After watching 2 episodes of Modern Marvels (water and bathrooms) last night, I headed over to Perkins to meet a few friends with my MBR book in tow. I got through the introductory material and took a look at the outlines of material covered that heads up every chapter. Much to my dismay, a number of the sub-topics are areas that I didn't cover when I took the course. Although I thought my evidence prof. was fantastic, I'm not thrilled that he decided to skip the Best Evidence Rule as it wasn't really applicable anymore. Apparently to the bar examiners it still is useful enough to test on. I also had a full year of Con Law by another amazing prof., who is now one of the co-deans of the law school. I'm all about the Commerce Clause, but he believed that First Amendment issues belonged in a separate course, and thus I didn't learn any of that material. Not good. I'm guessing BarBri will cover this stuff, but I wish I had a little more exposure to it. Especially from the profs. that had the mad skillz.
A few of my non-law school friends decided to try their hand at some practice questions... and in some cases guessed the right answer when I didn't have a clue. This lead them to conclude that the bar isn't as difficult as I'm making it out to be, even though I went to great pains to point out that the passage rate in Cali is like 48%. (Granted, there are repeat takers in that number, and those that don't put any work in, but still...) It's not like I'm up against the members of my high school graduating class here - most people taking the bar graduated from an accredited law school and I'm guessing most of them are going through BarBri and studying to some extent. There are people out there that are smarter than I am that are going to fail. That's not reassuring.
My PMBR CDs still have yet to arrive... I should have upgraded to priority shipping.
Weekend plans currently include doing at least 10 practice questions from each of the 6 subjects tested on the MBE. It's not much, but considering I'm going to be going through each of those questions pretty slowly and reading all of the answer explanations, it should take awhile. Then the depression can set in when I only get 3 out of 60 correct. As if it hasn't already.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
I don't care how you do it, just save me...
Mad props to Barnes and Noble, who delivered Strategies and Tactics for the MBE today, rather than tomorrow as they originally had scheduled. The book looks to be useful, just for the sheer number of practice problems. I was going to go out later tonight, but I may just hit up coffee instead and dive right in. Yes, I am that lame.
I finished up Mastering the MBE... well, at least the first part that provides general tips and a practice strategy for the multiple choice questions. As I'm guessing I'm going to have more problems with the multiple choice portion than the essays, having John Talamo tell me in detail how to go through the questions when preparing will hopefully prove to be useful. At least some of his tips sound good in theory - like "Regardless whether you were right or wrong, read (study) the sample answer." I probably would have just moved on after finding out I got the question right. I also like his pacing style in terms of how many questions to answer at any given time.
Now, if only my PMBR CDs would come in! I'm dying to review the RAP, which we never covered in Property (thank god).
I finished up Mastering the MBE... well, at least the first part that provides general tips and a practice strategy for the multiple choice questions. As I'm guessing I'm going to have more problems with the multiple choice portion than the essays, having John Talamo tell me in detail how to go through the questions when preparing will hopefully prove to be useful. At least some of his tips sound good in theory - like "Regardless whether you were right or wrong, read (study) the sample answer." I probably would have just moved on after finding out I got the question right. I also like his pacing style in terms of how many questions to answer at any given time.
Now, if only my PMBR CDs would come in! I'm dying to review the RAP, which we never covered in Property (thank god).
You have no scars on your face, and you cannot handle pressure
Over the past few days I've started to become overly paranoid about sitting for the California bar exam this July.... and like first year of law school, I've decided the best way to deal with the stress is by posting (venting). At the very least, those of you who know me well enough to call will understand why over the next few months I won't be returning your calls, or when to send flowers to my mother if I inadvertently kill myself while falling asleep while smoking in bed studying multiple choice questions.
Initially I wasn't overly concerned about the California bar... I was worried to some extent, but also knew that my insane studying habits and paranoia about failing would drive me to study enough to get a passing score. However, a few weeks ago I was out in California to locate an apartment, and had dinner with a friend of mine that was a fellow summer associate. She indicated that she was going to be taking the PMBR in addition to the Bar Bri course. For some reason I had always assumed that PMBR was some sort of ghetto Bar Bri... as it's only a 3 or 6 day course, I figured that those who took it just didn't want to shell out the extra money to take a more complete course. After talking with her and a few other people, I discovered that it supplements the Bar Bri course and in some cases can be really helpful. Not that that changes much for me... I graduate on the 12th of May, and Bar Bri starts a week later. The PMBR course is being during the week in between, and I'll likely be in the middle of Nebraska driving my Saturn cross country to LA at that time. But now that I can't take it, I really want to. Or at least get the books.
So that was a few weeks ago... flash forward Monday of this week, when I was sitting through another painful discussion in BA Corps. The prof. typically finds it more useful to ask about 20 of my fellow classmates what they *think* the result should have been in a given case, rather than teaching us what the result actually *means*. (Keep in mind that most of these cases don't even involve any hot button issue that would yield any sort of emotive response.) Anyways, I'm usually put off by this sort of approach to teaching, as it requires nothing more than soliciting opinions from the few fuck-tards in the class who feel the need to suck up a little bit, but my discomfort turned into a mild rage when I realized I know little to nothing about the substantive law in that course, and it will be on the bar exam. (At one point, I was asked my opinion on a case... I remarked that I didn't really have one. The prof. then felt it necessary to tell the class that I was going to make an awful attorney. My quick response to that, which didn't go over to well, was the following: "Who's paying me?" I haven't been asked to opine again.) 3 years of law school for this? And I'm even less prepared for the bar than I would have been had I stayed at home reading a treatise on tort law. Sad.
