Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2016 Forum

[Mayakovsky]

I'm feeling really pissed off at myself today. I'm messing up PQs like no other. It's like I haven't retained a damn thing, even though I've been working hard and making flashcards and all of that. This is so frustrating. I just want to chuck my computer at a wall.

[Nebby]

Question about Property MBE Q's Set 3 about the husband and wife owning the cabin w/ the mistress added in there:

[+] Spoiler

A husband was having an extramarital affair and was contemplating leaving his wife for his mistress. The husband and wife owned a beach house as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. The husband’s mistress loved the beach house and did not want the wife to have any rights to it. The husband and mistress came up with a plan to sell the beach house to try to eliminate the wife’s interest in the house. Without informing his wife, the husband sold his interest in the beach house to his mistress. One week later, the mistress sold the house back to the husband. One month later, the husband unexpectedly died of a heart attack. In his will, he devised the entirety of his estate to his cousin. The wife and the mistress have challenged the disposition in the will. What interest do the parties involved have in the beach house?

The answer was the the cousin and the wife each own a one-half interest in the beach house as tenants in common. Why was the severance effected in the first place? Doesn't a tenancy in the entirety require consent by the other party to alienate? The big outline says "tenancy by the entirety is a joint tenancy between married persons..." Were we just supposed to know that it wasn't a tenancy by the entirety instead of a regular joint tenancy.

Uggh so annoying that they put that red herring in the question and didn't even explain why it's not correct

It will always specify the type of tenancy. This was joint. Tenancy by the entirety of always referred to by name.

[Nebby]

I'm feeling really pissed off at myself today. I'm messing up PQs like no other. It's like I haven't retained a damn thing, even though I've been working hard and making flashcards and all of that. This is so frustrating. I just want to chuck my computer at a wall.

We all have those days. Take a breath and relax for 30 minutes before returning to work.

[Fivedham]

Still haven't received my second graded essay comments, despite doing it a week ago. Anyone else not receiving comments long after the two-day period?

[buddyt]

Checking in

[Chardee_MacDennis]

Still haven't received my second graded essay comments, despite doing it a week ago. Anyone else not receiving comments long after the two-day period?

I got both of mine back within the two-day period. I'd shoot Themis an email.

[unidentifiable]

I'm feeling really pissed off at myself today. I'm messing up PQs like no other. It's like I haven't retained a damn thing, even though I've been working hard and making flashcards and all of that. This is so frustrating. I just want to chuck my computer at a wall.

same... i'm taking tomorrow afternoon and sunday completely off. my brain needs to cool. shit's pissing me off. feeling a strong burn out coming soon. gotta avoid that.

[bsktbll28082]

same... i'm taking tomorrow afternoon and sunday completely off. my brain needs to cool. shit's pissing me off. feeling a strong burn out coming soon. gotta avoid that.

In anticipation of a possible burn out, I decided to take the rest of tonight and tomorrow morning off. I think Themis is pretty good at keeping us grounded and not freaking out (Barbri people seem a little stressed).

[Nebby]

I think I started to understand Sec Trans by the time I finished the lecture.

[rambleon65]

Probably not important, but the strangeness of this law got me thinking about how this would even work.

In MA, apparently a father-in-law and daughter-in-law can marry. How is this scenario possible since that means that the daughter-in-law is no longer with her original spouse, thereby severing the in-law relationship? Or does the in-law relationship continue beyond the marriage that created the in-law relationship in the first place?

[Nebby]

same... i'm taking tomorrow afternoon and sunday completely off. my brain needs to cool. shit's pissing me off. feeling a strong burn out coming soon. gotta avoid that.

In anticipation of a possible burn out, I decided to take the rest of tonight and tomorrow morning off. I think Themis is pretty good at keeping us grounded and not freaking out (Barbri people seem a little stressed).

I noticed that Themis builds in days with less assignments. There are technically no days off, but tomorrow I only have about 3 hours worth of assignments, whereas it's usually 6.

[Easy-E]

Just did the first MEE Milestone. Feel pretty good about it.

[+] Spoiler

Torts - I didn't even mention vicarious liability, seems like the facts just conceded it? Wonder if that's gonna cost me.

Contracts - Did anyone else argue failure to mitigate? He only had a conditional acceptance, and and it's not like that was particularly convincing.

Property
-Why even discuss first in time/first in right if their is a recording act statute? That sounds like info dumping, which I thought wasn't the goal.
-Time to read the outline re: wild and crazy deeds

[Easy-E]

What's the consensus on Con Law guy (Jefferies)? He follow the outline? I appreciate how he told me how pointless conlaw was back in 1L.

