July 2015 Texas Bar Exam Forum

[Kiwi3891]

Is it me, or is Oil and Gas law insufferable?

I was trying not to fall asleep through the that lecture with Kaplan.

For the mock exam in ExamSoft, I noticed the spell check was not available to use even though the icon was there. Will they disable it in the actual bar exam?!?!

[mtyler19]

Whats the deal with this barbri workshop thats an extra $175? I'm confused why it wasn't included in the first place, can I do without it? I'm worried I'll be missing a lot but I'm not sure if I can spare $175.

[Devlin]

Is the bar exam software easy to download?

Long story short, I'm not downloading it on my computer and I want to download it on my parents Mac. I would be telling them how to do if over the phone/they would be downloading it themselves.

They are computer illiterate.

Will it be easy enough for them to download without screwing up somehow?

[BVest]

Is the bar exam software easy to download?

Long story short, I'm not downloading it on my computer and I want to download it on my parents Mac. I would be telling them how to do if over the phone/they would be downloading it themselves.

They are computer illiterate.

Will it be easy enough for them to download without screwing up somehow?

See my steps above. As someone who has done a lot of phone computer consults with parents, doing this by proxy is going to be a pain in the butt, but doable... just set aside some time.

You do the first part (registering on the website and paying). Then they send you an email link to the download file. You'll need to forward that link to your parents and then talk them through:

(1) Download from website ******** NOTE: THIS REQUIRES THAT THEY LOGIN USING YOUR CREDENTIALS. SHARING YOUR USERNAME OR PASSWORD WITH ANYONE FOR ANY REASON MAY BE SOME SORT OF VIOLATION -- YOU SHOULD LOOK INTO THIS -- I HAVE NOT LOOKED INTO IT ********
(2) Install (pretty straightforward on Mac)
(3) Entering your username password to register the software (same warning as above)
(4) Take practice exam (again requires username password. Same warning applies -- also be sure to warn them that it will close all their programs when they do this)
(5) Submit practice exam.
(6) Quit SofTest

It may be easier (and will alleviate any username/password concerns) to sign up for a free GoToMyPC.com 30-day trial and talk them through installing the host software on their computer. Then you can login to their computer, take control of it, and do the installation/registration/practice exam stuff yourself. Don't forget to cancel before the 30 days though.

[jamescastle]

Checking in for Austin BARBRI.

Anyway, I'm doing lots of MBE practice on the phone app and online when I get a chance. So far I've mainly done Property and Torts because that's what's been the first lectures for Austin. Just starting some Contracts. I basically do awful at first getting around 30% and now I'm steadily building each score up to around 45-50%. I'd say I'm consistently getting around 55-60% now but the overall percentage is still low because of the early suckiness.
BARBRI is saying I'm in the 10 percentile. Is 45% in Property/Torts really only the 10 percentile? I know I'm not doing great and I know I need more work (can't get a mortgages question right to save my life) but I don't feel I'm doing 10 percentile bad. Am I really that far behind already?

[Devlin]

When y'all do practice essays at this point, either writing or outlining, are y'all doing it closed book? I feel guilty using my CMR or lecture notes but there is no way I could write a competent essay at this point with out them.

[texlaw]

When y'all do practice essays at this point, either writing or outlining, are y'all doing it closed book? I feel guilty using my CMR or lecture notes but there is no way I could write a competent essay at this point with out them.

I'm doing my essays open book until I get to the point where I can recite my rules from memory. I do the MBE practice questions closed-book.

[JulyTXBar]

When y'all do practice essays at this point, either writing or outlining, are y'all doing it closed book? I feel guilty using my CMR or lecture notes but there is no way I could write a competent essay at this point with out them.

I'm doing my essays open book until I get to the point where I can recite my rules from memory. I do the MBE practice questions closed-book.

Tambien

[envisciguy]

When y'all do practice essays at this point, either writing or outlining, are y'all doing it closed book? I feel guilty using my CMR or lecture notes but there is no way I could write a competent essay at this point with out them.

I was trying to do it closed book and kept skipping to the answers after 5 minutes because I couldn't remember any of the rules. Just switched to using the lecture handouts and CMR, which has to be a better move for me. Even with that though, I'm barely putting together competent essays.

[texlaw]

I just got around to installing ExamSoft today. Did anyone else get the Blue Screen of Death the first time they opened the mock exam? When my computer re-started, it proceeded from where it left off to open the mock exam and everything went fine after that, but it still makes me feel uneasy.

[texlaw]

Got my ExamSoft email today from the BLE and did the ExamSoft thing.

Here are the steps as I did them:

Log into ExamSoft website with BLE login info
Verify System Requirements
Pay for SofTest (Confirmation email follows)
Download
Install
Register SofTest with BLE login info (Registration confirmation email + 4 Exam Download confirmation emails follow)
Take Practice Exam
Complete Exam, Upload Answer File, and get Greeen Screen (Received Answer File confirmation email, but it took like 10 minutes)

BTW, the first confirmation email I got went to spam on gmail (sender domain is examsoft.com).

