Do law students or lawyers have a superior auditory learning capability?
November 22nd, 2010 | 
Author: And if so, is this how many law students succeed in law school? It seems that one would need a superior auditory memory to remember what the lecturer said…
Do you also have a good visual memory? Does it help you?
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I think the different learning styles in law school are as varied as the different learning styles in undergrad or high school. Most successful students take (or acquire) many many pages of notes a semester and study them outside of class. Some professors are more accommodating than others as far as other learning styles go.
The fact is though that you have to have superior learning skills in general to truly do well in law school. A lot of the learning you do will not come from listening in class, or from a professors explanation, but rather from work you do on your own outside of class. You have to know what works best for you, know how to study, and know how to make the most of your time. Superior time management skills will serve you better than superior auditory learning skills.
No. I don’t think my auditory or visual memory capacities are that much above average. I just learned how to take notes very quickly in my own style of shorthand. Then I’d type them up properly later. I’ve always had a good memory of principles and theories, though, which is trained through lots of reading and application of the legal principles to lots of case studies. Once you know the principles and terminology like second nature, and have developed your reasoning skills, you can quickly know how and where to look up your supporting precedents and legislation. Online search engines help too!
Edit – what the guy below me wrote is interesting and true…. but I can’t help thinking that he wrote this answer while in a lecture! Wow, really?? Wouldn’t actually listening and taking notes with plain old pen and paper commit more info to memory and be superior time management? Internet is just the worst distraction from learning.
I’m one of those people whose learning ‘style’ is split evenly between auditory and visual. Interesting question, tho, regarding which disciplines in college work better with different types of learners. I wonder if anyone’s done a study on it…. I’ll bet they have.
Memory is the key.