BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[emkay625]

Is anyone doing extra things outside of Barbri? My general plan is read the Convisor before class, go to class and fill in the thing, use the lecture handout and long outline to make flashcards, memorize using the flashcards, then do a bunch of practice questions. After doing practice questions, reread sections of the long outline where I fucked stuff up. Is this the general approach? Should I be utilizing other crap outside of Barbri, or will this give me all the info I need to know?

[ditch digger]

Who else's first essay was total crap? Someone please make me feel better about myself.

Leading up to the July 2014 bar exam, my practice essays were less than stellar. I was certain that I bombed at least two essays during the actual exam, but I ended up passing. None of the essays answers are going to be perfect, and in fact, many will be far from it. Don't get discouraged and remember that IRAC is your friend.

[myrtlewinston]

obviously, since the bar is a closed book exam, i wouldn't use notes for any practice.....

Are we suppose to not use notes during the initial assessment questions right after we finish a topic?

I'm confused too, as the daily instructions say we're expected to have things memorised yet. Will let you know when I hear back from Barbri.

Yes, but we're still refreshing ourselves on 1L subjects.

[RaleighStClair]

Who else's first essay was total crap? Someone please make me feel better about myself.

Leading up to the July 2014 bar exam, my practice essays were less than stellar. I was certain that I bombed at least two essays during the actual exam, but I ended up passing. None of the essays answers are going to be perfect, and in fact, many will be far from it. Don't get discouraged and remember that IRAC is your friend.

This makes me feel better. My first essay (the First Amendment Con Law one) was "Below Passing." And I did it open-book, but in the allotted time. This is a bad sign, right? Ughhhhhhh.

[HLBE689]

What is the allotted/recommended time for one essay - 45 minutes?

[rinkrat19]

What is the allotted/recommended time for one essay - 45 minutes?

Does it vary by state? OR is 6 essays in 3 hours, so 30 minutes.

[rinkrat19]

lol, my first essay was terribad.

[cdelgado]

I don't know how it is for everyone else, but the lecture outlines for my state are crap. The outlines either miss important information completely or fail to include the full BLL.

[rinkrat19]

I don't know how it is for everyone else, but the lecture outlines for my state are crap. The outlines either miss important information completely or fail to include the full BLL.

Are you doing state-specific subjects already? I thought everyone started with the multistate subjects and had the same instructors.

[cdelgado]

I don't know how it is for everyone else, but the lecture outlines for my state are crap. The outlines either miss important information completely or fail to include the full BLL.

Are you doing state-specific subjects already? I thought everyone started with the multistate subjects and had the same instructors.

Not all of the instructors are the same and the outlines can vary by state.

[Andrews989]

Just did my first "Study Smart" MBQ Torts set (New York BarBri). Pretty helpful that the results are broken down by issue. Do the 25 MBE Workshop questions we did the other day not get added to that? Also, for the one you are supposed to do in the MPQ Book, it only asks for the total score? Why don't they have you fill in all your answers so help identify problem areas?

[myrtlewinston]

Just did my first "Study Smart" MBQ Torts set (New York BarBri). Pretty helpful that the results are broken down by issue. Do the 25 MBE Workshop questions we did the other day not get added to that? Also, for the one you are supposed to do in the MPQ Book, it only asks for the total score? Why don't they have you fill in all your answers so help identify problem areas?

I did Set 2 in the book, but added the answers online to get the analysis.

[rinkrat19]

Barbri property lady: "Wrongful eviction. This occurs when L wrongfully evicts T."

Well, that clears it up nicely.

[myrtlewinston]

Barbri property lady: "Wrongful eviction. This occurs when L wrongfully evicts T."

Well, that clears it up nicely.

Should I save time by not watching the Property lectures then? I feel like I wasted 12 hours on the Torts ones.

[rinkrat19]

Barbri property lady: "Wrongful eviction. This occurs when L wrongfully evicts T."

Well, that clears it up nicely.

Should I save time by not watching the Property lectures then? I feel like I wasted 12 hours on the Torts ones.

I suppose it depends on how well you remember the subject. I don't remember it at all and I don't learn well from just reading an outline, so I need to watch it.

And it's not all like that stupid example. It was just one spot where she paused for us to write something down in the handout. I actually backed it up to make sure I hadn't missed some deeper explanation.

