Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2016 Forum

[joshhoward]

Wow, you all were right about Torts earring prof. I'm halfway through the first negligence lecture and it's been one big tangent, he's hardly using the outline at all. Frustrating. I already emailed Themis to complain and ask them to help me fill some outline blanks he glossed over.

Let me know if they send you a completed outline. I'm having the same problem. I like the guy, but he does seem to completely disregard some blanks.

Yes, he's terrible. I was also able to get most the answers from the big outline, but still have some missing blanks because he strays way off course. How can Themis choose someone like that?! I actually liked the Real Property guy-- at least he was clear and stuck to the script.

I'm barely getting over 50% on Torts MBE's because I just didn't pay great attention to the lectures because this lecturer is so shit. I was doing well for the other subjects! Guess I'll have to suck it up and go through torts on my own. I feel like it added more time because I didn't like his lectures so much so now I'll have to spend more time teaching it to myself. I"ll probably complain once I have more time as well.

this is fascinating to me, since I have the exact opposite perspective. I couldn't stand the kramer property guy since he literally never explained anything. One of many examples - all he says about "right of redemption" is you can "redeem" your property before foreclosure. He never explained what that means or how to do it. If his job is just to read from the outline and tell us what words to fill in the blanks, they might as well hire an intern for $7 an hour to be on the video. By comparison, Torts guy actually explained the concepts in very clear terms and gave helpful examples. I thought he was amazing (on 1.5X at least).

[Mayakovsky]

Wow, you all were right about Torts earring prof. I'm halfway through the first negligence lecture and it's been one big tangent, he's hardly using the outline at all. Frustrating. I already emailed Themis to complain and ask them to help me fill some outline blanks he glossed over.

Let me know if they send you a completed outline. I'm having the same problem. I like the guy, but he does seem to completely disregard some blanks.

Yes, he's terrible. I was also able to get most the answers from the big outline, but still have some missing blanks because he strays way off course. How can Themis choose someone like that?! I actually liked the Real Property guy-- at least he was clear and stuck to the script.

I'm barely getting over 50% on Torts MBE's because I just didn't pay great attention to the lectures because this lecturer is so shit. I was doing well for the other subjects! Guess I'll have to suck it up and go through torts on my own. I feel like it added more time because I didn't like his lectures so much so now I'll have to spend more time teaching it to myself. I"ll probably complain once I have more time as well.

this is fascinating to me, since I have the exact opposite perspective. I couldn't stand the kramer property guy since he literally never explained anything. One of many examples - all he says about "right of redemption" is you can "redeem" your property before foreclosure. He never explained what that means or how to do it. If his job is just to read from the outline and tell us what words to fill in the blanks, they might as well hire an intern for $7 an hour to be on the video. By comparison, Torts guy actually explained the concepts in very clear terms and gave helpful examples. I thought he was amazing (on 1.5X at least).

I agree with this.

[BostonCeltics]

Wow, you all were right about Torts earring prof. I'm halfway through the first negligence lecture and it's been one big tangent, he's hardly using the outline at all. Frustrating. I already emailed Themis to complain and ask them to help me fill some outline blanks he glossed over.

Let me know if they send you a completed outline. I'm having the same problem. I like the guy, but he does seem to completely disregard some blanks.

Yes, he's terrible. I was also able to get most the answers from the big outline, but still have some missing blanks because he strays way off course. How can Themis choose someone like that?! I actually liked the Real Property guy-- at least he was clear and stuck to the script.

I'm barely getting over 50% on Torts MBE's because I just didn't pay great attention to the lectures because this lecturer is so shit. I was doing well for the other subjects! Guess I'll have to suck it up and go through torts on my own. I feel like it added more time because I didn't like his lectures so much so now I'll have to spend more time teaching it to myself. I"ll probably complain once I have more time as well.

this is fascinating to me, since I have the exact opposite perspective. I couldn't stand the kramer property guy since he literally never explained anything. One of many examples - all he says about "right of redemption" is you can "redeem" your property before foreclosure. He never explained what that means or how to do it. If his job is just to read from the outline and tell us what words to fill in the blanks, they might as well hire an intern for $7 an hour to be on the video. By comparison, Torts guy actually explained the concepts in very clear terms and gave helpful examples. I thought he was amazing (on 1.5X at least).

I agree with this.

Earring Torts guy has been my favorite due to his thorough explanations. Property guy was too busy making jokes.

[Rahviveh]

Earring torts guy is insanely boring. So far geis is the right mix of entertainment and effectiveness

[Fivedham]

Earring torts guy is insanely boring. So far geis is the right mix of entertainment and effectiveness

Agreed, Geis' little universe he created for his example was both funny and perfectly illustrative of the concepts he was trying to teach.

[Easy-E]

Ugh, barely breaking 50% on the PQs still. Bummer. At least it looks like I wasn't alone in getting most of them wrong, probably because the lecture didn't explain it clearly at all.

FWIW, Themis expects us to be doing about that now. I wouldn't drive yourself nuts about it. I sent a quasi-panicked email to my state director, and they said pretty much everyone starts out there.

Agreed - I usually get about 58%, but I'm not too concerned at this point because I feel like I'm using them as a study guide at this point, figuring out what I need to focus on and learning from the explanations. And, again, we're not aiming for an A or even a B (or even a C?!) to pass.

Thanks for the reassurance. I just figured everyone was blowing that 50% goal out of the water. Like I said, it's nice to be able to look and see that almost everyone got a question wrong, for the same reason, though I still blew a few.

[Easy-E]

Earring torts guy is insanely boring. So far geis is the right mix of entertainment and effectiveness

Yeah, I enjoyed (relatively speaking) contracts guy, however, I'm finding my outline based on his lecture to be lacking. Maybe I just missed stuff, but there are areas where it really wasn't fleshed out, and it bit me in the ass on the essay.

