I would like five (5) first-year students to send me a current outline for each of the subjects listed. I want a total of five (5) outlines. I do not want five (5) people to send me five (5) outlines, each. One person equals one outline. I would like to include a portion of each outline in its current form on the blog, then incorporate some changes in the outline to help make it more understandable for the reader. Please send the outline to TheBarExamCoach@aol.com. I will take the first five (5) outlines I receive, and I will inform everyone on the blog when I have received the first five. I will start with the Constitutional Law outline and work my through various parts of different outlines, ending with Property.
Some pointers on outlines.
1. Organizational Tool: an outline is an organizational tool, written in a particularly, structured format that best helps the author understand a number of issues related to one area of substantive law.
2. The Author’s Creation: It is important that the author create her own outline. We tend to understand, remember and comprehend our own written work. However, the author should not shy away from guidance from other outlines (student assisted, or commercial) to provide her with direction or confirmation. This is your first year of law school, and there are areas of the law that you may not be completely certain of, yet. You are not alone. Verification with the help of other authorities is not a bad thing.
3. Includes Progression of the Law or Just Today’s Law? The outline should contain information of what the law used to be (in 1877), and the law, as it stands today (2010). It is important to understand how the law has developed over a 113 year period. Why?
Two Reasons
a. Policy - if your professor teaches policy with substance, then you can track the progression of the law and how the law has followed policy, or whether the policy behind the law has changed over a particular time period (eg., 113 year period).
b. Future - the ability to track the law’s progression (eg., over a 113 year period) will help you project how the law will develop in the future. Some professors will include a question on an exam that has never been asked or answered because the issue has never come before a court. It is important - then - that you are able to articulate the past and current history of the law and make some showing to the professor why you think the law will move in the direction that you provided as your answer. You cannot provide an answer where you think the law will be in 10 or 20 years, if you do not know the current roadmap of the law, today.
4. Repetition: an outline is supposed to be an add-on document, not constant repetition of the same idea over and over again. The outline should reflect the course. The professor begins with one concept at the start of the year and ends with another on the last day of the class.
5. Tested Material: An outline ideally should include an overview of the course; this "overview" includes the material that you believe will most likely be covered on the exam. It blows my mind that a person will spend a page defining intent," (for example, in intentional torts), but will not spend nearly half that much on time on a complete definition of false imprisonment, especially the "enclosed" portion of the definition. You have to understand what really matters on exams. You also have to force yourself to move on when you are writing the outline, instead of fiddling around with areas and concepts that you are 99% certain won't be on the exam.
5. Adding On: I want to add to this list, and actually include a few pages of an outline on the blog. So, send me your outlines, first-year class.
Thank you,,
Prof. Smith
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