Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[Genuine4ps]

With the essays, I think for me I'll just be drilling the template wording just so I can get started rather than staring at the screen blankly. Just being able to rattle off some law seems like a good idea. But yeah, there are definitely some aspects of some of these topics that I know I'm never going to grasp.

At this point, I don't know how people pass the CA bar.

This. I would be really pissed if I lived in that state. Kind of shitty to have a test that screws 50% of grads.

[jigglypuffdreams]

Is anybody getting worried that some of the days they assign only 4-5 hours worth of work? I can only read over the outline(s) so many times before it doesn't help anymore.

Idk, I get 4-5 hour days pretty frequently, although I should probably spend more of that extra time reviewing. Honestly I'm at 58% right now, so that could be part of why they're not assigning a ton of stuff, but I try to work ahead if I don't have much else going on. I do get a weird feeling of "alright, am I fucking up by not doing more than the directed study tells me to do? Am I supposed to secretly review on my own and just know I should do it?" because it doesn't tell me to review that often.

[Genuine4ps]

Is anybody getting worried that some of the days they assign only 4-5 hours worth of work? I can only read over the outline(s) so many times before it doesn't help anymore.

Idk, I get 4-5 hour days pretty frequently, although I should probably spend more of that extra time reviewing. Honestly I'm at 58% right now, so that could be part of why they're not assigning a ton of stuff, but I try to work ahead if I don't have much else going on. I do get a weird feeling of "alright, am I fucking up by not doing more than the directed study tells me to do? Am I supposed to secretly review on my own and just know I should do it?" because it doesn't tell me to review that often.

yeah, I think that you're supposed to put in additional time to outline/flashcard.

[Bronx Bum]

Is anybody getting worried that some of the days they assign only 4-5 hours worth of work? I can only read over the outline(s) so many times before it doesn't help anymore.

Idk, I get 4-5 hour days pretty frequently, although I should probably spend more of that extra time reviewing. Honestly I'm at 58% right now, so that could be part of why they're not assigning a ton of stuff, but I try to work ahead if I don't have much else going on. I do get a weird feeling of "alright, am I fucking up by not doing more than the directed study tells me to do? Am I supposed to secretly review on my own and just know I should do it?" because it doesn't tell me to review that often.

LOL of course you're supposed to review on your own. Are you really sticking to EXACTLY what the list says? By now in your life you should know how you memorize best. The bar is a memory game.

[klbisho4]

Anyone taking Florida gotten to the Property Distinctions videos yet? That lady Elena Marty-Nelson is really bothering me. It's looks like she is talking through her teeth and it's almost too painful to watch.

[jigglypuffdreams]

Is anybody getting worried that some of the days they assign only 4-5 hours worth of work? I can only read over the outline(s) so many times before it doesn't help anymore.

Idk, I get 4-5 hour days pretty frequently, although I should probably spend more of that extra time reviewing. Honestly I'm at 58% right now, so that could be part of why they're not assigning a ton of stuff, but I try to work ahead if I don't have much else going on. I do get a weird feeling of "alright, am I fucking up by not doing more than the directed study tells me to do? Am I supposed to secretly review on my own and just know I should do it?" because it doesn't tell me to review that often.

LOL of course you're supposed to review on your own. Are you really sticking to EXACTLY what the list says? By now in your life you should know how you memorize best. The bar is a memory game.

Honestly I usually learned more from reviewing practice questions and reading outlines in law school, so I'm sticking to that. But how are you supposed to know when you've reviewed enough? I review and try to memorize the outlines as well as I can, but nobody tells you if you're putting in enough work memorizing.

[094320]

..

[Gotti]

With the essays, I think for me I'll just be drilling the template wording just so I can get started rather than staring at the screen blankly. Just being able to rattle off some law seems like a good idea. But yeah, there are definitely some aspects of some of these topics that I know I'm never going to grasp.

At this point, I don't know how people pass the CA bar.

This. I would be really pissed if I lived in that state. Kind of shitty to have a test that screws 50% of grads.

