Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[Pleasye]

Anyone else having trouble concentrating?

Yeeesssssss. And I can't fit anything else in my brain and I'm forgetting everything I thought I had learned. I think I peaked in my studying last week and now I'm screwed.

[anon sequitur]

Me too. For the last couple of days I've been pretty confident I'd pass, and that's ruined my ability to panic-study, which I did for about two weeks, which got me to where I was confident I'd pass. But that confidence was only based on my continued panic study... hmm.

[Lubberlubber]

Is anyone else doing very inconsistently on the MBE mixed sets?

I'm literally doing 55, 65, 55, 65, 55 for the last 5. And the specific categories are crazy different too. For example, I usually do well in torts, but today missed all 5 torts questions in a 50 set.

Seriously having doubts about passing at this point...

[anon sequitur]

Is anyone else doing very inconsistently on the MBE mixed sets?

I had a 28% drop going from a 50-question mixed set to milestone 1 about 24 hours later. I just try not to think about it too much, some sets are harder, some days are harder, it'll all even out over 190 questions.

[sp1kedrat]

hey NYers, when themis says ny courts can exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant for maintenance issues if "The defendant abandoned the plaintiff in NY" do they mean that the defendant is now in Ny or the plaintiff? It's so unclear and no one is responding

[zot1]

Anyone else having trouble concentrating?

Yeeesssssss. And I can't fit anything else in my brain and I'm forgetting everything I thought I had learned. I think I peaked in my studying last week and now I'm screwed.

I'm definitely there. I think I'm also at the point where I just want to go and lay next to a pool and drink.

[Confused7]

hey NYers, when themis says ny courts can exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant for maintenance issues if "The defendant abandoned the plaintiff in NY" do they mean that the defendant is now in Ny or the plaintiff? It's so unclear and no one is responding

I'm guessing this means that P is in NY because D used to be there but abandoned him/her.

[Nelson]

Anyone else having trouble concentrating?

Since I finished the first pass on all of the material, I've had a really hard time trying to "review." I'm just reading outlines over again once every couple of days and doing a couple of practice essays each day. But I don't really have the focus to put in more than 6 hours a day on this stuff.

Is anyone else going to run out of MBE practice before the exam? At my current pace of one mixed set a day I'll run out before the exam.

[eloise16]

Is anyone else doing very inconsistently on the MBE mixed sets?

I had a 28% drop going from a 50-question mixed set to milestone 1 about 24 hours later. I just try not to think about it too much, some sets are harder, some days are harder, it'll all even out over 190 questions.

Yes! I've had 68%, 65%, 50% ( ), 60%, 68%, 66% for the last six.

[jkpolk]

Just spiked a 90% on the last con law question set because, per this pinterest board, I practically wrote the constitution.

[Confused7]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

[Ahyis]

Is anyone else doing very inconsistently on the MBE mixed sets?

Actually, my mixed sets have been fairly constant (and I've now done 12). Started at 62 for a few, hit 64, dropped down to 60 for a few, hit 66, and finally today hit my first 70. Basically, I'm seeing slow improvement.

The funny thing is, the difference between 60 and 70 (depending on the size of the set) is only 5-10 questions. Never had to work this hard just to get an extra few questions right.

[Nelson]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

That's (probably) better than passing in most jurisdictions. Assuming a 15 point scaling bump that would be a 144 scaled which would be above median.

[kjartan]

I am getting absolutely nailed right now by this Torts MBE Practice Session 5.

[zot1]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

I only have 65% and I have some subjects still well below 60, so I'm not very happy about that. Something mentioned a 15pt scale bump, but I've seen some exams get scaled by like 4pt

[Confused7]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

I only have 65% and I have some subjects still well below 60, so I'm not very happy about that. Something mentioned a 15pt scale bump, but I've seen some exams get scaled by like 4pt

Hang in there, I feel your pain. How many sets have you done already? If not that many yet,you still tons of time to practice.

[BelugaWhale]

Can someone help me with federal estate tax. Not sure if there is a typo(s) in the themis book.

