LAST MINUTE BAR EXAM TIPS

I know this is a little late, but better late than never. For those who are taking the bar for the first or millionth time this summer, here are some last minute things I did the second time that made a difference for me!!! **Disclaimer: This is what worked for me, take tips at your own risk!

1) Study in your best environment.

Not everybody studies the same way. For example, I'm a late sleeper. I like to wake up late and study till the wee hours of the morning. Trying to study early in the morning the first time just didn't work for me. Also, if you're a quiet studier, don't let yourself get dragged to a coffee shop. Or if you hate libraries like I do, don't give in and go to one.

2) Take your vitamins

Let's face it, you're going to eat bad and you're not going to go to the gym. This is particularly true towards the end of the process. The gym can wait, get your vitamins instead!! I recommend "StressTabs" in your vitamin aisle!!!

3) Don't write out full essays (and don't use Barbri's at all)- Especially this late in the game

Barbri's essays are awful. Their answer outlines are even worse. Do yourself a favor, go to the CA bar website and read old essays . Then issue spot and outline them and compare them to the bar's sample answers. Unless you barely made it to a barely accredited law school, you should know how to write complete sentences. You don't need to waste time practicing that. Outline instead!!!!

Also, get an account at Baressays.com. It's not too late for this! It gives you real essays that failed and you can compare them and see what is required to get a certain grade!

4) Get a hotel room (even if the exam location is close)

You would think that you might be more comfy at home but there is something to be said for being in an all "Bar Exam Zone" where everyone in the entire hotel is feeling the same emotions and giving everybody else the same considerations.

5) Stop answering your phone a week in advance

Everybody else's drama can wait a week, not to sound horrible, but unless someone died it really can't be as important as the bar exam!

6) Go swimming at the hotel pool right after the exam

This may sound silly, but it just washes away the day's exhaustion and leaves your prepared to study some more. And if you took the bar in the 113 degree weather of Ontario, CA, you will realize how important this is. It kind of just washes away the day.

7) Forget flashcards

This was a monumental waste of time the first time.

8) Constantly shorten your outlines!

For the exam, take your short outlines and your conviser to the hotel for studying. You don't need any other Bar Bri book!!!!

9) Don't use earplugs during the bar if you didn't use them in law school

They never worked for me, the bar was not the time to give them a second chance.

10) Don't rehash the day's mistakes.

It's over. Done. Final. So forget about it and use the time to study for the next day.

11) Set up a time limit for how late you are going to study and then put the notes down. I'm not a big advocate of a ton of sleep in general, but even if you're not sleeping, you could be watching tv or relaxing

12) Eat a smart breakfast. No bacon and eggs. Nothing greasy or heavy. Good suggestions are a protein bar and banana or a PB&J sandwich.

13) Up the caffeine factor a little more than your usual intake. Yes, you will need it. Even if you're jittery, jittery is better than asleep

14) Study a little in the morning before the exam. Don't believe the idea that last minute cramming doesn't help. There were several things on the exam that I had only learned a couple minutes before it.

15) Know with confidence that if the kid next to you says after the exam that it was easy, he probably failed.

16) Do not assume that just because a subject appeared on the first day of essays, it won't be on the other day of essays. Don't rule anything out!!

Overall, you have to remember that you have been a student for a really long time and that you generally know what works for you. Now is not the time to adapt other people's study habits, etc. It is time for you to do what you've always done which got you to law school. The bar exam is so different from law school exams that you almost have to take yourself back to the student you were before law school, when you still had an intact spirit and some hope and attack this exam. The first time I took it, I saw it as an opponent I was playing defense against and any good competitor knows that a defensive game is a losing one. The second time I really did take a different view on the exam and wrote offensively. I wrote every argument that came to mind, I didn't stop to doubt myself. I kept hydrated and caffeinated and came through with a passing grade!!

GOOD LUCK!

TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. - B.C Forbes

TRAGEDY

My grandmother (on my mother's side) passed away last week. She wasn't ill or anything, just had reached the end of her long life. Regardless, it was an immense blow to me. I keep thinking about how she was the most beautiful and honest person I have ever had the privilege of knowing. She was just about the purest person you could ever know and she will be missed more than I can ever say. I'm honored to be her granddaughter and if I can live my life being even 1% as honorable as she was, I can be happy in that.

The thing that I think hurts the most about the death of someone close to you is the knowledge that it will never be the same again. And although the pain of mourning may slip to the back of your mind as time goes on, the pain is just as fresh every time you do think of it, and it will always be that fresh.

But life does go on, as it must go on, and growing up means adopting the grace of a woman when dealing with tragedy. So with that, I will make the most awkward of transitions and move on to triumphs.

