For example, in first-year torts, you generally have 900 pages of case law to digest. BTW, law is a liberal art, so try to grasp the concept that everything in life is connected with everything else.

How to condense: a 20-page case, is eventually condensed to one point. Start with the syllabus. Suppose 20 general topics, each with 5 or 6 subtopics. This week is topics 1 and 2, today is topic 1, which includes 5 subtopics. Read case law once, always annotating as you go (as little as possible), transcribe notes. Go to class, take notes. Study group occasionally. Condense your notes daily. If you have 10 pages (excessive), condense (summarize) it to 2. At the end of the week, if you have 10 pages of condensed notes, condense it to 2. At the end of the month, if you have 10 pages, condense it. They’re sometimes called “outlines” but I think of them as condensed annotated notes (CANs). By the end of the end of the term, you should have condensed the entire content to 2 pages: Simplified syllabus/case list, followed by point. If not, you’re going to be FUBAR on the exam.

What I’ve generally used to learned wrote info (like languages) and solve problems is what I call multi-tasking. For example, a language might have many components, like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, conversation, reading/writing, etc. Multi-tasking is to use all material simultaneously: Look at some grammar, then some vocabulary, then practice some pronunciation, then some conversation, then some writing. Then look at grammar again, refreshing as necessary. (I can study 24-hrs straight without loosing focus, and learn an entire first-year course). And I’m not smart. So don’t study harder, study smarter.

The way we use multi-tasking to solve problems, is by tricking our minds to unwittingly do all the work. Just let yourself “sleep on it”. There’s no such thing as too much work. Just DL it to your mind and do other things. Your mind will work out the solutions without much work on your part. You just have to ask yourself the right question: How can I solve this? And then let your mind crunch the numbers by itself. In my opinion, we should expose ourselves to as much info as possible, cause everything in life’s inter-related.

BTW, great post Scott. You’re defo on track, and taught me a lot. So, never mind the nay-sayers. They’re afraid of the unknown, so would rather cling to the safety of their “I just can’t understand it, so I need to work harder” (rather than to work smarter) ideology.