Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[Prime]

Mine was basically: "Fix your structure" and "apply the correct law."

Oh yea. Since mine was over Texas Family law (child support calculation), I was critiqued for my math. Had I done my math correctly...

[doodledoctor]

If anyone is doing the CA Themis Bar prep and is listening to the remedies lectures, is anyone willing to post up the answers to Professor Calnan's handout? This guys sucks balls. He sometimes doesn't answer the blanks or gives an answer that doesn't fit into the blanks.

[AIpwns]

Alright, so I created this account just to ask you guys your opinion. I took and passed the a bar exam in July 2013. Now, I am working full time and doing Themis for FL. I recently received my graded essay on Torts and received a 24/100. The commentary, if anything, was lacking. I felt like I received a bolierplate response that they sent out to everyone regarding CRAC and issue spotting. I feel like I am strong in both of those areas. I read the sample answer and still feel confident that my score would have AT LEAST been passing on the real thing. Anyone else experience this? I know that Themis probably grades low for the people that might say "Oh I passed the first Torts essay I did, I don't have to study it anymore!" but to give such a low score is not encouraging, but simply demoralizing.

I'm doing Themis for FL and my comments were generic as well. " Themis uses the same grading scale as the Bar. However, we try to grade you all rather harshly so you are over- rather than under-prepared." - my advisor. I honestly wouldn't take the scores too seriously and just keep checking your progress/comparing your answers to the model ones.

I have never really understood the "give them lower scores than they deserve and then they will study harder" mentality. I really just need to know how I am doing, not some bullshit score in an attempt to motivate me. Oh well, so it goes. Also, what is up with the scores being on different scales? Mine was out of 100 but I see some people saying their scores were out of 20?

[Tanicius]

Just started watching David Frisch's Secured Transactions lectures. Why did Themis schedule my order of content so that I take Real Property, then Contracts, then Secured Transactions, and then Commercial Paper all back to back to back to back? This is three-week-long nightmare.

[j1987]

Are we REALLY supposed to memorize every single criminal law in New York? ugh.

[Bronx Bum]

Just started watching David Frisch's Secured Transactions lectures. Why did Themis schedule my order of content so that I take Real Property, then Contracts, then Secured Transactions, and then Commercial Paper all back to back to back to back? This is three-week-long nightmare.

If you don't like your schedule, you can chenge it.

[Tanicius]

Just started watching David Frisch's Secured Transactions lectures. Why did Themis schedule my order of content so that I take Real Property, then Contracts, then Secured Transactions, and then Commercial Paper all back to back to back to back? This is three-week-long nightmare.

If you don't like your schedule, you can chenge it.

I know. I guess it actually makes sense, even if it wasn't intentional on the scheduler designer's part. I'm basically hammering property, agreement and sales concepts into my head while the terms in the related subjects are still fresh and distinct in my head. When this is over I'll be totally ready to play hardball with my new landlord this August.

[SilverE2]

Also, what is up with the scores being on different scales? Mine was out of 100 but I see some people saying their scores were out of 20?

Depends on the state.

[AIpwns]

Also, what is up with the scores being on different scales? Mine was out of 100 but I see some people saying their scores were out of 20?

Depends on the state.

That should have been obvious to me. Thanks.

[Gotti]

NY + NJ takers: themis is telling me to watch chapters 1-5 of the NJ essay writing workshop, but i've only covered one of the subjects (only chapter 1). The rest are basically telling me to practice writing answers to compare to model answers for areas they haven't assigned me yet. I know I can just not do all 5 chapters now, but is themis telling anyone else the same thing?

[Bronx Bum]

Not gonna lie, you people are extremely intense for 6/11. You all need a chill pill. July 4th is when you really start to "study/memorize". July 15th should be when the fear hits you. Then August 1st you're telling everyone you probably failed to brace for the worst. Then August 15th you say to yourself "wait lol WTF? That was actually really easy. There's no way I fail an exam that 90% of ABA approved graduates pass." Then you forget about it and then you check every day once October 15th comes.

[northwood]

Important question:


Has anyone figured out a way to totally forget about the bar exam after you take it and not to even think about it until after you get that email staring your grade is up?

Beer/ alcohol/ trip to outermost edges of space/ time travel machine that lets you know your grade ASAP so you don't have to wait/ other??



Go Pelicans!

[swfangirl]

Important question:


Has anyone figured out a way to totally forget about the bar exam after you take it and not to even think about it until after you get that email staring your grade is up?

Beer/ alcohol/ trip to outermost edges of space/ time travel machine that lets you know your grade ASAP so you don't have to wait/ other??



Go Pelicans!

Bartrip & being busy with starting work & possibly moving to a new city.

