I'm back with the second instalment of my Life Of A Law Student series. If you haven't read my first post then in short, since I'm in my last year of university I thought of writing about some of my experiences in Law School. This is my way of passing down some tips and knowledge that will hopefully make your life a bit easier if you're a law student.  

So, without further ado, this is how I take my notes. 

I have two separate methods of writing my notes and which method I use depends on whether my class is online or in-person.

I'll go through both of my methods, but I do want to mention that I ultimately prefer writing my notes online rather than handwriting everything. The main reason is that my law professors go through a lot of content very quickly, so it's much easier typing all my notes rather than rushing and handwriting everything.

Starting with how I take my notes online, my secret is that I basically just organise and colour-code everything. 

Note: I prefer using Google Docs, but really you can use anything program like Pages or Word, that suits you:

Article and case notes
Lecture notes adapted into exam notes

Essentially, I have my case and article notes at the top of each lecture. We're usually required to read certain cases and articles before we attend our lectures so I always have these notes in the first section of my notes.

The reason why I do this is that at some point there will be references made in my lectures that link back to the case or article that we were required to read. Having these notes on the same document just makes it easier to find rather than looking through a hundred different documents. So, my homework/required reading notes are all at the top of my lecture notes.

In the second section (on the same document), I have my actual lecture notes. My tip for lecture notes is to use headings! Do not just info dump a huge chunk of text into your notes! Use headings, bold text, underline text! When you're looking for specific information, you do not want to be scrolling through pages and pages of text. Having headings will save you so much time.

So, breaking your notes up into smaller sections with headings makes your notes look more organised, easier to read and it will be easier to look for certain bits of information.

And honestly, these are your notes! You do NOT have to use academic language if it complicates things for you. The whole purpose of notes is so you have something about a topic written down in a manner you understand! If academic language confuses you or just stresses you out then write your notes more casually. Use swear words in your notes, be sarcastic or funny, use anecdotes, metaphors, whatever helps you understand the topic. Of course, when you write your exams and assignments use academic language, but your notes can be a bit more informal, so allow yourself to be more casual in your note-taking - no one but you is going to read them and so your notes should be written in a way that you understand.

In terms of colour-coding everything, this is how I prefer coding my notes:

  1. Green text is for case and article names. I specifically colourise cases and article names because they are generally important - we refer back to them often in class as well as analyse what we read and talk about it in class too.
  2. Orange is for important general information. My study tip is to write one small paragraph about each concept or topic where you summarise everything you discussed in class. This is a good way to review and study your notes after class AND this paragraph can be included in your final exam notes. These small paragraphs are highlighted so when I need a quick summary about something I can easily find it and if I need more detail I can always read the rest of my notes)
  3. Blue is for definitions. This includes word definitions and legal concepts. I usually try to summarise legal concepts into one sentence.

This is it really. It's nothing revolutionary, just motivation, hard work along with good organisation and colour-coding has helped me survive Law School.

Now the way I handwrite my notes is actually very similar to the way I write my notes online.

My colour-coding system is essentially the same. I have a pencil case filled with highlighters and going through my notes and highlighting things is fun! Of course, it is difficult to try and not highlight everything you read (because it does feel like everything is important at times) but I highly suggest writing short summaries of what you learn in class - this is a great way to stay focused on what the main point of your lectures was and what the important information is. This, as a result, should help you figure out what you should be highlighting.

The main difference is my organisation. My case and article notes are written in the back of my notebooks while my lecture notes are written, in order, in the front of my notebook. Everything is labelled so I know which cases/articles correspond with which lectures.

It actually has been a couple of years since I've written my notes by hand. As I said, law lectures are fast-paced and it's much more convenient typing my notes rather than handwriting them.

And these are my tips for taking notes in class! My main message is that everyone has different note-taking methods, however, ultimately being organised with your notes will make the biggest difference, so as long as you're organised in some way, your notes will end up being extremely useful. 

I hope these tips work for you if you try them, thank you for reading and of course, I hope you all have a lovely day.

Other posts parts of my Life Of A Law Student series:
1) Things I Wish I Knew Before I Applied to Law School