I had to do this once. I was on a law diploma course on my only day off and worked fourteen hours a day on the other six days. Sometimes seven days meaning I would miss quite a lot of classes and I was the only one in the class that wasn’t already either working at a law firm or already a lawyer. In effect, I was years behind everyone else and didn’t have much time. It didn’t take long to catch up but, I did already know how to memorize and had plenty of journeys. You will certainly need to learn how to memorize and get used to making journeys/locations.
Some people suggested above that you use the Dominic system. I used this system and would have to agree with them. The reason was that it is a system for four digit numbers and law is taught with up-to-date text books. Given that, all the dates are going to be years of Acts of Parliament or the equivalent where you live. All of which contain four numbers.
I certainly didn’t memorize the whole book. I would suggest you don’t either. It’s a waste of locations made for the purposes of memorization.
All I did was to use the law-book, flip to the back and hey presto ! It’s already laid out for you. The reference pages. I memorized a list of words. The definitions are with the words but, I learned the words first. If you do the same, what you will find is that some of them will already be familiar and you might not bother with these. If you do that, these are the ones you will forget and make you stressed out by getting the tip-of-the-tongue syndrome.
In a typical diploma book on law there aren’t that many definitions. Concentrate on the name alone and memorize it. Each subject will have one or two hundred. Don’t bother with the definitions until you know these.
Then, use other locations already numbered using the Dominic System. Make it from say 1850 - 2050 to account for future statutes. You can fill these in as you go along. Some dates will be empty locations except from the year number. You will use them in time as you come across other acts.
Case law. In Britain, case law always contains the names of two people. All you need is to memorize the name of those two people, unless it’s against the state in which case, in Britain, it’s the name of the Person v. the Crown. So, it’s still the same as two names. Like Donoghue v. Stevenson. Maybe that would be the television host on Stevenson’s rocket. Number these 00-99 using the Dominic System.
Have a journey for each of these things. If you are studying at degree level, it would need a lot of locations. Five hundred is a reasonable amount.
Index of words/definitions - 200 locations.
Acts of Parliament - 200 locations.
Case law - 100 locations.
Many of these locations will be empty, except the words and their definitions. Many of the definitions you will already know when given the keyword trigger so, you will only have to work when you memorize more technical or unfamiliar ones like incorporeal hereditaments if you are doing property law/conveyancing. In Britain, a lot of the terms are Latin.
The locations for Acts of Parliament and case law can be added to at will. If you work on getting these locations ready, you can memorize them during the class. Just go to the date location in your head when the teacher mentions it and listen.
Here’s what will happen. You are given a new law, statute or whatever. You will be given the name of the act and a date. Immediately you know the location from that date. Go to that location in your mind. You don’t have to memorize the name of the act at this point. The teacher will explain the law of this act. Immediately, the teacher will use words you have already memorized that are in the definition of legal words index so, you don’t have to create new images. You already have them in your head.
Now, you will have, a date in a location and a definition you have added to it. Not the whole definition, just the key word image you used when you memorized the index. The definition will be in a separate location with those so, don’t overfill the date location with unnecessary information.
At some point in the class, prior to the end, the teacher will give you the name of the Act of Parliament. Since this may be long, you can memorize this when you get home. Again, You don’t want to miss what the teacher has to say. At the same time, you don’t want to overwrite the things you have already memorized.
Go over what you learned at the class immediately after or at the nearest opportunity. The sooner you do this, the better.
Often, the longer name for the Act of Parliament will already have been made into a mnemonic by the college so, just take that and put it into the appropriate date location. For example, even though I wasn’t studying criminal law, I can’t forget that in Britain, the Police and Criminal Evidence act is usually referred to as PACE because it often comes on the news. If not, make a mnemonic from the words. You already know the date is the storage place for acts so, you don’t have to memorize that again.
As has already been pointed out to you, memorizing the entire book verbatim is not necessary. If you memorize a small amount of information, it will trigger other information that you already associate with it. So, to me, if you said Donoghue v. Stevenson (famous contract case law in Britain) I would immediately know you were referring to the case of the snail in the ginger bottle. All other relevant facts, if you have read about them, will come to mind. All you actually need is a trigger. A guide to show you where in your brain your imagination was when you first heard the story.
If I said to you, “do you remember the film Jaws ?” Would you remember it ? Yes, of course. But, you would remember a lot more than the title, you would remember a great deal about the story because it is already familiar. This is why memorizing every word in every page is pointless.
The index of words is already in alphabetical order. This makes it easier again. The dates, if you order them as I have suggested, will have the same effect. The case law can be numbered suing the Dominic System starting from perhaps 01 and you fill it up as you come across new case laws.
Make the most of your time. Calculate how long it will take you to make 500 locations. Make sure each location is at least the size of a small bathroom so you can fit in a few people doing some activity. If you make 10 Locations per day, it will take you 50 days. The sooner you do this, the better. The sooner you do it, the more chances you get to review. You may think you don’t have time but, as has been said by Yan, you can review while doing other things. Any time you are in a queue or in the bath, at the dentists, etc.
Anyway, i’m off to the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company. They’ve got a great offer on to help me shake this cold.
Cateav Emptor
Buying and reading the books recommended above may have a significant effect on you memory and you could turn into a great lawyer.
E&OE
