BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[myrtlewinston]

I don't know as I haven't looked at the PSP in a long time. Perhaps I suffer from insane delusions, but Barbri messes with my head.

I suffer from voluntary intoxication on a near nightly basis in order to escape this garbage.

I would too, but I have the Asian alcohol allergy.

[jamescastle]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

[LawGuy321]

Are there seriously only 3 essays we were supposed to submit for grading? Seems like not enough when "grading" is made such a big deal of in Barbri... or, are people submitting even essays that weren't assigned.

I'm in NY and only have one each of CrimLaw, Torts, and Contracts essays. Also: one MPT, which I did to mediocre quality feedback...

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Are there seriously only 3 essays we were supposed to submit for grading? Seems like not enough when "grading" is made such a big deal of in Barbri... or, are people submitting even essays that weren't assigned.

I'm in NY and only have one each of CrimLaw, Torts, and Contracts essays. Also: one MPT, which I did to mediocre quality feedback...

This is all there has been for NY.

[rinkrat19]

Are there seriously only 3 essays we were supposed to submit for grading? Seems like not enough when "grading" is made such a big deal of in Barbri... or, are people submitting even essays that weren't assigned.

I'm in NY and only have one each of CrimLaw, Torts, and Contracts essays. Also: one MPT, which I did to mediocre quality feedback...

This is all there has been for NY.

Same for OR. I submitted 2 essays and no MPT.

The MPT seems the most like real work, which is my best thing, so I'm less worried about it than the MBE (50%) and the essays, which I'm going to suck at.

[diowad]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

Ditto. I did like 70 MBE's today, but that has pretty much wiped me out for today.

This week I also accepted a job offer, so it's been a bit crazy with doing pre-employment stuff like drug tests and things like that. Kinda has me distracted. But for a good reason I suppose.

[myrtlewinston]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

Ditto. I did like 70 MBE's today, but that has pretty much wiped me out for today.

This week I also accepted a job offer, so it's been a bit crazy with doing pre-employment stuff like drug tests and things like that. Kinda has me distracted. But for a good reason I suppose.

Congratulations!

[kmp127]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

Ditto. I did like 70 MBE's today, but that has pretty much wiped me out for today.

This week I also accepted a job offer, so it's been a bit crazy with doing pre-employment stuff like drug tests and things like that. Kinda has me distracted. But for a good reason I suppose.

Tx crim pro and Tx civ pro - I'm avoiding crazy memorization and just gonna review and wing it from sheer instinct and what I rmbr. I figure at the worst, I'll get 1/2 of everything wrong and lose 5% total.... It's just sooooo much info!

[diowad]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

Ditto. I did like 70 MBE's today, but that has pretty much wiped me out for today.

This week I also accepted a job offer, so it's been a bit crazy with doing pre-employment stuff like drug tests and things like that. Kinda has me distracted. But for a good reason I suppose.

Congratulations!

Thank you! Has certainly given me renewed motivation going into crunch time.

[LawGuy321]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

[Notmyfavbar]

Really just hit a wall today. Can't focus at all on Texas civil procedure and just keep wanting to fall asleep.
Hope y'all's Friday studying is going better than mine.

Yeah that was me yesterday. I napped for THREE hours. Even slept in today and got a full 8 hours of sleep. Pretty slow today, but I'm def more rested than before. I literally was unable to move yesterday. I needed two cups of coffee to physically function and I was not mentally functioning at all. Even though I'm not happy about this slow pace today, im glad my body decided to fail me now rather than next week.

[antlp]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

I did the same thing as you on that essay, but attempted to flesh out the definition a little more and "applied" my fleshed out definition. I knew that it was BS but I figure a little wrong analysis is better than no analysis.

So basically I wrote something like:
- The rule is that joint and several liability is appropriate when the plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury. The plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury when XYZ.
- In this case, [here are the facts] and therefore her injury is XYZ. Because her injury is XYZ, it is single and indivisible and therefore the two defendants can be held jointly and severally liable.

I just submitted it for grading so I guess I'll have to see what BarBri graders think BS like that is worth (if that's worth anything...)

[kmp127]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

I did the same thing as you on that essay, but attempted to flesh out the definition a little more and "applied" my fleshed out definition. I knew that it was BS but I figure a little wrong analysis is better than no analysis.

So basically I wrote something like:
- The rule is that joint and several liability is appropriate when the plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury. The plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury when XYZ.
- In this case, [here are the facts] and therefore her injury is XYZ. Because her injury is XYZ, it is single and indivisible and therefore the two defendants can be held jointly and severally liable.

