California Bar Exam (July 2014) thread Forum

[hyc9598]

If state legislature passes law that only allows advertising of alcohol on container or sticker because it concerns about youth health, it is

1) constitutional because it directly advances substantial state interest
2) unconstitutional because there is less restrictive means

[Carryon]

Baressays is a good source to get an idea, but I still find it hard to define a minimum number of issues that you have to spot to get a particular score.

The premium subscription rate at baressays will show graded essays and some essays with comments from a grader. Those comments will usually tell how many issues were missed.

How I do access the comments? What do I have to click?

I have a premium sub, but have just been reading over the model answers / bar taker essays (without comments)

Click on the review box next to the model box for an essay. The order is as follows from left to right: essay box, question box, calbar box, model box, review box. The review box is not on every essay, just a few. You have to look.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

Does anyone think reviewing essay answers posted on the CA Bar website is sufficient to see what the graders want? Or is BarEssays.com or any other service a better source? I know it doesn't say what score the samples on the CA Bar website received, but they at least received passing scores, so I'm hoping they're sufficient without having to buy yet another supplemental bar prep option. I'm currently using Themis, Adaptibar (love!) and recently bought Lean Sheets and the "Bar Code Cheat Sheets" book too. Essays are my weakness... especially issue spotting. Considering BarEssays but dreading another purchase and feeling overwhelmed here already...

[2807]

If state legislature passes law that only allows advertising of alcohol on container or sticker because it concerns about youth health, it is

1) constitutional because it directly advances substantial state interest
2) unconstitutional because there is less restrictive means

Wingin' it here off of memory..

I say #1.

BOTH have the "because" to deal with.
FOCUS ON THAT.

Therefore,

#1 can be true, and implies a "substantial interest" test.

#2 requires a consideration of "less restrictive" which places us in a higher level of scrutiny, and those require fundamental rights... Alcohol and advertising are not a fundamental right, and based off of this, do not earn a higher level of scrutiny.

[Charles Barkley]

I would go with answer 2.

From my outline:

Commercial speech may be regulated if 1) speech concerns lawful activity and not misleading; 2) substantial gov’t interest; 3) regulation directly advances asserted interest; 4) not more extensive than necessary to serve that interest (IS)

I believe there is a "no more extensive than necessary to serve that interest" under the central hudson test as it relates to commercial speech.

[Hybrid180]

If state legislature passes law that only allows advertising of alcohol on container or sticker because it concerns about youth health, it is

1) constitutional because it directly advances substantial state interest
2) unconstitutional because there is less restrictive means

The correct answer is #1. Barbri's CMR specifically states in the Constitutional Law section pg. 47 that "least restrictive means" is not required for a state statute to burden commercial speech.

Furthermore, #1 addresses two of the required elements for regulating commercial speech.

[james11]

Does anyone think reviewing essay answers posted on the CA Bar website is sufficient to see what the graders want? Or is BarEssays.com or any other service a better source? I know it doesn't say what score the samples on the CA Bar website received, but they at least received passing scores, so I'm hoping they're sufficient without having to buy yet another supplemental bar prep option. I'm currently using Themis, Adaptibar (love!) and recently bought Lean Sheets and the "Bar Code Cheat Sheets" book too. Essays are my weakness... especially issue spotting. Considering BarEssays but dreading another purchase and feeling overwhelmed here already...

I found the CA Bar website essays to be unhelpful. Not only do they not tell you the score, but I found that they tended to not be reflective of the normal passing essay. And they only provide a couple examples of each essay. Comparing the essays on BarEssays.com that scored 55, 65, 75 gives real insight into the grading process that the CA Bar website does not provide. As many other repeat takers will tell you (Murph and others on this board), BarEssays is a worthwhile investment, especially if the essays are a weakness for you.

[Mr. Pink]

So I did a practice PT today and the memo from senior partner asked me to prepare a Memorandum in support of Prelim Injunction... that is it. Stated that the parties had been served and had been showing up for court, but there were signs they were selling off assets to avoid the judgment. So my task was to prepare the memo for the injunction. All of the right stuff was included, but there was also stuff regarding federal jurisdiction and expert testimony... which from the injunction side, had nothing to do with the rest of the PT. It seemed pretty easy overall, or at least no harder than other ones I have done before.

