There is a comfortable feeling in re-reading a note you already know. The words are familiar, the structure is familiar, and you reach the end thinking the topic is done. Then a question asks for the limitation period on the one provision you skimmed and the topic turns out not to be done at all.
Familiarity is not recall. The fix is to make every pass through a note produce something you did not have before.
Pass one: read for structure
The first time you open a topic in the notes library, read it fully. Do not highlight. Do not take notes yet. The aim is to see the shape of the subject: which chapters exist, which provisions carry the weight, where the cases sit.
At the end, without looking, write down the headings from memory. Compare. The ones you missed are the ones your mind did not register as important, and the exam will not care about that.
Pass two: read to write the one-page version
Now go through the note again with a single sheet of paper. Every heading gets at most three lines: the rule, the section, one case if there is one. The discipline is the page limit. A subject that will not fit on one page is a subject you do not yet understand well enough to compress.
That page is the asset. From now on you revise from the page and go back to the full note only to fill a gap.
Pass three onward: recall first, then check
Every later revision starts with the note closed. Take the one-page sheet, cover the right-hand side, and say each rule from the heading alone. Section number included. Tick what you got, mark what you missed, and only then open the note to the part you missed.
This is slower per topic than re-reading. It is much faster per mark, because you spend your time on exactly the parts that are not yet in memory.
Pair every reading session with questions
A reading session that does not end with questions leaves you with the illusion of knowledge. Finish every session with fifteen to twenty questions on the same topic from the practice catalog. The questions tell you which lines on the page have not yet turned into recall.
What about the cases?
Cases in a subject note belong on a separate card each, filed by doctrine. A one-page subject sheet should carry only the case name and the holding in five words. The card carries the rest. Our landmark judgment briefs are written to be turned into cards quickly.
The honest test
Take any topic you think you have finished. Close everything. Write the one-page version from scratch. If it takes you more than fifteen minutes or has more than three gaps, the topic is not finished, whatever the highlighter says.