Turns Out There is More to Bar Review than Beckett's
Update 6/10/10: I hope all is going well for everyone. This is the first of several bumps.
Update 6/27/10: Bump-bump.
_______________________________________
It is about time to kick off this year's bar exam thread. Feel free to use the comments to discuss crazy people at BarBri, war stories about the exam, or your personal answer to the following multiple choice question:
I will bump this thread periodically as need be.
Update 6/27/10: Bump-bump.
_______________________________________
It is about time to kick off this year's bar exam thread. Feel free to use the comments to discuss crazy people at BarBri, war stories about the exam, or your personal answer to the following multiple choice question:
I will bump this thread periodically as need be.
Labels: Bar Exams
posted by Patrick Bageant at 2:23 PM
57 Comments:
just finished the first week at berkeley; it was 6 days and the experience really is as advertised.
i'd be remiss though not to mention the MBE instructor was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. funny as hell, charming, kept the flow of the class going, and most importantly, taught us the black letter law in a very direct, no b.s. way.
my barbri starts tomorrow. DO I REALLY NEED TO READ FOR THE FIRST DAY?
3:10 pm - no. and good luck.
Anyone looking to sublease their Berkeley or Oakland apartment for the summer to a fellow Boalt student?
A little real world con law studying for you folks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/opinion/26yoo.html?ref=opinion
10:47,
I am looking for a fellow Boalt student to sublease my apartment. Whats your e-mail?
My favorite practice MBE answer choice so far:
"(D) Criminality may not be proven by specific instances of misconduct."
Off-topic, but there wasn't another fresh thread to post it in -
This Above the Law post mentions that Edley bragged in the WaPo that we have “a New Jersey physics major who models underwear" among our ranks. Anybody know who it is?
4:55 & 10:47,
How about you two email me and I'll put you in touch. That way when the chinese viagra spam bots troll through N&B they won't pick up your personal email address.
Yeah, I know who it is.
We should post good quotes from Bar Bri lectures.
I got one from NY Bari Bri:
"You blew up my apartment, you ignorant slut!"
That was at the CA one too (today). I guarantee you the jokes are in their notes. Schw*rtz style.
aww, I use to love it when Schw*rtz would read prewritten jokes out of his lecture notes.
feeling nostalgic for Boalt already...
when will i find out that i made clr and they want ti publish my case note in the next edition?
Late July or early August.
Hey, Patrick. I was looking at one of my old blog posts and saw a comment from you, which made me wonder how you're doing. I might be able to find out by looking around here.
I've pretty much abandoned Surgeonsblog except when I get comments or questions, and have devolved into ranting and mouth-breathing on my political blog. From there, the world doesn't look all that good. Hope it's better where you are.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I stopped by to return some books today, and there was a fire truck and the Simon Hall entrance was blocked off with police tape. I saw ambulances there pretty often during the school year (aging faculty?), but still was surprised. Anything newsworthy? Anyone know?
can we complain about the lack of grades yet?
It's not even July yet.
I'm looking at the huge barbri outline and I'm looking at the CA mini-review outline. Can someone who has taken the bar please tell me if I can pass by relying on just the mini-review?
In a word, yes. But use the big outline to look up obscure issues that come up in MBE questions, occasionally an essay will have a weird non-standard issue thrown in so might be worth it to go back to the big outline to find it. But aside from that, I never opened the big outline.
You have one hour per essay. That's to read, think, and write an answer. You honestly expect to get into that much detail?
I second Armen. I found the mini-review to be more than sufficient. More thank that, though, I mainly relied upon the lecture notes that I took and then turned into (very) short outlines.
If memory serves, I only used the big outline to look up a couple of community property concepts that I found confusing from the lectures.
The essays that you will actually write during the test will broad and shallow, so don't worry too too much about the minute details in the BarBri outlines.
Good luck to all of the recent grads.
I third Armen - never looked at it unless it was a specific point of law that I found confusing.
I second the above: "broad and shallow" is an excellent description of the bar exam.
I wish I understood whether I'm horribly behind or whether I'm doing just fine. I'm not getting to all of the Barbri assignments, but because so many people say the same thing I don't how much I should worry about it.
you do need to actually do the barbri assignments. the practice essays especially. you're doing yourself a great disservice if you don't take advantage of their grading feedback. you also need to actually time yourself. discipline!!
YOU RACK A-DIS-A-PRIN!
Successful California 2009 test-taker here.
I didn't do every single assignment, but I did do most. I remember the BarBri schedule being pretty onerous, so I sort of crafted my own schedule, hewing as closely as I could the general BarBri framework.
I did find the practice essays to be very helpful, and you should absolutely discipline yourself to take them timed, including the performance tests (even though they do suck to do).
Most helpful though, for me, was creating and memorizing my own short outlines. I mainly used my lecture notes, but I supplemented them with the Conviser MiniReview. They were only 10-20 pages per subject, which resulted in a 201 page "master outline."