My question is, when there are no instructions telling you to do this or that, and instead the instructions state specifically what your task is, yet there are other documents containing materials unrelated to your task, how would you use them if at all? (my bad for the run on sentence). I know there will often times be a few things that aren't needed, but this had an entire transcript from an expert in foreign law, his resume in case he needed to testify, and a civil procedure code regarding expert testimony.

I'm sure I missed something, but none of that was needed to perform the tasks asked in the memo....

[lmr]

Does anyone think reviewing essay answers posted on the CA Bar website is sufficient to see what the graders want? Or is BarEssays.com or any other service a better source? I know it doesn't say what score the samples on the CA Bar website received, but they at least received passing scores, so I'm hoping they're sufficient without having to buy yet another supplemental bar prep option. I'm currently using Themis, Adaptibar (love!) and recently bought Lean Sheets and the "Bar Code Cheat Sheets" book too. Essays are my weakness... especially issue spotting. Considering BarEssays but dreading another purchase and feeling overwhelmed here already...

I think lean sheets are overrated. An underrated feature of the Baressays price is the fact that you get short outlines for each subject (almost a complete ripoff of barbri's lectures but wo the hypos). They are short enough to memorize off of but long enough that understand the law. I love the bar code bk but there is not nearly enough cheat sheets and it's just not realistic of what these essays really look like.

[ph14]

Leansheets made me chuckle today:

If D is direct cause, result is foreseeable unless freakish and bazaar.

[adonai]

So I did a practice PT today and the memo from senior partner asked me to prepare a Memorandum in support of Prelim Injunction... that is it. Stated that the parties had been served and had been showing up for court, but there were signs they were selling off assets to avoid the judgment. So my task was to prepare the memo for the injunction. All of the right stuff was included, but there was also stuff regarding federal jurisdiction and expert testimony... which from the injunction side, had nothing to do with the rest of the PT. It seemed pretty easy overall, or at least no harder than other ones I have done before.

My question is, when there are no instructions telling you to do this or that, and instead the instructions state specifically what your task is, yet there are other documents containing materials unrelated to your task, how would you use them if at all? (my bad for the run on sentence). I know there will often times be a few things that aren't needed, but this had an entire transcript from an expert in foreign law, his resume in case he needed to testify, and a civil procedure code regarding expert testimony.

I'm sure I missed something, but none of that was needed to perform the tasks asked in the memo....

I've done quite a few PTs, and I've never found that a document in the file was irrelevant. Most likely you needed to use that transcript under some legal argument you had to make, or it fit within one of the enumerated issues the partner gave you in the task memo (if any).

A recent PT I did told me in the task memo to write declarations based off transcripts of witnesses that I thought were relevant to our side of the case. I thought one particular witness was totally irrelevant and harmful to our case, so I left that witness out. Turns out it was relevant and I just had to make it fit in somehow. Every document is in there for a reason, whether all the information inside that particular document should be used is the question.

Did you look at the model answer? Every PT I've done so far has required use of everything in some shape or form, even if it is just one line from the document or case.

[turbotong]

So how far is everyone on the Barbri timeline?

[LSATNightmares]

Piece of advice from my mentor last summer: Practice writing a few essays by hand. When my mentor was taking the Cal bar a few years ago, ExamSoft failed, and she was forced to write by hand. Luckily, she had already taken another state's bar before when computers weren't allowed, so she knew she had the ability to write an essay by hand. She advised that if you practice by hand a few times, you'll be less freaked out if there is a computer failure.

[LSATNightmares]

So how far is everyone on the Barbri timeline?

I'm at 56%, but the percentages don't mean anything. I saw someone post on Facebook a shot from her Paced Program where she was far ahead of me, but had bad grades entered for her MPQs. Ultimately, it's quality that counts.

[Carryon]

So I did a practice PT today and the memo from senior partner asked me to prepare a Memorandum in support of Prelim Injunction... that is it. Stated that the parties had been served and had been showing up for court, but there were signs they were selling off assets to avoid the judgment. So my task was to prepare the memo for the injunction. All of the right stuff was included, but there was also stuff regarding federal jurisdiction and expert testimony... which from the injunction side, had nothing to do with the rest of the PT. It seemed pretty easy overall, or at least no harder than other ones I have done before.

My question is, when there are no instructions telling you to do this or that, and instead the instructions state specifically what your task is, yet there are other documents containing materials unrelated to your task, how would you use them if at all? (my bad for the run on sentence). I know there will often times be a few things that aren't needed, but this had an entire transcript from an expert in foreign law, his resume in case he needed to testify, and a civil procedure code regarding expert testimony.

