reading notes for civ pro

[nate]

can someone who has done well in civil procedure please explain their study techniques to me? how did you read, take notes on the reading, take class notes, outline, etc? i'm worried about it because studying for other classes seems so straight forward, while it's really frustrating me with this one. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JD_MSA]

I briefed each rule sort of like briefing a case.  Admittedly, this wasn't my own idea, because my professor made us do it and turn them in every so often.  I found it so helpful that I ended up doing it for most of the rules that we studied. 

Here's a example for Rule 68:

PARTIES: Defending parties
ACTION: Settlement
CIRCUMSTANCES:
•   If offer accepted, either party may file, clerk enters J
•   If offer not accepted, it is withdrawn/inadmissible
•   If final J is not more favorable than offer, offeree pays post-offer costs
•   Subsequent offers OK
TIMING:
Pre-trial: More than 10 days before trial
Post-J: not less than 10 days before liability hearing
SANCTIONS: None specified

[lawgirl]

can someone who has done well in civil procedure please explain their study techniques to me? how did you read, take notes on the reading, take class notes, outline, etc? i'm worried about it because studying for other classes seems so straight forward, while it's really frustrating me with this one. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Each person will find their own way to work with the material. Try several approaches to see what works for you.

I actually did it by keeping in mind what I wanted to see when I was studying for the exam. When we were working on a specific rule, I would usually retype the rule in outline form so I could see how the rule breaks down (civ pro rules often have a lot more information in one sentence than it seems at first). I would study the rule and then take notes in class on what the professor said about the rule. Later, when we were done with that rule, I would outline the rule again (emphasizing things that were obviously important and leaving out things that were not important) and also stick in the explanations from class on particular passages in the rule.

Later, when I did an outline for the class I used this condensed form of the rule to put in my outline. Also, in civ pro, it is very important to see the overall bigger concepts of how each rule works with other rules, the overall structure of the rules in general, etc. Pay particular attention to your course outline and syllabus from the book and the structure of the rules. Understand each rule individually, but see how the rules are structured overall to see the big picture.

That said, I do like what the above poster did with his example. Just keep working with it. You will get it. Statutory based classes were always harder for me to outline.