I came across a post at All4jds.com., a website comprised of forums dealing with lawschool, bar exam, and lawyering related topics. So, when of the posts was about how to increase memory. A poster replied and posted a link to his company page http://lawprism.com/. Basically, he runs a california company and helps people prepare for the "California bar exam" and the "Baby bar." He did this lecture, which you can access Here . It's two hours but definitely worth listening to.
Towards the end he talked about how he studied for the "Baby bar" or "First year law school exam" in California. [For those who don't know, California allows people to go to California accredited lawschools for a year or 2 and take an examination which will give them a license to practice law in the State of California only.] So, at the end he said he was down to 72 or so hours, If I remember correctly, and proceeded to type the rules out 15-20 times in order to achieve rote memorization of the necessary rules. He didn't advocate this approach for the regular bar exam.
I was down to about 20 days. I was panicking and I knew I had to memorize. I stopped doing practice MBE questions and writing essays. I picked up outlines and started to read them and repeat them to myself, because, although painstaking and not efficient, I didn't know what else to do. I was able to memorize some things but the memory traces were not as strong as I knew I needed them to be to achieve success.
So, with about 10 days left, I came across that lecture, pro gratis, of course. I listened to the whole thing. It was a topic I had been researching for a while and it was of interest to me. I began to employ that technique of typing everything out.
I couldn't type everything. First of all, there wasn't enough time at that point. I had to make the best and most reasonable use of my time which is what any lawyer or aspiring attorney would be expected to do. Second of all, it was'nt necessary. For example, I am pretty certain U.C.C. Article 2 governs contracts for the sale of goods. I could recite that rule in my sleep I have heard it so many times. But that is me. If I did not know it well and/or I needed to be reminded, I would write it out. I focused on things that tended to trip me up, that had many elements, or that I really had issues recalling. Also, certain things are not likely to be tested. For example, a contract can be written or oral. This is great to know. It's important. However, without getting into statute of fraud issues or the "can of worms" it leads to, it is unlikely the bar exam will ask you a question calling for that stand alone statement. It is the best example I can think of, but I hope you get the point. Bar examiners don't and can't really test everything.
Additionally, I didn't write everything full out. For example, I needed to learn the jurisdiction of the Florida courts. I drafted it into an outline format like this:
- FL Supreme Ct.
- Mandatory
- Death penalty
- Bonds
- Invalidation of State statutes or constitutional provisions
- Statewide Utility rate decisions
- Discretionary
- Class of Constitutional officers
- Conflicting decisions
- Validation of State statutes or constitutional provisions
- "Great public importance"cases
- Federally Certified questions
- Bypass certification
- Writs
- No Certiorari
I used this to spit out some of the most specific, detailed, and concise rule statements I have ever written. I used to think the rule statements in the Barbri outlines were impossible until I learned this technique. I am not sure this is the best way. But, it is far more better for me to do this than it is for me to read an outline and close my eyes hoping the words will magically appear in my mind.
The obvious Caveat is, this might not work for everyone. If it doesn't don't bother with it. If it does, then more power to you. Like anything else, it takes work and is not magic. Sometimes it would take me 7-10 times before I could write something without having to refer to the source. But, like clockwork, I was able to recall and rewrite the rule, statement, or outline I had copied by the 15th to 20th time nearly without fail.
Also, I don't really want to go into detail about it in this post, and probably not on this blog for that matter. But, a tip to strengthen the memory trace in addition to writing, is to speak what is being written, and to read what you just wrote as well. To put it simply, when we store something into memory we create a pathway in the brain to do it. If a person writes, this creates one pathway. These pathways can break if they are not strong and this is what causes difficulty retrieving memories when they are absolutely needed. This could be the result of increased stress (such as when taking exams) or other emotional scenarios. However, if a person writes, reads aloud, and visualizes the same information, the memory trace is much stronger. This means, the memory will be easier to retrieve.
I will post some more about this later on.
