Aiming to Pass the Bar Exam

While I went home to "get centered," my trip, if anything, threw me off-center. Several unexpected events plummeted me into deep depression; I arrived back home so far off-center that I wondered how I was going to get my life back on-track. The events touched me deeply because they had to do with my father's death in 2006 and with my mother's ill-health and other family matters. Sometimes, one has to pick oneself up "by the bootstraps" forcibly simply to survive. It took me until the week of March 13, to be able to begin to focus on my bar studies, week 19 before D-Day.

Today, we are at week 14 prior to the July 2010 bar exam. I have spent over 100 hours and reviewed Torts, Criminal Law and Crim Pro, Contracts and Sales, and Evidence, with nearly 500 MBE's accomplished, 11 essays outlined, 1 essay written, 1 performance test writen, and my scores and understanding are beginning to "inch up."

Given that I went back to school to develop paralegal training (in an effort to survive), I am curently studying real property, thus, I will skip the substantive review and move directly into MBE's and issue spotting real bar exam questions.

To prepare for the Feb. 2009 bar exam, I used Bar Bri material, took their Performance Test class, and PMBR's 6-day program. I collected everything from Flemings to Emerson to Adachi's material. Today, I am keeping my Bar Bri material and PLI outlines for reference and Adachi's Bar Breaker. I am using my PMBR tapes and outlines for substantive review and Fleming's CD's for the remaining materials. Everything else will be sold.

What I am learning, under the patient guidance of a private tutor who himself took the bar exam 3 times before passing, is the following:

1. Do 33 MBE's a day under TIMED conditions. (I'm managing 125 per week). Develop a "journal" of all MBE questions missed with "trigger facts" and rule statements. I am using the Bar Bri MBE book, and from there moving on to Strategies and Tactics. When I've answered all questions from these books, I'll move on to my unaswered PMBR questions. It's back to the basics!

2. Issue spot as many ACTUAL BAR EXAM ESSAYS as possible under TIMED conditions (I'm targeting 3 per subject or 108 in total). Read the BAR EXAM answers and follow their ORGANIZATION. While Adachi, Bar Bri and other essay answers are helpful, they are NOT done in timed conditions.

3. Write 3 essays per week under TIMED conditions. (I'm currently managing 1 written essay per week.) Compare to ACTUAL BAR EXAM answers.

4. Review and outline 1 PERFORMANCE TEST per week under TIMED conditions.

While I haven't hit the mark on all these areas, I am building the "marathon" muscle with my mental strength and agility increasing every day. I am balancing these objectives with ad hoc contract work and struggling to stay afloat financially. And, these mutual objectives are overlaid with the objectives to achieve in school.

While sometimes the stresses of work, school and bar exam preparation cause me to crash and seek the restorative qualities of sleep, I am beginning to enjoy my studies and to look forward to the July 2010 bar exam. I forgot how much I love to study the law!

P.S. I've posted an OBJECTION GAME on the side bar of my blog. Having no trial experience, I find "motions to strike," "leading questions" and other trial objections at bit obtuse. One of the attorneys who I support suggested this game and used it himself to pass the bar exam the 1st time.