I'm sure I missed something, but none of that was needed to perform the tasks asked in the memo....

I've done quite a few PTs, and I've never found that a document in the file was irrelevant. Most likely you needed to use that transcript under some legal argument you had to make, or it fit within one of the enumerated issues the partner gave you in the task memo (if any).

A recent PT I did told me in the task memo to write declarations based off transcripts of witnesses that I thought were relevant to our side of the case. I thought one particular witness was totally irrelevant and harmful to our case, so I left that witness out. Turns out it was relevant and I just had to make it fit in somehow. Every document is in there for a reason, whether all the information inside that particular document should be used is the question.

Did you look at the model answer? Every PT I've done so far has required use of everything in some shape or form, even if it is just one line from the document or case.

I agree, but you you never know. One of these days they will throw in a document that is irrelevant. Nevetherless, as a general rule assume every document is relevant.

[charcop]

Does anybody think this will be the year they finally test an essay on CA civ pro?

[sundance95]

Does anybody think this will be the year they finally test an essay on CA civ pro?

Yes. Or no.

Who cares? All the speculation over what might be tested ITT is wasted energy.

[a male human]

Yeah, you should prep for everything. Don't speculate or listen to predictions. I did that twice and almost got killed the second time because only half the predictions came true. Admittedly, I would do a relatively cursory study for CACP since there are a lot of similarities, and you don't know if it's going to appear. And admittedly, I think ____ and ____ are likely to appear. But it doesn't matter.

If you are desperate, though, you can use predictions as a basis for sequencing your study. Study the more likely ones near bar week to retain it better. This means PR should be last on your list (Sunday and/or Monday morning) since it's practically guaranteed to appear. Last time, I studied comm prop as my first subject for final review about 10 days before the bar because it was predicted to be unlikely to appear, and I wasn't very good at it. It came up as Q2.

[FutureInLaw]

Anyone do the February 2007 Wills essay (it's the essay in the Wills Writing Approach video in Barbri).

Any ideas as to why Barbri didn't discuss the widow's election? Wouldn't the attempt of T to give away more than his 1/2 of CP trigger the widow's election, essentially allowing W to take either 50 shares (worth $50) against the will or $160,000 ($500,000 minus $250,000 to Cole minus $10,000 to Frank minus $80,000 to Sue's issue) under the will?

I'm confused.

[Mr. Pink]

So I did a practice PT today and the memo from senior partner asked me to prepare a Memorandum in support of Prelim Injunction... that is it. Stated that the parties had been served and had been showing up for court, but there were signs they were selling off assets to avoid the judgment. So my task was to prepare the memo for the injunction. All of the right stuff was included, but there was also stuff regarding federal jurisdiction and expert testimony... which from the injunction side, had nothing to do with the rest of the PT. It seemed pretty easy overall, or at least no harder than other ones I have done before.

My question is, when there are no instructions telling you to do this or that, and instead the instructions state specifically what your task is, yet there are other documents containing materials unrelated to your task, how would you use them if at all? (my bad for the run on sentence). I know there will often times be a few things that aren't needed, but this had an entire transcript from an expert in foreign law, his resume in case he needed to testify, and a civil procedure code regarding expert testimony.

I'm sure I missed something, but none of that was needed to perform the tasks asked in the memo....

I've done quite a few PTs, and I've never found that a document in the file was irrelevant. Most likely you needed to use that transcript under some legal argument you had to make, or it fit within one of the enumerated issues the partner gave you in the task memo (if any).

A recent PT I did told me in the task memo to write declarations based off transcripts of witnesses that I thought were relevant to our side of the case. I thought one particular witness was totally irrelevant and harmful to our case, so I left that witness out. Turns out it was relevant and I just had to make it fit in somehow. Every document is in there for a reason, whether all the information inside that particular document should be used is the question.

Did you look at the model answer? Every PT I've done so far has required use of everything in some shape or form, even if it is just one line from the document or case.

I think I know which one you are talking about, I think it was the Keefe PT, and the witness you are referring to was the housekeeper? I did that one and I left her stuff out as well because it wasn't helpful. Can't remember the grade but I did well on it. I checked the published answers for this particular one and they both had left the stuff out as well. One of the answers referenced how they had broken laws in their own jurisdiction as well, but it wasn't more than a couple of sentences. Had the memo not stated that they were already in the proceedings and opposing party had already been showing up to court, I could see using it to establish the courts jurisdiction... but so far it looks like it was just a big chunk of irrelevant stuff. When I get the grade and comments back I will update.. I have always been told that if it's there, it's for a purpose.... just didn't seem to be the case here.

