Importance of obtaining CANs/summaries

[Miles]

It seems like the common consensus is to obtain CANs/summaries from upper years and then update/fill in accordingly. Is it advisable to not obtain any of these and make them yourself from "scratch"? 

I just feel like not doing it yourself may take away from the learning experience (thought process) of making CANs/summaries (I dont know if these two are the same things?). Also, I've never relied on anyone for anything, unless I've missed a lecture/tutorial (rare) in which case something is better than nothing. 

Thoughts?

[StephenToast]

Everybody has their own way of learning so there's only really one way to find out what would work best for you. Personally, I always write my own summary, but I'll occasionally borrow materials from other people's (e.g. description of facts of a case etc.) I also create an spreadsheet summarising and categorizing all cases and readings, which I use to quickly find relevant cases to support my arguments for policy/essay type questions during exams. For the index, I split the work with a friend but we brief each other on what we read afterwards.

I do know people who do well relying on other people's summaries. Though be careful not to take words verbatim from them as it may constitute plagiarism.

p.s. Your first midterms would probably be the place to test out which method work best and most efficient for you.

Edited April 14, 2022 by StephenToast
added a comment on midterms

[goodisgood]

Like StephenToast said, it's different for everybody... but I feel like I'd be poorly prepared if I did not make my own summaries. Having a summary is one thing, creating it is how I studied. I did look into other materials to fill in gaps or see if there was anything significantly different from what I put into my summary. 

IMO the goal of a summary is to distill and internalize information, and remember how scenarios play out, when to use what test, etc. It helps you issue spot quicker, which then helps you figure out what lens of analysis to apply quicker. 

[t3ctonics]

I highly recommend doing the readings and making your own CANs for at least the first semester, probably for your whole first year. You need to learn how to read, interpret, and summarize decisions. Preparing your own notes is a big help in developing those skills. However, I also recommend looking at notes from previous years, particularly to see if they caught anything you missed.

In my first year I did almost all of the readings and prepared my own CANs, then reviewed some notes from previous years as well as textbooks (not casebooks) to revise my own. For second and third year I did a lot less reading and relied much more heavily on CANs from previous years. For some classes I didn't do the assigned readings and instead relied solely on textbooks and CANs. There wasn't a noticeable difference in performance between the two approaches for me. The important thing for success on a typical law school exam is not how well you know the cases, but how well you know the law discussed and applied in them, and how well you can apply it to a novel scenario. You can get that understanding from just reading the cases, but I found it easier and faster to read the relevant chapter from a textbook, with reference to a summary of the cases involved if need be.

[Ramesses]

I'm a B+ student. I pretty much relied on CANS since second semester. I usually go through a bunch of them and build a mega CAN. If you are fine with a B mark, CANS can save you a lot of time. If you are chasing an A mark or actual learning, making your own is the way to go.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Ramesses

[Kid Presentable]

In 1L, I would suggest you make your own and use upper years' to check that you didn't miss anything huge. This is mostly because you need to learn how to read cases and distill the essential information from them yourself—as others have said, it's about the skill, not the content. Once you've reached a decent level of mastery of that skill and all you need is the content, then I would say it's fine to rely on upper-year summaries as a foundation and update them as you go (provided that's what works best for you).

[Whist]

In first term of 1L at least, you should make your own. In second term, probably better understanding of the material if you make your own but not mandatory, although it can vary from person to person. I only did it for a couple of my second term 1L courses and used upper year CANs for the rest with my own edits put in. I'm not a student that guns for straight A marks though. I find long form notes are only helpful to pull up if you have like, an essay question that requires detail from a few cases, but otherwise make your CANs brief to bring into the exam. 

Also, I digress, but I believe western Canada calls it a CAN and eastern Canada calls it a summary. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Whist

[halamadrid]

For exams I make my own summaries but I look at upper year summaries to see how they organize info and take tips from that. What I found was that earlier in the term I was able to do all of the readings but as you get closer to exams and assignments, etc start piling up. I started relying more on upper year summaries for reading cases. This is what helped me get through all of the readings because there just isn't enough time to read everything (at least for me there wasn't). I agree with what some of the above posters have said that you should try and make your own summaries because it is studying in a way and you'll be surprised with how much you remember/learn just by making your own. 

[Professor Lupin]

Usually use the upper year summaries as a template and make edits to it so its in a format that suits my needs

[Lilbb19]

On 4/14/2022 at 7:09 AM, Miles said:

It seems like the common consensus is to obtain CANs/summaries from upper years and then update/fill in accordingly. Is it advisable to not obtain any of these and make them yourself from "scratch"? 

I just feel like not doing it yourself may take away from the learning experience (thought process) of making CANs/summaries (I dont know if these two are the same things?). Also, I've never relied on anyone for anything, unless I've missed a lecture/tutorial (rare) in which case something is better than nothing. 

Thoughts?

cans are life 

[Miles]

Thank you all for your input. Anyone else who wishes to share their CAN strategies please feel free to. Much appreciated!

[Lilbb19]

Sometimes its literally just painful af to read a long dull case when you have a nice little paragraph in a can. Much more efficient. Or  you simply just wont have time to read all the cases. Getting a good upper year can ( or law students associations will put them online) and just using that and adding some of your own notes is the way to go.

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Lilbb19

[Conge]

For the average law student, I'd say CANs are critically important.

I made my own CANs from scratch in first year. I guess it was a valuable lesson in the sense that I realized it was not a good use of time. Grades were in the B/B+ range.  

Second and third year, I started with the best set of CANs that I could find for the course and then annotated/updated as needed. Much less work and I learned the material much faster and comprehensively allowing me to focus on practice exams. Grades went up to the B+/A- range.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Conge

[GoBigOrGoHome]

Perhaps @Ryn and the mod team would support having a CanLawForum dropbox/google drive or something of the sort where former students could upload their former CANs (stored by school and course) with a standard naming convention so that people can easily sort from newest to oldest. 

Eg. 2022Fall_UBC_LAW468_EthicsProfessionalism

[Ryn]

1 hour ago, GoBigOrGoHome said:

Perhaps @Ryn and the mod team would support having a CanLawForum dropbox/google drive or something of the sort where former students could upload their former CANs (stored by school and course) with a standard naming convention so that people can easily sort from newest to oldest. 

Eg. 2022Fall_UBC_LAW468_EthicsProfessionalism

Rather than dealing with the potential intellectual property concerns of your suggestion, I would refer you to your school's law students' society. They typically have a database of summaries that they allow students to access.

[GoBigOrGoHome]

On 4/19/2022 at 10:42 PM, Ryn said:

Rather than dealing with the potential intellectual property concerns of your suggestion, I would refer you to your school's law students' society. They typically have a database of summaries that they allow students to access.

Ok okay. No CanLawForum CANs database for me 

[Garfield]

I agree with @Conge here. It's more about what you do with the summary than whether you make your own or use someone else's. I know people who spent significant time making their summaries from scratch but had very little time left to practice with it, commit the material to memory, etc. I would suggest, however, if possible, not using summaries from other professors (for the same class) and stick with summaries for that particular professor for that particular class.