HOW TO READ 300 PAGES IN ONE

WEEK WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

WRITTEN BY WENEE
"Three hundred pages a day is a serious understatement. At
my end of the spectrum, I have to read thousands of pages.
Law requires discipline and focus. Fortunately I was born with
good concentration."
- Former High Court Justice Michael Kirby

Its Week 1. What you thought would be an ease-in

introduction to studying law has turned into a whirlwind of
lectures, imminent deadlines, and frenzied textbook-buying,
culminating in an impossibly high pile of readings, all due
yesterday.
So, what are your options? Everyone in your class claims to have a brain bulging with
IQ points. An ATAR of 98 or higher is base entry, economy class learning for most of
your peers. Theyre big fish rearing for their chance to rush into the deep blue ocean
and overachieve on a yet grander scaleand yes, theyve already done the readings.
You could crawl into a dark hole, do every recommended reading from top to bottom
and emerge albino white fourteen weeks later. Some students actually do this. Even
more believe this is what they ought to be doing, the only Holy Grail unattainable path to
stellar academic performance, the coveted corporate clerkship, postings to Tokyo,
Dubai, London or New York, a subsequent stint as a barrister, managing partner,
politician or CEO, all leading in due course to world domination.
Rest easy. Like so many law school urban myths, no student does all the set readings
(except the albino guy who only turns up to exams).

TIP 1: GET ORGANISED

Be organised. Make lists. It feels pretty damn good ticking things off the list, says
Kounny Rattley, a litigation lawyer for nationwide law firm, Clayton Utz, and UTS
Arts/Law (Hons.) graduate. In the first or second week of semester, I would set out
when assignments were due and make a rough timetable for the next few months. Try
to keep up with the work as you go along it will save you from last minute all-nighters.
So if you dont have a diary, get one. Use your university diary. It has key semester
dates, planners, and space for you to map out your weekly reading routine, as well as
days allocated to completing assignments. Write reminders one to two weeks before
any major assignment or exam is due, so you have plenty of buffer time to catch up on
an assessment you may have overlooked.

TIP 2: SCAN FIRST & UNLEARN WHAT YOUVE

LEARNED
Scan through the reading material before you start reading, so as to highlight the more
important parts, criminal law barrister Rick Mitry, advises. Some texts give good
summaries of lengthy reading materials.
Wherever you can, apply the alpha/omega approach: read the introduction and the
conclusion to get an overview of the reading. Use the headings of the text where
possible its a scanning trick which allows you to discern what is relevant and hone in
on useful information.
Above all, dont read law like a novel you will never get through the sheer volume of
readings, and there is no thrilling twist to reward your efforts. Like that wise green
height-challenged philosopher Yoda noted, you must unlearn what you have learned
unlearn your regular way of reading for pleasure and learn to scan-read for information.

TIP 3: USE LECTURE NOTES, PAST STUDENT

NOTES, OR PUBLISHED SUBJECT SUMMARIES
Human minds are attracted to meaning and structure. As educator and theorist David
Ausubel observed, An uncanny amount of what people process and encode into their
long-term memories is hierarchically organised. Structuring your learning and readings
will help you keep the big picture in mind while youre wading waist-deep through an
eighty-page judgment, journal article or textbook analysis, and deftly lift only the
meaningful information from the swamp of legalese.
Start with your lecture notes. If the lecturer provides slides, use these. From here, you
will get a better idea of what the lecturer wants you to focus on. Fill in your notes with
brief statements of principle followed by case summaries.
Notes by past students can also be helpful, as much of the tedious legwork of structure
and reading will already be done. A few words of caution: the law is a movable feast,
constantly changing and updated, so be sure to only rely on notes that are recent, and
add to them with your own research.
Dont substitute other students notes for your own learning. At the risk of sounding
pedantic, there is no substitute for your own nose-to-the-grindstone hard work. Law
exams and assignments assess you on your ability to understand complex and
overlapping rules and law, argue the law to the advantage of your client, and apply your
knowledge in practical scenarios involving clients with a plethora of legal problems.
Regurgitation scores zero.
Law study guides are a great way to get a quick aerial view of a subject, especially if
youre facing eleventh hour pre-exam preparations with little prior reading. Like lecture
notes, they provide a guide to the central cases, law and issues in the subject, which
you can tab for selective reading in your main textbook.

