Hey, Y’all! Legally Complicated here. The topic I will be discussing in this blog is Supplement v. Replacement. In short, this blog will give my take on supplemental materials and how to use them effectively so you can succeed in law school!
I have always been told to use out of class material that you bought on Amazon or maybe received from another law student as a supplement NOT a replacement for what you write down or type in class. I 100% agree with this statement. I am not saying do not use the material or gather the material AT ALL because I am a big advocate for using all your resources. However, what you do with that material is the part I am focusing on. I always collect outlines from 3Ls and law students at different schools. I do this because sometimes you may not fully understand the concept of how your professor taught it and need some clarification so you can see it from a different lens. So, gather all the outlines and maybe purchase a commercial outline. But, do not SOLELY rely on those outlines because you should be creating your own material to study from.
People will often say, “here is an amazing outline and the person who did this outline got an A.” While that may be true, they probably got an A because they created the outline from scratch and spent some time with it in preparation for finals. You should still be preparing your own material although you may have other outlines outside of class. For example, I had a lot of different outlines for Con Law I and II. I looked at those outlines A LOT, but I still created my own flowchart regarding the Commerce Clause, Dormant Commerce Clause, Preemption, etc. Creating my own flashcards, flowcharts, and outlines allow me to organize the material in a way that makes sense to me. Writing it out multiple times is what helps me succeed going through law school.
In summary, get those outlines and utilize them. However, do not SOLELY rely on the outline. Try to make sure own study materials!
Legally Complicated 