Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[lsutiger1987]

I'm at 32% for the Texas Themis bar course. I'm a little worried that I'm behind

[hous]

38% Florida here. I'm about 5% behind and all my friends are around 45-50%!

[whirledpeas86]

I had my Themis advisor check in call today and the dude said that if I had followed the study schedule exactly, I would be at around 47%. The national average is around 33% and I'm at 38%, so I'm feeling pretty good about my pace. Also, I mentioned that I got a 5/17 on my first property practice test and the advisor dude literally laughed out loud. So, I may be a failure at property, but at least I'm so bad it's funny?

[kapital98]

I had my Themis advisor check in call today and the dude said that if I had followed the study schedule exactly, I would be at around 47%. The national average is around 33% and I'm at 38%, so I'm feeling pretty good about my pace. Also, I mentioned that I got a 5/17 on my first property practice test and the advisor dude literally laughed out loud. So, I may be a failure at property, but at least I'm so bad it's funny?

What jrx are you in? PA? NY?

[bport hopeful]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

[JJ556]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

Are Lean Sheets worth adding to one's arsenal of bar prep material?

[bport hopeful]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

Are Lean Sheets worth adding to one's arsenal of bar prep material?

I havent really delved into it yet to really answer that. I think for $30, theyre prolly worth it to most people though. Unless youre way ahead in your studying. They are really condensed. The NY is 54 pages total.

[blue920]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

On the first page of the Lean Sheet it says not to reproduce or transfer them in any form or by any means. Would they know if you emailed them to one friend? Of course not, but since your name is on the bottom, I'd be careful that they don't end up with dozens of different people.

I bought the NY version, and I do like them but I've already spotted an error on a frequently tested NY topic. I emailed them and haven't heard back. So while they are good for condensing the material, I'd be careful and make sure the most frequently tested information is accurate.

[bport hopeful]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

On the first page of the Lean Sheet it says not to reproduce or transfer them in any form or by any means. Would they know if you emailed them to one friend? Of course not, but since your name is on the bottom, I'd be careful that they don't end up with dozens of different people.

I bought the NY version, and I do like them but I've already spotted an error on a frequently tested NY topic. I emailed them and haven't heard back. So while they are good for condensing the material, I'd be careful and make sure the most frequently tested information is accurate.

I bought NY as well, care to share the error?

I think theyre prolly best for keeping track of information and running through to see what you dont recognize or know. Learning from them seems like it would be difficult.

[bport hopeful]

Sometimes when Im doing MBE PQs, I get repeat questions.

It makes me irrationally upset.

[blue920]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

On the first page of the Lean Sheet it says not to reproduce or transfer them in any form or by any means. Would they know if you emailed them to one friend? Of course not, but since your name is on the bottom, I'd be careful that they don't end up with dozens of different people.

I bought the NY version, and I do like them but I've already spotted an error on a frequently tested NY topic. I emailed them and haven't heard back. So while they are good for condensing the material, I'd be careful and make sure the most frequently tested information is accurate.

I bought NY as well, care to share the error?

I think theyre prolly best for keeping track of information and running through to see what you dont recognize or know. Learning from them seems like it would be difficult.

The Wills section, page 53 of the pdf (or 51 of the actual document) states that the elective share of a spouse with issue is $50,000 + 1/2 of the estate, and the entire estate if no issue. This is actually the intestacy share; the elective share is 1/3 of the net estate OR $50,000, whichever is higher.

Since it's practically a guarantee that we'll have an essay on wills, I wasn't too happy to see that. Though I guess I should thank them; I really have it down now, since I checked like 5 times to make sure I wasn't wrong before emailing them.

[bport hopeful]

So, I dont remember reading anything when I bought Lean Sheets saying I couldnt share them. Am I wrong about that?

On the first page of the Lean Sheet it says not to reproduce or transfer them in any form or by any means. Would they know if you emailed them to one friend? Of course not, but since your name is on the bottom, I'd be careful that they don't end up with dozens of different people.

I bought the NY version, and I do like them but I've already spotted an error on a frequently tested NY topic. I emailed them and haven't heard back. So while they are good for condensing the material, I'd be careful and make sure the most frequently tested information is accurate.

I bought NY as well, care to share the error?

I think theyre prolly best for keeping track of information and running through to see what you dont recognize or know. Learning from them seems like it would be difficult.

The Wills section, page 53 of the pdf (or 51 of the actual document) states that the elective share of a spouse with issue is $50,000 + 1/2 of the estate, and the entire estate if no issue. This is actually the intestacy share; the elective share is 1/3 of the net estate OR $50,000, whichever is higher.

Since it's practically a guarantee that we'll have an essay on wills, I wasn't too happy to see that. Though I guess I should thank them; I really have it down now, since I checked like 5 times to make sure I wasn't wrong before emailing them.

TY.

For people buggin about property, heres an anecdote.

Did PQ1, got a 29%

Made flashcards and did no other studying and did not review the cards.

PQ2: 59%
PQ3: 74%

Not great, but Id take these numbers on test day. Maybe try flashcards.

