Kaplan Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[fadedsunrise]

Fromm & that guy from Texas, plus the FL Con Law/Essay Prep guy, are the only actual humans from Kaplan I'd be semi-interested in meeting IRL. Maybe Kermit Roosevelt for the Roosevelt factor.

Kermit was awesome. I loved his terrible jokes.

"Supreme court original jurisdiction is party-based. Certain parties start at the Supreme Court. Which parties start at the Supreme Court, you ask? John Roberts dance parties."

But I'm not sure why they had anybody do the lectures aside from Fromm. He's an effective teacher, knows the test better than a full-time law school professor, and it seems way more cost-effective than hiring half a dozen different professors.

My friend tells me John Roberts' dance parties are supposedly a thing, actually. Idk how credited this info is

I would definitely take a class of just Fromm lecturing. If only instead of foundations they expanded it to Fromm doing all the MBE subjects. Kermit can maybe still have Con Law.

[robinhoodOO]

Agree with everyone else. I've been crushing MBEs, so hopefully I can continue that. Kaplan's essay program, OTOH was abysmal. I basically crafted my own syllabus. They really should have offered self-grading rubrics similar to Barbri, because their model answers were hardly helpful for analyzing how well you are doing.

oh my god; this. I had a friend who showed me her Barbri grading rubrics. I wish I had had those...

[despina]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

[a male human]

Alright Kaplan Comrades: Who feels like if they succeed it will not be because of Kaplan, but despite Kaplan?

No love for Chris Fromm?

haha; someone suggested I was Chris Fromm in an earlier post. I actually liked Chris

On my second attempt, all I used from Kaplan was Chris Fromm's MBE lectures and nothing else.

Oh and maybe some essay grading.

[TommyK]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

This is the most comforting news possible. Thank you! It puts my low scores in context and makes me feel a ton better.

[robinhoodOO]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

[orangecup]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

[despina]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

[orangecup]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

That's gotta be encouraging, though. It means we're probably going to be OK (I hope....).

[despina]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

That's gotta be encouraging, though. It means we're probably going to be OK (I hope....).

I think it means we're going to kick ass.

[robinhoodOO]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

That's gotta be encouraging, though. It means we're probably going to be OK (I hope....).

I think it means we're going to kick ass.

*And take names

[despina]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

That's gotta be encouraging, though. It means we're probably going to be OK (I hope....).

I think it means we're going to kick ass.

*And take names

So many names.

[redblueyellow]

A friend of a friend submitted one of Kaplan's model answers for grading. No acknowledgement, little feedback. Scored a 4 out of 7.

Holy fuck; this is gold

I thought about doing this, but I'm glad someone actually did to confirm all of my suspicions...

HA! FUCK YOU KAPLAN

I know someone else who did this and got a 4/10 or something like that. Absurd lol

Whereas I looked at a released real student answer that got a perfect score in my jurisdiction. Content was solid but it wasn't IRAC'ed, no headings, rule statements not separated out, conclusions not repeated, informal language, no delving into thorough but irrelevant explanations of exceptions to rules, etc -- definitely would have gotten a "does not demonstrate competency" from Kaplan.

For the CBX, there are many model answers that don't IRAC as one would expect, just as you mentioned. Except those are written extremely well in standard paragraph format, easy to follow, and sometimes even interesting to read. Many hardly use underlining or specific formatting that we would expect, especially according to the Kaplan model, but are still chosen as the model answers.

I think those are the answers that often have the most (and usually accurate) substantive content that is presented nicely.

So the proper IRAC format may not necessarily be necessary if you're an expert in the field and can write a really good answer.

I think if a professor were to write an answer, they would not necessarily IRAC as we do (and the BarBri people are CIRAC'ing like crazy).

[despina]

Yeah, I'm still planning to IRAC and use clear headings as much as I can, just to make sure I don't "leave points on the table" because it's hard for them to find where I address each issue. It's encouraging, though, that if I only have 3 minutes left at the end of an essay to address three issues, I can probably get decent points if I "bang it out" in natural prose and not have to think through getting the formatting done perfectly.

[odoylerulez]

Don't know about how you all feel, but Kaplan was my savior. 4 out of the 6 essays were MBE in my state.

