19 Days and counting...

We're down to only 19 days until the Bar exam. I had a bit of a reality check yesterday because we took a full day practice exam. I finished each of my essays about 10 minutes early, mainly because I couldn't come up with enough to say on the essay topics. (It took me a full 5 minutes to realize that the first question was an ethics question. Not a good start.) Today I buckled down and did 2 more practice essays and put in a good 2 hours of memorizing. Hopefully I'll be able to cram enough into my head in the next few weeks to do well.

My Bar admission ticket came along with a list of what we can and cannot have during the exam. I was a little upset to see that chapstick is not on the approved list. I think I might brave it and bring some anyway. I can't get through a 7 hour day with chapped lips. Apparently, the Bar will be just like getting through airport security. We are supposed to stow all our approved possessions in a clear zip top bag.

I also joined a study group last week to increase my motivation. We are meeting twice a week in the evenings. Although I'm not as productive at night, since this is extra study time on top of what I've been doing, I figure it can't hurt. The trouble is that I seem to sink into a delerium after an hour or so of studying. I hope that the rest of the group doesn't think I'm more of a distraction than a contributing member. We will be having our next meeting later this week, so hopefully I will be able to settle down and get something out of the experience.

Final Days of BarBri

I can't believe we just had our last substantive law lecture yesterday. The topic was Community Property, which was probably my least favorite class in law school. Basically, Community Property is the warm fuzzy idea of marriage as an economic community, but it never becomes an issue until death or divorce. Thus, every case is depressing.

I'm feeling pretty good about my progress on studying. I do have to put some more time into learning the topics we most recently covered (since my ability to sit still and study for hours on end has waned considerably), but all in all I feel confident that I will do well on the exam. To keep my motivation up, I joined a study group of other BarBri students.

I'm most concerned about having to spend 3 six-hour days taking an exam. Even if I had a year to study, I think having to go through the exam itself would be stressful. With less than a month to go, I'm just going to have to get used to the idea.

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Finally, here is a great article about saving money by going vegan. As a vegetarian, the most expensive groceries I buy are definitely dairy products, so I can certainly relate to the link between animal food and big grocery bills.

http://vegfamily.com/articles/recession-proof-your-diet.htm

Tying some vegetarianism into the blog

An excellent Bar Study bonus is that my BarBri location is across the street from a vegan restaurant. I get very excited to see all the Bar studiers in there eating yummy vegan food (since most people see the word "vegan" and run the other way).

Here is an all vegan meal I made recently. My husband is a meat and potatoes guy from the midwest and this is his TV dinner birthday meal of fried seitan chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. I topped the meal off with a vegan brownie topped with mint soy ice cream and homemade hot fudge.

About Half Way There

Last night I actually had a dream about compensatory damages. Then my husband's alarm went off and I weaved the newscaster's report about Leona Helmsly into my damages dream.

Compensatory damages are boring enough when I'm awake. God help my corrupted brain if I am dreaming about them.

I've now been studying for more than a month. We are through all the MBE subjects and have moved on to the California specific subjects. Today was day 2 of a Civ Pro lecture by the first Bar Bri lecturer that I actually didn't like. He spoke in a horrible game show announcer voice for the entire 7 hours of his presentation. It was insufferable.

After today's lecture, I absolutely needed a break. I took a full hour and a half to get some takeout, check my email and watch TV. (I'm still waiting for my law school to admit I graduated and send out my transcript. My firm won't pay my Bar stipend until they get that transcript, so I am not pleased about the delay. Thus, I check my lawschool email religiously.) After my break, I decided to study in the pool area of my building -- it turned out to be a great choice. Since it's a weekday, it wasn't too crowded and I got a great spot under an umbrella where I was able to buckle down for 3 full hours.

The worst thing about Bar prep ...

Believe it or not, the worst thing about Bar prep is the bathroom situation at BarBri. Today, as I was standing in a ridiculous line to use one of the 3 working stalls in the 6 stall ladies room, one of the other students pointed out that with at least 200 students in the class, BarBri was making at least $600,000 in income.