[hous]

TY.

For people buggin about property, heres an anecdote.

Did PQ1, got a 29%

Made flashcards and did no other studying and did not review the cards.

PQ2: 59%
PQ3: 74%

Not great, but Id take these numbers on test day. Maybe try flashcards.

Great job on the turnaround. That is impressive. I think if you can hit 74% on the property sections you are in good shape.

[Genuine4ps]

I had my Themis advisor check in call today and the dude said that if I had followed the study schedule exactly, I would be at around 47%. The national average is around 33% and I'm at 38%, so I'm feeling pretty good about my pace. Also, I mentioned that I got a 5/17 on my first property practice test and the advisor dude literally laughed out loud. So, I may be a failure at property, but at least I'm so bad it's funny?

How is this even possible? That would mean that you hit 100% way before the bar, right? And this isn't even factoring in that we'll be putting in substantially more time in the second month of your preparation.

[jigglypuffdreams]

I had my Themis advisor check in call today and the dude said that if I had followed the study schedule exactly, I would be at around 47%. The national average is around 33% and I'm at 38%, so I'm feeling pretty good about my pace. Also, I mentioned that I got a 5/17 on my first property practice test and the advisor dude literally laughed out loud. So, I may be a failure at property, but at least I'm so bad it's funny?

How is this even possible? That would mean that you hit 100% way before the bar, right? And this isn't even factoring in that we'll be putting in substantially more time in the second month of your preparation.

I'm at 67% right now but I started pretty early. But yeah the standard schedule they give in the beginning gives a lot of review tasks towards the end and none of the review tasks give you any bump in percentage complete. Plus there are a few things like milestone exams, simulated essay exams and MBEs, and graded essays, that aren't even open yet. But I think even if you hit 100% before the bar, they'll just tell you to review and memorize things. Last year my husband stopped doing substantive tasks around 93% and just focused on memorizing at that point. It's not like you can run out of things to memorize.

[puttycake]

I'm at 55%. Actually starting to feel pretty good about the whole thing. I'm sure that will change, but I'm 75% done with the lectures, so I'm in the home stretch with the being introduced to new things part. I feel like the essays are finally making more sense.

All in all, fairly contented with things today.

[bobanderson]

Does anyone know why themis has us do contracts and then advanced sales, which doesn't seem to contain any additional information and basically just restates the contracts information? Even all of the examples are the same as the contracts examples. I don't get it.

[bport hopeful]

All in all, fairly contented with things today.

These are days to be cherished.

[Genuine4ps]

I'm at 55%. Actually starting to feel pretty good about the whole thing. I'm sure that will change, but I'm 75% done with the lectures, so I'm in the home stretch with the being introduced to new things part. I feel like the essays are finally making more sense.

All in all, fairly contented with things today.

I'm envious of that progress.

How much time, on average, would you say you're putting in each day (including weekends)?

[Kiwi917]

Does anyone know how much time we are supposed to spend when the task says to outline an essay rather than write it? Is the idea that this is mainly to practice issue-spotting and organization, or are people putting more time/effort into these outlining tasks?

[puttycake]

I'm envious of that progress.

How much time, on average, would you say you're putting in each day (including weekends)?

I work for a while, then fiddle around, jumping from task to task pretty much at will. If I don't feel like concentrating too hard, I switch to something more passive.

I'd say I work about 5 hours a day on average. Actually, it's probably less than that.

I've read 100% of the long outlines and listened to 75% of the lectures. I think I'll be done with all lectures by the middle of next week. I'm almost ready to start the mixed MBE sets.

Up to this last weekend, I've been working at least a little every day. I took Friday and Saturday completely off, and on Sunday just drilled the Crim Law essay template in prep for doing a Crim Law graded essay on Monday.

[puttycake]

Does anyone know how much time we are supposed to spend when the task says to outline an essay rather than write it? Is the idea that this is mainly to practice issue-spotting and organization, or are people putting more time/effort into these outlining tasks?

I've been allotting 15 minutes to an outline. That's a little longer than I tend to spend if I'm going to go ahead and write, but I want to make sure I put enough information down that if I look at the model answer I can see whether I really got it. I don't want to lie to myself.

[Kiwi917]

Does anyone know how much time we are supposed to spend when the task says to outline an essay rather than write it? Is the idea that this is mainly to practice issue-spotting and organization, or are people putting more time/effort into these outlining tasks?

I've been allotting 15 minutes to an outline. That's a little longer than I tend to spend if I'm going to go ahead and write, but I want to make sure I put enough information down that if I look at the model answer I can see whether I really got it. I don't want to lie to myself.

Thanks! That's about what I was thinking would be reasonable.

[Apple Tree]

Just did a CA practice PT and then looked at the model answers. How the hell do those people type so many words??

[Apple Tree]

If I get a CivPro essay (especially a CA civ pro one) I'm gonna fail the bar...

You are not alone, Apple Tree I feel that way too! Oh well, guess we still have several weeks for a miracle to set in! There's just too much stuff to re-learn. Almost ready to gamble and toss a subject or two!

I feel exactly the same way!