It may not seem that important, but we can assure that you in law school you will spend a ton of time writing things down. That is why we’ve compiled a list of the best notebook for law school.
Now that you know why handwritten notes are so important in law school, let’s take a look at the the best notebooks.
What are the Best Notebooks For Law School?
Any type of notebook will work for the most part for law school. As long as all your notes stay together in one place that you can look through and consolidate at the end of the semester, you’ll be good. However, these are the best writing notebooks for students we tested.
1. Three Subject Wide Notebook – Best Spiral Notebook
Our personal favorite is a three subject wide notebook because you can use one notebook for each class day. Put differently, all your note taking for each class can fit in one of these spiral bound notebooks because they are designed for multiple subjects. They even have a plastic cover between subjects.
Thus, when you are running out for the day, you’ll know blue spiral notebook has con law, crim pro, and property notes in it and you won’t have to go shuffling through a bunch of different notebooks every morning.
We like the thick paper in this legal notebook because you’ll never have to worry about writing through the pages. This spiral bound notebook includes perforated sheets of higher quality paper. This is why we think it is one of the best notebooks you can buy for note taking.
2. Five Star Spiral Notebook – 1 Subject – Durable Cover
This is another good option for a spiral notebook. You can have one color for each class you have. Although 100 pages is fewer pages than other notebooks, these five star spiral notebooks should suffice for one semester. We would not recommend this type of notebook if you have a two-semester long constitutional law class as some law schools do. This five star notebook is solely for law school classes that only last a single semester. Make sure you buy multiple notebooks if you go with this one.
The paper quality is good in these lined notebooks. The plastic cover is a sturdy cover and should protect from minor spills. It is not a waterproof notebook, but compared to other notebooks it does a good job. We wish it had more pages to last a full school year rather than just one semester.
3. Moleskine Classic Notebook, Hard Cover, XL – Best Paper Quality
This is for those of you college students that want to be fancy. The Moleskine notebook is a high quality notebook. It is made with thick paper and will feel much more sturdy when you’re using it.
Although it is a little more expensive than the other notebooks, it can be worth it because you will use it so much. The paper quality is perfect for note taking.
We recommend the XL Moleskine classic notebook with 192 pages because you don’t want to run out of space halfway through the semester. Overall, we can only recommend this product if you have the budget for it. At around $20 per notebook, you can run up quite the tab for four to five law school classes each with its own Moleskine classic notebook.
Conclusion
There isn’t much to the best notebooks. That’s why we recommend the three best notebooks above. You want something that will last an entire semester of class notes and reading notes. That is why you need to get as many pages as you can. Any notebook with less than 100 pages likely won’t be enough. Make sure to color code your classes too!
Although many people take notes on their laptop or tablet, we highly recommend buying a notebook for law school so you can take hand-written notes. Here’s why:
- You will remember better with hand written notes.
- You won’t just blindly type out everything the professor says. Instead, you will synthesize the most important points from the lecture.
- Looking back through your hand written notes is a tactile experience that triggers additional memories and points of emphasis when you review.
- You can always type up your hand written note later if you are concerned about backing them up or making a searchable version. This is essentially what making an outline is.
FAQs
Yes you need a notebook. Taking notes during class on your laptop is fine. However, we highly discourage it. You will focus better, be less distracted, and synthesize information better taking hand notes. Regardless, you need a notebook to take notes while reading. Having your laptop open while you do case reading is a recipe for disaster. You’ll spend way too much time getting distracted by your laptop that actually reading through cases.
Believe us when we say there will be days where you are scrambling to get to class. The last thing you want is to grab the wrong notebook. Imagine if you get cold called and open your contracts notes expecting it to be civ pro. Having color coded notebooks for your classes ensures that you’ll grab the correct notebook every time.
Absolutely! We encourage all highlighting, doodling, line drawing, circling or whatever you need to make connections in your notes and to emphasize important things. Your notes are there to help you, so make them easy for your later self to understand!
Not at all! You can write in any type of notebook you would like. It does not have to be a spiral notebook. As long as it has room to take a semesters worth of written notes, you should be fine. The best notebooks have a high page count to last the full school year.