Some students ask, why go to class?  What will I learn that isn't in the readings the professor assigns?  The short answer is, attendance is required but even if it wasn't, you'll learn a lot more from being in class than you will just from reading!

First, the reading will only give you the starting point of the law in any given area.  In class, your professor will give you background for the cases you read, add his or her own insights to the material, ask questions designed to explore the law at a deeper level than just reading it will allow, and point out inconsistencies in how different courts in different jurisdictions might handle similar fact patterns.

Second, class allows you to hear other students' questions and views on the material.  You may find that other people view issues very differently than you do - knowledge that will be helpful in understanding arguments opponents in your future cases may make.

Third, being in class gives you information about what your professor considers important.  For example, your professor may be very interested in policy issues.  If so, it is likely that part of your final exam in that course will be a policy question.  Or, there may be parts of the syllabus your professor never gets to.  It will be important to know whether or not the professor expects you to know that material for the final or not.

While you're in class, it is critical to take good notes.  Courses are long, there's usually only one exam upon which your evaluation is based, you will be taking 5 courses each first year semester, and there are other demands on your time.  In order to keep your classes straight, and be able to review adequately for your final exams, you'll need good notes.

Each student has to decide what kind of notes help him or her most but, here are some suggestions:

1. Don't try to take verbatim notes in class.  This is nearly impossible anyway since much of the class discussion will be a dialogue between your professor and other students and there will be times when a student offers an answer that you aren't sure is correct.

2. Do take notes on the important points which include: the questions asked by the professor, the hypothetical situations he or she poses, the reasons for given rules of law, any policy implications, and any explanations you need to remember.

3. When the professor discusses a case you were assigned to read (and you've read it), write the name of the case, then listen to the discussion.  This is not the time to be checking your e-mail or surfing the web.  You may find that much of the class discussion is familiar from your own reading and thinking about the case; you may only need to take brief notes about it.

4. Once the discussion has reached a point where there is a conclusion, make sure it's clear in your own mind.  Then try writing a brief, accurate summary of the rule, together with any explanation of it you want to make sure to remember.

5. Identify other students who take good notes (I am using the word good here to mean notes that are likely to be useful to you) and arrange to swap notes if either of you has to miss a class or needs to supplement the notes you took.

6. After class and preferably within a day or two, review your notes and make sure you understand the law and policies, if any, that were discussed, as well as how this new information fits with previous material discussed.

7. If you still don't understand something after your review, go see your professor.  That's what office hours are for!  Clearing up a confusing point early can save you and your professor a lot of time later.

8. You will make your review time for final exams a great deal more efficient and less anxiety producing if you have good clear notes that not only discuss what the law is but how the courts came to decide what the law should be and what policy interests were implicated in those decisions.