As the prof. continued to get a feel for how the class would handle the case, I turned to looking up more on the California Bar... double check which topics are tested, the formats, the hotel information, etc. I then came across a few blogs - including this one. As I scrolled through a few posts, I realized that he had started studying already. Actually, he has been studying for awhile. Nothing too aggressive, but just going through a few books and listening to the PMBR CD's on first year subjects. I, on the other hand, have been sitting at Perkins until all hours of the morning, and then coming home to watch Jericho and Studio 60 on my computer. I have been told by most of the people I work for and the few people I know that have sat for the bar to not study for it until after school lets out, and that Bar Bri will teach me everything I need to know. It's practically a mantra. But this blogger got me worried, for a few reasons. First, the people giving me advice have all sat for the Minnesota bar - where the passage rate is significantly higher than that in California. Second, my retention skills are sub-par. I did well in law school, but I honestly read most of the cases 3 times, still brief and highlight in technicolor. I shouldn't be getting advice from those who took the exam here, and I shouldn't assume that just because I did well in school means I have any recall as to what the elements of negligence are now.
So I left BA Corps, and headed off to a few bookstores to try to find a few bar prep books with absolutely no success. I've since ordered Strategies and Tactics for the MBE, which is due to arrive Friday, and the entire PMBR audio set which will now occupy most of my time on the drive out to California. Both of these have been suggested in other blogs, and thankfully when I spend money on study aids I tend to calm down a bit. I also booked a room at the hotel where the bar will be given, to avoid the nasty commute from downtown LA to Century City while I'm sitting for the bar. I thought about adding in a chocolate dipped strawberries as part of my room-request, but ultimately decided against it as my bar stipend from the firm doesn't exactly cover $24 treats.
It's going to be a fun ride. And by fun, I mean the most horrific experience of my life. Here goes nothing.
*** Update: With apologies to Biff, I've changed the "she" to "he" -- I think I inadvertantly confused him with the writer of A Girl Walks Into A Bar (Exam). My bad.
Initially I wasn't overly concerned about the California bar... I was worried to some extent, but also knew that my insane studying habits and paranoia about failing would drive me to study enough to get a passing score. However, a few weeks ago I was out in California to locate an apartment, and had dinner with a friend of mine that was a fellow summer associate. She indicated that she was going to be taking the PMBR in addition to the Bar Bri course. For some reason I had always assumed that PMBR was some sort of ghetto Bar Bri... as it's only a 3 or 6 day course, I figured that those who took it just didn't want to shell out the extra money to take a more complete course. After talking with her and a few other people, I discovered that it supplements the Bar Bri course and in some cases can be really helpful. Not that that changes much for me... I graduate on the 12th of May, and Bar Bri starts a week later. The PMBR course is being during the week in between, and I'll likely be in the middle of Nebraska driving my Saturn cross country to LA at that time. But now that I can't take it, I really want to. Or at least get the books.
So that was a few weeks ago... flash forward Monday of this week, when I was sitting through another painful discussion in BA Corps. The prof. typically finds it more useful to ask about 20 of my fellow classmates what they *think* the result should have been in a given case, rather than teaching us what the result actually *means*. (Keep in mind that most of these cases don't even involve any hot button issue that would yield any sort of emotive response.) Anyways, I'm usually put off by this sort of approach to teaching, as it requires nothing more than soliciting opinions from the few fuck-tards in the class who feel the need to suck up a little bit, but my discomfort turned into a mild rage when I realized I know little to nothing about the substantive law in that course, and it will be on the bar exam. (At one point, I was asked my opinion on a case... I remarked that I didn't really have one. The prof. then felt it necessary to tell the class that I was going to make an awful attorney. My quick response to that, which didn't go over to well, was the following: "Who's paying me?" I haven't been asked to opine again.) 3 years of law school for this? And I'm even less prepared for the bar than I would have been had I stayed at home reading a treatise on tort law. Sad.
As the prof. continued to get a feel for how the class would handle the case, I turned to looking up more on the California Bar... double check which topics are tested, the formats, the hotel information, etc. I then came across a few blogs - including this one. As I scrolled through a few posts, I realized that he had started studying already. Actually, he has been studying for awhile. Nothing too aggressive, but just going through a few books and listening to the PMBR CD's on first year subjects. I, on the other hand, have been sitting at Perkins until all hours of the morning, and then coming home to watch Jericho and Studio 60 on my computer. I have been told by most of the people I work for and the few people I know that have sat for the bar to not study for it until after school lets out, and that Bar Bri will teach me everything I need to know. It's practically a mantra. But this blogger got me worried, for a few reasons. First, the people giving me advice have all sat for the Minnesota bar - where the passage rate is significantly higher than that in California. Second, my retention skills are sub-par. I did well in law school, but I honestly read most of the cases 3 times, still brief and highlight in technicolor. I shouldn't be getting advice from those who took the exam here, and I shouldn't assume that just because I did well in school means I have any recall as to what the elements of negligence are now.
So I left BA Corps, and headed off to a few bookstores to try to find a few bar prep books with absolutely no success. I've since ordered Strategies and Tactics for the MBE, which is due to arrive Friday, and the entire PMBR audio set which will now occupy most of my time on the drive out to California. Both of these have been suggested in other blogs, and thankfully when I spend money on study aids I tend to calm down a bit. I also booked a room at the hotel where the bar will be given, to avoid the nasty commute from downtown LA to Century City while I'm sitting for the bar. I thought about adding in a chocolate dipped strawberries as part of my room-request, but ultimately decided against it as my bar stipend from the firm doesn't exactly cover $24 treats.
It's going to be a fun ride. And by fun, I mean the most horrific experience of my life. Here goes nothing.
*** Update: With apologies to Biff, I've changed the "she" to "he" -- I think I inadvertantly confused him with the writer of A Girl Walks Into A Bar (Exam). My bad.
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