Thanks for this. It was way more helpful than the convoluted instructions the BLE gave us.

[Kiwi3891]

Got my ExamSoft email today from the BLE and did the ExamSoft thing.

Here are the steps as I did them:

Log into ExamSoft website with BLE login info
Verify System Requirements
Pay for SofTest (Confirmation email follows)
Download
Install
Register SofTest with BLE login info (Registration confirmation email + 4 Exam Download confirmation emails follow)
Take Practice Exam
Complete Exam, Upload Answer File, and get Greeen Screen (Received Answer File confirmation email, but it took like 10 minutes)

BTW, the first confirmation email I got went to spam on gmail (sender domain is examsoft.com).

Thanks for this. It was way more helpful than the convoluted instructions the BLE gave us.

Did any of you notice spell check was disabled? I wonder if that will be the same on the exam?

[texlaw]

Got my ExamSoft email today from the BLE and did the ExamSoft thing.

Here are the steps as I did them:

Log into ExamSoft website with BLE login info
Verify System Requirements
Pay for SofTest (Confirmation email follows)
Download
Install
Register SofTest with BLE login info (Registration confirmation email + 4 Exam Download confirmation emails follow)
Take Practice Exam
Complete Exam, Upload Answer File, and get Greeen Screen (Received Answer File confirmation email, but it took like 10 minutes)

BTW, the first confirmation email I got went to spam on gmail (sender domain is examsoft.com).

Thanks for this. It was way more helpful than the convoluted instructions the BLE gave us.

Did any of you notice spell check was disabled? I wonder if that will be the same on the exam?

Yes, as far as I know most states disallow the use of spell-check on the bar as it would create an unfair advantage over those handwriting the exam. Personally I'm surprised that TX allows the copy/paste features, but I'll take what I can get.

[jamescastle]

Austin BARBRI here where we have a difference schedule than everyone else.

We have Thai coming in tomorrow and Saturday for Constitutional Law. I've heard mixed things about him and was just thinking about skipping lecture and doing Chemerinsky's BARBRI lecture instead since I've heard better things about him.
From what I understand, Thai's already lectured in Houston so I was wondering what the thoughts on him were.
Thanks.

[BVest]

Clearly we should have, at a minimum, watched Thai at 2.0 speed. This is so slow.

[ETA, knocking out tomorrow's Con Law at 2.0 is what I'm doing with my afternoon]

[texlaw]

Just out of curiosity, how were the Barbri instructors for Torts and Evidence? Themis gave us the weakest instructors for these two subjects (at least as far as the MBE subjects go. I can name more than a few of the Texas-specific subjects that were brutal to sit through.)

[BVest]

Just out of curiosity, how were the Barbri instructors for Torts and Evidence? Themis gave us the weakest instructors for these two subjects (at least as far as the MBE subjects go. I can name more than a few of the Texas-specific subjects that were brutal to sit through.)

Torts was okay. I haven't gotten to civ pro yet, but hope he's good as he's doing 5 days for us (Fed Civ Pro, Texas Civ Pro, Evidence).

[texlaw]

Johnny Rex Buckles is driving me mad now, the way he just reads back the outlines to us without providing much in the way of examples. Can't believe we have to sit through this guy for wills AND trusts AND guardianship.

[Kounselor]

Johnny Rex Buckles is driving me mad now, the way he just reads back the outlines to us without providing much in the way of examples. Can't believe we have to sit through this guy for wills AND trusts AND guardianship.

The very reason why I stopped going to lectures after like the first few weeks. Going to the lecture from 8 to sometimes 1 and just getting read back an outline was so counter-productive. After realizing that I woke up early in the morning watched the lectures on 1.5x speed (I used Kaplan BTW). By then I was done by 10:30 (like three hours ahead of schedule mind you) and getting on with my day by doing MPQ early in morning + going through explanations and then outlining essays in the afternoon.

Did that up until there were no more lectures left then just did questions and essays the rest of the way. Basically did the same thing for the WI bar exam.

[Neff]

.

[texlaw]

Commercial paper, WTF.

Are we seriously expected to understand this stuff, if we didn't take the class in LS?

Seems like a lot of info too. Themis broke it down into 17(!) chapters.

[Devlin]

BarBri scheduled a simulated Texas essay day this week. I still do not think I am about the point to competently write all essay subjects without my reference material.

[Greenandgold]

BarBri scheduled a simulated Texas essay day this week. I still do not think I am about the point to competently write all essay subjects without my reference material.

Agreed. Honestly, I'm not even close. I've been doing well on the MBE subjects but I feel like the essays are a completely different animal. Gonna really hammer down on the Texas subjects after we get the practice MBE out of the way next Tuesday.

[logdog]

Beware mortgages and foreclosures--especially if you're taking Barbri.

[Devlin]

I feel like the only thing BarBri studysmart property questions have been are RAP and mortgages. Jesus christ.