Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[WonkyPanda]

Anyone else using Adaptibar with Themis? I'm wondering when a good time to tackle would be.

[Evaly]

Ugh yeah that's probably what happened. Wish it would switch stuff back if I go Flex Study mode and complete it, but it doesn't look like it does. Seems like my entire schedule may be altered, it moved everything forward a day.

I wonder how often this schedule shift happens. I have been studying in flex mode for a while and really hoped the schedule would shift on May 21st so I can go back to directed mode. But it didn't happen on May 21st, instead this morning everything changed. Is it a weekly thing?

[Tanicius]

Ugh yeah that's probably what happened. Wish it would switch stuff back if I go Flex Study mode and complete it, but it doesn't look like it does. Seems like my entire schedule may be altered, it moved everything forward a day.

I wonder how often this schedule shift happens. I have been studying in flex mode for a while and really hoped the schedule would shift on May 21st so I can go back to directed mode. But it didn't happen on May 21st, instead this morning everything changed. Is it a weekly thing?

No it occurs at midnight in your time zone every day.

[Tanicius]

Wow. I got absolutely slaughtered on an essay question because I overlooked a crucial sentence in the fact pattern. Here's what happeend:

1.) I've been studying exclusively constitutional law for the past week. The next issue up, which I'm starting tomorrow, is Torts.

2.) I'm doing a practice essay this morning, supposedly on constitutional law. But the question is asking about whether all these different plaintiffs have valid claims for criminal trespass, invasion of privacy, and defamation.

3.) "Well shit," I'm thinking. "This must be what everyone on TLS is talking about with Themis fucking up the issues we get tested on. I haven't even started torts yet. This is bullshit. I guess I'll just make up elements for this and practice the question anyway?"

4.) I get done with the answer, submit it, and read the model answer and discover that they answered everything exclusively from the perspective of whether the First Amendment prohibits anything. Constitutional law only. WTF? Absolutely nothing about the elements of these torts. How am I supposed to magically know whether the examiner wants me to talk about Torts, or ConLaw, or both?

5.) I re-read the question prompts, all three of which are couched in the preceding language, squeezed right up against the fact pattern and seemingly a part of the paragraph about the facts: "Does the First Amendment preclude liability if..."

6.) Wow. I can't imagine how fucked I would feel if I talked about this question with someone after the test and realized how badly I had missed the central issue. At least in law school, you can always been 100% assured that the professor won't be testing you on another class's material, but on the bar exam it's perfectly reasonably to mistake a Torts question for a ConLaw question. Watch out, everybody.

[Evaly]

No it occurs at midnight in your time zone every day.

Hmm, that's weird. My directed study didn't change for the last week. I'll see if it changes tonight since I am going to do one item from later this week today.

[SilverE2]

No it occurs at midnight in your time zone every day.

Hmm, that's weird. My directed study didn't change for the last week. I'll see if it changes tonight since I am going to do one item from later this week today.

I think one problem is that you can't mark the "review" tasks as done until the review day under directed study. So even if you do the review a few days before, the schedule won't adjust. What would be really helpful is if you could access tasks on later days through directed study instead of them being grayed out.

[Tanicius]

No it occurs at midnight in your time zone every day.

Hmm, that's weird. My directed study didn't change for the last week. I'll see if it changes tonight since I am going to do one item from later this week today.

I think one problem is that you can't mark the "review" tasks as done until the review day under directed study. So even if you do the review a few days before, the schedule won't adjust. What would be really helpful is if you could access tasks on later days through directed study instead of them being grayed out.

It's really easy. Just switch into Flex mode for five minutes, go to the specific task that you completed early, and check it off. Then switch back to directed study. Your schedule won't revise itself until midnight, but at that time it should analyze the additional tasks you've completed early and revise your next day's schedule accordingly. I've done this several times and haven't had problems.

[puttycake]

No it occurs at midnight in your time zone every day.

Hmm, that's weird. My directed study didn't change for the last week. I'll see if it changes tonight since I am going to do one item from later this week today.

I think one problem is that you can't mark the "review" tasks as done until the review day under directed study. So even if you do the review a few days before, the schedule won't adjust. What would be really helpful is if you could access tasks on later days through directed study instead of them being grayed out.

It's really easy. Just switch into Flex mode for five minutes, go to the specific task that you completed early, and check it off. Then switch back to directed study. Your schedule won't revise itself until midnight, but at that time it should analyze the additional tasks you've completed early and revise your next day's schedule accordingly. I've done this several times and haven't had problems.

I do that for all of the tasks except when they say things like "review your handout." I can't find those tasks on the flex list.

[Tanicius]

It's really easy. Just switch into Flex mode for five minutes, go to the specific task that you completed early, and check it off. Then switch back to directed study. Your schedule won't revise itself until midnight, but at that time it should analyze the additional tasks you've completed early and revise your next day's schedule accordingly. I've done this several times and haven't had problems.

