First and last law school midterm ever is tomorrow and ......

[T. Durden]

I have just found that my friend has prepared A FORTY FIVE PAGE OUTLINE

for one class

covering six weeks of material

does this strike anyone else as absurd?

my outline is 6 pages. it makes sense.

the warpig needs to know.

[nate]

i think your friend will find out tomorrow that the point of outlining is to synthesize the class, and to simplify the book...not to write your own. your friend will spend most of her time shuffling through an outline that makes no sense under pressure.

what i'm wondering though is, are you feeling comfortable with 6 pages for the material from the first half of the semester? i had figured that one page per week was a good average. any opinions?

and of course, good luck!

[jimmyjohn]

My friend did the same thing for our civ. pro midterm last week.  He had 15 pages on one chapter (personal jurisdiction) alone! I think he basically copied all of his case briefs and combined them with the professor's class notes.  We have covered about 5 chapters so far, so if he continued at the pace he would have had 75 pages (!) for the first half of school. And this is civ pro, where there are fewer subject matters (no pun) and concepts than something like property.  Anyway, I didn't tell him he was crazy, but maybe he'll figure it out on his own.

[T. Durden]

i feel very comfortable with my six page outline - seems to hit the basic facts and major rules of law, etc.

in fact, my DF provided us with 4 or 5 outlines from people have received A's in the class

some were as short as fifteen pages for the semester, but none were any longer than 30. i think the page per week is a good rule of thumb to  stick by.

i still can't believe my friend with the 45 pager ... SIX WEEKS OF CLASS ...

[lipper]

yeah, even for civ pro, a 45 pager is excessive. my outline for the whole semester last year was 50 pages.

[MidWestLawGril]

There is nothing wrong with an excessively short or long outline.  It's yours to use and understand.  My outlines are much longer than everyone elses, but I organize them well and use tabs to mark my sections, so I can easily find things. (I'm a 2L and I'm in the top 5%)

My long outlines can go up to 100 pages, then I make very short ones to refer to quickly in the exam.  Everyone has a different method. If your outline is very long or very short, I am sure it is fine as long as it has everything YOU need to be in it.

[bruin04]

i feel very comfortable with my six page outline - seems to hit the basic facts and major rules of law, etc.

in fact, my DF provided us with 4 or 5 outlines from people have received A's in the class

some were as short as fifteen pages for the semester, but none were any longer than 30. i think the page per week is a good rule of thumb to  stick by.

i still can't believe my friend with the 45 pager ... SIX WEEKS OF CLASS ...

Yes, that seems a bit extreme for a midterm. My midterm outline was maybe a few pages; fine for me, as my goal was to simply go through and synthesize the material again before the exam. Whatever works to best review/reprocess the class, I say.

[giraffe205]

There's nothing wrong w/ having a long outline so long as it is organized. It sounds like your friend did not organize it but rather just slapped notes together and is hoping that it'll click when he reads it over.

Don't you hate how in your first year all these little things bother you. One person had a whole separate outline of the Restatement for Torts. Thinking of stuff like that will drive you nuts.

[aey4l]

What school do you go to?? Just curious.