Digesting Cases in My Brain

As a law student we are bound to read countless cases, some interesting, some crazy, and quite some horrifying (criminal cases give me nightmares).  That is an understatement my dears.  During my earlier years in law school I would dread those classes (and professors) who assign 20-30 cases per session.  On a lucky semester,  I get to multiply that number by 3 or 4, that's almost 100 cases each day!

Then I realize that I should not look at case reading as a terrible experience and forcefully convinced myself that it should be a pain I ought to be looking forward to.  Just enjoy it to the fullest in the same way that I enjoy reading my Facebook timeline or as interesting as stalking my party-mates on IG.   From then on,  I started viewing this activity as an opportunity to learn about the 'chismis' of strangers' lives.   You bet this change in perspective made my life a lot easier!

Do the 'full monty' baby

As a rule,   I would read the full text and no, I am not being barbaric to myself.  There is something so fulfilling when you know you are not missing out on some useless details in each case.  Digests would be helpful if I did them in the first place.  I would only look at others digest as a last resort, or in emergency cases.  In fact, I seldom join digest groups because,  I just find it so limiting.  

I think I wrote a post about how to easily find the important points of every case you read.  Despite this,  I do not discount the power of other peoples digests when the full text is super lengthy or when I have a hard time finding the issues.  

How I Do Digests in my brain

Lately,  due to other commitments (like partying and doing my hair and makeup on a daily basis),  I am unable to spend much time doing case digests.  To resolve this,  I discovered an easier way to do it,  doing brain digests! This is how I do it.  Follow at your own risk!

a. Read the case, make a mental note of the important points, facts, issues, rulings.  Then I would go over it if there are some points that I forget or clarify. 

b. On the day itself, I would skim again and just focus on the main points.  

c.  If I still have time,  I guess by the third skimming, the brain is quite familiar with the important points and that's it.  Digest in my brain, no sweat!

Whys

1) I don't have much time

The thing is, digesting or summarizing cases takes time when you have to read then do an outline, and put it in writing or encode it.  For the past year,  I have done my case readings either the day or night before a class.  I do not get the hardcopy, I just make do with the online version because you save on ink and paper by doing so. 

2) I'm not rich enough to have a secretary or PA to gather my notes into an intelligible and organized whole

For one, I am not really good at note taking. I get distracted when I take notes.  I don't even have a proper notebook or note taking system.  Aside from the distraction, even if I get myself some notepad, I would either forget or lose it so what's the point?

Come exam time, somehow my brain retains those bits of digest.  In some weird twist I can recall infos and issues.   It works for me.   Mind you, I am just an average student,  I just find a way to learn things differently by trial and error method.  I guess you just have to find a way that will make it easier for you to survive your case assignments.   This is mine.

Nevertheless,  one of these days, I might get down and gather all these cases in my head to add to the case digest section of this blog for those emergency times, you know.  If you find this post enlightening or worth sharing don't be shy to share it in your social media or just click on the 'Follow' button on my Google+ located in the upper right side of this page, believe me, it would be the best decision you have ever made in your entire day. ;P

5 Tips to Acing Your Law Midterm Exams Week

I dunno about you guys but since my load is so light this semester I am actually super excited for my midterms exams week. Since I actually read my materials faithfully this semester (a miracle),  I think I will just be needing little time to review them for the exams. I can understand the stress of those taking full load or overload this semester and I feel for you.

Exams week is definitely a time for law students to do more sleepless nights, drink more coffee and do stuff that normal people not in law school often see in movies.  I remember there were days before that I would not sleep for 2-3 days!

Stress is also very high on these week so if you know someone, a member of the family a bf/gf who is in law school, kindly give them more patience and understanding at these times.  For good measure, give them time to be alone (as if we don't do much alone time with our books already) to make and or review those outlines they painstakenly made for easier recall.  In fact, it would be great if you forget we do not exist in this world for a week.

Here are my few cents on how to survive your midterms exams week:

1. Cramming works only for some people.

Anyways, I hope everybody who are cramming for the exams will remember everything you read during your exam.  Cramming can work for some people (including me) but a better way to study is just really do your readings on regular days and not 3 days before the exams.

