California Bar Exam (July 2014) thread Forum

[ph14]

Looks like the deadline for laptop certification is July 25, 2014:

Applicants may initiate and complete the certification process with ExamSoft once they print
their admittance ticket from their Admission Status Screens (Status Screen). Beginning
approximately eight (8) to ten (10) weeks prior to the examination, admittance tickets will be
available for printing from the Status Screen after the State Bar’s Office of Admissions has
determined applicants are eligible to take the examination. Applicants assigned to laptop
computer test centers must be certified no later than Friday, July 25, 2014. If your laptop or the
software is not operational on examination day, you will have to handwrite the examination.

[charcop]

Is anyone else having a hard time with the contracts essays with Barbri? I'm doing ok with the MBE's but for these practice essays I have no idea where to even begin sometimes! Are we supposed to aim to have our essays as long as the examples? IDK how someone can write a FOUR page single spaced essay in an hour? and i'm raising only a little more than half of the issues the sample essays raise?!

I totally agree with the poster above: Barbri, it's time to make me smart!!!!!

[LSATNightmares]

Is anyone else having a hard time with the contracts essays with Barbri? I'm doing ok with the MBE's but for these practice essays I have no idea where to even begin sometimes! Are we supposed to aim to have our essays as long as the examples? IDK how someone can write a FOUR page single spaced essay in an hour? and i'm raising only a little more than half of the issues the sample essays raise?!

I totally agree with the poster above: Barbri, it's time to make me smart!!!!!

I hear you. I wrote earlier how I was also struggling with the contracts essays. I also find it hard to identify the salient issues.

[jd20132013]

How necessary is the CMR reading if you're trying to catch up? Seems like the lectures are supposed to highlight the must knows and i could use those extra hours to double up

[pkt63]

How necessary is the CMR reading if you're trying to catch up? Seems like the lectures are supposed to highlight the must knows and i could use those extra hours to double up

I'd like to know this too. It is disturbing when the CMR is different from the lecture. Also, "reading" the California Evidence Distinctions in the CMR made me cry.

[ph14]

How necessary is the CMR reading if you're trying to catch up? Seems like the lectures are supposed to highlight the must knows and i could use those extra hours to double up

I'd like to know this too. It is disturbing when the CMR is different from the lecture. Also, "reading" the California Evidence Distinctions in the CMR made me cry.

Lol at the bolded. I felt the same way.

[LSATNightmares]

How necessary is the CMR reading if you're trying to catch up? Seems like the lectures are supposed to highlight the must knows and i could use those extra hours to double up

I'd like to know this too. It is disturbing when the CMR is different from the lecture. Also, "reading" the California Evidence Distinctions in the CMR made me cry.

Lol at the bolded. I felt the same way.

LOL as well. That was me with the CA distinctions lecture. It's hard enough keeping the FRE details in your mind.

[FutureInLaw]

I, too, found this first 2 Barbri contracts essays hard. I passed neither, though I wasn't totally out of the ballpark. I wrote about issues not in the model answer, and missed issues in the model answer. I still don't get how parol evidence isn't worth mentioning in the first essay.

On another note, while there has been a lot to memorize, I haven't felt overwhelmed. Until today. These fucking FRE/CA evidence distinctions will be the death of me. I don't even know how to go about memorizing these distinctions!

[ph14]

I, too, found this first 2 Barbri contracts essays hard. I passed neither, though I wasn't totally out of the ballpark. I wrote about issues not in the model answer, and missed issues in the model answer. I still don't get how parol evidence isn't worth mentioning in the first essay.

On another note, while there has been a lot to memorize, I haven't felt overwhelmed. Until today. These fucking FRE/CA evidence distinctions will be the death of me. I don't even know how to go about memorizing these distinctions!

Yep. Have fun keeping straight whether it is a hearsay exemption or hearsay exception, especially when CEC and FRE take a different approach.

[a male human]

For evidence, I would focus on the FRE, then remember that some have CA counterparts.

For example...
Relevance: Evidence must be relevant for it to be admissible. It is relevant if it tends to prove/disprove a material fact (In CA, the fact must be in dispute)

Excited utterances (spontaneous statement in CA): While under excitement of startling event, a statement made with no reflection that relates to (narrates, describes, or explains in CA) the event

[charcop]

How the hell am I supposed to learn the FRE and CEC in 3 days?! I need 3 months. I'm not in a happy place guys.


Oh, and Armadillos from Texas Play Rap, Eating Tacos.


Can't get it out of my head.

[adonai]

I, too, found this first 2 Barbri contracts essays hard. I passed neither, though I wasn't totally out of the ballpark. I wrote about issues not in the model answer, and missed issues in the model answer. I still don't get how parol evidence isn't worth mentioning in the first essay.

On another note, while there has been a lot to memorize, I haven't felt overwhelmed. Until today. These fucking FRE/CA evidence distinctions will be the death of me. I don't even know how to go about memorizing these distinctions!

