Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2016 Forum

[unidentifiable]

Are you concerned youre going to run out of mbe questions to practice on? I wanted to take more but didnt want to "use them up"

this is my dilemma

[bsktbll28082]

Taking Themis for VA. Started on Monday.

I've been scanning the outlines, then following the lectures with the handouts, condensing the handout, reviewing critical pass, reviewing my outline to memorize what I can. Then I do some practice questions and update my outline. I'm going to continually reduce my outline.

I actually did well on the first 17 contracts questions and I was worried they were luring me into a false sense of security. But it seems I just got lucky, because I can't say the rule statements off the top of my head

Oh and my internet is down right now so that's awesome. Bar prep on my phone!

[AlanShore]

Are you concerned youre going to run out of mbe questions to practice on? I wanted to take more but didnt want to "use them up"

this is my dilemma

I bought adaptibar. I know a lot of the qs repeat becasue themis also used mbe questions but I *think* adaptibar has more so i guess its worth it. and not necessarily bad to do some questions twice.

[ultimolugar]

Anyone else get totally wrecked by that first 17 question practice set of MBE Contracts & Sales questions? I got like a third of them right. Been following Themis' plan, been doing solid reviews of the outline and lecture handout every night, still felt like they weren't prepping me.

I got 4 right, totally normal. I am now in the 5th set - scored a 76. (26 out of 34)

Are you concerned youre going to run out of mbe questions to practice on? I wanted to take more but didnt want to "use them up"

I started early because I'm working for part of the time (I'm in week 5 of prep, 2 weeks from going on leave from my job). I am pacing myself by doing approximately 6 hours a day everyday and taking a Sunday once in a while (so far just 1). Themis has plenty of tasks for me to do between now and the end of July.

So, to answer your question, yes kinda, but I have adaptibar as well, so no.

[ultimolugar]

Are you concerned youre going to run out of mbe questions to practice on? I wanted to take more but didnt want to "use them up"

this is my dilemma

I bought adaptibar. I know a lot of the qs repeat becasue themis also used mbe questions but I *think* adaptibar has more so i guess its worth it. and not necessarily bad to do some questions twice.

Themis has well over 2k questions because there are 20 "mixed" sets of 50 questions each (there's 1000), and then each topic has at least 150 and closer to 200 (so that's another 1400). Adaptibar has a little under 1800. So 4200 in total if you have both programs... now seeing that in print, it seems like overkill...

[ChocolateTruffle]

I'm behind on the first week because I decided to handwrite my outlines Also, Tuesday I was busy doing other stuff so I didn't do much then. I just finished the first set of 17 questions for contracts and sales and got 9 out of 17 right. So that's good, I guess... so maybe handwriting does have a benefit! But I need to play catch up this weekend...

[cleanhustle]

Meh, I'm did the third set of Contracts MBE's last night I'm only a couple days 'ahead' though I'm sure that lead won't last long LOL and their 'goal' was to get 55% right and I scraped by with 55.6% correct. Man that was tough. They asked all these questions on Auctions and never even addressed it in their outline! I was doing great on the other MBE's till then! Will have to look through my old Contracts class notes.
Definitely gives you a scare, but I think that's part of the game plan... to scare you into doing more/ assessing your answers.

[bsktbll28082]

They asked all these questions on Auctions and never even addressed it in their outline! I was doing great on the other MBE's till then.

Vaguely remember auctions being mentioned in the long outline in the book. I think. I'm not on that problem set yet.

[cleanhustle]

They asked all these questions on Auctions and never even addressed it in their outline! I was doing great on the other MBE's till then.

Vaguely remember auctions being mentioned in the long outline in the book. I think. I'm not on that problem set yet.

I was so discouraged that I didn't even look! Will check tn. Thanks!

[Rahviveh]

Man that was tough. They asked all these questions on Auctions and never even addressed it in their outline!

Come on dude. Spoiler alert.

[Kragoth180]

Checking in. Doing Themis Texas!

[cleanhustle]

Man that was tough. They asked all these questions on Auctions and never even addressed it in their outline!

Come on dude. Spoiler alert.

LOL don't worry. You're going to feel just as surprised as I did!

[Raiden]

Having taken the bar twice, passing the second time, I can confidently say that the auction question in contract is completley pointless, never have I seen the bar test you about auctions and the importance of hitting the gavel before having a chance. Having taking themis and adaptibar before...I can say that some of you may want to make sure that themis uses actual MBE questions. I used Adaptibar and found their questions to be more realistic to the actual bar. PM if you want $50 off adaptibar.

[cleanhustle]

Having taken the bar twice, passing the second time, I can confidently say that the auction question in contract is completley pointless, never have I seen the bar test you about auctions and the importance of hitting the gavel before having a chance. Having taking themis and adaptibar before...I can say that some of you may want to make sure that themis uses actual MBE questions. I used Adaptibar and found their questions to be more realistic to the actual bar. PM if you want $50 off adaptibar.

When did you have time to use Adaptibar in conjunction with Themis? Just curious how people utilize these supplementary tools.

[FallonJ]

New Jersey re-taker here. I have started a little "early" this time around because I am determined to pass. I missed passing by 2 points in February. I did okay on the MBE. I found Critical Pass to be helpful when working on memorization. I also liked Lean Sheets. I feel as if the subjects where I read the long outline AND watched lectures, I had a better handle on them. I am going to try Adaptibar as well. I had a friend who improved his score by 25 points on his second sitting using Adaptibar. People swear by it!