I'm so excited to study for the February CA bar after taking the NY + NJ bars next month... fml.

[Genuine4ps]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

[j1987]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

I had the same reaction. HOW was that foreseeable?

[Genuine4ps]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

I had the same reaction. HOW was that foreseeable?

Good, I'm glad it wasn't just me. It pisses me off when a question can be subjective.

[SilverE2]

Anyone taking Florida gotten to the Property Distinctions videos yet? That lady Elena Marty-Nelson is really bothering me. It's looks like she is talking through her teeth and it's almost too painful to watch.

YES. It is so weird.

[SilverE2]

Anyone taking Florida gotten to the Property Distinctions videos yet? That lady Elena Marty-Nelson is really bothering me. It's looks like she is talking through her teeth and it's almost too painful to watch.

YES. It is so weird.

Also she changed outfits SO many times.

[Tanicius]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

I had the same reaction. HOW was that foreseeable?

The Torts MBE committee likes these bullshit questions. A few pages ago I was moaning about a hypo where a man could not sue for assault because he had recently unloaded the gun he was being assaulted with. The answer explanation said that a reasonable person would know the gun was unloaded. Yeah fucking right.

[d3sp]

Is anybody getting worried that some of the days they assign only 4-5 hours worth of work? I can only read over the outline(s) so many times before it doesn't help anymore.

Idk, I get 4-5 hour days pretty frequently, although I should probably spend more of that extra time reviewing. Honestly I'm at 58% right now, so that could be part of why they're not assigning a ton of stuff, but I try to work ahead if I don't have much else going on. I do get a weird feeling of "alright, am I fucking up by not doing more than the directed study tells me to do? Am I supposed to secretly review on my own and just know I should do it?" because it doesn't tell me to review that often.

LOL of course you're supposed to review on your own. Are you really sticking to EXACTLY what the list says? By now in your life you should know how you memorize best. The bar is a memory game.

Well duh I know I am supposed to review, I do as always. I just think I am getting less to work on then I expected.

An aside, has anyone put together predictions for the MEE subjects for this July?

[blue920]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

I had the same reaction. HOW was that foreseeable?

The Torts MBE committee likes these bullshit questions. A few pages ago I was moaning about a hypo where a man could not sue for assault because he had recently unloaded the gun he was being assaulted with. The answer explanation said that a reasonable person would know the gun was unloaded. Yeah fucking right.

I agree, I saw that question you posted about the gun. I haven't encountered that question yet and was going to say the sister only, and then was like, well, how does he know the gun's unloaded? I say the only way he would know for sure the gun's unloaded is if he emptied the clip before handing it to his wife.

[Tanicius]

I agree, I saw that question you posted about the gun. I haven't encountered that question yet and was going to say the sister only, and then was like, well, how does he know the gun's unloaded? I say the only way he would know for sure the gun's unloaded is if he emptied the clip before handing it to his wife.

And even then, it's still not unreasonable to worry that the gun might nonetheless have at least one bullet left inside it. I've never taken a gun safety course, and I still know that that's the #1 rule they always start with: never point a gun at a person, ever, no matter how positive you are it's unloaded, ever. I bet you could even be criminally prosecuted for flashing a gun at a person who "knows" it's unloaded.

[Gotti]

What did you all think about that torts question where a guy is hitting golf balls against a net in his backyard, one ball misses the net, flies into his neighbors backyard while barbecuing, neighbor's guest lunges for the ball, guest knocks into neighbor while lunging, neighbor drops lighter fluid into grill, and gets burned.

How the hell is there proximate cause in this case? Themis's explanation is that the neighbors actions were foreseeable. Are you kidding me? Question was clearly written by a plaintiffs attorney.

I had the same reaction. HOW was that foreseeable?

it's "foreseeable" (legally) because the subsequent negligence of 3d parties is foreseeable. I mean it's not intuitively foreseeable, but the only things that are not foreseeable in the legal sense are extraordinary forces of nature and criminal acts or intentional torts of 3d parties where the original defendant didn't have a duty to protect the plaintiff.

