. Forum

[as stars burn]

What percentage (of correct MBE answers) should we be at now? I don't think I would pass the MBE if I had to take it right today. I'm wondering if I should ditch some of these suggested activities and focus on the MBE's I've been missing, make flashcards for the rules I don't know or something.

I feel like this too. I don't know...everything is all over the place for me right now. Some days are better than others. Like tonight I feel like absolute shit for getting a 47% on Evidence Practice Set 5, when the set before I was around 60-65%. I just don't feel like all the substantive law is memorized yet. Did I mention that this is so completely overwhelming?

[locusdelicti]

Hibbitts, the Wills lecturer for PA, is a fucking nightmare.

[BarbellDreams]

Hibbitts, the Wills lecturer for PA, is a fucking nightmare.

I had Hibbits for Estates and Trusts at Pitt. He is actually an awesome lecturer when he has a class and can make jokes and bounce off people. Maybe the camera throws him off.

[locusdelicti]

Hibbitts, the Wills lecturer for PA, is a fucking nightmare.

I had Hibbits for Estates and Trusts at Pitt. He is actually an awesome lecturer when he has a class and can make jokes and bounce off people. Maybe the camera throws him off.

He keeps skipping big chunks of the outline, he takes these ridiculously long pauses and he's kind of all over the place. He's driving me crazy.

[HETPE3B]

Is anyone else who hasn't taken Evidence in law school scoring sub-50% on MBE practice questions? Or am I just a fucking idiot??

[BarbellDreams]

Is anyone else who hasn't taken Evidence in law school scoring sub-50% on MBE practice questions? Or am I just a fucking idiot??

Evidence is the one topic that in my opinion is nearly impossible to learn without taking a class. If I literally didn't understand what hearsay was or what propensity was I would probably be buying a seperate book cause the Themis lectures wouldnt be enough.

[HETPE3B]

Is anyone else who hasn't taken Evidence in law school scoring sub-50% on MBE practice questions? Or am I just a fucking idiot??

Evidence is the one topic that in my opinion is nearly impossible to learn without taking a class.

I kinda had the same instinct. Plus Sherman Clark is pretty terrible imo. Wishing this was taught by Jeffries.

[BarbellDreams]

Also, Karlan is AWESOME!

[forza]

To the above posters: I still suck at bar Evidence even though I took the class and did well in it.

[BarbellDreams]

To the above posters: I still suck at bar Evidence even though I took the class and did well in it.

I did mock trial in both law school and college so if I could have the bar exam be 200 Evidence questions and 6 Evidence essays I likely wouldn't be studying at all right now.

[dsclaw]

I have taken two evidence classes in law school and am at the average percentage. I have thoroughly disagreed with some of the answer though.

Side note, the guy for secured transactions is absolutely boring as hell

[Reinhardt]

I sucked at first at Evidence, and didn't take it in LS, but you just gotta memorize the rules. I still suck at hearsay, but the rules for the other parts of Evidence are pretty straightforward. Even if hearsay is roughly half the questions, the other half is "everything else." which I'm doing okay on. Do I know or care why a witness's good character for truthfulness can't be bolstered by specific acts on direct examination, but can be impeached by specific acts on cross?* No way in hell - but I don't get those questions wrong anymore.

Also don't feel bad if your subject MBE percentages are low. The first reason is that the only thing that matters is your overall score. The second reason is that you still have lots of time to focus on your weak spots, and can hit hundreds or thousands of mixed topic MBE questions later on if you want to.

*Let me know if this is wrong...

[Agoraphobia]

To the above posters: I still suck at bar Evidence even though I took the class and did well in it.

I did mock trial in both law school and college so if I could have the bar exam be 200 Evidence questions and 6 Evidence essays I likely wouldn't be studying at all right now.

Learned Evidence mostly through 2 trial advocacy courses. I took a class, too, but I learned way more by trying out objections in a mock trial and seeing what floated and what did not, and why. It's one of those learn-by-doing things, I think.