Because, I was not ready for the MEE-exclusives whatsoever.

[despina]

Last night got an email from our regional director, recommending (among other things) that we look at a couple of MBE questions the morning of. Attached were several questions... with no answers?!

You may have seen these questions before, and purposely I DID NOT provide answers. What makes this so important is looking at the question BEFORE you go to the exam site. Get your brain moving before question 1. This activity WILL create more points on MBE day!

Ok then...?

[decemberstar82]

Last night got an email from our regional director, recommending (among other things) that we look at a couple of MBE questions the morning of. Attached were several questions... with no answers?!

You may have seen these questions before, and purposely I DID NOT provide answers. What makes this so important is looking at the question BEFORE you go to the exam site. Get your brain moving before question 1. This activity WILL create more points on MBE day!

Ok then...?

It's weird, but I do plan on doing this. I did it before the Practice Final MBE and I think it helped. Multiple choice questions require a different style of thinking, and especially so after a full day of essay writing.

[odoylerulez]

Last night got an email from our regional director, recommending (among other things) that we look at a couple of MBE questions the morning of. Attached were several questions... with no answers?!

You may have seen these questions before, and purposely I DID NOT provide answers. What makes this so important is looking at the question BEFORE you go to the exam site. Get your brain moving before question 1. This activity WILL create more points on MBE day!

Ok then...?

I think we're in the same region. I got the same e-mail. I already went through the questions. First question was an arson question that seemed to have answer choices that were all wrong. Or maybe I'm just dumb. Didn't look at any of the rest after that. I'm not going to do any questions before the exam, because I started out hot on both the midterm and the final and I'd like that to happen again. Sticking with what works and such.

[shredderrrrrr]

Agree with everyone else. I've been crushing MBEs, so hopefully I can continue that. Kaplan's essay program, OTOH was abysmal. I basically crafted my own syllabus. They really should have offered self-grading rubrics similar to Barbri, because their model answers were hardly helpful for analyzing how well you are doing.

I didn't even submit any after the first one. I just did the ones in the book or ones on the NCBE website.

[shredderrrrrr]

Don't know about how you all feel, but Kaplan was my savior. 4 out of the 6 essays were MBE in my state.

Because, I was not ready for the MEE-exclusives whatsoever.

Yeah, 4 MBE here too. Which...I was pretty bummed about because I put wayyyy more effort into the MEE topics to compensate. Feels like a waste now!

[despina]

Last night got an email from our regional director, recommending (among other things) that we look at a couple of MBE questions the morning of. Attached were several questions... with no answers?!

You may have seen these questions before, and purposely I DID NOT provide answers. What makes this so important is looking at the question BEFORE you go to the exam site. Get your brain moving before question 1. This activity WILL create more points on MBE day!

Ok then...?

It's weird, but I do plan on doing this. I did it before the Practice Final MBE and I think it helped. Multiple choice questions require a different style of thinking, and especially so after a full day of essay writing.

I don't argue with the logic of doing a few MBE's in the morning. But why would I do ones that have no answer key? That just seems like a recipe for stress to me.

[shredderrrrrr]

How'd you guys feel about day 1? I somehow felt pretty good about it all things considered.

Now we get the (in my opinion) much easier half.

[robinhoodOO]

How'd you guys feel about day 1? I somehow felt pretty good about it all things considered.

Now we get the (in my opinion) much easier half.

haha; California still has 2 more days, Shredderrrr. Don't rub it in, bro

[shredderrrrrr]

How'd you guys feel about day 1? I somehow felt pretty good about it all things considered.

Now we get the (in my opinion) much easier half.

haha; California still has 2 more days, Shredderrrr. Don't rub it in, bro

Haha I hardly know a thing about the bar exam I'm taking--let alone anyone else's!

Keep truckin' on!

[robinhoodOO]

How'd you guys feel about day 1? I somehow felt pretty good about it all things considered.

Now we get the (in my opinion) much easier half.

haha; California still has 2 more days, Shredderrrr. Don't rub it in, bro

Haha I hardly know a thing about the bar exam I'm taking--let alone anyone else's!

Preach!

This is me