[bsktbll28082]

Starting torts today. Looks like I'm in for a treat.

[lawstudent35]

Seems like torts guy is having a hard time taking his law school prof hat off and focusing on bar prep

[Fivedham]

John Boehner civ pro guy is pretty competent, but I'm skeptical that this is all we need to know for the exam.

[xdeuceswild81xx]

Torts bro explains things well, but holy shit, it's like he doesn't even have the outline in front of him. Just randomly jumping around through a topic and not filling in any blanks at all.

[ndp1234]

John Boehner civ pro guy is pretty competent, but I'm skeptical that this is all we need to know for the exam.

Oooh looking forward to this one. Wonder if he cries too.

[Virindi]

Anyone else finding the Essay Writing Workshop videos are worthless?

I feel like I watch an in-depth 6 hour lecture on an topic, then Chris Ide-Don (korean or japanese[?] man) comes on and does yet another lecture on substantive law with an issue checklist that is incomplete and in a non-logical order.

[Easy-E]

I doubt we all get the same PQs but Question 6014 should really be a red-flag for Themis. Facts include a coffee shop contracting for a mural.

[+] Spoiler

So over 70% of people pick the SAME wrong answer. Gee, is it because the lecture didn't say a thing about conditions precedent being an exception to the parol evidence rule? Man, I liked Ks guy, but the lecture really left a ton out. Torts guy was boring, but I haven't found anything major to be missing yet.

In any case, getting better on the PQs, but still, I gotta bitch.

[Rahviveh]

Anyone using adaptibar.... how many questions have you done and what's your %?

[ndp1234]

I doubt we all get the same PQs but Question 6014 should really be a red-flag for Themis. Facts include a coffee shop contracting for a mural.

[+] Spoiler

So over 70% of people pick the SAME wrong answer. Gee, is it because the lecture didn't say a thing about conditions precedent being an exception to the parol evidence rule? Man, I liked Ks guy, but the lecture really left a ton out. Torts guy was boring, but I haven't found anything major to be missing yet.

In any case, getting better on the PQs, but still, I gotta bitch.

I think they do it on purpose to make sure we're using the outlines in conjunction with the lectures (which they stress in their instructions, manuals, and FAQs). I experienced the same thing with the questions about auctions which was definitely only in the outline.

SMH

[ultimolugar]

John Boehner civ pro guy is pretty competent, but I'm skeptical that this is all we need to know for the exam.

I hadn't noticed! He *IS* Boehner.

[ultimolugar]

Anyone using adaptibar.... how many questions have you done and what's your %?

I'm afraid to admit it.

[Easy-E]

I doubt we all get the same PQs but Question 6014 should really be a red-flag for Themis. Facts include a coffee shop contracting for a mural.

[+] Spoiler

So over 70% of people pick the SAME wrong answer. Gee, is it because the lecture didn't say a thing about conditions precedent being an exception to the parol evidence rule? Man, I liked Ks guy, but the lecture really left a ton out. Torts guy was boring, but I haven't found anything major to be missing yet.

In any case, getting better on the PQs, but still, I gotta bitch.

I think they do it on purpose to make sure we're using the outlines in conjunction with the lectures (which they stress in their instructions, manuals, and FAQs). I experienced the same thing with the questions about auctions which was definitely only in the outline.

SMH

I always incorporate the explanations into my outline, but now I'm just going through the outline fully to make sure mine is good. Hopefully it's just the contracts one, haven't done enough torts practice stuff to know yet.

Edit: For anyone who isn't reading the outlines, there is a whole section at the end of the outline on UCC specific remedies (which it mentions are frequently tested on the MBE), which wasn't in the handout/lecture. So I would at least check that out.

[mu13ski]

Is it just me or did the daily schedule really ramp up starting today? I've been able to stick to the schedule every day up to this point, but looking at today's schedule and the next couple of days there seems to be a pretty significant increase in the daily tasks.

[salix]

In the MPT outline, we're advised to "Remember: grammar, spelling and punctuation counts"!

[ndp1234]

Is it just me or did the daily schedule really ramp up starting today? I've been able to stick to the schedule every day up to this point, but looking at today's schedule and the next couple of days there seems to be a pretty significant increase in the daily tasks.

Yes, I've been wondering about this. I'm ahead and I usually do more tasks than assigned, yet it doesn't redistribute the tasks from the heavier days but redistributes the least amount of tasks possible. Like today, I only had do the AQ2 for Property (10 Qs) and just the MPT lecture and practice. Definitely did not take me that long. But tomorrow I have 2 sets of MBE PQ's, "reviewing" outlines from 2 subjects, 2 writing practices, which seems like a lot more than what I did today. Next week some days I have writing, hours of lectures, and MBE PQs all in the same day. I'm confused as to how the fancy task calendar module works.

FYI - I'm a UBE state w/o state specific distinctions.

[kay2016]

I'm doing the first set of K's MBE questions. Lol i apparently learned nothing...

no point in freaking out yet though, right?!

[Chardee_MacDennis]

I'm doing the first set of K's MBE questions. Lol i apparently learned nothing...

no point in freaking out yet though, right?!

I feel the same way about torts. We're good.

[Virindi]

Is it just me or did the daily schedule really ramp up starting today? I've been able to stick to the schedule every day up to this point, but looking at today's schedule and the next couple of days there seems to be a pretty significant increase in the daily tasks.

I started on May 23rd, and my schedule has been pretty chill so far. But come June 4th (Saturday) it seems to go absolutely bonkers and stays that way until bar.