Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2016 Forum

[1down1togo]

What scores are we supposed to be getting on the essays?

Judy McMullen- the director of something or other for Themis, sent all the VA bar people a thing about what scores we need to be getting. She said 65% on mbe and 7/10 is what you'd need to get on the real thing- for Virginia anyway. Although she never mentioned whether that was raw or scaled as far as the essays are concerned. I might email your director or someone and ask.

Really though, the grades that Themis gives, to my knowledge, are not scaled, they are raw- so they are somewhat deceptive. To soothe myself, I've been comparing myself to others. I go to the website and hit "COURSE PROGRESS"- graded essays- and compare my self to other people. I figure, the average person passes. So, as long as I'm doing at least average, I'm more than fine.

If you are looking for something more definite, I'd email whoever your state director is and ask. If they can't tell you, they can direct you to someone who can. Honestly, I harass the themis staff with stuff like this all the time and they are very helpful.

[ChocolateTruffle]

Con Law MBE PQ 5 is officially the most difficult set of questions I've done so far in Themis.

That was one of my better sets. Scored 68% on that. Con law and Crim Pro are my best subjects. But I'm seriously bombing in civil procedure. Does anyone have any charts or something for reference that will make all the rules easier to memorize?

[Easy-E]

Con Law MBE PQ 5 is officially the most difficult set of questions I've done so far in Themis.

That was one of my better sets. Scored 68% on that. Con law and Crim Pro are my best subjects. But I'm seriously bombing in civil procedure. Does anyone have any charts or something for reference that will make all the rules easier to memorize?

I just got my dick punched in by PQ set 3. I would say 50% of the questions in this set are not covered in the lecture. Civ Pro has been killing me in general though.

Not having a good day of bar prep so far...

[bigbossman]

Don't know why people think their unpaid internships and paralegal experience would be relevant for the MBE

It can be very relevant for evidence. I spent last summer doing preliminary hearings for criminal charges, it puts me in a much better position than these poor folks who had never heard of evidence until a couple of weeks ago.

But I'm in the same boat as these other criminal law people, I'm doing terribly on these crim law questions, while acing crim pro. These crim law questions are some bull.

[Easy-E]

Did anyone do the MBE milestone in the book? I actually think being able to mark up the question might help me, since I end up missing a few for overlooking one word. Yes, aware I am probably behind everyone on doing this.

[unidentifiable]

Did anyone do the MBE milestone in the book? I actually think being able to mark up the question might help me, since I end up missing a few for overlooking one word. Yes, aware I am probably behind everyone on doing this.

yep.

i did milestone one on the computer.

did milestone 2 in the book. figured it would make it more real? Score went up 3%, but thats too low to know if using the book is the reason.

[Fivedham]

Con Law MBE PQ 5 is officially the most difficult set of questions I've done so far in Themis.

That was one of my better sets. Scored 68% on that. Con law and Crim Pro are my best subjects. But I'm seriously bombing in civil procedure. Does anyone have any charts or something for reference that will make all the rules easier to memorize?

I just got my dick punched in by PQ set 3. I would say 50% of the questions in this set are not covered in the lecture. Civ Pro has been killing me in general though.

Not having a good day of bar prep so far...

Yeah Con Law PQs have only gotten worse for me. I started in the 17 question sets in the high and mid 80s, but I've only gone down since then. I don't get it, because I've been doing fine with Con Law questions in AdaptiBar, where I have a 65% overall. I guess it's time to return to the long outlines and the handouts.

Civ Pro is the kinda thing, like Evidence, that just requires you to read the rules and apply them, since there's not a lot of room for subjective assessments (e.g. parties are either diverse of they're not, or a party is either timely or not). But I've found that even if you don't know the answer for sure, going with the common sense result that seems most just is usually good enough to narrow it down to two.

That said, there's a lot of civ pro fuckery since a lot of them are made up questions and not real MBE things or based on a common MBE pattern.

