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I'm no expert on taking notes for law classes by any means, but my mock exams for my law conversion course (yes, you heard me right!) are right around the corner. The fact that I found the time to type this at all is a miracle – I'm drowning in Latin terms and cases I'll forget as soon as I read.

To prepare, I've got a bit of catch-up reading to do, as well as some revision. But on top of it all, I've got to reorganise my notes. The past three weeks have taught me a lot about how I learn, what's expected of me, and how I'm being examined – information that I now intend to put into practice.

So here are some of the things I'll be doing to refine my law notes moving forward – and how you can too.

Working backwards

I've said this in a previous article, but I think the best way to succeed in a course is by understanding how you'll be examined, and then basing your notes around that. Unfortunately, given how much of a kerfuffle this past half term has had me in, I haven't been able to do that to the best of my ability. But now that my mocks are approaching, I think it's the perfect time to revisit the syllabus, check out some past papers, and reorganise my bucketload of notes from the past three weeks.

It helps to know what's expected of you. For my exams – both the mocks and the finals – I know that I'll either be doing short, scenario-based questions (Single Best Answer Questions or SBAQs) or a long-form, argumentative essay (either in the form of a presentation, coursework, or a single timed question).

From that, I've been able to extract two main things I'm being tested on:

1. Legal knowledge (how well do I know my stuff?)
   1. This, too, can be broken down into smaller bits. Based on my seminars, I've concluded that I mainly need to know:
      1. legal principles;
      2. legal terms and their textbook definitions;
      3. the relevant cases (or, occasionally, statutes) to evidence those principles; and
      4. an understanding of how these all work together.
2. The ability to APPLY that knowledge to new scenarios
   1. And structure that application appropriately - you're tested on organisation as well as content and conclusion.

From here on out, I've structured this article according to these two foundational topics – legal knowledge and application. The first half will deal with the former, giving tips specific to memorisation and note-taking; while the latter half, dealing with application, will deal instead with developing and improving practical legal and test-taking skills.

Legal knowledge 

This bit is all about memorisation – and organisation. If your exams are open book, then the latter applies: making sure your notes are easy to navigate under the duress of timed exam conditions, and that they contain everything you need. If your exams are closed book, then the emphasis is, of course, on finding efficient ways to learn and remember the concepts you're taught.

Some things you can do to help include:

Revisiting the syllabus

The syllabus is useful for two main things: firstly, knowing what you're going to be examined on and how you're going to be examined and, secondly, providing a checklist for you to go through pre-exams to make sure you're at the very least aware of everything that you could be examined on. What I'll be doing is going through my syllabus with a traffic-light system of highlighters – red, amber, green – and identifying which elements I'm familiar with, and which, in my opinion, need more work!

Assessment criteria

The same goes for assessment criteria – though, unlike the syllabus, they're often deliberately quite vague and mysterious, especially if you're new to a discipline. Rather than fixating on how cryptic and enigmatic it is, however, you're better off just keeping the basic criteria in mind. What are you being tested on? For most courses, it's going to be some combination of the following things:

• knowledge (terminology and cases);
• correct application;
• organisation; and
• usually, spelling and grammar.

With my BA English already tucked under my belt, I'm not particularly fearful of the latter two – and you shouldn't be, either. Make sure you know those legal terms, definitions, and spellings like the back of your hand – you don't want to lose those easy marks!

Layout 

Currently, my notes are split between two locations: Quizlet for main info, and a OneNote table for my cases. Organised as it is, this has proved to be a challenging combination – tucking my cases away into their digital corner often means I forget about them and look around, cluelessly, at others during my workshops. No more! From now, I'll be looking for better ways to summarise all the relevant information – terms, principles, cases, and all – in a funky little grid, set out according to the requirements of the syllabus, and revising from that instead. Let's just hope it works – I guess it's a good thing my mocks don't count for much…

Another tip for better organisation is colour-coding: something I've been meaning, but rather inconveniently forgetting, to do. Now that I'm a little way along the course, I have a better grip on the kinds of things I need to include in my notes – so I'll be colour-coding four main things:

• important terms and definitions;
• legal principles;
• cases/statutes;
• and extra tips.

Legal application

Practice

Now that we've addressed legal knowledge, it's time to move onto our application skills. The most important thing I've learned (during my GCSEs, which were, in fact, quite a while ago) is that practice papers are the root of all success. Particularly for a subject like law, where application of information to novel and nuanced situations, angled to benefit a client, is a core skill – practice questions should become your best friend. Practice questions can serve as a method of active revision – make sure you correct your mistakes though!

Structure

It's still the early days of my legal journey, but even I've heard about IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) a couple of times. It's a structure of important points you can apply to a scenario (or essay) – first, addressing the issue, outlining the relevant legal rule, explaining and applying it, and concluding with the necessary next steps. Using this structure – especially if you're, like me, still in the early stages of getting to grips with law – provides a useful framework for organising your responses, both in classes and in essays.

Will I have time to perfect everything before my mocks? Probably not. But I'm hoping I can at least work some changes into my notes and, more importantly, use this experience to assess what I need to work on in advance of  my real, graded exams. There's no 'right' or 'wrong' way when it comes to legal note-taking – the single most helpful thing you can do is assess how you learn, and try to find creative ways to cater to that framework. Hopefully, though, this article has given you some ideas – both on things to include and, potentially, where to start.