In 1 section of the book, it says "federal estate tax is a tax imposed by the gov't for decedent's having a gross estate over a certain dollar amount"

But in another section, the book says "if the taxable estate exceeds a threshold exemption amount, the decedent must pay federal estate tax"

In another section, it says "a return must be filed if the gross estate exceeds the exemption amount"

In yet another section, "federal estate tax is due if the taxable estate exceeds the exemption amount"

So I'm totally confused. Which is it? Is it that if your gross estate is higher than the exemption amount you need to FILE for the estate tax, but you only need to PAY if your taxable estate is higher than the exemption?

Say exemption is 5 million. I have a gross estate of 6 million but have 2 million in deductions. So would I be correct in saying I would need to file for the tax but would not have to pay anything because 6-2=4 million is less than the exemption amount?

[zot1]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

I only have 65% and I have some subjects still well below 60, so I'm not very happy about that. Something mentioned a 15pt scale bump, but I've seen some exams get scaled by like 4pt

Hang in there, I feel your pain. How many sets have you done already? If not that many yet,you still tons of time to practice.

I've done too many already... 1373 total questions.

I mean, it's not like I'm in panic mode about it, just not happy. I do plan to practice more for the next two weeks. One and a half, really.

[anon sequitur]

Can someone help me with federal estate tax. Not sure if there is a typo(s) in the themis book. . . . So I'm totally confused. Which is it? Is it that if your gross estate is higher than the exemption amount you need to FILE for the estate tax, but you only need to PAY if your taxable estate is higher than the exemption?

Yeah, you got it right, if your gross estate tax is above the threshold you have to file, but you won't have to pay tax unless your taxable estate is above the threshold. In the lecture, the prof made it clear that they do this so they can check out if your deductions are legit.

[Confused7]

Just got one of these in an answer explanation "This answer is best arrived at by the process of elimination."

[paulshortys10]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

I only have 65% and I have some subjects still well below 60, so I'm not very happy about that. Something mentioned a 15pt scale bump, but I've seen some exams get scaled by like 4pt

Hang in there, I feel your pain. How many sets have you done already? If not that many yet,you still tons of time to practice.

I've done too many already... 1373 total questions.

I mean, it's not like I'm in panic mode about it, just not happy. I do plan to practice more for the next two weeks. One and a half, really.

Are you counting the milestone/simulated exams? they don't count those on the MBE total

[BelugaWhale]

Can someone help me with federal estate tax. Not sure if there is a typo(s) in the themis book. . . . So I'm totally confused. Which is it? Is it that if your gross estate is higher than the exemption amount you need to FILE for the estate tax, but you only need to PAY if your taxable estate is higher than the exemption?

Yeah, you got it right, if your gross estate tax is above the threshold you have to file, but you won't have to pay tax unless your taxable estate is above the threshold. In the lecture, the prof made it clear that they do this so they can check out if your deductions are legit.

Cool, in that case, is the tax on the amount of the taxable estate in excess of the threshold? That is, if threshold is 5million and taxable estate is 6. Is the tax on the whole 6 or just 1 million?

[paulshortys10]

Wills question - Can anyone explain the difference between omitted/pretermitted child/spouse, if any?

[BelugaWhale]

Wills question - Can anyone explain the difference between omitted/pretermitted child/spouse, if any?

There isn't. Though I guess omitted more generally refers to intentional omissions whereas pretermittion statutes are "stale will" doctrines, that is unintentional omissions.

[zot1]

Themis is telling me my overall MBE score is 68%. That's exactly what we need for passing right? I was able to get above 70% for the first few mixed MBE sets, but I can't for the life of me now.

I only have 65% and I have some subjects still well below 60, so I'm not very happy about that. Something mentioned a 15pt scale bump, but I've seen some exams get scaled by like 4pt

Hang in there, I feel your pain. How many sets have you done already? If not that many yet,you still tons of time to practice.

I've done too many already... 1373 total questions.

I mean, it's not like I'm in panic mode about it, just not happy. I do plan to practice more for the next two weeks. One and a half, really.

Are you counting the milestone/simulated exams? they don't count those on the MBE total

I wasn't. I've done a lot better on those. Thanks for the tip!