How should a law student study?

Endlessly.

There is no one way to study law; that's why I recommend to my students that they read any three books about life in law school. There are a number of links at the bottom of this page: DeLoggio Achievement Program 20th Anniversary Edition. (Read more: Loretta B DeLoggio. How should a law student study? Answered April 22, 2020. https://www.quora.com/How-should-a-law-student-study.)

My personal method was to begin by looking at the table of contents, so that I knew what I was supposed to be learning from this section of the book.

Next, I skimmed the cases without taking notes, so that I knew the content that I was supposed to be absorbing.

Then I started over again, reading the cases slowly and carefully, and "briefing" them as I went along. In the first case, I had to know the issue, the rule of law, and the outcome. In later, or minor cases following the major case, I had to know what facts distinguished each case from the starting point.

When those cases were discussed in class, I compared the teacher’s remarks and the class discussion to my written briefs; if something was different, or particularly insightful, and I had not written it down, I added it to my brief.

At the end of each chapter, or at the end of two weeks, I tried to outline all the work I had been supposed to learn in that subject, in that time.

Next came the study group (which should have been formed much earlier, but need not have been addressed until after you have an outline in your hand). The study group would review the outlines, discuss any differences of opinion or fact that we had created among us, and then polished our outlines accordingly.

This outline then became the tool from which we could create our summary, or abbreviated outline, for the final exam.

Note that this is not about how to take a law school exam, how to get a job, or how to impress your friends. It is about imprinting the law on your brain so firmly that you’ll have a starting point, whenever you need it. (Read more: Loretta B DeLoggio. How should a law student study? Answered April 22, 2020. https://www.quora.com/How-should-a-law-student-study.)