TIP 4: ADAPT YOUR READING STYLE TO THE

TYPE OF INFORMATION YOU ARE DEALING WITH
For textbooks, remember: read selectively. You can distinguish what is essential
knowledge by using your lecture notes and subject outline as a guide to the topics key
issues. Hone in on textbook case summaries, particularly the first descriptive paragraph
before an excerpt from the case. For long readings, try the scanning approach read
the introduction and conclusion first, use headings, or read the first line of every
paragraph to get an overall sense of the text.
Dont attempt to read a textbook from cover-to-cover; they were written as reference
materials so the best approach is to scan and make what notes you need of key cases
and law, perhaps tabbing chapters or notable cases as you go.
For cases, Senior Lecturer Samantha Hardy suggests heading to case summaries and
extracts first. It can be easier to understand the complexity of a long case if youve got
a general idea of what its about to start with, said the University of Queensland
academic.
Case summaries and extracts are located in textbooks. Nowadays, law firms often
publish summaries of key cases relevant to their areas of practice on their website,
which is particularly helpful for very recent cases not yet covered in textbooks. These
summaries are succinct, clear and usually set out the central issues and authority of the
case. A quick Google search of the case name and year should reveal any law firm
summaries available.
Dont forget the classic source: case citators like Casebase (accessible via LexisNexis
Australia) or Firstpoint (via Lawbook Online.) Law journals may also be a good option
for featured case notes of definitive cases relevant to specific topics and can be easily
accessed via any legal database subscription, usually available through your university.
For legislation, refer to your lecture notes to find out which sections of an Act or
Regulations you need. In Australia, AustLII offers a free online resource of law and
judicial/administrative decisions, which is priceless in the cash-strapped world of law
school.
At first, the wording of legislation can seem stale, mechanical, foreign and circular.
Partly, this is due to the fact that in law, many phrases and terms have specific legal
meanings, discrete from their use in ordinary parlance. Sometimes, its just bewildering.
If youre lost as to the meaning of section or phrase, check out the internal definitions
located at the beginning of the Act. If youre still confused, try an annotated guide to the
legislation often new Acts will have this, such as the Civil Liability Act, to explain the
effect of new provisions. Law reform reports, second-reading speeches for
parliamentary bills, law firm reviews and academic commentary in the form of journal
articles also provide insight into the meaning of legislation. Most of these are available
free online via your university library website.

TIP 5: FIND YOUR MAGIC HOURS

Everyone has them, said UWS law academic Michelle Sanson. It might be midnight til
2am, it might be 5am til 7am, but it is the time of day when you get more work done,
with more focus, than any other time. Once you know it, factor it into your study
schedule and you will find that you are much more productive.

TIP 6: PROOF YOUR WORK

At the tail-end of all your reading and research, you will have penned a brilliant essay,
case note or solved legal problem that might just make Hemingway proud. Well, you will
have pennedsomethingand something is definitely better than nothing. Especially if
you only have five minutes left before submission; and with your luck, theres a line at
the printer and youre starting to hallucinate wandering giraffes due to too much coffee
and too little sleep.
Other than the usual lecture on time management, giving yourself even a few days if
not a few weeks to review your assignment after its first draft incarnation will boost its
quality, and yes, very likely, also your grades. Sometimes writing is like painting a
pointillist artwork; you need to take a step back to see the full view, or you might end up
feeling a bit dotty yourself.
Spelling and grammar and footnotes count so leave enough time to pick these up
before submission, advises UTS:Law academic, Jason Harris. Perhaps leave time to
ask someone to proof read for you.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: This article was first published on Survive Law on 2 March
2010.

http://survivelaw.com/index.php/blogs/study/347-how-to-read-300-pages-in-one-week-without-really-
trying