See Jane Get Rich

Before bar exam started (1) my goal was to be in class for 4 hours and then maybe study for 4, (2) do 60 multistate (MBE) questions from each of the six subjects, (3) do one essay and one Multistate Performance Test (MPT).  This is how my goals actually fared.  Lots of studying but I wasn’t able to do all the MBE questions or the essay or the MPT.  Oh-Oh.

Class & Studying

My classed started towards the middle of the week and most of the days prior to class was spenting freaking out about how my books got lost in the mail and how I was going to be behind everyone else in my reading and reviewing.  My books arrived just in time and when the classes started I was just drowning in the civil procedure material.  The volume of material that is thrown at you is just incredible.  Having not gone to law school in the states that I will be taking the bar exam none of this is familiar to me.  But, I have been keeping up with the classes and reviewing the material.  I have been making flash cards to help me review the material but that is a little time consuming.  I may move to printing out the flashcards but so far I haven’t made the move.

Multistate (MBE)

My goal was to do 60 every day or 10 from each of the six subjects tested on the multistate.  The good news is that I take them timed and I always come under time.  So, I do 10 questions in under 18 minutes.  Now, the bad news is that it takes me one hour to really do the 10 questions.  What do I mean?  My mentor told me that I should review the answer choice to every question regardless of whether I get it right or not and write down any law that I do not understand.  Before the bar review classes started I already reviewd constitutional law and contracts but not property, torts, evidence or criminal law.  So, for those four subjects there is a lot of law that I either didn’t know or simply forgotten since I took those courses my first year of law school.  So, it takes me 15 minutes to do 10 questions and then another 45 minutes to check my answers, read the explanations and create flash cards.  If I were to achieve my goal of doing 60 questions then I need 6 hours!  I will eventually stop reading over all the answers because that is time consuming.  I am also considering cutting my goal from 60 questions to just 30 questions.   

I need to get about 75% correct in each MBE subject by the end of July.  From the way things are looking, the state subject are super detailed and I am afraid of not performing so well on the state exams so I need to rock out the MBE.  Doing this graph below also made me realize that I really need to do more property questions.  Property was one subject in law school that I did not understand.  I walked out of my property class not having understood the Rule Against Perpetuities but the multistate property isn’t obsessed with what my professor was obssessed with so, I need to stop avoiding property like the plague. 

MBE – % Correct Before Bar Review Class

MBE – % Correct - Week 1 

I can’t belive I haven’t blogged for over a whole month!  Craziness.  What the heck have I been doing?  Studying for the bar. 

Once upon a time, the summer before law school I got the chance to meet with a just-graduated-law-student from my law school about the adventures that were awaiting me as a law student.  I made an appointment with her and she said she can only meet with me for 15 minutes because she is studying for the bar.  When I met with her in person she had on her gym clothes and she kept doing stretches and mini-exercises while I was speaking to her and I thought, “hmm…this bar exam stuff sounds like serious stuff!” 

Then, I forgot about it for another three years and here I am.  The advice I was given was to take it easy until July 4th hits and then study like crazy.  Okay, by taking it easy people meant study like its your job (so, 8 hours).  Now, that I am actually doing this bar review stuff I don’t know how I can get anything remotely done in eight hours.  Some days my bar review class lasts 4 hours and on other days like today it is 6 hours.  Then I need to review my notes, do some multi-state questions, make and review flash cards and bam the day is over!

I am studying at home and viewing the lectures online.  I thought I wouldn’t be self disciplined enough to do it, but I am finding that 3 years of law school has definitely kicked that characteristic into high gear.  However, I have expressly told my summer person that I may be coming back to DC in July if things go south and I need to see other freaked out law students.  

I definitely want to blog througout my bar preparation period so I will have a record of it.