First of all my apologies for not writing this post in advance of September 2020 when the new bar course commenced. However, it is not too late to try and implement these techniques in to your daily learning. Further, if you already have a system which works for you then feel free to ignore my advice and crack on as you have been.
I, like many, had been practising the art of note taking for several years by the time I had started the bar course. I had nailed the use of pretty highlighters and mind maps, so surely I would be fine on the bar course...Well, the thing about the course is that there is almost zero time to sit and copy out your prep notes into pretty revision notes.
So this post is going to tackle 1) How to take notes when you prepare for your classes and 2) How to transfer those notes in to resources for revision.
If you are already on the bar course you will know that there are a variety of modules...
- The spoken practical ones (criminal advocacy, civil advocacy, conferencing, options)
- The written practical ones (opinion writing and drafting), and
- The centrally set exams (criminal litigation, civil litigation and ethics) (lucky you lot don't have to do ethics on the course anymore as it now an integrated part of pupillage).
However, this post is going to focus on note taking and revision for the centrally set exams as notes are most important for these complex knowledge modules.
Where to create your notes:
As a practical starting note, find what works best for you in terms of what platform or source you use to take notes. I personally love google drive as all of the documents are saved online instantly and are readily accessible from your laptop, phone, uni computer etc. If you prefer to write out your notes for classes and really are not a fan of online note taking then stick to what works for you, but I found that it was quicker, easier and more accessible to create online notes using a google drive. Additionally, you are able to create a much more organised system, rather than having loose pieces of paper which can often get lost!
So, I used google drive and this is how I did it.
I created a BPTC folder, then a sub-folder for each of the modules on the course. Within each folder I had word documents for each class which included my preparation notes, questions answered for the class and extra notes taken in class. It looked a little bit like this....
My apologies if that sounds patronising at all. But I think it can be helpful to see how someone else sets out their working space to then be able to play around and find what works best for you.
So now that you've got your online/digital space for your notes you can get started.
Start with the Syllabus:
I found that the best way to start my notes for a class was to make sure that I had all the information I needed to know for that class in one space. What made this nice and easy was that my provider gave each of us a module handbook and within that, it detailed which parts of the syllabus would be considered in each class. I really hope that your providers have given you something similar as it was a godsend! If not, you can go on the BSB website where the up to date syllabus is provided. This is the link to this years syllabi... https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/training-qualification/becoming-a-barrister/vocational-component/the-2020-21-bptc-and-bar-training-syllabi.html
Once you have the syllabus relevant to that module and class you can get started. Word of warning before I start the next steps, this is a long process, it is not something you can do quickly or the night before. It requires long hours and hard work, but I found that by putting in the time preparing for the classes, I had to spend less time later on preparing separate revision notes. So the syllabus steps..
Write out the numbers of the rules on your google documents as they appear on the syllabus document for that class, eg. CPR 7.1, CPR 7.2, CPR 13.2. That way you have all of the rule numbers you need to know for that class on that document.
Find the rule from the relevant book (White Book / Blackstones).
Highlight the top line of that rule, the number of the rule in the 'margin' and tab the book, then it can easily be located again in the future.
Read the rule AND as you read it, write it out in your google doc under the relevant number. This is the crucial step. Make sure that you include all of the detail for each of the sub-section in the rule and any key words, but don't just write it word for word as it needs to make sense to you when you revise later. (This section also includes reading any commentary, writing it under the rule number and making sure it is in prose that you can easily re-read and understand)
Then, you repeat until you have covered all of the rules from the syllabus that relate to that class. It might seem crazy, it will take hours depending on how much you have to cover, but trust me when I say that having the relevant information at your finger tips later on will save you hours of time and stress.
If you've just read that and aren't sure what it looks like, this is an example from my notes:
Adding in textbook reading:
The next stage is to supplement your rules with academic commentary from your textbooks. Again, if you are lucky then your provider will have already given you a detailed handbook which tells you the pages to read for that class. Then very similarly as before, (skipping the first step though)..
Find the relevant pages/paragraphs;
Highlight and Tab the textbook; and
Read AND transfer the information to the relevant part of your notes. What I found most helpful at this stage was to use different colours, So, as you will see from the picture above the CPR numbers are in purple. Any textbook guidance that I added to my documents would be pink so that I could distinguish between the formal rules and extra academic information.