[BarbellDreams]

I have taken two evidence classes in law school and am at the average percentage. I have thoroughly disagreed with some of the answer though.

Side note, the guy for secured transactions is absolutely boring as hell

They really shouldn't test 403 at all because prejudicial nature outweighing probative value of a piece of evidence is entirely subjective. Furthermore, I thoroughly believe that Themis MBE questions don't know that 803(1) is a statement made at or near the time of an event.

[as stars burn]

I have taken two evidence classes in law school and am at the average percentage. I have thoroughly disagreed with some of the answer though.

Side note, the guy for secured transactions is absolutely boring as hell

They really shouldn't test 403 at all because prejudicial nature outweighing probative value of a piece of evidence is entirely subjective. Furthermore, I thoroughly believe that Themis MBE questions don't know that 803(1) is a statement made at or near the time of an event.

I completely agree that they shouldn't test 403. But lets be honest...most things pertaining to the law are entirely subjective, and it leaves me disagreeing with a lot of my wrong answers. That's what law is--there are lots of arguments on each side. One right answer kills me because of that.

There was one question in one of the MBE practice sets testing on adoptive admissions, and it had to do with a jogger who was approached by a homeless woman accusing her of killing her husband in front of other people. The jogger didn't deny the statement right away, but rather stayed silent until a few minutes later when she yelled back denying the statement. It wasn't an adoptive admission because a reasonable person wouldn't have denied the statement in her situation, but I'm sorry, I totally would have denied the statement right away if I were in her shoes.

Oh, and to the above comments...I took Evidence in law school, did well and still struggle with the MBE practice sets. I hit anywhere from 47%-60% on those things right now.

[as stars burn]

Did anyone actually read the 123 page Civ Pro outline by the way? I found Jeffries lecture and handout to be far and away better than reading that stupid outline. I stopped on page 60, and couldn't find any motivation to finish it.

[Agoraphobia]

I laughed at the prospect of reading it. That was as close as I got to actually reading it.

[Reinhardt]

My study regime is watch the video, do MBE PQs and practice essays to see what's expected of me, then go back to the handouts, condensed outlines, and internet searching as needed. Have not really read the full outlines since May. At some point I'll probably make flash cards based on the condensed outlines.

At least for California, you can get a ton of past essays along with "good" answers for free on the bar's website. I've also signed up for BarEssays.com (CA only), which has a ton of student essays with the actual grades they received. Because of that I don't see any value add from Themis's practice essays, so I don't take them too seriously.

[locusdelicti]

Did anyone actually read the 123 page Civ Pro outline by the way? I found Jeffries lecture and handout to be far and away better than reading that stupid outline. I stopped on page 60, and couldn't find any motivation to finish it.

Before I moved to a new jurisdiction, I was a bankruptcy attorney, so I only practiced in federal court and know the civ pro rules pretty well, so I didn't read it at all. I feel like you can get the gist just by listening to Jeffries. I doubt they'll test on anything besides pleadings and discovery, and if they do, following common sense is usually helpful.

[BarbellDreams]

For Crim pro Karlan is literally jumping all over the place. She covered like 6 different "search" scenarios in a lecture where the next chapter was titled "search".

[as stars burn]

Of course there is a huge bloc party/concert thing going on right outside my window while I'm trying to study. Thanks for rubbing summer fun in my face Chicago.

[antonious13]

Jeffries at 1.5x would make a good living doing sports commentary. Fed Civ Pro surprisingly isn't draining the life out of me.

[dsclaw]

Choice of Laws....Woof. Only 4 lectures but two of them 37 minutes each. I cannot accelerate it either...ughhh

[kalvano]

Sweet mother of God, I am so far behind.

[Agoraphobia]

Choice of Laws....Woof. Only 4 lectures but two of them 37 minutes each. I cannot accelerate it either...ughhh

If you download that plug in the Themis person mentioned earlier on this thread (MySpeed, I think?) It will speed it up for you and there's a free trial... not sure how long the free trial is but mine hasn't expired yet