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I need some advice for learning my state essays.

I'm in a 50-50 MBE/Essay state, and I feel like if I were to take the MBE tomorrow, I'd do well enough to pass. But when it comes to the state essays, I am not retaining anything, and it severely worries me. My problem is I can spot the issues, but I don't retain enough black letter law to articulate the standard in the right way.

Our essays are 30 minutes each, so it's really a matter of spotting/articulating the BLL for as many issues as you can.

When I look at essays, I generally know right away what the main issues are, but once I know the main issues, my train of thought just kind of evaporates.

What the hell have you guys been doing to retain your state law stuff?

well I don't know if it's working but I just write out each essay answer fully

then i look at the model answer and write the rule statements that would have controlled each answer underneath

its all i can think to do

I made flashcards/rewrote the outline for the majority of the state subjects except ones that never get tested, which I'm prepared to just take a loss on if they're asked

At the Drive-In wrote:I need some advice for learning my state essays.

I'm in a 50-50 MBE/Essay state, and I feel like if I were to take the MBE tomorrow, I'd do well enough to pass. But when it comes to the state essays, I am not retaining anything, and it severely worries me. My problem is I can spot the issues, but I don't retain enough black letter law to articulate the standard in the right way.

Our essays are 30 minutes each, so it's really a matter of spotting/articulating the BLL for as many issues as you can.

When I look at essays, I generally know right away what the main issues are, but once I know the main issues, my train of thought just kind of evaporates.

What the hell have you guys been doing to retain your state law stuff?

Dude I feel the same and I feel like because I still have 2 substantive lectures to go, I have not even gotten a chance to really sit and memorize the stuff.

I think that for the study days, I'm gonna do 40 MBE questions a day and additionall say "okay today is trusts day. by the end of today, I am going to be able to do a competent trusts essay w/o the book." or maybe i'll give 2 days to the stuff I don't know as well. haven't really decided yet.

I am hoping that my 60-70% (probably closer to 70) MBE score will pull me through, but I have not been able to get the info anywhere of exactly HOW well i have to do on the essays with, say, a 65% on the MBE.

If you don't know the rule of law, even in a practice essay, just make it up. After a while you can get pretty good at it.

mvpforme wrote:If you don't know the rule of law, even in a practice essay, just make it up. After a while you can get pretty good at it.

yep. that's why i write out every essay in full, not outlined. outlining isnt going to help you make it up on game day

mvpforme wrote:If you don't know the rule of law, even in a practice essay, just make it up. After a while you can get pretty good at it.

how do we know this works?


and to clarify what you are saying, you are saying recognize the issue, don't know whether the rule puts the answer on side A or side B, so you just guess and apply your guess?

no, he's saying literally make up the rule.
we know it works because we've seen model answers that have done it.

jd20132013 wrote:no, he's saying literally make up the rule.
we know it works because we've seen model answers that have done it.

can you give me an example so i understand the extent of what you mean? I thought you meant for example that let's say I have a wills question and there are 3 competent witnesses. while the rule is that 2 must be present, let's say I forget this exact number. Do you mean I might be able to get away with saying

To be valid, the signing of a will must be witnessed by FOUR competent, non-interested witnesses who then sign it as well. Since this was only witnessed and subscribed by three, it is not a valid will?

Are you saying that kind of thing would get me points?

I think you'd be fine. Even if you're not getting full points for nailing the rule statement, I imagine you're going to be getting points for correctly applying the incorrect rule to the facts. Remember, knowing the rule is just "R." You're going to hit points for spotting the I, doing the A, and coming up with a strong C.