An upper-level student, the leader of a review workshop for one of my classes, gave us a tip during our session the other day that I think is SO USEFUL. It may seem completely obvious, but I definitely didn’t think of it until she pointed it out.
In summary: For open book essay exams that are issue spotters, where you have to identify the issues that need to be analyzed in a fact pattern and the relevant standards and rules for conducting that analysis, MAKE A CHECKLIST. Oh my goodness. Simply prepare a checklist for every type of case you might encounter within the bounds of the course, and make a step by step checklist of what you need to point out when analyzing the fact pattern. So, when you’re sitting in the exam, nervous and forgetting everything you know, you have a guide in front of you! Follow the checklist and just check off each issue once you point it out in your essay one-by-one, and in the proper order. This way you have a clear outline of how to structure your essay AND a handy way to not forget any of the issues.
WHOA. That totally just blew my mind. Ok, so not sure if that explanation made total sense, but I think the idea of a checklist is useful in general for open book exams. Heck, they’re useful even for closed book exams, if you study it carefully and become familiar with it :)
So, you may not think this is much of a tip, but I have found this little idea to be a super time saver: Make your own blank case brief worksheet and save it on your computer as “Blank Case Brief.” What do I mean by blank case brief worksheet? Well, it would look something along the lines of….
Case:
Facts:
Issue:
….Etc., whatever your preferred format is. That way, whenever you have a case to brief (which is probably about 50 times a day) you just pull up your blank case brief, plug in the case title, “Save As” under the name of the case you’re briefing, and you’re all organized and good to go in a matter of seconds. Just fill in the blanks as you read the case and soon you’ll be done! It’s great to have a ready-made framework for your case briefs that’s customized to YOU.
:]
So, I thought I had discovered the ultimate way to make my notetaking useful. You see, I am one who is prone to taking lots of notes from the readings… but I find that I lack the motivation to look back at those notes and actually USE them. I tend to look more at my notebooks of class notes than the the notes from the readings that I had spent so much time on T_T. So what did I learn to do a few years back?
MAKE MY NOTES INTO BOOKS!
Yes, ladies and gents, put the titles and headings in fancy newspaper/gothic font, set your printer to print book-style, fold the pages in the right order, staple down the middle and BAM you have a book.
And you know what? All of a sudden your notes look cool. They look attractive. You WANT to read them. Just look at that fancy gothic font. I don’t know about you, but I want to read my notes.
BUT today in class I discovered that my “books” had one pitfall: no index. I couldn’t flip through them to find what I wanted. So, not only am I going to have to tab my casebooks, but my notes too -_-
