Lifehack: Advice for Students on Taking Notes
Lifehack.org has an interesting post on Taking Notes that Work. Probably pretty applicable for law school students.
I think a lot of people, students and professionals alike, attempt to capture a complete record of a lecture, book, or meeting in their notes — to create, in effect, minutes. This is a recipe for failure. Trying to get every last fact and figure down like that leaves no room for thinking about what you’re writing and how it fits together.
I’m going to try the first bit which generally says to just focus on the new stuff you’re learning; don’t write down the stuff you already know.
Your focus while taking notes should be two-fold. First, what’s new to you? There’s no point in writing down facts you already know. If you already know the Declaration of Independence was written and signed in 1776, there’s no reason to write that down. Anything you know you know you can leave out of your notes.