What law study asks of memory
Black-letter rules, multi-part tests, statutory definitions, case names and their holdings: a semester of law produces a large body of material that has to be recalled precisely, often months after you first read it. Rereading briefs and outlines creates a feeling of familiarity that fades quickly. The forgetting curve is the underlying reason, and retrieval spread over time is the standard remedy, covered in what spaced repetition is.
Review from the page, not a paraphrase
Retyping a case or a rule into a flashcard strips out the context that makes it make sense. In Cirello, a card can prompt from a reusable resource, such as a casebook or a website, plus an instruction like "page 412, the second paragraph". When the card comes up, you go back to the real text and recall what it says and why it matters.
That fits how law is read. The same goes for photographed pages or scanned citations: images can sit on either side of a card and open in a lightbox. How to turn book highlights into spaced-repetition cards describes the workflow, and the remember book highlights page covers the general case.
Cards for rules and elements
Plain front::back cards are still the workhorse for black-letter material. A few patterns work well:
- Rule to elements. Front: the name of the test. Back: the elements, kept short.
- Element to meaning. One card per element, so a missed element comes back on its own.
- Case to holding. Front: the case name. Back: the rule it stands for, in a sentence.
- Exception cards. Pair the general rule with its main exception, as two cards rather than one.
Splitting is the key habit. A card that asks for a whole multi-factor test is hard to grade honestly. How to write good flashcards explains why small cards are faster and more reliable.
Getting an outline in
If you already keep terms and definitions in a document, you do not need to rebuild them one click at a time. Format them as front::back and paste: the list becomes cards in one pass, with duplicate detection so a later paste of an updated outline does not double your deck. Bulk-importing flashcards shows how. You then organize cards into folders and decks yourself, for example one per course.
Keeping the backlog manageable
Exam seasons and filing deadlines happen. Cirello's scheduler, FSRS-6 retrained nightly on your own history, adjusts to what you actually retained, so a missed week does not leave a wall of cards you now dread. There is no streak counter to break: the streak is a plant that fades if you skip a day. For the technical background, see the FSRS app page, and for a similar situation in another discipline, medical students.
Honest limits
Cirello does not provide legal content, outlines or practice questions, and it does not yet support cloze deletion. It is a way to keep your own material in memory. It runs on the web today, with iOS and Android in progress, and is free during the beta.