California Bar Exam (July 2013) thread Forum

[Entellus]

I'm pretty confident in my general knowledge of Contracts, but not at all in Remedies. What should I focus on in the next 2 days? Honestly I don't really get why remedies is an entire topic unto itself.

[a male human]

For me: PR and con law today. K/remedies and E tomorrow
Monday: Drive to test site in the morning; play Diablo 3 all day

[Emma.]

So we don't think there is going to be a torts essay?

[run26.2]

I'm pretty confident in my general knowledge of Contracts, but not at all in Remedies. What should I focus on in the next 2 days? Honestly I don't really get why remedies is an entire topic unto itself.

There isn't a lot of material for Remedies. However, what is there spans several topics, so it makes sense to parse it out so it is not repeated.

Even if this isn't the reason, it makes sense because, since numerous questions lend themselves to remedies, it emphasizes the need to know a topic that is likely to be part of a cross-over question. It is good to know about remedies because let's face it, the legal system (at least on the civil side) exists because somebody wants to get something from somebody else.

[Entellus]

I'm pretty confident in my general knowledge of Contracts, but not at all in Remedies. What should I focus on in the next 2 days? Honestly I don't really get why remedies is an entire topic unto itself.

There isn't a lot of material for Remedies. However, what is there spans several topics, so it makes sense to parse it out so it is not repeated.

Even if this isn't the reason, it makes sense because, since numerous questions lend themselves to remedies, it emphasizes the need to know a topic that is likely to be part of a cross-over question. It is good to know about remedies because let's face it, the legal system (at least on the civil side) exists because somebody wants to get something from somebody else.

Yea thanks, that makes sense. Maybe I'm just having trouble organizing my understanding of the subject matter. I don't really click with the way the Themis lectures teach it.

[Shaggier1]

So we don't think there is going to be a torts essay?

Not likely. General agreement seems to be the following subjects, in rough order of likelihood:

PR (at least as part of a question)
Con Law
Property
Evidence (CA)
Community property/Wills/Trusts (either together or separately making up 2 questions total)
Contracts (perhaps with remedies)

Civ Pro has been listed as a wild card, but only because they have not yet tested CA civ pro

[Reinhardt]

Specifically California Evidence? It seems like it's been tested a lot recently. Also I suck at it.

[c3pO4]

why don't we think agency/partnership/corps

[Chichaca]

For the California distinction subjects, I'm still confused about how we're supposed to know which law to apply. For civ pro it should be obvious (tells us what court we're in), but what about evidence and professional responsibility? I was under the impression we were supposed to discuss both if the question doesn't specify, but a lot of these model answers I'm looking at seem to just apply federal law. (And Themis has been unclear...)

[Old Gregg]

why don't we think agency/partnership/corps

Because A&P is tested very rarely and corps is also not that frequent; corps was tested on the last administration...

[Old Gregg]

but what about evidence and professional responsibility

1) For criminal law, the question will tell you. If it doesn't, and if the case is criminal, then argue both sides (it shouldn't be hard). For civil cases, there just aren't many distinctions and not spotting them won't appreciably lower your score.

2) For PR, the question will usually tell you to argue under both the ABA and CA rules.

[courtneylove]

anybody want to trade CA subject outlines for some MBE outlines? i outlined everything but evidence this week.

[1L1284]

The selected model answers published on the CA Bar website .... are those examples of 65s or 100s??

[Reinhardt]

The selected model answers published on the CA Bar website .... are those examples of 65s or 100s??

Think they're more like 75 or 85 or something.

[Foosters Galore]

Man, I just realized I have like zero of Wills or Trusts memorized. Thought I understood it ok, but holy shit.

[DwightSchruteFarms]

The selected model answers published on the CA Bar website .... are those examples of 65s or 100s??

Think they're more like 75 or 85 or something.

Pretty sure they are at least 80-85. Apparently they retain many 80+s and then send out letters asking for permission to publish their answers. About 99% sure I won't be getting those letters, but then again, I don't really care haha

[deadlinguo]

Does anyone have a decent understanding on how essay grading works? I guess this is a hard question to answer because there are easier and harder essay questions and everything is curved. When I do practice essays, I usually get around 70% of the points that are mentioned in Barbri's sample answer or answer outline. No clue what that means in terms of a score. Are Barbri's sample answers supposed to represent perfect or close-to-perfect essays? Or are we supposed to be writing answers that look like Barbri's in order to receive scores of ~65?

I remember reading somewhere that the middle 75% of essay scores fall between 55 and 65. Does that sound right?

[AntiHuman]

I thought 75% of scores are between 60 and 75. I just hope i get 65 on each Pt and 130 raw out of 190 on mbe as a safety blanket...i still have to study 6 subjects in 2.5 days FML

[vacations]

man..i seriously have to keep reminding myself that it's ok my answers don't look identical to the barbri answers....

[spaacecdt]

I recall reading that you're required to leave your computer in the room, but that might've happened in a dream.

I think you're required to leave your laptop in the room for a given session-- i.e., no carrying your laptop to the bathroom with you or taking it with you when you finish early. I think a session ends when we break for lunch.

Page 4, Section 22 of "General Instructions." http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/Portals ... tLtr_R.pdf

[Foosters Galore]

Man, the summer 2012 essay on wills was so easy.

[Old Gregg]

Man, I just realized I have like zero of Wills or Trusts memorized. Thought I understood it ok, but holy shit.

IMO CP is the biggest mindfuck. I'd prioritize knowing that and W&T.

[Foosters Galore]

Man, I just realized I have like zero of Wills or Trusts memorized. Thought I understood it ok, but holy shit.

IMO CP is the biggest mindfuck. I'd prioritize knowing that and W&T.

I'm trying. I'm really trying.

[a male human]

I'm worried about con law because I'm no good at the federalism and congressional powers stuff. Like I just did 2008 July Q2, and I had no idea what a president could do in terms of giving executive orders. On a real question, I would have been toast.

It seems like the past few administrations have all been A1 individual rights, though. Hopefully it's that this time around because it's just SS or RBR.

[TaipeiMort]

They way I've coped with CP and Trusts is that the amount of testable material on both is not huge, in that you will need to walk through similar material each time. It is just hard to visualize them pulling something crazy out of left field.

I thought I had con law down, and then I had a question about 1) executive orders preempting state law, and 2) if the law violates the 4th amendment. I didn't think they'd combine crim pro with conlaw.