Make a note about those notes...

This is a tip regarding the use of notes. There are many different versions of notes floating around, particularly for administrative law. I would like to give you a few words of advice about using other peoples' notes (including my own).

1) For some of the courses (ie. admin law) the syllabus is structured in the way the examiners want your answers structured. That means, you have to be weary of using notes that come from students who took the course at a Canadian law school. The material is not necessarily incorrect, it is the organization of the notes that may mix you up on the exam. You will also run the risk of using cases that the examiner may not be familiar with.

2) Do not bring in several sets of notes made by different people into your exam. This will just confuse you. You can use several peoples notes to combine them and make your own single set, but its not a good idea to have more sets than you need on an exam. Your time is limited and you need to be as efficient as possible on these exams.

3) It is best to make your own notes for the exams. Make sure you leave yourself at least 4 weeks to prepare notes. If you cannot make notes and you are purchasing them from someone, be sure to get many references. Red flags should come to mind if you're purchasing notes where you don't know who the author of those notes are.

Many students have come to my classes with notes they purchased elsewhere. In some cases, the notes have been incomplete, in others they were flat out incorrect. If you are buying notes, looking for the cheapest price around will probably end up costing you more in the long run.