Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[Genuine4ps]

This BS of having us do shit on the weekends, especially this early on, is ridiculous. I'm starting to realize why Themis has high bar passage rates. I don't think the others courses have weekend assignments. Damn, I hate being cheap.

[MinEMorris]

FWIW, I decided from the get-go to completely forego looking at the comprehensive outlines or the lecture handouts. The long outlines are too detailed to be useful for bar purposes, and I prefer to do shit like workout or clean while listening to lectures rather than doing the handouts. My thought is that I'll just watch the lectures and use the short outlines (check "my communications") to review subjects later on. I may also create a shorter version of the short outlines with just elements and "buzz terms"--no principles--to memorize cold for purposes of the exam, if that's not something that Themis already provides.

Take my approach with a grain of salt, though, as I haven't done a graded essay yet. I'll update when I do. I just took my first set of 17 practice MBEs and got 75%, but I definitely felt hesitant on at least 3 questions that I ended up getting right.

[MinEMorris]

The community property lecturer for CA is bomb. Her explanations and examples are super clear.

[dudnaito]

honestly, the most useful thing are the essay worksheets. those rule statements are all you need for the essays, imo.

uh... what essay worksheets?

[MinEMorris]

I think the poster is referencing the handouts for the Essay Workshop videos. I agree, they are pretty sweet. They give a solid list of descriptions and phrases to just memorize and hammer out on the essays.

[Gotti]

This BS of having us do shit on the weekends, especially this early on, is ridiculous. I'm starting to realize why Themis has high bar passage rates. I don't think the others courses have weekend assignments. Damn, I hate being cheap.

Barbri has way more shit to do during the week and has weekend stuff too don't worry

[dudnaito]

FWIW, I decided from the get-go to completely forego looking at the comprehensive outlines or the lecture handouts. The long outlines are too detailed to be useful for bar purposes, and I prefer to do shit like workout or clean while listening to lectures rather than doing the handouts. My thought is that I'll just watch the lectures and use the short outlines (check "my communications") to review subjects later on. I may also create a shorter version of the short outlines with just elements and "buzz terms"--no principles--to memorize cold for purposes of the exam, if that's not something that Themis already provides.

Take my approach with a grain of salt, though, as I haven't done a graded essay yet. I'll update when I do. I just took my first set of 17 practice MBEs and got 75%, but I definitely felt hesitant on at least 3 questions that I ended up getting right.

I realize I'm clearly developing a pattern for "does this guy know what he's doing," but what short outlines? I've re-read every single message in "my communications," and I have yet to read a message about these "short outlines." Could I get a subject heading to re-check and see if i missed anything?

Also... as someone who has stated on more than one occasion in TLS that he's likely to be one of the worst LS students in T-20 history, I'm definitely getting way too comprehensive for fear of failure. I've essentially transferred the whole of Con and Torts Outline (150 pg'ish) into flashcard form, and am basically memorizing them word for word right now. Clearly, this is neither an effective nor sustainable strategy.

[MinEMorris]

No problem: the heading of the message is "Summary Outline Links". I received it on 5/12. If it's not there for you, I would definitely contact themis. The outlines are in the vicinity of 15 pages and I think they're much better to focus on absorbing than the long outlines.

As far as your fear, while I strongly doubt that your lack of confidence is justified, there's nothing wrong with taking the bar very seriously. My laziness may totally bite me in the ass--I might be restarting this thread in January . My guess, though, is that regardless of how unconfident you might feel, you should follow Themis's directed study until you hit the 75% guarantee before you start getting creative with stuff like flash-carding the entire long outline. I've heard from a couple of previous Themis users that they felt sufficiently or even overprepared once they had hit the 75% guarantee. Just see how you're doing once you're at that point before you start taking extreme precautions. And besides, at that point, you'll have a much better sense of where your actual weaknesses lie, which is much better than trying to anticipate them in advance. Anyway, at least that's my plan. I'm delaying my freak out for the 76% mark .

[dudnaito]

No problem: the heading of the message is "Summary Outline Links". I received it on 5/12. If it's not there for you, I would definitely contact themis. The outlines are in the vicinity of 15 pages and I think they're much better to focus on absorbing than the long outlines.

As far as your fear, while I strongly doubt that your lack of confidence is justified, there's nothing wrong with taking the bar very seriously. My laziness may totally bite me in the ass--I might be restarting this thread in January . My guess, though, is that regardless of how unconfident you might feel, you should follow Themis's directed study until you hit the 75% guarantee before you start getting creative with stuff like flash-carding the entire long outline. I've heard from a couple of previous Themis users that they felt sufficiently or even overprepared once they had hit the 75% guarantee. Just see how you're doing once you're at that point before you start taking extreme precautions. And besides, at that point, you'll have a much better sense of where your actual weaknesses lie, which is much better than trying to anticipate them in advance. Anyway, at least that's my plan. I'm delaying my freak out for the 76% mark .