I do that for all of the tasks except when they say things like "review your handout." I can't find those tasks on the flex list.

Ah, that's frustrating, especially because Themis's auto-scheduler seems to think that "review your handout" is a 3-hour type assignment, even though the founder guy and the COO guy both said that "review your handouts" should mean 30 minutes or less.

[SilverE2]

It's really easy. Just switch into Flex mode for five minutes, go to the specific task that you completed early, and check it off. Then switch back to directed study. Your schedule won't revise itself until midnight, but at that time it should analyze the additional tasks you've completed early and revise your next day's schedule accordingly. I've done this several times and haven't had problems.

I do that for all of the tasks except when they say things like "review your handout." I can't find those tasks on the flex list.

Ah, that's frustrating, especially because Themis's auto-scheduler seems to think that "review your handout" is a 3-hour type assignment, even though the founder guy and the COO guy both said that "review your handouts" should mean 30 minutes or less.

It's additionally frustrating because Themis did not give me a short outline for con law until the actual review day. So unless they send the Florida people a list of all the short outlines (like they've done in some states), I can't use a short outline to help me review until the scheduled review day.

[Tanicius]

It's really easy. Just switch into Flex mode for five minutes, go to the specific task that you completed early, and check it off. Then switch back to directed study. Your schedule won't revise itself until midnight, but at that time it should analyze the additional tasks you've completed early and revise your next day's schedule accordingly. I've done this several times and haven't had problems.

I do that for all of the tasks except when they say things like "review your handout." I can't find those tasks on the flex list.

Ah, that's frustrating, especially because Themis's auto-scheduler seems to think that "review your handout" is a 3-hour type assignment, even though the founder guy and the COO guy both said that "review your handouts" should mean 30 minutes or less.

It's additionally frustrating because Themis did not give me a short outline for con law until the actual review day. So unless they send the Florida people a list of all the short outlines (like they've done in some states), I can't use a short outline to help me review until the scheduled review day.

Use the handout you did with the accompanying lecture. When you get the even shorter summary outline, you can review both the handout and the summary at the same time to compare and contrast.

[ConsiderMeMilesDavis]

I'm in Flex Study mode (using schedule recommended by my school's Bar Prep office)

Are the "short outlines" the same as the lecture outlines? I really want a condensed outline to work from, but think it's a total time-suck to create an outline from scratch.

Are there certain tasks that trigger Themis to make the "short outlines" available?

[puttycake]

I'm in Flex Study mode (using schedule recommended by my school's Bar Prep office)

Are the "short outlines" the same as the lecture outlines? I really want a condensed outline to work from, but think it's a total time-suck to create an outline from scratch.

Are there certain tasks that trigger Themis to make the "short outlines" available?

There are three outlines for certain topics (just MBE topics? Not sure). The big book outlines. The handout outlines. The summary outlines.

I'm in CA, so I received a message with links to all of the summary outlines at the beginning of the course. I think for some states, you only get them when you hit some magic moment.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

Anyone else using Adaptibar with Themis? I'm wondering when a good time to tackle would be.

I'm using Themis and Adaptibar... but I don't have any great advice. Just trying to squeeze in as many adaptibar questions as I can in between studying everything else. So far the contracts MBEs have been the most difficult by far... I've been told that if you do enough of them, you'll soon start to recognize a fact pattern - that only changes in slight detail - and increase your score. And then hopefully you'll recognize them on the actual exam too! They suggest doing 50 in each subject so they can "adapt" the questions to your weaknesses, and then doing them all mixed up - as they'll appear on the Bar. I like that they give explanations after each question so you can see why you got it right, or wrong. I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

[Tanicius]

I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

They... do.

[nowinGA]

I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

They... do.

Indeed they do. I am doing all of mine in interactive mode until I really get the hang of this and get my head back in the game. I love that the clock stops and I can totally read though/research the right answer and make a note of what I missed, etc. I've found that more often than not it's my laziness in reading the question that leads me to get it wrong. I gotta get more focused.

[Tanicius]

I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

They... do.

Indeed they do. I am doing all of mine in interactive mode until I really get the hang of this and get my head back in the game. I love that the clock stops and I can totally read though/research the right answer and make a note of what I missed, etc. I've found that more often than not it's my laziness in reading the question that leads me to get it wrong. I gotta get more focused.

Same.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

They... do.

Indeed they do. I am doing all of mine in interactive mode until I really get the hang of this and get my head back in the game. I love that the clock stops and I can totally read though/research the right answer and make a note of what I missed, etc. I've found that more often than not it's my laziness in reading the question that leads me to get it wrong. I gotta get more focused.

There are no explanations after all of the assessment questions at the end of each lecture. They just tell you if you got them right or wrong. I find that reading why I got something right or wrong really helps me learn. I still love Themis - I just wish they explained the answers after the assessment questions. Is there something I'm missing? A tab maybe? Because I've never seen an explanation after you get your assesment score following each lecture.