I just submitted it for grading so I guess I'll have to see what BarBri graders think BS like that is worth (if that's worth anything...)

I always wonder if it's better I make up the rule within a rule that I know is wrong but goes toward a blatant fact they added for a reason... OR just focus on the main rule and wiggle that fact into the application of that so there's not a blaring misstatement of the law in your answer....

[antlp]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

I did the same thing as you on that essay, but attempted to flesh out the definition a little more and "applied" my fleshed out definition. I knew that it was BS but I figure a little wrong analysis is better than no analysis.

So basically I wrote something like:
- The rule is that joint and several liability is appropriate when the plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury. The plaintiff has suffered a single indivisible injury when XYZ.
- In this case, [here are the facts] and therefore her injury is XYZ. Because her injury is XYZ, it is single and indivisible and therefore the two defendants can be held jointly and severally liable.

I just submitted it for grading so I guess I'll have to see what BarBri graders think BS like that is worth (if that's worth anything...)

I always wonder if it's better I make up the rule within a rule that I know is wrong but goes toward a blatant fact they added for a reason... OR just focus on the main rule and wiggle that fact into the application of that so there's not a blaring misstatement of the law in your answer....

I wonder the same thing - no idea! I did what I did on that particular issue because without the "XYZ" part my answer seemed WAY too bare bones (like only 2 sentences on the issue of J&S liability - something an actual grader would catch even if they only take a cursory look at my essay). And the XYZ was basically just vague meaningless BS and nothing that could have been flat wrong (something like "it's a single indivisible injury if no specific part of the injury can be attributed to one defendant or the other" - I'd say that's unhelpful but not flat out wrong). I figure the graders are only going to spend a couple minutes looking at each essay so I don't want to catch their attention by having too little written down for one subquestion? Whereas something that is half right, half wrong could be missed, or if they catch onto it, it's not going to cost me points.... that's just my strategic way of looking at it but obviously take that with a grain (or more) of salt

[Themaddh]

Learning wills for the first time, NY. Does anyone know where to find practice problems to test out these rules? Barbri really skimps on giving questions for the NY subjects

[rinkrat19]

Do the mnemonics help anyone? I am no more likely to remember CCC BoND in connection with strict products liability (and what each letter stands for) than I am to just remember the list of things it's supposed to help me remember.

[charlesxavier]

Do the mnemonics help anyone? I am no more likely to remember CCC BoND in connection with strict products liability (and what each letter stands for) than I am to just remember the list of things it's supposed to help me remember.

They don't really help me at all, either. I'm looking over commercial paper right now and the mnemonic is FAIDS which actually stands for 11 things (FFAAIIDDDSS). Ok.

[Blue Ivy]

I feel like every time I do a MPQ I discover that I'm missing something from a rule statement. I learning, but I don't know how much is actually being retained.

[old_soul]

Need some bar inspiration. I have a splitting headache, halfway through reviewing Corporations, but can't...keep..going.

[rickgrimes69]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

I mean, you might as well - we don't get docked points for wrong answers (right?), so if you have time to word vomit on the page, you might get lucky and hit on something that could net you a point or two.

[myrtlewinston]

I can't see the comments on my essay, even though I've updated Adobe as the Barbri tech suggested. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[myrtlewinston]

So what honestly happens if we get an essay that we just have no idea on? I get that we "make stuff up", but some of this seems hard to BS...should we therefore make up stuff we KNOW is wrong just so we have some formula to apply? When people are practicing writing exams, are you trying to BS just to see how well you can do at it?

So, e.g., for the NY Torts #2 test...I feel like one sentence would be my initial guess for most of the subquestions. "Would X and Y be jointly and severally liable"? My answer would be "Yes because [enter definition of J&S liability], and that's what's allowed!" Come to find out, I was totally wrong, and they are NOT J&S because one aggravated the other...so, I got the wrong answer and had no idea how to "apply my own formula" because I didn't have one... ugh. Should I have made up a "when J&S liability apply" formula, even though I know there isn't one?

Check the NY Practice notes. There's a specific rule that applies here. I'm sorry, but I'm too exhausted to spell it out.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Do the mnemonics help anyone? I am no more likely to remember CCC BoND in connection with strict products liability (and what each letter stands for) than I am to just remember the list of things it's supposed to help me remember.

The only ones I use are BRAKES (felony murder) and MIMIC (hearsay).

[rinkrat19]

I can't see the comments on my essay, even though I've updated Adobe as the Barbri tech suggested. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My first essay came back as a word doc with comments.

[Good Guy Gaud]

I can't see the comments on my essay, even though I've updated Adobe as the Barbri tech suggested. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My first essay came back as a word doc with comments.

same here