TRIUMPHS:

Admittedly, there is no easy to move from death to the bar, but oh well. Last week I was officially sworn in as a member of the California Bar. It was a bit anti-climactic since I was dealing with a death and also because I have no job. But yet, there I was, at the end of this long journey towards my dream. It's a sweet feeling, having reached your dream. Very few get to experience that feeling in life. So many people are constantly spinning their wheels and changing their dreams, just because one becomes too hard or improbable.

Sadly, passing the bar is not just about hard work, but a lot about luck. A lot of it depends on whether you were lucky to get a good reader. So to all those who are taking the CA bar again this summer, I commend you for the perseverance to continue following your dream and also lots of luck to get a good reader. It's not an easy feat, but I'm sure it pays off in the end (I'm still waiting for my payoff, lol)

OH HAPPY DAY!!

I PASSED THE CALIFORNIA BAR!!!


More details and reaction, etc, later. For now, the best sleep of my life!

Congrats to everyone who passed!!

OH THE ANXIETY....

We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.

Cullen Hightower

There is only one thing worse than the 3 days of the bar exam: The week before the results. I've been a mess, way worse than last time. First of all, my tear ducts are out of control. I am sensitive and moody, angry and bored, anxious and excited and absolutely terrified. I feel like I must have passed, I'm just not the failing type. But then again that's what I thought last time. A lot of people keep saying, "no worries, so you'll take it again". These are times I want to punch my most precious loved ones straight in the face. Clearly they have no idea what taking it again means.

I think most of my anxiety comes from not having an action plan this time. I don't have a plan on whether I want to take it again and I certainly don't have a plan for picking myself off the floor and dusting myself off if the worst happens.

I hope I passed. I mean, I've never really wanted anything more. For me, education is so important. I hate to say it, but it's how I measure my worth and how I measure everyone else's as well. Bad habit I know, but I mean, when I die, the thing that I know for sure, is that I earned a J.D., that I made people proud, that I reached my dream.

But this stupid exam is such an obstacle and it's bad for your sanity. All I do is cry and yell and mope and worry and eat and have migraines , etc, (you get the picture).

Tomorrow I am going to the Buddhist temple again to find some inner peace and visualize success.

A thank you to the friends that have been constantly checking in on me (you know who you are), I appreciate the daily kind words and support more than I can say.

To everybody that is awaiting results, I wish you the most heartfelt luck that I have ever wished anyone.

BAR EXAM RUNDOWN

Better late than never right?

I know it's a bit delayed, but I feel like I should still do a bar exam wrap-up since all the other bloggers did and for my own sense of closure.

So this time I promised myself no studying during the 3 days and no panicking. On the way to Ontario, I modified the promise to no studying after midnight and no panicking. The only promise I kept was no panicking.

We get there on Monday and first of all let me say that the hotel hooked it up. Gave me a poolside room like I requested and put in the foam and feather pillows that I asked for. Fabulous.

Payam and Cyrano went to the bar downstairs to play pool and as much as I wanted to resist studying, I couldn't. I went down to the bar, had a large drink and went upstairs and hit the books. Went to sleep at 1 am (screw the midnight rule) and woke up at 5 am to study some more.

Day 1 (morning):
Ok, torts was unexpected but oh well, it was negligence and strict liability, no sweat. If after 3 years of law school and 2 bar exams, you can't spit out some negligence, well I don't know what to tell ya.

Professional responsibility was expected so I was super prepared for it. BUT, even though I had memorized all the CA distinctions, of course they had to ask the ones where the distinctions were less clear and harder to memorize. Oh well. It was ok.

Murder/Crim Pro: This was a cheap shot. Most people I talked to neglected this topic because (1) its generally easy to answer on the MBE and (2) it wasn't expected on the essay. I was one of these people. This essay took a lot of BSing on my part, I don't think I did well on the murder portion but I was pull some crap out for crim pro. The good thing is most people score lower on the last essay just b/c none of us actually keep an hour for it!

Day 1 Afternoon: OK THIS PERFORMANCE EXAM SUCKED!! Nothing about the assignment was hard, but for some reason the cases and the statutes didn't lend to a logical organization and the only thing that made sense was the last call of question which you didn't have enough time for because you spent the first 2 and a half hours pulling out your hair and crying into your laptop.

Day 2: MBE

Simple and to the point, sucked that they didn't ask any of the big stuff. Didn't fall asleep this time for longer than 4 questions. Whatever.


Day 3 Morning:

Trusts: I was afraid of trust but I think I did well on this one. I basically mentioned everything in trusts and either applied or dismissed. Sweet sweet deal.

