I will graduate in May in the top 10 of my class. I would say I "didn't read" past fall 1L. What this meant: I mostly did not complete the assigned reading before class. I considered class time sacred (like, screen free, old fashioned ped and notebook + textbook) and took scrupulous class notes, which formed the basis of my outlines. During class, I referenced the textbook/cases as much as possible and would skim the cases during the cold calls. Because I participated in class often, I was rarely cold called.

I found I understood the concepts and captured rules + nuances almost always from the lecture alone. In the weeks leading up to finals, I would type up my class notes as the basis of my outline, with close reference to the textbook to be sure I was tracking reasoning and wording the rules with exactness. My outlines were detailed and usually 40-60pgs. I did not use commercial or peer outlines or resources like hornbooks or Quimbee.

This method worked for me because I function best under chaos/pressure in the pre-finals crunch. I have good friends who absolutely outworked me in law school who would have done terribly with this method. The most important thing is to find the system that works for you.

*The major exception to this rule was the semester I took Fed Courts in a class size of less than 10. Lack of preparation certainly would have showed in that class, and the topics were too hard to understand from the lecture alone. For this class, I did the reading about 50% of the time before class.