Memoirs of a Bar Examinee

[TruOne]

Who is taking the July 2009 Bar?

And if so, what state(s)are you sitting for?


NY and NJ here.

I am taking the PMBR - Complete Bar Review

SC

and might I add, that this is slow torture having to sit and listen to a lecturer read from an outline that I have RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

Question for successful takers:

My method so far has been making flashcards of every topic. Did you all do this for the Essay topics as well?

[Matthies]

Who is taking the July 2009 Bar?

And if so, what state(s)are you sitting for?


NY and NJ here.

I am taking the PMBR - Complete Bar Review

SC

and might I add, that this is slow torture having to sit and listen to a lecturer read from an outline that I have RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

Question for successful takers:

My method so far has been making flashcards of every topic. Did you all do this for the Essay topics as well?

Good question, doing the same here?


I'm taking CO in July, WY in Feb (asuming I pass CO)

[A.]

My method so far has been making flashcards of every topic. Did you all do this for the Essay topics as well?

You should do whatever has worked for you in the past.  I've never found flashcards to be helpful (at least not enough to justify the time it takes to make them), so I didn't use them for the bar.  If the essays will be testing learned material, then I would imagine flashcards to be useful for those too.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

Who is taking the July 2009 Bar?

And if so, what state(s)are you sitting for?


NY and NJ here.

I am taking the PMBR - Complete Bar Review

SC

and might I add, that this is slow torture having to sit and listen to a lecturer read from an outline that I have RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

Question for successful takers:

My method so far has been making flashcards of every topic. Did you all do this for the Essay topics as well?

No I didn't, but then again I was never a flash cards maker.  Now my study parter (who also passed) she was a flash card person so that worked for her.  While she was making flash cards to help her learn the material, I went back over outlines and made my own notes on the outlines and then I posted a big azz 2 foot by 3 foot poster of all the important stuff that I picked out of a subject (typically questions I missed or particular doctrines that required flow-chart-analysis) and hung it on the wall so that I could look at it every day.  By the end of the summer our study room looked like homeboy's crib in "A Beautiful Mind."

Hey whatever works right?

[TruOne]

Who is taking the July 2009 Bar?

And if so, what state(s)are you sitting for?


NY and NJ here.

I am taking the PMBR - Complete Bar Review

SC

and might I add, that this is slow torture having to sit and listen to a lecturer read from an outline that I have RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

Question for successful takers:

My method so far has been making flashcards of every topic. Did you all do this for the Essay topics as well?

No I didn't, but then again I was never a flash cards maker.  Now my study parter (who also passed) she was a flash card person so that worked for her.  While she was making flash cards to help her learn the material, I went back over outlines and made my own notes on the outlines and then I posted a big azz 2 foot by 3 foot poster of all the important stuff that I picked out of a subject (typically questions I missed or particular doctrines that required flow-chart-analysis) and hung it on the wall so that I could look at it every day.  By the end of the summer our study room looked like homeboy's crib in "A Beautiful Mind."

Hey whatever works right?

Oh God I hate that movie! The ending left me with a intellectual blue-balls. All that build-up for what???

A damn pen in the library!?!

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

I found both groups extremely helpful, and necessary, however the group who failed was overwhelmingly more able to say EXACTLY what did not work and what was a waste of time.  The group who passed were basically only able to tell me what they did, but not necessarily what EXACTLY made them pass.  You feel me?

What did the FAILED people have to say? Cuz I'm close to freakin' out my-damn-self.

Let's see...from what I recall the most common theme that stands out about the folks who did not pass is that they waited until the last minute.  In most cases, they didn't even start studying until July, and a handful of my friends who attended T14 schools literally waited until 2 weeks before the NY bar exam before they even started studying.  Their rationalle: they're obviously good test takers (coming from Harvard, Berkley, UChi, etc.) so why should this be any different?

Of course, we know how that turned out.  It's not about being a good test taker when it comes to the bar - there's just entirely too much friggin stuff you have to cover for the bar that can not physically be covered in a two week time span. I don't care if you're Doogie Houser, you're not passing the bar exam in 2 weeks, let alone the NY Bar Exam (considered by most to be the toughest in the country).

So if you have been studying through this month of June then you should be good money.  I coached a girl in the class behind me who, due to work obligations, had not been able to really sit down and study throughout the entire month of June.  She passed, but it was a chore getting her up to speed.  So it is possible, although highly unlikely, to wait that long and still pass.

