How I’ve Been Outlining as a 1L

When preparing for my 1L year, I made sure to seek advice and mentorship from an array of upper-year law students and graduates, in order to build productive study habits right off the bat. The most common advice I was given was to start outlining as early as possible, rather than waiting until right before the exam period to start. I had so many questions. What is outlining? Why is it so important? How do I approach outlining?

In the weeks leading up to my first day of classes, I researched outlining (through a mix of articles, YouTube videos, and Instagram posts) and in this article, I want to share my reasoning and approach to outlining.

What is an Outline?

To start, “outline” is a term you might have heard of before, whether it be from your professors or from members of your study group asking if anyone has received outlines from upper-year students. Simply, an outline is a single document synthesizing class notes, reading notes, and case briefs to refer to during law school exams. Many (if not all) of your law school exams will be open-note, so having a single document that contains all of the information you’ll need for your exam, that can be referred to in an organized and easily-navigable format, is of great importance. At its core, outlining is the bridge between your daily preparation for class and exams.

Starting to prepare for exams so early in the semester might seem unnecessary or like something only brown-nosers do, but I’ll explain why that’s not necessarily the case, and why starting your outlines sooner will make your life much easier.

Why do I Outline?

I outline for four main reasons:

1. Outlining helps me ensure I understand each of the main concepts discussed in class throughout the year — and gives me time to clarify with my professor if there’s anything that I don’t understand.
2. Re-writing my notes at the end of each week helps with review and retainment of important concepts.
3. Outlining develops my analysis.
4. Outlining gradually helps me prepare for exams throughout the semester.

According to lawschoolacademicsuccess.com: “Outlining is synthesis — this is the point in the course when you start putting together the pieces of the puzzle. As you create the outline, you learn the material in the process.”

Primarily, outlining encourages me to ensure I actually am understanding the concepts I am taught in class, as transferring my class notes to my outline forces me to determine what the key points from class are and how they relate to larger underlying themes. In addition, re-typing out the points from my class notes also helps me with knowledge retention.

According to the American Psychological Association, one of the main secrets of learning and retention is processing your notes after class. Filling in the gaps from what you’ve just learned in class forces you to synthesize the material you were taught, and ensure you actually understand what you just learned. For this reason, the outlining process also develops my analysis of the course materials.

Finally, outlining ensures that I identify any topics or ideas that I am confused about, which I can then bring up to my professor during office hours. Professors tend to get much busier around exam time than they are during the semester, so asking these questions earlier is beneficial to ensure that you understand everything prior to the exam. Further, gradually learning and solidifying understanding of class concepts throughout the semester rather than cramming right before exams, takes some pressure off of what will inevitably be an incredibly stressful time.

How do I Outline?

I am currently working on the outlines for three of my classes: Torts, Criminal Law, and Contracts. I personally outline in the following way:

• First, I look at outlines from the database published by Osgoode’s Student Society (check to see if your school has an outline database as well!) and outlines that were graciously gifted to me by upper years, to see which structure/formatting would work best with my learning style.
• Then, I have my class and reading notes open along with my outline document.
• Divide each class into its own heading and each concept within that class into a separate subheading.
• Then, I would read my notes and pick out the most important ideas/concepts and then type them into the outline (just copying and pasting is pointless — the main point is that I have to identify the most important concepts of the notes and then rewrite them).
• Colour-code the outline. For example, I highlight yellow for important ideas, red for cases, and bold for important concepts.
• If there is a concept in my notes that I do not fully understand, I will underline it and then go to the professor’s office hours to clarify the concept. Once it has been fully explained to me, I transfer the notes on that concept into my outline!

When do I Outline?

Currently, I try to synthesize each week’s notes every Friday, as this is my day off. However, this does not always happen! Even in my short law school experience so far, there are some weeks when I have been on top of my game and finished all three of my outlines on Fridays, and others when I just want to watch Netflix and push outlining off until a later date. Even my Academic Dean, who I chatted about outlining with during an academic advising session, told me not to beat myself up if I fall behind a week or two on my outlining, but that attempting to outline every Friday is a good goal to start off with.

Conclusion

I hope my tips for outlining were helpful! Remember, everyone learns differently, and there is no singular way to study. Perhaps you are more of a visual learner and learn better from pictures rather than words, or maybe you’re someone who has such a solid understanding of the law that you don’t even need a detailed outline (if that’s you — just know that I am super jealous). This article just described my methods and can be amended in many ways in order to fit your personal learning style.