[rinkrat19]

Barbri property lady: "Wrongful eviction. This occurs when L wrongfully evicts T."

Well, that clears it up nicely.

Should I save time by not watching the Property lectures then? I feel like I wasted 12 hours on the Torts ones.

I suppose it depends on how well you remember the subject. I don't remember it at all and I don't learn well from just reading an outline, so I need to watch it.

And it's not all like that stupid example. It was just one spot where she paused for us to write something down in the handout and I went "wait, what?" I actually backed it up to make sure I hadn't missed some deeper explanation.

[mushybrain]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

[rickgrimes69]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

I was frustrated by how much it didn't cover. I basically don't use my notes from those lectures and refer straight to the CMR when I have a question. It's a decent broad-strokes overview, but he really does miss a lot of stuff.

[myrtlewinston]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

I was frustrated by how much it didn't cover. I basically don't use my notes from those lectures and refer straight to the CMR when I have a question. It's a decent broad-strokes overview, but he really does miss a lot of stuff.

Same here. I have no idea how much we're supposed to know on Worker's Comp and No-Fault insurance. i hope he does better on Family Law.

[gaagoots]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

His lecture followed the Critical Pass Torts flashcards last time I listened to him. He is amusing with his different voices.

[musicfor18]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

I was frustrated by how much it didn't cover. I basically don't use my notes from those lectures and refer straight to the CMR when I have a question. It's a decent broad-strokes overview, but he really does miss a lot of stuff.

Agreed. And at least one rule he stated is wrong according to the MPQ answer explanations. For actual malice (defamation), he said that recklessness means not conducting any investigation at all into the truth of the statement. But BarBri materials consistently say that this is exactly what it doesn't mean. Instead, it means subjectively entertaining serious doubts about the truth of the statement.

Also, there are places where he didn't give the elements, but the elements really matter (like the attractive nuisance doctrine).

[scaliaantics]

Anyone else go through Schechter's Torts yet? I saw someone saying it was a waste of time but curious as to whether anyone else has feedback yet. I'm supposed to do Torts I tomorrow. The lack of handout is odd. Is he just going to read from the CMR? Guess I'll find out soon enough. I'm tempted to just use the time to memorize BLL but maybe I'll just 1.75x it.

I was frustrated by how much it didn't cover. I basically don't use my notes from those lectures and refer straight to the CMR when I have a question. It's a decent broad-strokes overview, but he really does miss a lot of stuff.

Agreed. And at least one rule he stated is wrong according to the MPQ answer explanations. For actual malice (defamation), he said that recklessness means not conducting any investigation at all into the truth of the statement. But BarBri materials consistently say that this is exactly what it doesn't mean. Instead, it means subjectively entertaining serious doubts about the truth of the statement.

Also, there are places where he didn't give the elements, but the elements really matter (like the attractive nuisance doctrine).

For false light and the over privacy torts, he says the standard is "whether an average person would feel X." the standard according to the CMR is "whether a reasonable person would feel X." After he yelled and screamed abotu the difference between reasonable and average, I'm stunned he would make this mistake.

[Charger]

lol, my first essay was terribad.

I'm confused about why they're having us do essays already when we just learned the law, like, a few days ago. Right now I can barely understand the BLL, much less regurgitate it into rule statements and apply them. Maybe I'm just not understanding their super effective, amazing, time-tested formula or something. Anyway, I'm putting the essay assignments on hold for now until I can do a few more MBE Qs and shore up my BLL knowledge.

[RaleighStClair]

lol, my first essay was terribad.

I'm confused about why they're having us do essays already when we just learned the law, like, a few days ago. Right now I can barely understand the BLL, much less regurgitate it into rule statements and apply them. Maybe I'm just not understanding their super effective, amazing, time-tested formula or something. Anyway, I'm putting the essay assignments on hold for now until I can do a few more MBE Qs and shore up my BLL knowledge.

I just did the first essay open book. And I still didn't do well, but I think it helped just getting my mind around the essay writing process and gave me some practice issue spotting. They are going to have us do so many essays in the next couple of months, we might as well get started on them now.

As for the second set of MPQ questions that we were supposed to do from the book, I (like someone mentioned above) just inputted my results in the Studysmart system so I could see it broken down and get a percentile rank. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me somehow, but I think it's fine.

[rinkrat19]

Paula Franzese's singing is so painful.