Happy New Year?

So the Christmas whirlwind week is over, and then there will be New Years, and then NOTHING BUT BAR STUDYING. Seriously though, I allowed myself to have fun or at least attend to all the events and present buying and gift returning I wanted, because I know from my previous experience that once the hardcore studying sets in, its going to be all intensive.

This week at work, the week between Christmas and New Years, however, I forced myself to go in because no one else was around and I sat down and studied every day all day. As I am embark on this mission the second time around, I am starting to realize the positives about why this time will be easier and not harder.

1) Before I started studying, I devised a plan of attack. I did NOT do this the first time around, and I think it contributed to my failing. I decided that this time, I am going to go subject by subject and just do blocks of questions at a time. After each block, I go through each question and write in a footnote or a comment in my original Bar outlines about why I got that question wrong. So for example, if I get an evidence question on Past Recollection Recorded wrong, I go to the Past Recollection Recorded section of my notes and write down why I got it wrong, as well as memorize the elements of Past Recollection Recorded and handwrite them out a couple of times. I also make sure I keep a running legal pad of all the topics of questions I get wrong, so that I can easily run through them and remember what I need to remember. Really, its just a lot more repetition in a more organized and efficient way. I am also going through the CORRECT answers really carefully, which they told me to do the first time and I did not, for lack of time. I usually would just read the answers that I got wrong the most carefully and assume that I knew why I got an answer right just because I got it right. This time, I realize that often times I get an answer right for the wrong reason (This also is helping me realize why I am getting them down to the best two answers and keep picking the wrong one)
Finally, those Barbri MBE questions really are damn good. I start with Intro level, then move to Intermediate and Advanced. Their answers really are complete and the different levels of questions help you test the harder nuances of concepts after you master first the basic questions. Now that I have done all of the questions in Evidence in the Barbri Book, I am moving back to the PMBR questions in the Redbook for practice, and they are going much easier and I am seeing a lot of the same topics I saw in the Barbri book.

2) Its a lot easier to go into the test knowing exactly what I am going to face, and accepting that I did things wrong the first time. In retrospect, it really was a bad idea to take the MBE portion in the second state and not the first, because I was exhausted from traveling the night before (while all my friends stayed in the first state and took the MBE there also) Now the MBE will be my first day, so I can go into it guns blazing.

3) Instead of just going on what people tell me is the best way to study, I really am figuring out the best way for myself after knowing what did NOT work the first time.

4) I think working will actually help me focus more on the time that I do have available to study and help me concentrate on what I need to get done in the time I have to do it.

5) I am a poor poor law clerk and have no money to have any fun in the next two months anyway.

6) I REALLY WANT TO PASS THIS TIME SO I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN.

I also read Rick Pitino's book, Success is a Choice, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767901320/104-6490522-9644734?v=glance&n=283155

and it is really good. The thing I took the most from it is that you have to live each day only in the present moment. For example, you can be thinking about tomorrow's big game, or yesterday's loss, you have to think about how well you can practice TODAY. I think studying for the bar is the same thing- you could dwell on failing, or you could freak out about what is in front of you, but really, you should just see how much you can get done each day preparing for the test. I guess this is a basic coaching tenet, but I like it. I highly recommend the book to alleviate anxiety.

With that, I am getting back to my studying and then watching a movie- I remember down time is just as important as study time.

I hope next year is more successful for bar passing :) and that I get sworn in 2006.

Holiday Jeer

So the holidays are here and that means two things: the busy Christmas season, fun parties, and the knowledge that right after, serious bar studying sets in. This is more glum than usual for many reasons. I am too busy with Christmas things to actually study this week, and I'd rather be studying than not, but can't, so its bothering me subconsciously that I even have to go through this rigamarole. Second, I can't enjoy the holiday cheer because I have to face this test again.

I started studying about two weeks ago and got a good start. I figured out my study schedule, wrote it all out, decided exactly what it was that I did wrong when I studied the last time, and changed my format of studying to make it better this time around. I realized that last time I was not efficient- I changed subjects each day, I didn't really focus on the answers of the multiple choices and I didn't read the correct ones and I didn't read the ones I got wrong closely enough at all. Now I know I must be dedicated, focused, AND meticulous, because I wasn't meticulous the last time around. So I have a plan, I just hope that I can stick to it. The holiday season isn't helping.

The other thing that isn't helping is that the Judge I work for is hearing a high profile case while I'm studying for the bar. The motions started this week, and while I am studying we have two busy weeks of regular stuff and then the jury selection for that trial, which should last up until the actual bar. I know that I have to study, but I also don't want to miss certain things, and I was hoping to study a lot during work, so we'll see how that actually plays out. It is just scary that this time around I have to work while studying, but I also have less to "learn" and more to "refine" so it might just even out.

Finally, its tough to hear my friends who have passed the bar talk about what happens- getting your swearing in cards, etc. My roommate is the least sensitive about it- she has no concept about how I feel that she passed and I didn't, and kind of acts superior to me because of it. That really ticks me off. She makes comments about other people that failed like, "i don't know, i thought they were smart" etc.. as if to say, "you're pretty dumb to have failed" and i know she really does think that in her brain. She is self-involved generally, so she probably has no idea I feel this way anyway.

Then I also feel like I have to put my personal life on hold because of the bar, and while that is a short time, I still feel like things are eating at me, nagging, waiting for me to make decisions and moves on. Should I continue to apply for jobs? What jobs should I apply to? What do I want to do with my career? Do I still want to live in my town? Do I still want to live in my state? Since I have to study, I know I have to put all of that out of my mind for the next few months.

Oh well. At least the Christmas business will end after this weekend.

Two interesting articles this week

This first one is about Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of Stanford Law School, who recently moved to a private firm in CA and had to sit for the CA bar in July to be admitted. A noted Constitutional Law scholar, the legal world was shocked when she failed the bar exam... I think my favorite quote was this:


> But it's unusual for the exam to claim a top-notch constitutional lawyer
>at the peak of her game. "She is a rock star," says William Urquhart, who
>last year recruited Ms. Sullivan to join his firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart
>Oliver & Hedges LLP. "Practically every lawyer in the U.S. knows who
>Kathleen Sullivan is." If anyone should have passed, Mr. Urquhart says, it
>is Ms. Sullivan. "The problem is not with Kathleen Sullivan, it is with the
>person who drafted the exam or the person who graded it."

Interesting. I sympathsize with her, because it sucks to fail a bar exam, but it sucks even worse if you fail and it makes the WSJ. My Judge said, though, that she should have known her failure would be big news and probably should have prepared to make sure it didn't happen.

The other article is about the litigation with Barbri, which is also interesting. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/business/yourmoney/04law.html?adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1133909777-aMp+5ihPJBITUk8e2XU6Og

I like Barbri- at least in terms of the materials you get, not the instruction, but I wonder how much better they'd have to be if they actually had competition....

It starts

Studying is meticulous and I was not the last time I prepared for this exam. I'm a big picture person and I often see the forest and not the trees. I had a friend of mine show me his method of studying and how he did so well on his MBE, and basically it was just dilligence and meticulousness. Upon reflection, my way of studying was so haphazard and inefficient, its no wonder I missed my mark by a few questions. Those extra fine points and details made all the difference I bet.

My problem as an attorney is that I am not careful. I am too laid back and not detailed enough and the law really and truly is about the fine print. But luckily, this is rectifiable and now I feel as though I can master this exam. The next two months, though, are going to suck.