Effective Study Strategies to Excel in Your Law Degree - PUSTAKAGAYO

 

Pursuing a law degree is undoubtedly challenging, demanding time, resilience, creativity, and intellect. Nevertheless, reaching this stage indicates that you possess the qualities and abilities needed to succeed. Here are some essential revision and study techniques to assist you in achieving your goal.

Building A Second Brain

The term "second brain" refers to an "external, centralized, digital repository for knowledge and information you acquire." Creating a second brain involves storing vital information in a readily accessible location for our future selves, acting as the repository. This often entails relying on technology to handle the task of remembering.

How To Build A Second Brain

Here are some steps to follow for building your second brain:

1. Choose a platform and capture tools for storing your ideas/notes (e.g., Notion, OneNote, voice recordings, etc.).
2. Organize your knowledge into categories, considering what types of categories will benefit your future self.
3. Be flexible and avoid over-analyzing the organization; start with simplicity based on what would be most useful to you.
4. Be strategic and minimal in capturing information, preventing your second brain from becoming overloaded.
5. Make strategic decisions about the resources you consume, rather than passively reacting to information.

This Technique Will Help You:

By implementing the following practices, you can achieve the following benefits:

1. Minimize information overload and burnout.
2. Establish a reliable system that allows you to relax more.
3. Spend less time searching for information and materials.
4. Reduce the time needed to start revising, as successful revision benefits from not starting from a blank slate!

Practical tip: For essay-based modules, once you've chosen your essay topic, create a dedicated folder or page to build your repository. Here, gather any notes you've taken on the subject during the module and any other important sources. To organize this information effectively, consider using a table format, where each column covers a specific point or subject area, and add your information and sources to the relevant sections.

When it's time to write your essay, you'll find it more organized, and you won't feel as if you lack sufficient sources. It's also advisable to include an official footnote for each source as you add the information, saving you time when you're ready to submit your work.

Balancing Study & Practise

One of the most crucial aspects to keep in mind is the balance between consuming information and applying the knowledge you've learned. As a law student, merely regurgitating correct information will limit you to a 2:1 grade. First-class students excel in connecting ideas and using their knowledge to offer practical solutions to legal issues.

So, how can you develop this skill? Merely memorizing module content is insufficient; you must know how to apply it in your exam and essay answers. To practice honing this ability, engage in activities like attempting practice questions, past papers, and essays.

Practical tip for exams: Allocate specific hours in a day to revise your exam-based subject. After each revision session, complete a past paper under timed conditions to gauge your preparedness for the exam. Using practice papers during intervals is an effective way to shift your knowledge from automated memorization to active recall.

Practical tip for essays: Once you've conducted a standard amount of research, try drafting a concise essay on your topic. Some universities offer formative assessments that teachers will evaluate. In both cases, seek as much feedback as possible from your teacher to gauge your progress towards achieving your assessment or module goal.

The Feynman Technique

The Feynman Technique is a four-step learning approach that prioritizes genuine understanding rather than mere memorization. Essentially, by teaching others or explaining a subject to an external source, you can refine your knowledge through trial and error and self-discovery. If teaching someone else is not an option, you can apply this method to yourself, but it will necessitate honesty and self-accountability.

The Four-step Process Of The Feynman Technique:

Here is the rewritten version of the steps:

1. Select a concept to learn.
2. Teach it to yourself or someone else.
3. Refer back to the source material if you encounter difficulties.
4. After teaching, revisit and find ways to simplify your explanations or create creative analogies to enhance information recall.

Benefits Of The Feynman Technique:

Benefits of the technique:

1. Promotes active engagement with learning.
2. Allows continuous refinement of knowledge.
3. External explanation prevents self-deception about understanding.
4. Enhances critical thinking skills.

Practical tip: Prepare a concise presentation/lesson plan on an A4 paper, deliver it, and then reflect on any crucial points you may have missed or struggled to explain.

The Regurgitation/Blurting Method

This method shares similarities with the Feynman Technique but has some key differences. The blurting method involves writing down everything you remember about a topic and identifying any knowledge gaps.

Practical tip: Assign different colored pens to key elements of an exam/essay, such as points, evidence, analysis, etc. If you're using this technique individually, take time to write down information for each pen on an A4 paper. If done in a group, one person completes blurting with one pen, then passes it to the next person to add another element with the allocated pen.

You can use one piece of paper for the entire group or have each person cover a different topic on separate papers that are passed around. Timing the process and giving each other a few minutes encourages writing only the most crucial information.

To excel in your law degree, organization, creativity, and proactivity are crucial. Building a second brain is an effective way to store and access information quickly, reducing the time spent searching for resources. Balancing studying and practice is also important to develop the skills needed to apply legal knowledge in real-life situations. The Feynman Technique and Regurgitation Method are helpful revision techniques to gain a better understanding of topics and points. Give these student-recommended study techniques a try to enhance your efficiency and achieve success in your future law career.