7/25/2006 8:55:41 PM
Crap. I just wrote a whole post, that the internet ate. I'm not going to relive it. Suffice it to say:
Day 1 = over. Thank god.
Essay 1: Torts (false imprisonment, negligence (negligence per se, sort of), respondeat superior)
Essay 2: Constitutional Law (Free speech - Miller test, prior restraint, vagueness and overbreadth, then I threw in standing and ripeness which might garner some points and equal protection, which turned out to be a small time suck and was dumb anyway, which I realized as I wrote it up)
Essay 3: Contracts (common law formation, breach, damages - I probably blew a couple issues here)
Performance Test: Persuasive brief to the court (with statement of facts, tangential FRCP issue, and applying a 7-part factor test).
I'm tired. My head hurts, my back hurts. Multiple choice tomorrow.
Almost Over, and Haven't Yet Begun
7/20/2006 11:39:01 PM
The bar exam looms just a few days away (look on the sidebar for a countdown of when the exam actually starts).
I'm so stressed I'm having trouble sleeping, and when I am sleeping, I'm having really weird dreams. I can't wait for this all to be over, and yet, I feel like I'm running out of time. Am I doing the right things? Should I be studying some subjects more? Should I be focused on the multiple choice or the essays? Or the performance exams?! (I do know that I probably shouldn't be blogging).
On an ironic note, I got a letter in the mail today informing me that I'm a member of a class in a class action suit against my bar prep course, BAR/BRI. That's comforting. Apparently they've been accused of some anti-trust violations (you'd think they'd know better wouldn't you?). Allegedly they colluded with Kaplan to not do LSAT prep and Kaplan wouldn't do bar prep (Kaplan being the largest test prep company in the nation - take that Princeton Review - maybe I should have used Kaplan instead of Princeton Review for LSAT prep?). Allegedly, BAR/BRI also has been paying schools for access to students and to keep other bar prep competitors from gaining access to students. You can read more about the lawsuit here.
To the Man at the Central YMCA...
7/12/2006 6:40:53 PM
Don't wear short shorts. It's not attractive, no one wants to see it. As a general rule of thumb, if your shorts are only 1-2 inches longer than your normal fitting t-shirt, they're too short.
It's also pretty apparent that you know how to wear normal length shorts based on your tan lines. I understand not wanting to work out in your normal, everyday shorts, but come on. There's a happy medium. Your running shorts are not that happy medium. In fact, they're more like a very unhappy small, nay, extra small.
It's not like you couldn't afford longer shorts either. I saw that car you drive, new and shiny. Get more cloth to cover your legs. I don't want to see the edge of your ass when you bend over, and I fear seeing your genitals when you squat (thank god that hasn't happened).
Less than three weeks to go...
7/5/2006 6:07:13 PM
Only about 19 days left til the bar exam starts. By now, we've nearly covered all the substantive law (we'll finish that tomorrow with Trusts). The mountains of material are incredible. It's amazing that anyone ever passes the test.
We've done lots of practice essays and whatnot, and I've "failed" nearly all of them. I'm pretty sure the Bar/Bri graders are tougher on us than a real grader would be. What makes me think this? Well, for one thing, they often blatantly contradict our instructors. I'm more inclined to believe our instructors than some faceless grader. I think the idea is that they're trying to make us work harder or something. But it just ends up frustrating a lot of people that they put in tons of work to see essentially no improvement (there are no shades of gray, just pass or fail).
More later.
Days 10 and 11 - A Rock Star in Our Midst
5/25/2006 11:55:29 PM
Yesterday was more torts. It was kind of boring - actually it
wasn't that bad, it's just that I've done a lot of torts in the last
two weeks.
Today was much better despite the fact that we had 7 hours of
lecture. I was kind of dreading it until I found out that our
lecturer would be none other than the esteemed Erwin Chemerinsky.
I was somewhat amazed - I'd been under the impression that the McGeorge
BarBri got second-rate instructors. Chemerinsky could
hardly be called second-rate, being one of the top Constitutional Law
scholars in the country.
