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srckinase123 | 4 years ago

Always been fascinated by the precision and logic of legal writing. Could you go into more detail on how you would take notes and process the information and encode it into long-term memory? And how someone can improve their reading comprehension and recall of dense texts.

discuss

order

throwaway_isms|4 years ago

There is a process all law students are taught when reading case law I.R.A.C. (pronounced like the County Iraq). It stands for Issues Rules Application Conclusion. So there was a method to the madness that was provided to us.

So those would be the types of things students highlight/annotate in the margins, whereas more than 50% of the time I would draw pictures. That said I don't think I have ever met anyone who says making notes or even rewriting what they read doesn't help them memorize it, of course memorizing isn't always the goal.

Coincidentally the school I went to was majority Hispanic so one day in my study group there was an interesting discussion about the language everyone thinks in, no one asked for obvious reasons, but what I found interesting was I realized I don't really think in words but images.

To each their own, but thinking in images and drawing pictures for notes went hand in hand with recalling a given case/case law when examining or issue spotting a given set of facts in the future. I think the take away is not to do as I do, but consider your biases, strengths, weaknesses and work on them accordingly and leverage them to your benefit, and don't be afraid to adjust your own strategies as your skillset develops.

I am lucky in that I have that natural curiosity that I see talked about a lot on HN, I might even go so far as to say I am passionate about learning in general.