At this stage you have all of the information you could possibly need for that class in one space! It is actually a very accomplished feeling when you get to this stage, especially as finding, reading and writing out the rules can take around 2 hours.
Answer the Class Questions:
Now that you have all the information you need you can go ahead and answer the class questions set by your provider. I would also include these in the same document, so that they are as easily accessible and so that I can refer back to them as example questions for revision. Here are the steps you need...
Write out the questions into the bottom of your google document;
Put them in a different colour to differentiate (I used red);
Answer each question, referring yourself to the relevant rules in your notes to help you;
Make a note of anything that you do not understand or are unsure of when attempting to answer these questions.
I found that this stage was the quickest, as you do not have to flip through pages of the white book/blackstones to find each rule when you have the rules in front of you. Although, occasionally I would find myself reverting back to these books to ensure that I had understood the rule properly and to re-read any supplementary commentary that was not included in the syllabus. I found that by the time I had completed the questions I had quite a good grasp on the material and how to apply it to the questions.
Here is an example of what that looked like in my notes:
NOW, I bet you're wondering what the blue text has to do with it all, this is the last step for finalising your notes...
Add in notes from the class:
During the class, you will find that your tutor provides you with examples of the rule in action, extra commentary, information that you seemed to miss from your reading or a more in depth answer to a question....ADD IT IN. But most importantly make it a different colour again, so that you know it is extra information which you did not pick up on.
What this does it is highlights itself to you when you re-read these notes. Especially if your tutor has given you some vital information that you missed, it is important that you are able to see what you missed.
Then you have a comprehensive document of all the necessary information for that topic.
Making it into revision:
You may be quite comfortable using the same documents for your class for your revision and that is completely fine as it provides you with the rules, commentary, guidance, question answers and extra info! However, if you feel as though your notes maybe aren't as succinct as they could be or that you edited them too much during class and now they are a mess....then now is the time to transfer these into revision notes.
The Steps:
Create one document which is going to be your final bank of knowledge to revise from, (it might seem daunting but stay with me), just open a new document and label it Civil Lit Revision or Criminal Lit Revision.
Create an order for you revision notes which takes your chronologically through a civil or criminal case from start to end. You will have all the different sections of the case already from your class notes, so you just need to decide on an order. For example a civil claim would go: Limitation periods, Commencing a claim, Requests for further information, Additional claims, Case management, Disclosure and inspection, Evidence, Interim applications and order, Offers to settle, Judgments and orders, Appeals.
Reduce each individual class document into a 5-10 pages of succinct but detailed information which takes you through that stage of the case (it will depend on how big the topic is to how many pages you can reduce it to).
Repeat until you have your full case story from start to finish.
Print and store (optional). This is a personal preference but I really struggle to revise from a screen, I find that I get tired quickly, my eyes hurt and that I dont engage with the material as much. So what I did was I printed off this big civil litigation bible that I had produced and I put it into a display folder, (the one with clear pockets so you can see each page). I found that this way I literally had a paper book of notes in my hands and this is what I used to learn, memorise and revise the information from before the exams. I liked that the plastic pockets also helped to protect my notes from rips or late night coffee stains.
I appreciate that some of you may not want to print out this mass of notes, especially for environmental reasons and that is absolutely fine. However my logic was that I had done all my notes online up until this point so I had already conserved my paper use and these finalised revision notes were a lot more succinct that my class notes.
To give you a rough idea of how succinct they should be, my civil litigation final notes were around 75 pages and my criminal litigation and evidence notes around 85 pages. If you print double sided, a 40 page display folder would work perfectly. Here is a nice and cheap one from amazon which would do the trick....
The FINAL step, is to practice questions like there is no tomorrow! Once you feel like you have a solid grasp of all the material test yourself over and over again. Get ahold of as many different practice papers and questions as you can and make sure that you practice your exam technique (this will be a separate post coming soon).
So, that is it! My whistle stop tour on what I found to be the best way to take notes and revise on the bar course. I hope you find this helpful and if you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to get in touch, I am happy to help.
Monica x