[Chardee_MacDennis]

What's the consensus on Con Law guy (Jefferies)? He follow the outline? I appreciate how he told me how pointless conlaw was back in 1L.

He's pretty terrible, but the questions are surprisingly straightforward and pretty easy.

[Easy-E]

What's the consensus on Con Law guy (Jefferies)? He follow the outline? I appreciate how he told me how pointless conlaw was back in 1L.

He's pretty terrible, but the questions are surprisingly straightforward and pretty easy.

Yeah having trouble following him. It's also unbelievable that 1.0x speed is real life.

[ndp1234]

I'm beginning to realize that Geis was the best lecturer Themis has to offer. Evidence is pissing me off. I feel like it's poorly organized, he doesn't go in order of the handout and I end up missing some blanks and have to rewind. *sigh*

Also why can spouses only have pillow talk and not normally conversations?

[Easy-E]

I'm beginning to realize that Geis was the best lecturer Themis has to offer. Evidence is pissing me off. I feel like it's poorly organized, he doesn't go in order of the handout and I end up missing some blanks and have to rewind. *sigh*

Also why can spouses only have pillow talk and not normally conversations?

I think Property bro has been my favorite, but maybe because I like the subject.

[Sheeit]

Property MBE PQs Session 4 was ridiculous.

So much rage. These questions are insane. Minimal competency my ass. Still got the goal, but not by much. Looks like I'll have to read these big ass outlines.

I just did the Torts MBE PQs Session 4 today. They wrecked me. I felt really bad until I looked back and saw a lot of them were yellow difficulty or higher. I was able to hit the goal, but Jesus Christ.

[Fivedham]

Property MBE PQs Session 4 was ridiculous.

So much rage. These questions are insane. Minimal competency my ass. Still got the goal, but not by much. Looks like I'll have to read these big ass outlines.

I just did the Torts MBE PQs Session 4 today. They wrecked me. I felt really bad until I looked back and saw a lot of them were yellow difficulty or higher. I was able to hit the goal, but Jesus Christ.

I went from like 60% on Session 4 to 82% on the next one, so hang in there. It's doable.

[throwaway7]

Evidence is fucking hard.

[just_me]

Guys, quick question: does our milestone essay exam actually get graded by a human, or do we just consult the sample answer ourselves? I had thought it was the latter, but just wanted to check!

[bobbypin]

Probably not important, but the strangeness of this law got me thinking about how this would even work.

In MA, apparently a father-in-law and daughter-in-law can marry. How is this scenario possible since that means that the daughter-in-law is no longer with her original spouse, thereby severing the in-law relationship? Or does the in-law relationship continue beyond the marriage that created the in-law relationship in the first place?

Why wouldn't in laws be able to marry? They aren't related by blood. The only hold up is that they would need to be lawfully divorced from their former spouses.

[ultimolugar]

Don't take the grader's notes/grades on the graded essays for their word. If you really disagree with something (like, you think the law is applied x, and the grader thinks y), go ahead email. Long story short, I was pretty sure I had applied the law correctly so I emailed Themis and they confirmed it.

I think the problem is that some of the graders are basing the evaluations off of how far a response deviates from the sample answer they're given. Problem is, some of the sample responses are not quite on point (others are quite good).

Which leads me to a slightly unrelated question: I wonder, who are the people that evaluate these answers? JDs? Former attorneys? Also, who grades the essays for the actual bar exam?

I can confirm that, at least in Florida, the people who grade are bar-licensed attorneys.

[ultimolugar]

I'm feeling really pissed off at myself today. I'm messing up PQs like no other. It's like I haven't retained a damn thing, even though I've been working hard and making flashcards and all of that. This is so frustrating. I just want to chuck my computer at a wall.

I know how you feel, just keep pushing. If it were easy, everyone would do it. You're here for a reason.

[Chardee_MacDennis]

Don't take the grader's notes/grades on the graded essays for their word. If you really disagree with something (like, you think the law is applied x, and the grader thinks y), go ahead email. Long story short, I was pretty sure I had applied the law correctly so I emailed Themis and they confirmed it.

I think the problem is that some of the graders are basing the evaluations off of how far a response deviates from the sample answer they're given. Problem is, some of the sample responses are not quite on point (others are quite good).

Which leads me to a slightly unrelated question: I wonder, who are the people that evaluate these answers? JDs? Former attorneys? Also, who grades the essays for the actual bar exam?

I can confirm that, at least in Florida, the people who grade are bar-licensed attorneys.

Same in IL.