Remembering Cases

Aarghhhh...how will I ever get all these cases in my brain?

One of the biggest fears of law students is that, come exam period, every single case will fly from their mind. Indeed for many a larger problem is actually getting them there in the first place. There are certain cases that everyone remembers, usually because of the striking or unusual facts of the case. The snail and ginger beer of Carbolic, the excruciating candle wax in R v Smith, and the conjoined twins neccessity case in Re A.

But how can you be in the situation of being able to recall 20-odd cases for every question within an exam, and not just the case name but the legal principle inherent within?

A recent email from a student prompted me to think about this properly:

I would like to know what are the best methods/techniques for remembering cases. There are just so many and while I can remember the well emphasized cases from lectures and textbooks, I find that my memory lapses and I forget the other important cases...

After replying to the student with a few thoughts I decided a more detailed piece might be helpful to all. For this I asked for input on Twitter and got some great tips from the many helpful lawyers and law students active there. Here's some thoughts to get you going:

Word association

Think of a way to link the case name to something familiar - lots of people said they used names of people they knew or celebs to remember the case name. Not sure how far this helps with cementing the facts in your memory though...

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1197511

A great resource is held on the Lawbore site; the author Nicolas McBride kindly allowed us to give students access to his chapter on Reading Case Law from his book Letters to a law student.

Get them down visually

Turn them into cute cartoons. That's how I remembered the snails, flick knives and contract cases (@clareangela @janeslaws echos the cartoon association...having funny little points that made me smile helped me remember...

Use flash/cue cards

This is a very popular option - use one side for the case name and the other for facts/outcome/legal principle. This works really well; you learn by compiling it in the first place but then you've made a brilliant revision tool. Use them on the train/tube, in the bath (perhaps laminating required?!), over lunch. I used to use mine at the gym when I was stuck on an exercise bike trying to avoid MTV RnB which was the only channel they had on the tv's (not great for an indie kid).