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Also, nothing on my themis "my communications," but my gmail search did rear MEE summary outlines. Were there MBE summary outlines? Clearly, they exist since my email was prefaced by, "We have had such positive feedback from students about our condensed summary outlines for the MBE that we have now created them for the MEE subjects." AND... even after the 2nd email of CORRECTED MEE summary outline, the links for those are broken as well. UGH...

Hmm... better give them a call. This probably would've saved me 10 hours of flashcarding lol.

[WonkyPanda]

No problem: the heading of the message is "Summary Outline Links". I received it on 5/12. If it's not there for you, I would definitely contact themis. The outlines are in the vicinity of 15 pages and I think they're much better to focus on absorbing than the long outlines.

Wait, is the only way to access those through an email link?

[MinEMorris]

Yes, seems like the only way to access them is via the links in "myCommunications" or whatever.. I haven't seen them anywhere else. The links aren't even clickable. You need to copy paste them.

That sucks, dudnaito, but I'm sure they'll be able to send them your way ASAP.

[Lasers]

I think the poster is referencing the handouts for the Essay Workshop videos. I agree, they are pretty sweet. They give a solid list of descriptions and phrases to just memorize and hammer out on the essays.

yeah, this.

too bad i'm too lazy to memorize that shit. i much prefer doing MBE questions than essays because of how much memorizing the latter requires.

EDIT: just got owned on the second set of conlaw practice questions. lulz. the level of detail is insane. i guess i should actually start taking this more seriously.

[jigglypuffdreams]

For everyone wondering about the condensed MBE subject outlines who haven't received them in a broadcast message, I got this message when I asked about them (I'm in Michigan for the record):
"Thank you for contacting us. The summary outlines can only be found in Directed Study mode on review days after completing all other tasks in a chapter. This is to ensure that you have read all the previous outlines and thoroughly absorbed their knowledge. They will appear in your schedule and you will be able to download them when they are accessible.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best,
Gregory "

So uhh yeah, just remember to be really good about saving them on review days.

[dreakol]

This BS of having us do shit on the weekends, especially this early on, is ridiculous. I'm starting to realize why Themis has high bar passage rates. I don't think the others courses have weekend assignments. Damn, I hate being cheap.

come one even the 50 dollar baroutline.com course has weekend assignments

[MinEMorris]

For everyone wondering about the condensed MBE subject outlines who haven't received them in a broadcast message, I got this message when I asked about them (I'm in Michigan for the record):
"Thank you for contacting us. The summary outlines can only be found in Directed Study mode on review days after completing all other tasks in a chapter. This is to ensure that you have read all the previous outlines and thoroughly absorbed their knowledge. They will appear in your schedule and you will be able to download them when they are accessible.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Best,
Gregory "

So uhh yeah, just remember to be really good about saving them on review days.

That's so strange.. Maybe it's a California thing? Here's the message I received:

Dear Student,

Below are links to the Summary Outlines for the MBE and California subjects. Please cut and then paste, each link into your web browser in order to pull up the PDFs for each subject.

Although we are releasing these Summary Outlines to you at the beginning of the course, please remember that it is imperative that you adhere to the Themis learning methodology. This includes reading the regular length outlines, watching the lectures, completing the assessment questions AND THEN UTILIZING THE SUMMARY OUTLINES AS A REVIEW TOOL. Summary Outlines are designed to help condense the information you have learned for each subject, and to assist with your memorization of the black letter law.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us, we are here to help.

Themis California

[Evaly]

That's so strange.. Maybe it's a California thing? Here's the message I received:

Yup, CA folks all got the summary outline sometime ago. Not sure why Themis does it differently for other states.

[puttycake]

That's so strange.. Maybe it's a California thing? Here's the message I received:

Yup, CA folks all got the summary outline sometime ago. Not sure why Themis does it differently for other states.

Because they feel sorry for those of us in CA and want to offer us pity outlines.

I accept!

[071816]

Can someone dm me the link to the California Community Property Summary outline? These shitheads copied and pasted the civil procedure link twice into the list they sent me and the community property one isn't included...

[Tanicius]

Can someone dm me the link to the California Community Property Summary outline? These shitheads copied and pasted the civil procedure link twice into the list they sent me and the community property one isn't included...

I really don't understand how they don't have software that can accommodate hyperlinks. Their portal is seriously a joke.

[071816]

Can someone dm me the link to the California Community Property Summary outline? These shitheads copied and pasted the civil procedure link twice into the list they sent me and the community property one isn't included...

I really don't understand how they don't have software that can accommodate hyperlinks. Their portal is seriously a joke.

seriously. it's like it was designed by somebody who just learned to code last week.

[071816]

nevermind. i called them up and somebody is gonna send it to me...

[puttycake]

Can someone dm me the link to the California Community Property Summary outline? These shitheads copied and pasted the civil procedure link twice into the list they sent me and the community property one isn't included...

Same issue here.

[MinEMorris]

I also had the same issue, and they corrected it. They should just resend it to everybody.

[071816]

I also had the same issue, and they corrected it. They should just resend it to everybody.

yea I'm surprised they haven't done that by now

[071816]

damnit. it was in a follow up communication message that i missed...so I guess they did resend to everybody.