numeral or “A,B,C” outline works for a lot of people. Some need all of their notes listed out with big subject headers, and comment throughout their document. Other find there bare minimum information to be all they need, so headers with a list of 3-4 elements under each. Personally, I am a more visual learner, so I like to make my outline in excel. I just merge cells together to keep content areas together. This way I am able to see how the topics flow together, instead of flipping the page of a standard outline. But again, that is what works for me. However, you prefer to go about it by rewriting, retyping, or rereading the material you are constantly touching it. So by the time exams role around, you will have already committed a substantial portion of the material to you long term memory, and you will definitely be more prepared. But remember, do what’s best for you. It can be stressful, and that’s okay, don’t be afraid to ask for help, or examples!