Community Property: The same thing as Crim above. Didn't really study it, was able to miraculously remember Putative Spouse Doctrine. It was jacked that they only asked about bank accounts and I kept getting the accounts screwed up in my head.

Biz Orgs/agency/Prof Resp: Lot of issues and not a lot of time. So basically I put in a few key terms and hoped that they do some checkmark grading on that one.

So that's the rundown. Hopefully it went better this time!!

A BAD BAD DAY

Apparently it's not enough to have to go through one of the hardest endeavors someone could go through (the CA bar exam) and at the same time feel that you had much less support than you did the first time, but it's worse when you try to take a couple days to recover and the universe just poops all over you.

Let's begin at the beginning:

Weekend was ok, tried to tie up some lose ends and run errands that I've been neglecting. Sunday was spent with my family trying to work on the family magazine since it had to be put to press by Monday then going to a late dinner with my family for my sister's 17th b-day. This made me feel really old, I could have sworn I turned 17 yesterday! Then I had to drive home at 11 pm in the worst wind shaking my car. Whatever. I made it.

But the weekend sucked because I'm having some serious withdrawal problems from all the caffeine I had during the bar. I've been trying to stick to one large coffee now but during those three days I was having only a couple hours sleep, drinking a rockstar in the morning, taking two no doze for morning session, two more during afternoon session, two more in the evening with a rockstar to be able to study. So clearly I am having much less caffeine these days! This has resulted with severe sleepiness at all times, crankiness and blinding migraines. Whatever, I will get through.

Then today was a doozie. First I realized I gained 10 pounds in two weeks from the bar! Fabulous. Then me and the boyfriend got into a blowout fight. Wonderful. Then Obama didn't do well in the primaries. Spectactular.

THEN, my friend Cyrano walked out to go home to realize that both of our cars had been towed from behind my house! To make a long story short, the car was illegally towed, the guy called me a bitch, and the tow people had been smoking weed in the tow office. We paid for our cars, called LAPD and had a narcotics car sent out there and tomorrow we will file against them in small claims court. We have a win-win case so it's all good.

But I mean, it's been a shitty day. F-it. And now I have heartburn and another migraine. Man, what a bad week.

Breakup with the Bar

An open letter to the bar exam:

Dear Bar Exam:

Despite your persistent attempts at ruining my life, I am feeling calmer and more in control of our abusive one-sided relationship than I ever have. Don't get me wrong, you might still continue to torment me, and be the cause of both my financial ruin and public embarrassment. But what has changed is that you will no longer make me feel bad about myself.

You're completely worthless. There. I've said it and it's true. You aren't the slightest bit of an indicator of my worth or competence as an attorney. All you are is a test of memory and survival through sleep deprivation. It seems that you really want you and I to be involved forever. I'm sorry, it's just not going to work out. Please consider this my break-up letter. Yes, I will see you next week as promised. But hopefully I will never see you again. You see, you weren't good to me. I don't want to have anything further to do with you.

Also, I'm tired of you messing around with other people, treating them bad, making them mentally and physically ill. It's bad enough that you abuse me, but it's even worse considering the thousands of victims whose lives you've ruined. You underestimate the people you are dealing with. I see success as black and white. I don't believe in potential. You're either a success in life or you're not. The people you're messing with, well we are of the "successful" class of people in life. We've worked hard with determination and strength of character. We never let anything stand in our way nor did we allow any excuse to destroy our destiny. We wanted to be lawyers and here we are. It's not fair for you to shatter our dreams.

I wanted to tell you that I am proud of myself and all my colleagues for going through this, especially those who are repeating the test. No one will ever understand what it's like, but that's ok, we understand each other. Only we know what the pain of the sleepless nights and low self esteem and frustration and anger and brief glimpses of hope and endless tears and that complete sense of defeat feels like. But regardless of what happens, we are the educated elite of this nation. No matter how much the bar tries to knock us down, we still get to stand on the pedestal of higher education and be ahead of most of our peers. They can't take that away from us. And because we are the cream of the crop, we will always be ok, because that's just the kind of people we decided to be. We didn't allow our destiny to be made for us, we weren't born that way, we fought for it and decided that nothing was more important. We've earned our shining stars and we will always keep them.

So bar exam, this is a Dear John letter to you. I can't make any guarantees but I hope you and I never meet again.


Love, One less victim.


GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE IN CASE I DON'T HAVE A CHANCE TO POST ANYTHING TOMORROW. WE CAN DO IT!!!

Bar Prediction

Couple nights ago I had a dream that Civ Pro was on the essays w/a focus on discovery w/CA distinctions. The bad part is, in my dream, I had no idea what to write.