[Easy-E]

Oooof. Missed more than half of the civ pro questions for MBE Milestone 2. I mean, I flat out knew I was guessing on a bunch of them, just completely foreign issues (foreign to me, not like, foreign parties).

Gotta review the big outline for civ pro for sure. Happy with my performance otherwise, and at least I know where I need to focus.

[ultimolugar]

I will agree with the consensus and say that the con law questions are buttfuckingly hard.

[Nebby]

Con law is my best subject because I'm weird

I have never done flash cards before, but I have decided to write down the correct rule for each PQ mistake, and then drill through them once a day before going to bed. I know they say not to do anything different than you've done before, but everything I've done before was most effective with open book exams--not closed book monsters. I need something to help me get better at rote memorization

[Easy-E]

holy shit professor birdthistle

didn't this guy teach transfiguration

[CaptainLeela]

Welcome to TLS

[unidentifiable]

Is anyone using Strategies & Tactics in conjunction with Themis?

I feel like I need more MBE prep (fuck these Themis question, my confidence is a noodle), and I can't justify the $350 for Adaptibar. With ~30 left, that comes out to about $12 a day, and there's no way I'd finish 1700 questions.

So, now I'm looking at S&T. $70 is more manageable.

Any users? Does it seem to help?

[ultimolugar]

Is anyone using Strategies & Tactics in conjunction with Themis?

I feel like I need more MBE prep (fuck these Themis question, my confidence is a noodle), and I can't justify the $350 for Adaptibar. With ~30 left, that comes out to about $12 a day, and there's no way I'd finish 1700 questions.

So, now I'm looking at S&T. $70 is more manageable.

Any users? Does it seem to help?

For what it's worth, I don't have it but some of my colleagues who graduated one administration ahead of me used it and swore by it.

[bsktbll28082]

My essay grader is starting to annoy me. It's like, he doesn't actually read the essay. He'll say: 'you totally missed this point.' Dude, it's right above your comment.

[ChocolateTruffle]

Is anyone using Strategies & Tactics in conjunction with Themis?

I feel like I need more MBE prep (fuck these Themis question, my confidence is a noodle), and I can't justify the $350 for Adaptibar. With ~30 left, that comes out to about $12 a day, and there's no way I'd finish 1700 questions.

So, now I'm looking at S&T. $70 is more manageable.

Any users? Does it seem to help?

The one on amazon was published in 2012. So it won't contain Civil Procedure... Unless I'm mistaken and they have a more recent version?

[ndp1234]

Themis stay liking these weird auction questions

[Fivedham]

I think I've had my first bad day. I kept missing easy questions in con law and evidence, and it just became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn't get a great night of sleep last night, so I think I can chalk it up to that. I've been doing some more MBE questions and doing fine, but oh man, it's so demoralizing to not hit a goal percentage.

[bobbypin]

Fuck the mailbox rule.

[Zero99]

I will agree with the consensus and say that the con law questions are buttfuckingly hard.

[Nebby]

Fuck the mailbox rule.

The option exception is dumb

[kay2016]

did terrible on my milestone exam. (yes I'm still behind).

The bar sucks.

[Easy-E]

They don't make coffee strong enough to motivate me today

[ariavors]

ugh Commercial Paper lecture 1 of 17: "Let's just quickly review the key terms, as it may have been some time since your Commercial Paper course." Dude, I've never even heard of Commercial Paper. Lower your expectations.

[1down1togo]

ugh Commercial Paper lecture 1 of 17: "Let's just quickly review the key terms, as it may have been some time since your Commercial Paper course." Dude, I've never even heard of Commercial Paper. Lower your expectations.

That guy annoyed me at first (I never took commercial papers either). And honestly, I didn't really like his style. But I listened to the lecture a while back and I can still hear some of the phrases he kept repeating in my head. He's dry and its a boring subject, But I think it ends up pretty well. And a lot of those 17 segments are only like 7 minutes long.