[Vantwins]

Hi! I'm using Themis for the MD bar exam. I took and passed VA in 2003, waived into DC, practiced for a few years and then have taken many years off to stay home with my kids. Looking to go back to work and we live in MD now, and unfortunately MD doesn't let you just waive in, so here I am taking the bar exam again! My husband's a partner at a firm in DC. He spends so much time commuting, I'd rather practice locally even though it means studying for the bar again. I used BarBri last time. I feel like Themis is very similar. I prefer how they break down the lectures into shorter clips though. Helps me build in short breaks and feel like I'm accomplishing something! MD weights the essay day 2/3, so I'll have to get good at nailing the essays. At least there's less areas to study than VA had (it's still overwhelming though). I'm not reading the long outlines. I never read them with BarBri - it's just too much info. I'm making flash cards on the quizlet app. I like that I always have them with me and can fit in extra studying here and there. I don't plan on buying any supplemental materials.

[throwaway7]

Do the MBE contracts questions actually look like the themis questions? Because, holy shit, I'm doing the 34 practice question stuff and some of it is insanely tricky bullshit. I'm not great at contracts, but I'm not an idiot either and I've been doing all the work. Still, some of this stuff (wtf is up with the auction bullshit) is really tripping me up.

[ChocolateTruffle]

Hi, could someone please tell me what goes in the blank under number 2 (Guests and Friends in a Car) on page 17 of Torts? I can't figure it out Thanks!

[Raiden]

Having taken the bar twice, passing the second time, I can confidently say that the auction question in contract is completley pointless, never have I seen the bar test you about auctions and the importance of hitting the gavel before having a chance. Having taking themis and adaptibar before...I can say that some of you may want to make sure that themis uses actual MBE questions. I used Adaptibar and found their questions to be more realistic to the actual bar. PM if you want $50 off adaptibar.

When did you have time to use Adaptibar in conjunction with Themis? Just curious how people utilize these supplementary tools.

My MBE score wasn't super high after I first took the bar exam, so I decided to use adaptibar my second time. Themis provides a second free repeat, so I had the program, but I only used them for the occasional graded essay. Adaptibar was much more realistic to the actual bar exam then Themis was. Adaptibar didn't ask a single question about auctioning, and I did over 2000 questions. The bar exam didn't either.

[941law]

Wait...do you really have to keep going back to view a new chapter in the audio lecture? It's not continuous?

[Zero99]

Wait...do you really have to keep going back to view a new chapter in the audio lecture? It's not continuous?

I made this mistake too. You have to do the assessments at the end of each chapter and it will direct you to the next one.

[anon sequitur]

Took Themis last year, passed in VA. Just dropping by to offer random thoughts, encouragement, and condolences.

Themis is fine, it's all you need. Unless you really really like flashcards, then get critical pass (I did, did not turn out to be effective for me). Both Themis and Adaptibar use the *same questions*. That is, they license old questions from the MBE. Themis also takes old MBE questions and changes the fact patterns slightly and (I think) test slightly different points of law. I bought adaptibar, and there are some things about it I really liked, but had to stop using it because I was ruining themis question sets by seeing stuff I had already seen before. If I had to repeat first-time bar taking I'd definitely just do Themis again, not bother with adaptibar. If (God forbid) I ever have to take the MBE again for another state, I'd take adaptibar and figure out the essays on my own.

I only completed about 50% of Themis and passed. Hardly anyone gets more than 70-80% complete, there's just too much. I spent the vast majority of my time on the MBE, because I hate writing essays. It worked out for me. I didn't start seriously studying till about June 15, and kind of burned out the last week before the exam. I wish I had stuck to a strict six hours a day six days a week schedule, would have been better for my brain.

But bar prep is so stressful, even when you're putting in good 40 hour weeks, you worry you're not doing enough. There are things that Themis does that make it crappier than it needs to be. The further you get in the course, the worse the explanations will get. They're pretty good to start off, but since actual MBE questions are so shittily written, and that's what Themis uses, there are necessarily questions with no satisfying explanation. Also, their essay grading is just not very useful. You know how to write an essay, and if you see the model answer, you'll know how good/bad your essay was. Having someone tell you to "analyze more" or "clearly state the rule" is not helpful.

Some of the lectures are decent (almost all the stuff with Geis was very good), some are horrible (property guy seems cool/funny but just took forever). For the first few weeks I watched all the videos at 1.5x speed. Big mistake, should have watched them at 2.0x speed. Just kidding, they are useful, but don't sweat it if you are unable to absorb much from the lectures. I didn't make serious progress in any topic until I had done 100-200 MBE questions, then figured out what my weaknesses in that topic, then reading the Themis outline to create my own outline. That took a lot of time and effort but let me make huge jumps in accuracy. Couldn't do it from the start because to create my own outline that covered everything would take literally 2-3 days per subject.

As for state essays, at least in Virginia, you can just bullshit them as long as you have a strong MBE and can write a basic IRAC essay that refers to basic principles of common law. I literally memorized zero rules statements, I didn't learn any specifics of state contract/tort/property law. You don't need to, because getting the rule wrong only costs you a few points. You can still do okay on an essay literally making up your own version of the law, as long as your analysis is coherent and you sound like a lawyer.

Okay, that's all. Good luck, remember the vast majority of you will pass, you just need to be within shouting distance of average.

[Rahviveh]

This turd with the earrings is terrible

[bsktbll28082]

anon sequitur: great to hear about VA essays. I keep putting them off, haven't done one yet.

I am not liking the VA Professional Responsibility guy. And apparently the videos are from 2012, so I hope nothing changed.

[941law]

I sat with my friend while she did Barbri Con Law lecture. And I've done Themis Con law.

so fyi...

Barbri con law > Themis con law