He was incredible. Provided in our materials was his 49-page
outline for Con Law. He used no notes, only misspoke once (and
immediately corrected himself) and he discussed his outline almost
verbatim. He also peppered his lecture with witty little puns
(which, unfortunately, don't exactly lend themselves to reproduction in
written form) that once people caught on elicited laughter from the
packed lecture hall. He also relayed a story about prior
restraint and government action from his personal life:
One day while in the grocery store with his two oldest children, his kids discovered that Coca-Cola was giving away three baseball cards with each purchase of a Coke product. Since there were two kids with him, an argument ensued as to who would get the third card (after each got one of course). The kids kept bickering up and down the aisles. Finally, Professor Chemerinsky told his kids that he didn't want to hear another word about baseball cards until they left the store. His then 9-year-old son responded that his father could not forbid him from talking about baseball cards because his son had "freedom of speech." Being a constitutional scholar, Professor Chemerinsky replied, "Only the government can't restrain your speech, but I'm not the government." Not deterred by his father's words, the younger Chemerinsky said, "But you're like the government to me!"I have to say, this was the most enjoyable 7-hour lecture I've ever sat through (even if it was the only one... I think it was). For us legal geeks, it was kind of like having a rock star in our midst. The BarBri price tag was worth it just for this lecture.
I'm probably on hiatus for the next few days, attending a wedding down in San Diego. There will be the inevitable studying in the hotel, so the weekend won't be all fun and games. And the drive down and back certainly won't be pleasant - but hey, I do have PMBR cd's to listen to.
5/23/2006 11:58:49 PM
Torts apparently never ends. I feel like I've written about it a million times, even though this is only Day 9. We covered lots of random torts today, as well as the standard intentional torts, defamation and invasion of privacy torts. Our instructor was a professor from Hastings. He was nice enough. Odd though. He often did this weird rocking/thrusting motion with his body that was eerily sexual, only to punctuate what he was saying with a shout and a sudden stop.
He was kinda funny too. That was good. Several times he said something to the effect of
First let me read you the definition because you're paying a lot of money, so why should you read it.
Again the classroom was full, and I was stuck in the front row, but that wasn't so bad. Fewer distractions up there. More torts tomorrow - negligence and strict liability. I'm dreading Thursday, which is a Constitutional Law lecture from 9am-5pm. That's just going to blow no matter how entertaining the lecturer is. I spent tonight reading some of the Con Law outline and transcribing my notes from today. No MBE questions today (yeah, I know I should have - but what are you going to do?). More tomorrow. Gotta get my act together and really crack down. No more lolly-gagging.
5/23/2006 12:19:55 AM
All the BarBri kids filled up the giant lecture hall on campus beyond its seating capacity today. That was annoying. I hate it when rooms are that full when I have to sit for long periods of time (and be somewhat productive). But perhaps it'll be good practice for the bar. I'm not sure what the seating arrangements will be like during the exam, except that I know there will be assigned seating.
We got out of class early today - it was just an introduction, and the last time that we'll get out early. There was no substantive law today, which was nice because, well, I didn't really want to do it anyway, and I had a crappy seat, admittedly of my own choosing, partially because of the aforementioned fullness of the hall. They also gave us a study plan for the next several weeks, really all the way until the exam starts - up until 5pm the day before the exam begins. I took the liberty of adding in an appointment at another kind of bar at 5pm on the last day of the exam. Everyone I've ever talked to has said that the BarBri study plan is insane and impossible to complete as drafted. They nearly admitted as much and said that there's a 1-800 number to be called so you can have your study plan personally adjusted if you find yourself sinking in a few weeks. That seems like a nice idea. So far I'm ahead of schedule. Sort of. It'll all come crashing down next weekend when I'm in San Diego.
So I read my mini Torts outline tonight in anticipation of lecture tomorrow and did 30 PMBR Torts questions. I got 66.7% tonight, which is a significant improvement over the 50% I got last week. Now I've just got to keep that up and improve my other scores. (And then, also really focus on the written part).