The other thing that I hear about from folks who didn't pass was not doing well enough on the MBE.  Meaning they followed the BarBri schedule religously and hadn't practiced MBE questions all summer long.  You MUST get your MBE questions in there (see all the previous pages of this thread)  Between the Essays or the MBE, it's usually the MBE that keeps folks from passing.  In New York, it is rumored (although, of course, never confirmed by the NY State Bar) that if you score above a 140 on the MBE then they don't even read your essays b/c it is automatically assumed that you passed.

So if you have been hitting the MBE questions hard every day then, again, you should be good money.

The bar is without a doubt one of the greatest, most difficult, most monumental "academic" (for lack of a better term) achievements that I have ever accomplished in my life time.  Hands down.  However, it is completely doable (and the odds are actually IN YOUR FAVOR to pass) if you come from an ABA accredited law school and just sit your azz down for a couple months and put in the study time.

Let me know how else I can help.  There's a strong brain trust of cats around here who can also help getcha through this rough time. 

One last thing - stay positive.  Well...as much as possible that is.

[Matthies]

Sands, I have a question. I got really bad dyslexia, like everything I write is misspelled or backwards. They gave me accommodations on the bar of the use of a spell checker, but no extra time to do it. So realistically based on the practice essays I’ve been doing I can only afford to write for 20 of the 30 mins then I got run spell checker. So basically on all the written parts of the exam I have 1/3 less time. If I go for max points and just throw everything in there you think its possible to pass the written section with only 20 of the thirty mins available? I know the questions are designed to be answered in 30 mins, but I’m wondering if getting enough points down in 20 is doable. So far I’ve been doing ok using this time set up, getting maybe 60-70% of the points, but I don’t know if that’s enough to pass or not. I’m afraid I’m really going to be screwed on the PTs loosing 1/3 of my time. I’m taking two tomorrow and am going to try and increase my read speed to give me more write time.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

Sands, I have a question. I got really bad dyslexia, like everything I write is misspelled or backwards. They gave me accommodations on the bar of the use of a spell checker, but no extra time to do it. So realistically based on the practice essays I’ve been doing I can only afford to write for 20 of the 30 mins then I got run spell checker. So basically on all the written parts of the exam I have 1/3 less time. If I go for max points and just throw everything in there you think its possible to pass the written section with only 20 of the thirty mins available? I know the questions are designed to be answered in 30 mins, but I’m wondering if getting enough points down in 20 is doable. So far I’ve been doing ok using this time set up, getting maybe 60-70% of the points, but I don’t know if that’s enough to pass or not. I’m afraid I’m really going to be screwed on the PTs loosing 1/3 of my time. I’m taking two tomorrow and am going to try and increase my read speed to give me more write time.

Probably so. I skipped an entire essay and still passed, so I don't see why you couldn't pass with 20 minutes on each one.  The most important part of the essays is that first 2 or 3 sentences that you write anyway.  After that, from what I've been told, if your answer introduction sounds legit then they just skim the rest for buzz words and keep it moving.

[Matthies]

Sands, I have a question. I got really bad dyslexia, like everything I write is misspelled or backwards. They gave me accommodations on the bar of the use of a spell checker, but no extra time to do it. So realistically based on the practice essays I’ve been doing I can only afford to write for 20 of the 30 mins then I got run spell checker. So basically on all the written parts of the exam I have 1/3 less time. If I go for max points and just throw everything in there you think its possible to pass the written section with only 20 of the thirty mins available? I know the questions are designed to be answered in 30 mins, but I’m wondering if getting enough points down in 20 is doable. So far I’ve been doing ok using this time set up, getting maybe 60-70% of the points, but I don’t know if that’s enough to pass or not. I’m afraid I’m really going to be screwed on the PTs loosing 1/3 of my time. I’m taking two tomorrow and am going to try and increase my read speed to give me more write time.

Probably so. I skipped an entire essay and still passed, so I don't see why you couldn't pass with 20 minutes on each one.  The most important part of the essays is that first 2 or 3 sentences that you write anyway.  After that, from what I've been told, if your answer introduction sounds legit then they just skim the rest for buzz words and keep it moving.

cool, glad to hear that, I was not to happy when my accodidation made the exam shoter and harder 

[Kirk Lazarus]

if you write in your barbri books can you get the refund? Dumb question, I know...but i'm curious.