Coming into law school, I had heard how important outlining was, but I didn’t really know where to start. First semester was pretty much trial and error, and I have done a much better job of staying on top of outlining this semester. I thought I’d share a few tips for outlining in law school that I wish someone would have told me before I went to law school. Enjoy!

1. Start Early – I cannot stress the importance of outlining early enough. I started pretty early last semester, but I still saved way too much for reading week which creating a ton of unnecessary stress. I also found that several people in my section did not start outlining at all until reading week, and there is simply not enough time to do this. Reading week can be used in more productive ways such as going to office hours and doing practice exam questions. For my two classes that had midterms, I outlined throughout the semester, starting about a month into the semester. But for my property class I didn’t outline until a couple of weeks before finals which was horrible and caused me to have to get by on little sleep. I would recommend starting to outline the first week of the semester and staying on top of it either daily or weekly for each class. I’ve been doing that this semester and I feel so much better about where my outlines are at.
2. Use Your Syllabus to Create Your Outline – As soon as you get your syllabus, I would recommend using how your professor categorizes the course to organize your outline. This makes it very simple to add your readings and notes to your outline throughout the semester.
3. Outline Daily or Weekly – You could outline every day after your classes and add your notes and cases to the outline, but what I prefer to do is add to my outline weekly. I sit down on the weekends and add my notes and cases into my outline. Outlining can be mundane and I can’t stick to doing it every day, so I’ve found that weekly is a good frequency for me and still allows me to stay on track.
4. Combine Your Class and Reading Notes – Before I add to my outline, I combine my reading notes and my class notes. Doing this ensures that I’m not repeating anything, and it also helps me make sure that nothing in my notes is contradictory.
5. Utilize Commercial Outlines – This is a bit controversial, because most professors will discourage the use of commercial outlines. But for me, commercial outlines have been a life saver for me this year. I plan on doing a post on my favorite outlines for each 1L course so stay tuned for that. These aren’t a replacement for creating your own outline, and they typically are way more detailed than your professor will cover in class. I use these to read through a topic before we discuss it in class in order to have some knowledge on the topic prior to learning it in class. I also use these when I’m outlining if there is something I’ve missed or don’t understand and need to fill a gap in my outline. Just remember that even if you don’t want to use commercial outlines, your classmates will be using them, and that can be a disadvantage to you. Don’t overuse commercial outlines, but I would highly recommend them.