2.  Log off or lessen your social media 

I know it is hard but I admit that FaceBook and Twitter are great time-eaters.  During exams week,  I would suggest logging off or limiting your time to say 5 minutes per day to any of these social networks.  This long weekend, I actually logged off my my personal FB account just so I can spend more time to my books.

3.  Get some R & R before the actual exams week.

All study and no pay will make you a dull law student so take some time off this weekend for a movie, a chat, trip to the spa or any activity that will relax you brain a bit before going to 'war.' Trust me, it helps!  I am actually thinking of partying this weekend.  I hope my pre-exams night will push through!

4.  Get some sleep!

Okay this is really impossible for some people but sleeping will actually help you function more effectively during exams.  Thus, it will aid you in remembering stuff.  Being awake 24 hours or more before an exams is disaster and I am sure you'll agree.  I have experienced my mind going blank over a simple question as if my brain hang like a PC just because I did not sleep the night before.

5.  Do light exercises to improve blood circulation.

I would suggest you do light cardio, a 30 minute jog or briskwalk just around your neighborhood to get you blood circulation pumped up.  Your brain and heart will love it.  A healthy brain and heart is essential to surviving law school.

I would often budget my time when reading and take a break whenever I feel that I can no longer understand the text in front of me.  (You know that when you just read a paragraph over and over and it doesn't register anymore.)  Since I am a fond of fitness,  I would sometimes lift some weights during breaks just to break the monotony. It actually pushes me to read faster and understand better because I am now looking forward to hitting my fitness goal for the day during my study break!

Here's a crazy tip I started doing this myself since 2 weeks ago.   I would read in my bed and actually do sets of crunches while at it. Make sure you are lying on a flat surface while reading, no pillows under your head then start raising your legs until they are perpendicular to the your torso, that's it!  It is hard at first but you will get used to it and end up having a tighter abs if you do it regularly.  That's like hitting two birds in one stone.

Good luck guys! We shall slay these exams! :)


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The Blogger
Hi! I'm a law student from Manila, Philippines.  I did Political Science, then Industrial Relations major in H.R. (postgrad) studies from UP.  I vlog, weightlift, experiment with new makeup looks, try Bollywood and bellydance steps, and rant about my cray life in my YouTube channel.  Once in a blue moon, I create content for another YT channel,  10+ blogs,  20+ FB pages and in HubPages.  Check out my official site.  

The Value of Speed Reading in Law School

Speed reading should be one of the basic weapons in your arsenal as a law student. It significantly reduces time spent on studying. Law school means tackling voluminous reading materials on a regular basis and this is where speed reading becomes handy.

Learning how to speed read is pretty easy when you know the basics. First thing, you need to learn to put yourself under some sort of stress by setting a definite time to finish a specific number of pages. I do this by, say, I need to finish 300 pages of textbook in 2 hours.

Then, you have to train your eye to spot on words that are relevant, while merely skimming over the not-so relevant mumbo-jumbo of (articles, conjunctions, etc.), and simultaneously making a mental note of important points in what you are reading. In goes like this, it is akin to jotting important ideas and notes in your head and mentally highlighting them, in you mind that is. In short, teach your brain to multi-task. I do a mental bulleted version or mental highlighting of those phrases and words that are worthy of remembering.

Finally, after you put down that volume of material, review and recall the important points. If some ideas are still unclear or you miss out some pertinent stuff in the reading material, go over it fast, of course.

So there, that's how speed reading saves me time. It is very helpful when you try to read voluminous books before a class or before your exam. I often do two readings in order to reinforce what was read the first time, and for better results and retention.

I once had to finish a 500-600 page Prof. Balane book in 4-5 hours, I didn't have much time left since my exam is the day after. With speed reading I was able to do a second reading of that same book all in one day. Isn't that great?

For more help in training yourself how to speed read, the Extreme Speed Reading E-Book might be a good idea for you to try. There are also online accelerated reading training courses that you could try like SpeedReaderX.