I'm about to graduate with my law degree (three weeks and it's all over but the silly wig-and-gown parade! yay!). I guess it's something of a unique subject - I certainly never would have done this on my first courses (classics and archaeology).

I make flow-charts of each area of the law. So at the top I have the key case, and then all the cases that qualify and define the key case. I write idea from journal articles into the chart where they're relevant in a different colour. I look like the nutter (that I am ) taking them to class but it's how my brain seems to best learn!
And the big sheets of A3 artist's paper certainly work the best!

As regards environment, well I'm revising in my bedroom because my particular university's library is a cesspool of screeching 19-year-olds. I need peace and complete quiet. If my voices bother me too much, I put some choral (sung) masses on the radio - because they're so relaxing, not because I feel the need for churchy things! I don't eat or drink anything but water and I don't take breaks, except to stop and stretch out body parts that seize up.