Do remember during high school or college when learning how to take notes, and someone mentioned how the Pareto Principle applies to note taking? The idea is to listen the majority of the time, say 80% and take notes very little, say 20% of the time. While writing things down is better for remembering than just listening, constant note taking causes you to miss points in class. This is especially true in law school where classes normally don’t come with clear outlines and visual aids. You’re expected to listen to not only the professor, but also your classmates. There’s so much follow in the average law school class that if you’re always focused on your laptop you’re bound to miss something.1
And yet you find so many stenographers in law school. Everyone feels a certain sense of embarrassment when they get cold called or volunteer an answer and way off base. But the feeling you get when someone is recording your incorrect contribution to the class is downright strange. Sure, sometimes a professor is intentionally leading the class down the wrong path to illustrate a point. But even if it’s by design, much of what is said in class is not going to so up on the exam. And yet you’ll find most of it on someone’s laptop.
As much as you can, try and limit how much note taking you’re doing. I’ll concede that there are people who need to be constantly recording the lecture in order to stay engaged. More often, writing a transcript of the discussion is getting in the way of listening. Try taking your hands, and placing them in your lap. This will cause you to think before you automatically start typing some minor point the professor made while missing the big important one the exam is going to focus on.
If you’re still deathly afraid of missing anything and nothing I say can make you feel better about it, my advice is to ask the professor if you can record the lecture.2 Buy a powerful digital recorder, use your computer mic (if it can pick up the professor), or even invest in something like a Livescribe pen. So much of law school is passive or lonely work. There’s one time you’re guaranteed to be learning with someone who knows the material inside and out: during class. Don’t waste that time by turning what can be engaging and insightful into a drone of words and keyboard clicking.
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Found this through Kristina Duncan (FriendFeed / Twitter). Thanks for addressing a topic that concerns me as I head back to school full time.
Alex
Thank you so much for posting this. My inclination was to do more listening than typing, but so many of my classmates are typing throughout the entire class, and I was beginning to wonder if I had my strategy all wrong. Now I feel much better, and there’s nothing like a little validation after suffering through your first week of law school.
And if you’re still worried about that, make friends with someone who is constantly typing and ask to compare outlines closer to finals. S/he’ll bring quantity, you’ll bring editing.
I am really worried about taking notes, but this actually helped me get over some of my fear. To try and help I’m going to stick to handwritten notes and then type them up at the end of every class as a review.