That's more than half a million on just one location. With multiple locations around the city, classes in multiple cities and the program offered in every state, that's a staggering amount of money. It would be nice if they could put just a little bit of that money into keeping the bathrooms in usuable condition. Even with all the toilets working, many of us spend our entire 10 minute break each morning waiting in line.

Keeping my head above water

I can't believe it's already 4 weeks into Bar prep. We have gone through all the Multi-state subjects in BarBri. Fortunately, we get a 2 day break in between our last MBE subject and our first California essay subject lecture. Of course, the "break" only means no lectures; I'm still studying about 6 hours a day.

Although I haven't done every single assignment on my study schedule, I finally feel like I am caught up. When I first started studying, I felt like there was not way I could possibly memorize the rules for this many subjects all at once. Now, after 3 weeks of studying, I've actually comitted a lot of the rules to memory (and I'm doing a pretty good job of guessing or making up a rule when there is something I don't know).

Yesterday, I got back the first essay assignment that we had to hand it. It was a Torts question about defamation and invasion of privacy. I was amazed to see that I got a "pass" score because I hadn't actually remembered the elements of all of the privacy torts. The fake it till you make it strategy that we learned in our essay workshop apparently works, because of all the comments I received, there was no mention of my incorrect rule statements. Apparently, the most important part of the exam taking strategy is clear headings. (I think it also helped that I discussed what I did know first so the incorrect law was buried towards the end of my answer).

"The Bar makes a lot of people wear both belts and suspenders."

I am now almost 3 weeks into studying for the Bar and I'm still not sure if I'm studying enough. BarBri's website indicates that studying 5 to 9 hours a day, 5 days a week is sufficient, but they gave us that damn study schedule with every single day (weekends and holidays included) filled in with hours and hours of work.

I have not yet managed to catch up on all of the assignments I've missed. I'm at a point now where I skip about 25% of the assigned multiple choice and half the assigned essays (although I'd like to go back and do about half of those I've had to skip so far). I'm also trying to memorize the material that we've already gone over, which adds another task I need to do either in lieu of or in addition to the study schedule.

The Contracts professor (as he was showing us a second set of rules to memorize in case we couldn't answer damage problems using the general expectations damage approach) said, "The Bar makes a lot of people wear both belts and suspenders." The problem is that I'm not sure if I'm overprepared, as he suggested many of us might be, or just exercising the right degree of caution.

Even though the BarBri study schedule does give me a bit of anxiety, Bar study is actually somewhat enjoyable. Unlike law school, where I had my share of crummy professors, all of the lecturers for BarBri have been great so far. Since I'm not one of those law school graduates who now hates the law (I know many of them, believe it or not), I am enjoying the opportunity to put together the material I learned these past 3 years and pick up some new tidbits. Unfortunately, that big exam looming on the horizon does take some of the joy out of learning...

What to do when you panic

Today's BarBri class was the first essay writing workshop. Our professor offered lots of general tips for the Bar including my favorite topic: panic. I still remember the freak out I had on my first year Contracts exam. I had just finished question 1 and I looked at question 2 and couldn't figure out what the heck the difference between the 2 questions was. After 5 minutes hyperventilating in the bathroom, I came back, made my best guess and pulled a decent grade in the class. Basically, our professor today suggested the same approach. What he said made absolute sense; between making something up and leaving the page blank, only 1 of those options gives you any chance of passing.

Today was also notable because I finally had some human interaction. I ran into someone I knew from work waiting in the interminable line for the ladies' room and actually had a 5 minute conversation. Inspired by the joy of actual conversation, I also called my former study buddy and heard all the details about her cross country move. Unsurprisingly, moving cross country and then immediately starting BarBri is not much fun. We talked for way too long because neither of us wanted to go back to studying. The good news is that I did manage about 3 productive hours in addition to attending lecture today, so I feel like I'm keeping my head (just barely) above water.

Back after a long weekend

It's just a little over a week into bar review and I'm already behind.

I do have a very good reason. This past weekend, I was the maid of honor in my best friend's wedding. While I was out of town, I missed 3 Bar Bri lectures, but it was (of course) worth it. While I understand that I do have to put some fun on hold this summer, that certainly does not include missing a once in a lifetime event. The wedding was beautiful and it was great to see all of my old friends (especially since I'll be spending an awful lot of time studying by myself this summer).