[j1987]

NY + NJ takers: themis is telling me to watch chapters 1-5 of the NJ essay writing workshop, but i've only covered one of the subjects (only chapter 1). The rest are basically telling me to practice writing answers to compare to model answers for areas they haven't assigned me yet. I know I can just not do all 5 chapters now, but is themis telling anyone else the same thing?

Yes, they told me the same thing. I watched all five because the topics being tested in the essays were fairly easy to spot, even for the ones we hadn't covered yet.

[dreakol]

Important question:


Has anyone figured out a way to totally forget about the bar exam after you take it and not to even think about it until after you get that email staring your grade is up?

Beer/ alcohol/ trip to outermost edges of space/ time travel machine that lets you know your grade ASAP so you don't have to wait/ other??



Go Pelicans!

Bartrip & being busy with starting work & possibly moving to a new city.

basically this

start work two weeks after the exam. in which time i have to find money to move to a new city and state, find money to furnish a new place, start actually having to get up before noon and go to work, and worry about producing quality work product for the first time in my life.

[Gotti]

I have a substantive question for NY Family Law.

Re: modification of spousal maintenance...the fill-in handout (pp 11-12) says that if you have a separation agreement incorporated into the divorce judgment, the standard is extreme hardship. The handout also says that if there's no separation agreement because it merged w/ the divorce judgment and now is a ct order, the standard is significant changes in circumstance.

The long outline (p 19) says that if the support award was part of an agreement between the parties (not a court order), the standard is extreme hardship. But then it says if the agreement was a part of a separation agreement INCORPORATED into a divorce judgment, the judgment can only be modified if the recipient spouse is about to become a public charge.

I'm confused as to why there's a difference there and why. (I also don't know if I'm articulating my question correctly)

[Genuine4ps]

Not gonna lie, you people are extremely intense for 6/11. You all need a chill pill. July 4th is when you really start to "study/memorize". July 15th should be when the fear hits you. Then August 1st you're telling everyone you probably failed to brace for the worst. Then August 15th you say to yourself "wait lol WTF? That was actually really easy. There's no way I fail an exam that 90% of ABA approved graduates pass." Then you forget about it and then you check every day once October 15th comes.

This is good advice. No way in hell, though, it's gonna have an impact on a bunch of neurotic TLSers.

[swfangirl]

http://notthatbar.tumblr.com/post/88296 ... rogression

[Tanicius]

http://notthatbar.tumblr.com/post/88296 ... rogression

So many overly recycled tumblr gifs... But I don't care, that's funnier than hell right now.

[hous]

Alright, so I created this account just to ask you guys your opinion. I took and passed the a bar exam in July 2013. Now, I am working full time and doing Themis for FL. I recently received my graded essay on Torts and received a 24/100. The commentary, if anything, was lacking. I felt like I received a bolierplate response that they sent out to everyone regarding CRAC and issue spotting. I feel like I am strong in both of those areas. I read the sample answer and still feel confident that my score would have AT LEAST been passing on the real thing. Anyone else experience this? I know that Themis probably grades low for the people that might say "Oh I passed the first Torts essay I did, I don't have to study it anymore!" but to give such a low score is not encouraging, but simply demoralizing.

That's what I got but I felt like I deserved a bad grade.

[Genuine4ps]

http://notthatbar.tumblr.com/post/88296 ... rogression

Wish there was more.

[j1987]

acrossthelake wrote:
http://notthatbar.tumblr.com/post/88296 ... rogression


Wish there was more.

http://notthatbar.tumblr.com/post/87981 ... tice-essay

[themis513]

Got my first graded essay back. Got an overall grade of 73/100. The average score on this essay was a 63 as per the chart under the graded essay list.

What does this score mean about my skills/ability on an actual bar essay? Anyone?

[Tanicius]

How much prep work are people planning on putting into subjects that are only on essays? I realize it varies by jurisdiction, but for those of us with 50% MBE doing much for the essay-only subject matter? I don't know how I'm going to memorize all of this stuff on topics like Secured Transactions and Family Law, and I honestly don't know how worthwhile it is to try.

[Bronx Bum]

Not gonna lie, you people are extremely intense for 6/11. You all need a chill pill. July 4th is when you really start to "study/memorize". July 15th should be when the fear hits you. Then August 1st you're telling everyone you probably failed to brace for the worst. Then August 15th you say to yourself "wait lol WTF? That was actually really easy. There's no way I fail an exam that 90% of ABA approved graduates pass." Then you forget about it and then you check every day once October 15th comes.

This is good advice. No way in hell, though, it's gonna have an impact on a bunch of neurotic TLSers.

Lol yeah. Makes me really happy to be out of law school.