Outlining (Creating Study Tools)

The student's development of an outline is not merely an act of summarizing or synthesizing. It is a process of creative intelligence by which (the student) must force the material of the course into a coherent, organized, meaningful form.

-Arthur Vanderbilt

Outlining may not be the best term to describe this process: your study tool may look more like a flow chart or a set of flash cards or a combination of different organizing tools. It's the PROCESS of synthesizing that readies you for the final exam.

Why Outline?

It enables you to condense and organize a semester's worth of disheveled course materials into a manageable tool that you can understand, study, and memorize.
The process of reviewing and manipulating the course materials helps you master the material.
Preparing an outline forces you to think about the concepts, theories, and rules.

When to Outline

Some students outline weekly; others outline after the completion of each chapter or concept. Do what works for you, but whatever you do, DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. You may use differing approaches for different classes.
Once you begin your outline, keep up with it: set outlining goals.
Reserve time slots in your study schedule specifically for outlining: outlining takes longer than you may think.
Your outline should be complete by the start of the exam study period.

Outline Format

There are no format rules. Experiment to find what works for you.
Before selecting a format, think about the course material as a whole and consider the most logical and organized way to present such material.
Don't know where to start? Consider looking at the table of contents in your case book for ideas on how to organize the material. Use the headings in the book and fill in from your class notes.
Consider whether the exam will be open or closed book. For closed book exams, make the outline short enough to memorize. For open book exams, try a beefier outline with a table of contents, key word index, or tabs so you can quickly navigate the outline during the exam.
The format should help you analyze legal issues and create a framework for legal arguments.
Break concepts down into elements.
Organize by topic, not by cases (classify and synthesize the cases into groups).
Use cases and class hypotheticals to illustrate concepts.

Outline Essentials

The outline should contain:

All key points from every class
Every important case B not the whole brief, just key points from the brief
Don't forget note cases mentioned in class
Every rule of law, with variants, exceptions, minority/majority splits
Every legal theory and doctrine
Policy considerations (crucial for some professors)
All arguments and ideas learned during the semester (consider arguments for both sides of every issue)
Professor's buzz words, key phrasing
Anything the professor wrote on the board
Exam tips and strategies. (You can work out ahead of time what steps to go through in analyzing a given issue. This is an "attack sheet." )
Important hypotheticals from class.

Some Typical Outlining Mistakes

Failure to create your own outlines. (Wholesale reliance on commercial outlines or outline-swapping do you a disservice: you will not gain the in-depth knowledge of the material you need to do well on the exam. )
Failure to start outlining until November (or April).
Creating an outline that is too lengthy to commit to memory. (If your outline is unwieldy, try synthesizing a shorter capsule version that keys into the fuller version.)
Failure to break concepts down into elements.

Mastering the Study Tool BEFORE Taking the Exam

Memorize your outline; rehearse it as you would to prepare for a part in a play.
Use your outline to create other study aids: attack sheets, flash cards, flow charts, diagrams, tables or charts B whatever works for you. Each time you re-structure the material, you improve retention and understanding.
Use your outline while taking practice exams to reveal ways your outline is lacking so you can fix it before the actual exam, especially if the exam is to be open-book.

Questions? Please contact Janet Madden, room 117. (619) 260-2293 Madden@SanDiego.edu