Now why should this mean anything to anyone? Well, my dreams have a tendency to come true (except the good ones, lol)

Example in point: Month ago I had a dream that one of my friends is pregnant and that her boyfriend left her as a result. I didn't mention the dream to my friend b/c she had complications in her last pregnancy and numerous doctors told her she couldn't have kids at all anymore.

Fast forward a few weeks, same friend emails me saying she's pregnant and boyfriend is gone!!!

All I'm saying is, better get on those discovery rules.....

You Know You're Studying for the Bar When:

You Know You're Studying for the Bar:

• When the answer to every question someone asks you sounds something like this:

• I can't...I'm studying for the bar
• I don't care....I'm studying for the bar
• Do it yourself....I'm studying for the bar
• Cry me a river....I'm studying for the bar
• You don't have it as tough as me....I'm studying for the bar
• Do this for me...I'm studying for the bar
• Sorry I punched you in the face...I'm studying for the bar
• When your average everyday grocery run consists of the following:
  
• Energy drinks (only 24oz and above)
  
• Coffee
• No Doze
• Vitamins
• Unisom
  
• Alcohol
  
• Junk Food
  
• Kleenex for your tears
• When you go to 7-11 to get coffee and energy drinks and use the double shot espresso additives to your truckers coffee and the man asks you how many days you plan to stay up and you blink in surprise and say "this is just for the next couple hours"
• When everyone you see, including the starbucks barrista, the mcdonalds drive thru dude and the pharmacist knows you are studying for the bar
• When people who don't know keep asking you if you're sick cuz you look pale
  
• When you have to buy more clothes b/c you don't have time to do laundry
• When you hate listening to other people's supposed problems while meanwhile you're thinking "Try studying for the bar!"
• When you are so excited when you need to pee because it's a nice break
  
• When you run out of sweatpants that will accommodate your increasing pant size
• When your friends put you on suicide watch
• When you keep wondering if you should have gone to medical school or in the alternative, become a go-go dancer
• When you no longer know the date or day of the week or the time and you couldn't care less
• When you have more zits than when you were 13
• When you use the words "disaster", "tragedy", "impossible" and "suicide" more often than any other time in your life, lol
• When you get mad when people tell you it will be alright b/c they don't realize that the damage to your spirit has already been irreversibly done
• When your 2 eyebrows have joined as one
• When you play the "what would you do for an automatic pass?" game with your friends and realize more of you are willing to eat large quantities of cockroach covered poop than you realized

That's my list! Feel free to add on!

A Little Bar Exam humor.....

Because even bar exam studiers deserve a smile or two....

Songs for the bar exam

A few songs to listen to for both inspiration and empathy during the horrible process of taking the bar (and/or whatever your difficult endless journey is!)


N'Together Now - Limp Bizkit
Out of My Mind - James Blunt
Break my Stride - Blue Lagoon
Relax, Take it Easy - Mika
The Rain Don't Last - Hope
Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears
Notorious Thugs - Bone Thugs + Biggie ("Test me now, contend, never no surrender, no pretend")
Breakdown - Mariah Carey ( "In reality I'm slowly losing my mind underneath the guise of a smile")
Addicted - Kelly Clarkson (It's like you're a leech, sucking the life from me")
Callin You - Outlandish (" I will not be false in who I am , As long as I breathe")
What a wonderful world - Louis Armstrong
Go Getta - Young Jeezy (" You Damn Right Ima Go Getta")
It's My Life - Bon Jovi ("It's my life, it's now or never")
I will Survive - Gloria Gaynor (self explanatory)
I shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley (For criminal law review lol)
Dancing With Myself - Nouvelle Vague (since I often dance in my apt during studying)
Long Day is Over - Norah Jones
Fly Me To the Moon - Frank Sinatra (they don't have the bar on the moon!)
Stronger - Kanye West (That that don't kill me, can only make me stronger)
All or Nothing - Cher (Don't wanna run and I can't walk out)
Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie
Thugz Mansion - 2pac (So much pressure in this life of mine, I cry at times)
Scream - Timbaland
Till I Collapse - Eminem ( "I'ma rip this shit till my bones collapse")
Let them Thangs Go - 2pac
Through the Wire - Kanye West ("Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall")
Zombie - Cranberries

Bar Exam and Surface Waters: World's Common Enemies....

Before I go on to blogging, can I just point out how much that girl in the top right of the picture above looks like me!?! I mean, even down to the nose and hair color and well, cleavage. Strange. Also notice that the girl has a completely blank look on her face. This is almost concrete evidence that the girl is indeed me during the bar.