5/22/2006 1:01:30 AM
I spent today doing some random stuff. While I've gotten advice from various people, I still find studying difficult because it's not clear to me what I should be doing. With school, there are assignments to be done. With bar prep, there's lots to study, but at least for now, no particular assignments to do. So I spent a bit of time looking over the BarBri Conviser Mini Review outlines. I guess that was an ok thing to do.
Then, at the recommendation of PMBR guys, I spent about half an hour doing 20 MBE questions. I just did property questions tonight because I think that's going to be my most difficult MBE subject. I managed to get 9 out of the 20 correct for a score of 45%. This is acutally down from what I did last week on property (50%). But I think that's ok since PMBR guy told me yesterday that the averages should be between 40-50% right now. But hey, I did get the two questions on the Rule in Shelley's Case. But it looks like I need work on future interests generally and mortgages too. Apparently mortgages is a big issue on the MBE.
BarBri Torts tomorrow. At least I think it's torts. I should look at the schedule again.
Days 5 and 6: Criminal Law and Contracts
5/21/2006 4:20:21 PM
Friday was Criminal Law and Saturday was Contracts. I thought I'd do ok on criminal stuff and bomb on contracts, but I actually did ok on both - 56% and 54% respectively. So I guess what all this means is that I need to work most on Property and Torts. PMBR guy said that the averages now should be around 40-50%, so I guess I'm doing ok.
PMBR guy also told a funny story yesterday. Or at least, it was funny coming from this intenst dude. He said that he was from Cleveland, Ohio, and came to California, Berkeley particularly, for law school. He mentioned how he'd never seen so many people selling rocks as he saw on "Telegraph Street" (yeah, totally not from California). Anyway, he said that his birthday was on June 23 and before he came from California he'd read his horoscope as a Cancer, and never thought it described his life. Then when he got to Berkeley, he met some woman on the street who told him that he was actually a Gemini on the cusp of Cancer, so he started reading the Gemini horoscopes and he found it to be much more accurate to his life. "So coming to California really changed my life," he said. What this had to do with anything related to contracts is completely beyond me. But it was funny (if you were there - typing it out now, it just sounds ridiculous).
BarBri starts tomorrow. Lots of stuff left to do today/tonight. I hate the bar exam.
5/19/2006 12:23:41 AM
We got a new PMBR guy today. I think he said his name was Dan, and the last guy's name was Jeff. Or something like that. It was early in the morning, and I just wanted to start answering questions. But this guy is a total Type A. He talked fast like a robot and repeated himself often to make sure we got notes of what he was saying. He contradicted a lot of what the other PMBR guy told us, strategy-wise that is. He then tried to tell us that was ok because we should take from the class what we can use and internalize, and discard the other suggested strategies. And I guess that makes a lot of sense, but since PMBR has been doing this for so long, you'd think they'd have a solid method for success. Or maybe they're so smart that they know people learn and behave differently and they don't have the resources to build a study plan for each individual. Or maybe they're just lazy and like taking our money.
Torts kinda worked me. I was a bit disappointed. I did well in Torts two years ago, and I was a TA for a Torts class last year. I got 50% today. Same as yesterday (at least I'm consistent, if nothing else - consecutive 60%'s followed by consecutive 50%'s - tomorrow and Saturday better not be 40%'s). Again, I got some of the random questions (strict liability for wild animals) and missed some of the big areas (I missed two intentional torts questions for God's sake!). But my timing was significantly faster than yesterday (shorter questions). I've got a feeling that Property is going to be the most difficult subject (at least on the MBE). It tends to be one of the most difficult, and so far the fact patterns have been the longest, and I'm not a very fast reader (study skills class in sixth grade from ATS that taught me "speed reading" notwithstanding, because I can't do that anymore - it was good for one summer).
Anyway, I think new PMBR guy is going to be good, despite all the grumbles about him today. I think people found him a bit abrasive. But he pushes. And I could use a push right now. I'm not all that motivated, having just graduated, I'd like some time to revel in it. But I don't have time. And with him rambling off legal rules at lightning speed, he made class go by much more quickly today. So that was good. Or maybe it was just that I got more sleep last night, I don't know.
Criminal Law and procedure tomorrow. Hopefully this one will be stronger again. I'm shooting for 70+, just to have some wiggle room.
Next?