Well, let me know how your 1L grades turn out, because many of those in the top of your class won't have outlined anything on their own. Sure, the prof. can test nuances, but 90% of the time, knowing the black letter law and how to apply it will get you the best grade. For better or worse, law school is about shortcuts to a certain extent.
Meh. It depends on the student. The problem most have isn't with knowing the black letter law, it's with the application of it to the hypothetical in question. The top student in our class refused to touch a commercial brief or canned outline. For class work and prep materials he stuck with doing his own briefs, looking at the Restatements, his own outline and reputable hornbooks (for the subtle issues.) Talking to him about it, he made a few points: a) briefing and outlining were in themselves exercises in being clear on the law and its application, b) a lot of students were getting so many supplemental sources that they just confused themselves with it all and c) he memorized the law that way through learning it, rather than the other way around, which meant that anything he had memorized was something he truly understood.
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