Secondly, I wouldn't want to disappoint and forget to post the LAW KNOWLEDGE OF THE DAY....so here it is:

"SURFACE WATERS":Those which come from rain, springs, or melting snow, and which have not yet reached a natural watercourse or basin. Surface waters are subject to the Common Enemy Rule which means that because surface water is a nemesis a landowner may change drainage or make any other changes/improvements on his land to combat the flow of surface water. Many courts have modified the common enemy rule to prohibit unnecessary harm to others’ land.

Of all the horrible things that go on in the world, who knew that the common nemesis to all of humanity was surface water. Not hunger or poverty or disease, but that damn pesky water that starts to accumulate after a little rain.

My common nemesis is the CA bar exam, by far. Definitely more destructive than surface water.
I can't believe that it is getting down to the wire and I still have so much to do! It seems like there is less time to study or time passes by quicker but I feel like the more I try to be productive, the less and less I get done.

Can I just point out a little pet peeve? It would be nice if the writers of the MBE questions at the most useless bar review monopoly on earth would make sure that if they are using a law to justify an answer, that law needs to be mentioned at some point by them so that the students don't see it for the first time when checking their answers in the back of the book.

Starting tomorrow I am going to wake up way earlier and stay up way later and cram this stuff in before time runs out! Maybe I will take a couple tutoring sessions as well. I think I realize what my problems were the first time. They were the following:

1) I actually believed Barbri's predictions and tips --> big mistake
2) I believed Barbri when they said you shouldn't bring up irrelevant issues on the essays. Clearly not true as the bar examiners expect you to bring up irrelevant issues and then dismiss them.
3) I did too much memorization and not enough comprehension
4) I believed that they actually read your essays
5)I panicked.
6) I was under the false assumption that the Reasonably Prudent Person is both reasonable and prudent --> BIGGEST MISTAKE! The reasonably prudent person on the bar is 40 years old, miserable, never had a date in his life, and has too much time on his hands to do all these "reasonable" things that normal people wouldn't do and he "foresees" things that are way too far in the future and way too much of a stretch too be foreseeable.

So let's see if I can do things differently this time.

My goal for this evening is to see if I can conquer Real Property and Evidence. Evidence was a huge reason for why I didn't pass. I didn't do too well in Evidence in law school either. It's just not my thing I guess.

Oh and for torts, I just ask myself what I would do in the situation and then choose the opposite answer for the reasonably prudent person.

I saw the following video the other day and the first couple of times I saw it, it made me laugh. After a few times though, I starting to get teary, the video is so insanely true that it's heartbreaking. To know that you walked into something young, fresh and hopeful and walked out of it older, bitter and apathetic. ::sigh::. The guy who made the video must be a genius though.

TT

Funny huh? That part of being a shadow of your former self hits the nail on the head.

Well a bottle of No Doze and cans of Diet Rockstars are calling my name!

I leave you with this picture I found online, it made me smile, which is rare these days!!

New Year, New Bar Exam

LAW KNOWLEDGE OF THE DAY: (so you can see how horrible the bar exam is)
"An action by the assignee against the assignor may also lie where the obligor successfully asserts a defense against the assignor in an action brought by the assignee against the obligor to enforce the obligation."


HAPPY 2008!!!

Not to sound negative, but really, this new year didn't really start out with a bang. For one, I've been sick with the flu so as the midnight hour struck, my fever spiked and so did my sniffling and sneezing. Fabulous.

To add insult to injury, the new year started with me having put on a few pounds over the holidays which really made me mad at myself since I worked my ass off to lose 17 pounds. Additionally, the new year started with me re-registering for the bar (wonderful use of 800 bucks) and getting my stuff together to study.

I bought an external hard drive which claims to be "one touch" and very user friendly which only means that I absolutely could not get it to work properly. Great.

It's so hard to get back into studying. A part of me really put the academic part of my life to rest and I thought I was done with it. It's really weird, after 4 months of sitting on my behind, watching tv, and playing computer games, to get out the highlighters and get to work.

The good news is, I've turned the other bedroom into a makeshift study room which I highly recommend for any bar examinees who have the extra space. I am not disciplined enough to not turn on the tv, so if I can study in a room with no tv, it's great. Also, I wish I could find a way to not be able to get wireless access in the extra bedroom, it's just so tempting to close down my Evidence notes and go to perezhilton.com instead. You would think that after all these years of higher education, I would have the slightest bit of discipline. But no. Not a shred. Zilch.

Thankfully, I have my friend Cyrano to study with, he likes to study under the same conditions as I do (i.e. we both hate to study in silence) so it makes things better.

But already I feel burned out. Way more than the first time around. Maybe I'm just out of practice.

Or maybe I should go to med school......