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Heard some rumors about it "all coming together" during the last week of prep...but it feels like the opposite.

TLS LEND ME YOUR ENERGY

ckyo01 wrote:Heard some rumors about it "all coming together" during the last week of prep...but it feels like the opposite.

TLS LEND ME YOUR ENERGY

Thats hilarious because... I feel the exact same way and I have completed 94% of my course.

When we were two weeks out, I thought, oh well at least I'll feel good during the last week... then the last week came and here we are.

ckyo01 wrote:Heard some rumors about it "all coming together" during the last week of prep...but it feels like the opposite.

TLS LEND ME YOUR ENERGY

For me, I don't think I ever felt super comfortable with my prep - and I likely never should have. I worked full time and didn't put in the right effort either of the two times I passed (MI 2015 and IL 2017), but I did appreciate having some numbers to go by with BarMax and Adaptibar.

My advice, though it is late now, is to focus on the MBE its the only thing you 100% KNOW will be there next week. 200 multiple choice questions covering seven specific subjects. The essays? There are some likely strong bets but you don't KNOW which will be there and what subtopic will be tested. It is a crapshoot. Fortunately, many of the MBE subjects are prime for essays (meaning if you learn a subject well enough to do well on the MBE you should have the foundation to also do reasonably well on an essay question).

I had absolutely 0 clue how I did for my very first bar - none - I felt like I knew many of the essays and "lucked out" with which topics were tested, but I still woke up in fear. When I took Illinois I felt better about what the MBE would be (and what my likely score would be) as I took Adaptibar the second time around and did FAR more questions and was scoring reasonably well (my accumulative average pushing closer to 70% especially by the end). The essays were still a toss-up as it depended strongly on the topics and grading, but I felt "better" for Illinois, but I didn't KNOW I passed until the results came out.

Its a crap feeling, but the key is to try and not be too nervous for the test (easier said than done) and then try your best to move into other things to stay busy until results come out. You cant change the results once submitted, so just take a deep breath and kill time until release day.

it's all coming apart I feel like I know nothing but hey trust the process, if you've been putting in the hours this summer and are not a complete idiot, you should be fine

It's learning the elements of a rule for essays that get me. My state is 66.7 percent essay, and I feel like I still don't know each element of a rule. Because of that, I feel on my practice essays I try to remember and perfect the rule instead of analyzing the facts, which would give you more points.

But overall, I'm trying to have a positive outlook on things. But it's hard to do so.

nthp wrote:It's learning the elements of a rule for essays that get me. My state is 66.7 percent essay, and I feel like I still don't know each element of a rule. Because of that, I feel on my practice essays I try to remember and perfect the rule instead of analyzing the facts, which would give you more points.

But overall, I'm trying to have a positive outlook on things. But it's hard to do so.

This weekend, find every old essay you can get your hands on and study the template. Study like there's no tomorrow. Even if you don't understand the pertinent rules, if you memorize the questions and answers then that'll be enough to pass since the essays tend to repeat themselves.

L_William_W wrote:

nthp wrote:It's learning the elements of a rule for essays that get me. My state is 66.7 percent essay, and I feel like I still don't know each element of a rule. Because of that, I feel on my practice essays I try to remember and perfect the rule instead of analyzing the facts, which would give you more points.

But overall, I'm trying to have a positive outlook on things. But it's hard to do so.

This weekend, find every old essay you can get your hands on and study the template. Study like there's no tomorrow. Even if you don't understand the pertinent rules, if you memorize the questions and answers then that'll be enough to pass since the essays tend to repeat themselves.

Thank you for your advice, William. I have been avoiding sitting down and really analyzing the essays but will do so this weekend. Do you recommend writing out any of the essays at all?

You won't have enough time to write entire essays. However, you should write bullet points of the pertinent issues, rules, definitions, and brief legal analysis. Drill this into your head. Drink a lot of coffee this weekend and prepare for a 12 hour study session.

L_William_W wrote:You won't have enough time to write entire essays. However, you should write bullet points of the pertinent issues, rules, definitions, and brief legal analysis. Drill this into your head. Drink a lot of coffee this weekend and prepare for a 12 hour study session.

Thank you for your response. That's sound advice. I'll take it.