Some good advice I got on here last summer was that the task of studying and the anticipation of the exam is actually worse than the stress of taking the test itself. Admittedly, the exam was a long three days, but I was relieved when it actually started.
Good luck to all.
Another successful 2009 test taker here . . .
I strongly endorse the comment above. My own personal outlines were by far the most helpful study tool. I based them mostly on lectures. Of course, everyone is different. Outlining worked for me in school and I carried that approach through to the bar exam.
I would also mention that July is the most important prep time. My wife gave birth to our first child during the first week of BARBRI. I didn't do much in June (attended lectures, did about 1/3 of the assignments). However, I put in much more time in July. I'm not suggesting that you completely slack off during June. I didn't have much of a choice. That said, if you do find yourself behind, there is hope.
Also, at some point, I had to "abandon" the BARBRI schedule and create my own that was adapted to my specific needs. For me, that was writing lots of essays and spending some time simply memorizing the basic points of law.
Why is Berkeley's bar passage rate so much lower than pier schools?
Because the "pier" schools always nail the essay questions about riparian rights.
I can't believe Armen's comment has gotten no responses....
Well Armen...you made me laugh my ass off.
I wish there were more posting here, I'm curious how others are doing these days.
On the Barbri schedule, there are about twenty boxes I should've checked by now but haven't, which I figure means I'm behind but not ridiculously behind (I've been finding excuses not to do practice essays, which I realize is a very bad thing). In my head, I feel like I'll be able to get where I need to be when it comes to 1L material like Contracts and Property, but I'm pretty nervous about more "obscure" subjects like Agency/Partnerships. The only times I've developed a really bad attitude thus far were when I was studying the California Differences in Evidence and Civ Pro.
Good luck to everyone.
My bad attitude area: MPRE scores in real property. No matter what I do (and I have even been resorting to using reverse psychology against myself) I seem to screw up easements and covenants.
Sigh.
But hang in there. It's really hard for me to believe that every licensed attorney in California was actually able to master all of this stuff. So, even if we don't, methinks we stand a chance.
Recently I haven't felt the impulse to start drinking until I've been studying for seven or even eight hours. I think this means I'm getting really nervous.
Um, *MBE, not MPRE.
Maybe I screw up covenants and easement because I keep choosing, "(D) The lawyer has breached her duty of confidentiality."
You have a month. You'll be amazed by how much you learn in that time. Work hard, put in the long hours it requires, and it will all come together in time for the exam.
i'm finished studying. everything down into a 1 - 1 1/2 outline... i just need to memorize my acronyms, maybe practice a few more PTs. but i'm taking the next 2-3 weeks off. my parents frequently forgot to read children's stories.
I gave up on actually going to the BarBri class. It unnecessarily adds at least 20 mins of wasted time through the 2 breaks, on top of your travel time. And you have no rewind/fast forward control.
If I fail the bar, I hope it is as ridiculous and as well-documented as this: http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/reality-tv-star-victoria-of-downtown-girls-fails-the-bar-exam/.
I want a thread about the Mehserle trial. If nothing else talking about tips for individuals working in Oakland to stay safe
I second 12:29
About half of the time I feel like, so long as I keep it up with the studying, maybe do more practice essays than I've been doing so far, I'm almost assured of passing. The other half of the time I have a tense, panicky feeling that, ohmygod, I'm so behind, I've been so lazy, it's already July, I'm totally screwed.
i just look forward to when i can see the words "so long as" without thinking "fee simple determinable."
Its not fair...transfer students have an advantage on the bar because they can type fast and gun
10:29 is unnecessarily tooly at a time when we're all supposed to be in this together
Anyone gotten their calbar admission ticket yet? Am starting to get anxious about that.
12:53, glad I'm not the only one.
I'm convinced that Boalt probably failed to get my grad certification in to my bar on time, which will end with me getting no admission ticket. But I'm sure it's probably just a construction thing.
I'm convinced that Boalt probably failed to get my grad certification in to my bar on time, which will end with me getting no admission ticket. But I'm sure it's probably just a construction thing.
I haven't received my ticket either, but I think we're okay. If you want to check your grad certification, you can do it by logging in here
Does examsoft have a spell check?
re: admission ticket.
Mine never came (or I threw it out with junk mail because it's pretty small). I called about two weeks out of the exam and they overnighted it. They're pretty friendly, you just have to sit on hold for a bit, and I think they're used to some of these things not arriving.
I'm getting pretty scared. There's just so much to know.
Online it says "ticket not printed" has anyone else's switched? Getting close to 3 weeks, which is when they say to call. Ugh... why do they do this to us?
The CA Bar is playing headgames with you to try to keep it's passage rates low. Just keep your nose in the books, and if you don't have it in a week or so, give them a ring.
3:43 - Yes.
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