[Tanicius]

I wish Themis had explanations after its practice questions

They... do.

Indeed they do. I am doing all of mine in interactive mode until I really get the hang of this and get my head back in the game. I love that the clock stops and I can totally read though/research the right answer and make a note of what I missed, etc. I've found that more often than not it's my laziness in reading the question that leads me to get it wrong. I gotta get more focused.

There are no explanations after all of the assessment questions at the end of each lecture. They just tell you if you got them right or wrong. I find that reading why I got something right or wrong really helps me learn. I still love Themis - I just wish they explained the answers after the assessment questions. Is there something I'm missing? A tab maybe? Because I've never seen an explanation after you get your assesment score following each lecture.

Lol, dude, those aren't actual practice questions. Those are just super easy assessment questions to make sure you weren't on Facebook for more than 70% of the lecture.

The practice MBE questions by Themis take between half an hour and an hour to do, depending on whether you're doing one of their 17-question sets or 34-question sets. They are part of the daily schedule of stuff you start doing.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

There are no explanations after all of the assessment questions at the end of each lecture. They just tell you if you got them right or wrong. I find that reading why I got something right or wrong really helps me learn. I still love Themis - I just wish they explained the answers after the assessment questions. Is there something I'm missing? A tab maybe? Because I've never seen an explanation after you get your assesment score following each lecture.
[/quote]

Lol, dude, those aren't actual practice questions. Those are just super easy assessment questions to make sure you weren't on Facebook for more than 70% of the lecture.

The practice MBE questions by Themis take between half an hour and an hour to do, depending on whether you're doing one of their 17-question sets or 34-question sets. They are part of the daily schedule of stuff you start doing.[/quote]

Yes - I'm aware there are tons of questions throughout the Themis program - some of which have explanations - I'm just saying it would be nice if they had explanations for all of the questions we do after each lecture. A "right" or "wrong" doesn't do much... for me at least. They may not be MBE questions, but I still get them wrong on occasion and when I do, I'd like to see a few sentences on "why." Not saying the entire program is bad by any means... it's just my opinion of one little thing that could be improved

[nowinGA]

Lol, dude, those aren't actual practice questions. Those are just super easy assessment questions to make sure you weren't on Facebook for more than 70% of the lecture.

The practice MBE questions by Themis take between half an hour and an hour to do, depending on whether you're doing one of their 17-question sets or 34-question sets. They are part of the daily schedule of stuff you start doing.

Yeah. Also, I guess I've found with the assessments that if I don't get it right, I know why. It seems like it's often true or false. Or really comes down to whether I remembered something correctly. Since it is after a very small portion of the outline, which goes along with the lecture pretty closely...maybe have the outline for that section close by? If you miss something, you should be able to find out why pretty quickly (b/c it's based on such a small sliver of the material.) That would be my suggestion!

I have started just reading the part of the outline that goes with the upcoming lecture chapter and then watching the lecture. That's easier to stomach than reading 80 pages (for me, anyway). In that way, my head is totally just in the world of that outline portion, and that lecture chapter. As such, if I miss an assessment question...the reason why tends to be easily found and close at hand.

Hope that helps!

[Evaly]

I have started just reading the part of the outline that goes with the upcoming lecture chapter and then watching the lecture. That's easier to stomach than reading 80 pages (for me, anyway). In that way, my head is totally just in the world of that outline portion, and that lecture chapter. As such, if I miss an assessment question...the reason why tends to be easily found and close at hand.

Hope that helps!

This is really good advice. I spoke to my Themis adviser a few weeks ago to plan out a modified schedule. She really encouraged me to read a small portion of the big outline and then watch the corresponding video immediately. I understand and retain the information better than when I read 10 chapters of the outline in one setting and then watch 5 videos in another setting.

[nowinGA]

I have started just reading the part of the outline that goes with the upcoming lecture chapter and then watching the lecture. That's easier to stomach than reading 80 pages (for me, anyway). In that way, my head is totally just in the world of that outline portion, and that lecture chapter. As such, if I miss an assessment question...the reason why tends to be easily found and close at hand.

Hope that helps!

This is really good advice. I spoke to my Themis adviser a few weeks ago to plan out a modified schedule. She really encouraged me to read a small portion of the big outline and then watch the corresponding video immediately. I understand and retain the information better than when I read 10 chapters of the outline in one setting and then watch 5 videos in another setting.

Good to know!

[WonkyPanda]

Dumb question time (are we allowed to ask dumb questions?):

I understand Pereira and Van Camp. However, when is a business NOT SP? Is it when the Spouses form the business together as partners? Then, you would use the reverse formulas? is that right?

[Burgstaller04]

So....the professor who lectures on Texas Community Property is from a law school in California. Seems odd.