An inexpensive law dictionary, I have placed Barron's in the bookstore with the text book. Or, there are law dictionary's on-line. My website, listed on the first page, has links to several Indian law sites. In law school, briefing cases is a must. It is also a simple way to consolidate most of the important information about a case.
Briefs help one to remember the gist of a case.
This is important in law school when one needs to know hundreds of cases. Although you will not need to know hundreds of cases this semester, in this class you will need to know about 40. Briefing the cases you encounter will help you to sort through a case to find what's important in that case for the purposes of the course. Briefing cases is a skill, and it takes some time and practice to develop the skill. It's helpful to work with someone else when briefing cases.