Try Contracts Question 7 then tell me you aren't overwhelmed.

[pkt63]

I should probably know the answer to this question, but on the actual bar exam day 1, if we get essay questions say on Contracts, Wills and Con Law, is it a given that those topics will not appear on the essays on day 3?

[adonai]

I should probably know the answer to this question, but on the actual bar exam day 1, if we get essay questions say on Contracts, Wills and Con Law, is it a given that those topics will not appear on the essays on day 3?

I've been wondering the exact same thing. My feeling is no based off of looking at the issue list on past exams. Going off your question, I also wonder whether they do crossovers with the same topics.

[a male human]

Crossovers are possible, and the same subject appearing twice is possible. See July 2013 day 3, where Q4 was contracts + remedies, and Q6 was torts + remedies (same day!).

[jarofsoup]

The book "The Bar Code" is pretty awesome for CA essays.

http://www.thebarcode.net/publications.aspx

[james11]

Is anyone else having a hard time with the contracts essays with Barbri? I'm doing ok with the MBE's but for these practice essays I have no idea where to even begin sometimes! Are we supposed to aim to have our essays as long as the examples? IDK how someone can write a FOUR page single spaced essay in an hour? and i'm raising only a little more than half of the issues the sample essays raise?!

I totally agree with the poster above: Barbri, it's time to make me smart!!!!!

Don't get discouraged by looking at the barbri model answers. They are not at all representative of the average essay that scored 65 or 70. They are written by an employee of barbri who had an unlimited time and was not under testing conditions. I have found it much more helpful to look at real passing essays such as the ones on BarEssays.com than the models.

[FF55]

Is there a good resource listing all the past CA bar exams and what topics were tested in the essays? It would be great to get a sense how many times Evidence (FRE) has been tested compared to Evidence (CEC or both).

[adonai]

Is there a good resource listing all the past CA bar exams and what topics were tested in the essays? It would be great to get a sense how many times Evidence (FRE) has been tested compared to Evidence (CEC or both).

I saw a July 2014 California Bar Exam prediction video on youtube. One of the predicted essays was evidence, and it showed a testing history in recent years. I was surprised to see that FRE and CA were tested equally (CA one year, FRE another year, etc.). I don't exactly remember but I don't remember one being more prevalent than the other in regards to testing frequency. So yeah, unfortunately we'll have to know both. Anything can happen, there's not one topic we can't afford to not know.

[LSATNightmares]

Is there a good resource listing all the past CA bar exams and what topics were tested in the essays? It would be great to get a sense how many times Evidence (FRE) has been tested compared to Evidence (CEC or both).

I saw a July 2014 California Bar Exam prediction video on youtube. One of the predicted essays was evidence, and it showed a testing history in recent years. I was surprised to see that FRE and CA were tested equally (CA one year, FRE another year, etc.). I don't exactly remember but I don't remember one being more prevalent than the other in regards to testing frequency. So yeah, unfortunately we'll have to know both. Anything can happen, there's not one topic we can't afford to not know.

Who did the video? Link? What else was predicted?

[a male human]

If it's barsecrets, I would be wary. I almost got killed because I prioritized my study based on his predictions...twice. Half the predicted subjects were wrong, and he's blaming it on the increasing unpredictability of the test.

[LSATNightmares]

Any tips for covering all the issues in an evidence essay? They weren't kidding when they said it was a race horse. I did okay on Question 5, but Question 1 was brutal if you allocated yourself an hour.

[jarofsoup]

Any tips for covering all the issues in an evidence essay? They weren't kidding when they said it was a race horse. I did okay on Question 5, but Question 1 was brutal if you allocated yourself an hour.

Just make sure your structure is good and go for it. Also, make sure you only explain the rules 1 time.

If it comes up on the bar exam it is going to be a shit show. Doing relevance 1 million times.

[LSATNightmares]

Any tips for covering all the issues in an evidence essay? They weren't kidding when they said it was a race horse. I did okay on Question 5, but Question 1 was brutal if you allocated yourself an hour.

Just make sure your structure is good and go for it. Also, make sure you only explain the rules 1 time.

If it comes up on the bar exam it is going to be a shit show. Doing relevance 1 million times.

I'm also curious how much time to spend preparing to write an answer. They said in the initial video to spend 20 minutes planning, but if you do that, it's impossible to write and cover everything in the remaining 40 minutes.

[adonai]

Who did the video? Link? What else was predicted?

Professional responsibility (which is on the exam every year), Crimes, contracts, wills/trusts or business associations, that's all I remember off the top of my head. Just type in california bar exam july 2014 predictions in youtube. I definitely wouldn't take it as gospel, though.

And yeah, the video was made by bar secrets. Seemed iffy considering they give alternatives (e.g. "one of the essays will be wills/trusts or business associations") and then when one of them is right they go see we got it right. They also made excuses for getting predictions wrong by pointing to the fact that the originally predicted subject matter was the basis of the PT, which doesn't even require knowledge of the law.