Stark-reading-mad - Stark Reading Mad - Tumblr Blog

if possible, i'd love to ask a quick follow-up again on your response to my q on apps you use as a law student :) you mentioned xodo & pdfexpert as two apps you use for pdfs. as a fellow law student, i've struggled with finding an appropriate way of reading/organising/annotating long pdfs.. if possible i'd love to ask two quick qs!

could i ask how you use each app? i'm not very organised so i'm thinking of committing to one but not sure which

could you give a step-by-step rundown of your approach to studying a new topic/section of the law? (e.g., do you read before a lecture/annotate handout/notetaking in seminars) my course introduces a new legal area each week per module so was wanting some professional advice on how to manage :') tysm!! <3

Hi again! This is how I use XODO/PDF expert:

(take my advice with a grain of salt I don't really have a stellar academic track record and the only thing I'm good at is spending all my hours studying and coming up with ideas that need a lot of years to perfect. I'm hoping the hard work will pay off in later years but everything's more of a WIP at the moment. I don't have an estimate of my own credibility)

Whenever I have a long 500 page judgement to get through, I break up the long judgement by adding an index in the app. The apps lets me add my own index. If it is a textbook, I already have an index so navigating in between the pages is easier, and it also helps me get a bird's eye view of the subject/topic

After indexing it, I assign a specific color to a specific sub-topic. One judgement, for example, deals with several issues, like Secularism, Federalism, etc. I assign a color to them, and as I'm reading the judgement, I highlight specific lines with their specific colors that basically sum up the argument being made. So I know which paragraphs talk about which sub-topic.

When I've highlighted the main arguments, and then I glance through the document, a little mind map begins to form in my mind. I learn to separate small nuggets of ideas and learn how they're linked to each other.

I also sum up the paragraphs or put in key phrases on the margins when I feel that they have switched to talking about a distinctly separate idea.

Now I switch to other note taking apps for the next step. Usually, I use Obsidian to make my notes.

After understanding the basic framework of whatever text I am reading, I make my own mind map or framework with my own words. This step is very important, because it is very easy to lose yourself in the topic and not know how to make a head or tail out of it. Especially legal text.

Finally, I have personally found that it is important to set up a strict timeline to when you want to be done with a specific topic and move on. The temptation to go deeper into any topic is very real and negatively affects your ability to get a grip with the subject as a whole. Do not give in to it. Whenever you sit down to study a topic, restrict yourself to one document/text/judgement/whatever class notes you're handed. Do not try to look up something, and get trapped in the hyperlink loop.

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TLDR;

1. I use pdf readers to highlight topics by different colors so I can break up the text into topics and learn how the different ideas are linked.

2. I then make my own framework from the text with my own words and put that in my notes

* vibrates from 75 mg caffeine *

Is it lame to be happy about buying little plants for my little productivity app with the coins that I earned with my little efforts? 🥹

Started using Forest

Cafe day! Yay ❤️

Done with my final semester exams! I'm keeping all these revision notes in a shoebox so I can look back and reminisce 😌

I wrote the last exam of my undergraduate degree. It's only going to get more surreal from here but I hope the next couple of months go as planned so I can get to where I wanna go next year 🤞🏻

*girls when it is literally eating away at their psyche* whatever

Has anyone wondered how the phrase "he takes after his father/mother/grandfather/relative" might have it's etymological origins in laws of inheritance? When we study the rules of succession and inheritance, we often say "the son takes a portion of the property after the father". The son takes after the father. The sister takes after the brother.

Any preliminary research on the etymology of the phrase has yielded nothing, and I'm wondering if the linguistic side of Tumblr has any answers

Finally went outside.

Hi! How are you? I hope you're having a good day

I just wanted to say that I love your blog aesthetic! Your pics are really beautiful & mesmerizing ♡♡

Hi! I'm doing good, thank you for asking!

And thank you for your kind words, you made my day brighter <3

Hope you're doing good, too 🪴

88 days left

God I'm so fucking annoyed. I'm the one who's planned my to-do list. And I'm annoyed when I have to actually do the thing.

I can't believe people willingly buy new phones every year. I hate buying a new phone. every single year they get shittier and shittier so corporations can make a little bit more money. you're telling me they removed micro sd card slots because there wasn't enough room? bullshit. a micro sd card is barely any bigger than a sim card. they removed it so that you'd be forced to buy a more expensive model with more storage. they removed headphone jacks so you'd have to buy their proprietary wireless earbuds.

phones shouldn't even be allowed to receive upgrades once a year anyway. people in the democratic republic of the congo, including literal children, are forced to do incredibly dangerous and often deadly work mining the materials for these devices, destroying the environments in which they live so that these devices can be cheaply produced, and you're telling me they're purposefully engineered to become obsolete quickly? phones will no doubt continue to be a staple of daily life, but the way they're produced NEEDS to change so that they're better for all of us, including the people involved in their production. death to capitalism and death to imperialism.

89 days to go

Y'all I'm getting root canal treatment done on two of my teeth this month. I've never had cause to go to the dentist for the last 23 years and now the day is here. And I'm. Scared.

Hii, do you have any tips on how to take notes for law subject?

Taking good notes for law subjects has a lot to do with how well you can study the text. To take good notes you must know:

The steps to studying a textbook/judgement/anything : First, you skim through it. Then read it a second time to understand what the concepts are and why they're important. Third reading is where you try to break down the text into bite size info: make diagrams, highlight with different colors, etc. you'll find more resources on how to study a text online.

It is important that your notes are not a copy from your text. Use your own words. Make your own little flowchart or diagram. Don't copy/paste.

While I encourage you to use your own words while writing notes, I also should warn against terminological inexactitude: you must know the significance of each word you're writing. A void contract, for example, is not the same thing as a voidable contract. Sale deed is different from an agreement to Sale. You must pay attention to detail.

These are what come to mind. But if you have any specific questions, or anything in particular you're having trouble with, feel free to shoot me a DM or ask another ask.

90 days to go

We're back to counting days. We're also staying hydrated with a big fat water bottle. Hope y'all are doing good <3

Hello, hope you're doing well!!

It's only been two months into law school for me and way too early to assess what I want to pursue going forward, but I'm curious- what made you decide to pursue an LLM? More importantly, what factors did you have to consider before making that decision?

Hi!

What made you decide to do an LLM? - Although I have almost no experience writing research papers, I am deeply interested in the process of knowledge creation that is employed when writing them. I have profound respect for the authors of all the texts we have been prescribed in our course. A part of me wants to go deeper into that space of creation. LLM is a way to involve deeper into legal research and methodology. I love academia.

What factors I considered when making the decision to pursue LLM -

I have the time, and the resources. I can afford to spend another year on further education. I have no dependants and no pressing need to be financially independent as of yet.

I want to go to a better University where my chances of meeting future mentors and people like myself are greater. My current University is hostile towards learning.

Getting into a good university for masters also would help in making quality connections in the field, and I get to explore the possibilities in a way I can't right now with a bachelor's degree from an average university.

Note: It is never a good idea to be influenced by institutional repute. You and only you have control over your future. Just being in a good university does not guarantee life long success. That being said, institutes of repute can be a good way to surround yourself with ambitious and like minded people. That gets you very far in life.

I wish you the best of luck!

(⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。

Private international law 💀

Back at it (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

Hi

This week, all my goals will be on the back burner, simmering.

Small highlights from my week:

Saw the most beautiful sunset.

Got lightly whacked in the face by a butterfly.