[lmr]

Anyone do the February 2007 Wills essay (it's the essay in the Wills Writing Approach video in Barbri).

Any ideas as to why Barbri didn't discuss the widow's election? Wouldn't the attempt of T to give away more than his 1/2 of CP trigger the widow's election, essentially allowing W to take either 50 shares (worth $50) against the will or $160,000 ($500,000 minus $250,000 to Cole minus $10,000 to Frank minus $80,000 to Sue's issue) under the will?

I'm confused.

He said "my shares" He wasn't trying to give away the entire cp share, only his own. he's allowed to do that. If he said 100 shares then the rule would apply. The omitted kid thing is confusing me since they had no kids at time of will execution I don't see how that exception applied.

[Jay Heizenburg]

Can those with Critical Pass Flashcards please chime in.

I'm looking to shore up my MBE scores these last couple of weeks, especially in light of Civil Procedure being added this February 2015.

I have the following questions:

1. Considering how late in the game we are, do you think the purchase is worth it? And why?

2. What improvements did you see in the sometimes more difficult or tricky subjects such as Property or Evidence (or whatever subjects that may be for you)?

I'm on the fence and am trying to be either talked down or over.

Thanks, and I got that "blue stuff" if you need it.

[JJDancer]

Can those with Critical Pass Flashcards please chime in.

I'm looking to shore up my MBE scores these last couple of weeks, especially in light of Civil Procedure being added this February 2015.

I have the following questions:

1. Considering how late in the game we are, do you think the purchase is worth it? And why?

2. What improvements did you see in the sometimes more difficult or tricky subjects such as Property or Evidence (or whatever subjects that may be for you)?

I'm on the fence and am trying to be either talked down or over.

Thanks, and I got that "blue stuff" if you need it.

I have these and while they are a nice tool to study I use them more to learn the laws for essays. They are short, easy to ready (easier than outlines) and easier to check yourself against and fairly accurate

But I think for MBEs the MBE strategies and tactics book is much better - it has tips for each subject area as well as general MBE tips and it has old questions with explanations. While kaplan/bar bri explanations point out nuances these ones run through complete rule statements over and over to reinforce these and point out distractors, nuances etc so I think these will be more helpful (at least I use it more for MBE than the pass cards).

[Jay Heizenburg]

Can those with Critical Pass Flashcards please chime in.

I'm looking to shore up my MBE scores these last couple of weeks, especially in light of Civil Procedure being added this February 2015.

I have the following questions:

1. Considering how late in the game we are, do you think the purchase is worth it? And why?

2. What improvements did you see in the sometimes more difficult or tricky subjects such as Property or Evidence (or whatever subjects that may be for you)?

I'm on the fence and am trying to be either talked down or over.

Thanks, and I got that "blue stuff" if you need it.

I have these and while they are a nice tool to study I use them more to learn the laws for essays. They are short, easy to ready (easier than outlines) and easier to check yourself against and fairly accurate

But I think for MBEs the MBE strategies and tactics book is much better - it has tips for each subject area as well as general MBE tips and it has old questions with explanations. While kaplan/bar bri explanations point out nuances these ones run through complete rule statements over and over to reinforce these and point out distractors, nuances etc so I think these will be more helpful (at least I use it more for MBE than the pass cards).

Okay ... But knowing what you know, and this late in the game, would you get 'em, or no?

By the way, thanks for your reply.

[lmr]

Can those with Critical Pass Flashcards please chime in.

I'm looking to shore up my MBE scores these last couple of weeks, especially in light of Civil Procedure being added this February 2015.

I have the following questions:

1. Considering how late in the game we are, do you think the purchase is worth it? And why?

2. What improvements did you see in the sometimes more difficult or tricky subjects such as Property or Evidence (or whatever subjects that may be for you)?

I'm on the fence and am trying to be either talked down or over.

Thanks, and I got that "blue stuff" if you need it.

Don't waste your money or time-the best thing you can do is drill questions. The cards are nice for review but there are more useful for memorizing/reviewing versus doing well on MBE. i've never read anyone credit their mbe success to critical pass flashcards. Strategics and tactic by Emmanuel on the other hand kinda goes wo saying how helpful that book has been to many people.