I did my best not to get too far behind while I was out of town. I was able to listen to one of the missed lectures online. I also read outlines and did practice questions during the 5 hour plane ride in each direction. I still feel a little stressed out by the assignments I haven't yet done (a full 2 and 1/2 days worth), but I talked to someone in class today who was in town all weekend and is still behind, which made me feel a little better. I'm sure that many people fall behind on a study schedule that calls for 8 hours of studying a day, 7 days a week.

The good news is that I was back in time for the second half of Torts. The lecturer was professor Schechter from GW, and his lecture was full of humorous anecdotes and examples. My favorite was his vivid example drawn from an old bar exam about an attorney who comes home from work one day and decides to smoke a little weed, not realizing that her stove had been leaking gas all day while she was out of the house. The tort issue had to do with whether her neighbor could use the statute that says, "Pot smoking is a misdemeanor" to prove breach of duty in the suit resulting from the ensuing explosion. The answer hinges on whether the harm that occurred is the type that the statute seeks to prevent. ("Munchies maybe, but certainly not an explosion.")

After my morning lecture, I was able to listen to about 3/4 of the Torts 1 lecture I missed yesterday. (Unfortunately, they don't allow eating in the video room, so I had to take time to eat lunch, which prevented me from finishing the whole tape). Tonight, my husband is going to cook dinner so that I can try and catch up a little more on what I missed. My goal is to be all caught up by Monday because ultimately I plan to study longer hours on weekdays and take at least 1 day off each weekend.

First Days of Bar Review

Tuesday, May 20

Many of my class mates started PMBR immediately after finishing up their law school exams. I feel lucky that I am not taking the 6 day PMBR class because I was able to take a few (much needed) days off between my last exam and the first day of Bar Bri.

I arrive for my first day of class about 20 minutes early and the room is already almost full. I don't know exactly how many other potential lawyers are in the room with me, but it looks like nearly 200. To think that this is only 1 session at 1 Bar Bri location. Across California, thousands of people must be getting ready for the Bar. Coming into the room and finding a seat reminds me of my first day of law school. Everyone seems to be sitting with a friend or two and I am alone and trying to find the 1 empty seat in the room. (Unfortunately, the friend I planned to study with found out just a few weeks ago that she was relocating to the East Coast, so I am currently without any study buddy). I feel slightly out of place.

The introductory lecture begins. "California is considered one of the most difficult Bar Exams in the country," the instructor informs us. "The bad news is that's true." He then proceeds to go through the suggested study schedule and an overview of the Bar Exam format. Looking at the suggested study calendar, I am overwhelmed to see that every single day (including weekends) is full of tiny type. In addition to attending a 4 hour lecture each day, we should review what we learned, do and review practice questions and then read ahead for the next day. On top of that, PMBR suggests that I do 50 of their practice multiple choice every day (Bar Bri assures me that would be overkill, but I should probably do at least a few PMBR questions each day on top of my Bar Bri work). If I follow the suggested schedule, I will spend at least 8 hours studying every weekday and another 4 or 5 hours each Saturday and Sunday.

The lecturer moves on to IRAC, the preferred method for answering Bar essays. I am again reminded of the first day of law school when our orientation included a lecture on how to brief cases using IRAC (issure, rule, analysis, conclusion). Although I never briefed a case in law school, I have IRACed my way through 3 years of exams, so I am glad that at least I am prepared on that front. As the lecture continues, I become accutely aware that I haven't had any coffee or tea this morning. My mind drifts to my new cappucino machine ... coffee.. coffee... cofee... a new speaker is now giving us an overview of how many questions about each topic we can expect to find on the multi-state. Who cares. Just tell me where I can find a coffee shop around here. (It turns out there is none, but the industrious folks at the sushi shop next door have filled the void and sell coffee on days when Bar Bri is in session.)

After the lecture, I drive home in record time, eat lunch and spend the next few hours reading the Evidence mini outline. I then try to do some PMBR questions on Evidence. Everything is vaguely familiar, but I can't remember any of the rules. I wind up getting half the questions wrong, but cheer myself up with the thought that if I can get half right now, I should be in great shape after tomorrow's Evidence lecture.