Michelle Weyenberg, 7 law school study habits that improve learning and retention, National Jurist (August 25, 2026).

While I do not agree with everything in the article, this short article does describes seven habits that really can make a difference for law students:

• time on task,
• active learning,
• structuring the course material,
• writing practice exams,
• mixing doses of peer study and independant study,
• taking care of health and well being, and
• adapting learning and studying strategies based on results.

I have two quibbles. First, the suggestion that outlining is required is too narrow. What is necessary is that students deeply understand the relationship among concepts and identify all the concepts they need to memorize for their exams. Outling certainly works, but mind mapping and hierarchy charts also work.

Second, the article endorses highlighting, which, unless the student is highlighting using multiple colors to identify different types of concepts (e.g., holdings, rules, policy, legal reasoning), is often used by students as a substitute for deep thinking. Many tend to just highlight everything they think might be important without any effort to categorize or otherwise think more deeply.