I don't agree with the fact that it's foreseeable if you commit a tort that results in someone fracturing their finger and then they go to a doctor and the doctor commits med malpractice and the person's hand ends up being amputated...but the law thinks it is lol

[puttycake]

If anyone is like me, you've wondered why FRE 606b exists, allowing jurors to testify if there is a mistake entering the verdict on the verdict form. "Surely," I thought, "such mistakes would be rare to nonexistent."

And yet:

http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/06/11/397 ... areer.html

[Genuine4ps]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but has anyone figured out for certain if Themis uses actually MBE questions? The reason I ask is that I'm seeing a couple patters of right and wrong answers, and I'm answering questions based on those patterns. If they aren't real questions, I want to make sure I don't use these patterns on the real thing.

[Bronx Bum]

Disclosure: passed ny and nj bars and got 161 on mbe.

They might be prepping u for the subjectiveness of the mbe. Some of questions u might be like "wtf? B is clearly right." I've come across the SAME question where A is right one time, I'll write it in my notebook the rule of law only for the SAME question and B is right next time.

Very subjective. I had a professor who wrote MBE who indicated this. Prepare for 10-15% of ur MBEs to be "written off" as subjective.

Prancing law students might not be ok with the fact that they might only get 65%_70% of feh questions correct, but. That's what the bar is. It's inevitable.

[kapital98]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but has anyone figured out for certain if Themis uses actually MBE questions? The reason I ask is that I'm seeing a couple patters of right and wrong answers, and I'm answering questions based on those patterns. If they aren't real questions, I want to make sure I don't use these patterns on the real thing.

I'm answering many of my questions based on the same pattern. I've answered 51 questions so far for both Con Law and Torts and the patterns are there. Annoyingly, I've even been asked some of the exact same questions twice.

[LSATmakesMeNeurotic]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but has anyone figured out for certain if Themis uses actually MBE questions? The reason I ask is that I'm seeing a couple patters of right and wrong answers, and I'm answering questions based on those patterns. If they aren't real questions, I want to make sure I don't use these patterns on the real thing.

I'm answering many of my questions based on the same pattern. I've answered 51 questions so far for both Con Law and Torts and the patterns are there. Annoyingly, I've even been asked some of the exact same questions twice.

I think the prior MBE questions are marked in the answer explanations. I've seen a couple that say "this NCBE question has been modified to reflect current stylistic trends" or something to that effect. So they ARE past questions but they aren't at the same time. I was also asked two different questions twice in one 34 question set.

[Bronx Bum]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but has anyone figured out for certain if Themis uses actually MBE questions? The reason I ask is that I'm seeing a couple patters of right and wrong answers, and I'm answering questions based on those patterns. If they aren't real questions, I want to make sure I don't use these patterns on the real thing.

I'm answering many of my questions based on the same pattern. I've answered 51 questions so far for both Con Law and Torts and the patterns are there. Annoyingly, I've even been asked some of the exact same questions twice.

It shows u the subjectivity. U have to write off 10-15% of ur MBE as wrong for subjectivity.

[kapital98]

I apologize if this has been asked already, but has anyone figured out for certain if Themis uses actually MBE questions? The reason I ask is that I'm seeing a couple patters of right and wrong answers, and I'm answering questions based on those patterns. If they aren't real questions, I want to make sure I don't use these patterns on the real thing.

I'm answering many of my questions based on the same pattern. I've answered 51 questions so far for both Con Law and Torts and the patterns are there. Annoyingly, I've even been asked some of the exact same questions twice.

It shows u the subjectivity. U have to write off 10-15% of ur MBE as wrong for subjectivity.

I don't do well with multiple choice. I just rush through the questions and generally have half the time left. I've been over the Themis recommended percentage so far but I'm not sure how long that will last. I really hate that 60% of my bar exam is split between MBE and NY multiple choice questions. I really wish the entire exam was a series of essays.

I'm taking your advice to heart when it comes to subjectivity and seeming difficulty of the exam on test days.