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#barpreplife: Stuck Somewhere in Bar Exam Limbo

GUEST BLOG By Jennifer Varteressian,
Graduating from The University of Tulsa College of Law, December 2014

 And the Books have arrived.

barbooks   thebarexamisgoingdown

I am finally in receipt of my Texas Bar Prep books, Happy Monday to me!

I feel like we have a week or two left in the semester where it’s still possible to remain positive about our impending doom before it all becomes entirely too overwhelming.

Speaking of owning the bar, congrats again to those who passed the Texas Bar Exam!

The wait is finally over and all of your hard work has paid off. December graduates, we’re next!

Regardless, I can’t help but feel like I’m in limbo still. I want to be done with law school because I am tired of all the work, but that means its time to begin bar prep, which I assume I will also grow tired of.

finalsI finished up work last week and feel grateful for the free time that I’m supposed to be using for productivity. (What do people who don’t work in law school do with all of this time?!) I’ve decided that since December bar takers get no break I will be using some of this time to do things for myself. You know like online shopping, getting my nails done, Sunday Funday. Seems productive to me! Besides if you don’t take at least some time out for yourself the upcoming months are going to be unbearable. The last thing you want is to burn out and throw your hands up during bar prep. I mean lets be real, we’ve gotten the hang of law school by now, right?

As the holidays are approaching I want to leave you with one final thought. This is the LAST time that the holiday season will be ruined by impending exams and standardized tests! Soon we will be able to enjoy stuffing our faces with turkey and pie without having to worry about the exams we have not yet prepped for. Black Friday will be an event that can return to our calendars. Children may stop hating us for being Grinches. Hell, next year I’ll be so full of holiday cheer, I may start listening to Christmas music in June. (that is if I pass the bar exam seeing as how that’s when we will finally find out!). All I have to say is AMEN to that!

Happy last few weeks of “freedom”,
J

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#The2Llife: Finals Season Tips

GUEST BLOG Harrison Thorne,
2L at UCLA School of Law

During my first year I became a nervous wreck around finals. My nerves were a mix of fearing the final, and comparing myself to others.

Fearing a test is good. Healthy fear will motivate.

However, what is not good is measuring your knowledge against others.

During 1L, I found that most people gave off an air of knowing everything about every course. My classmates would talk about how they had various topics “down cold” or how they “know that subject like the bank of my hand,” etc. In turn, I became extremely nervous.

My thinking was this:
  • Everybody knows everything
  • I don’t know everything
  • Classes are graded on a curve
  • I know less than everybody else
  • I will fail

My saving grace is that as time passed and finals neared, I worked hard and disconnected from that defeatist mindset. I actively pushed those thoughts down when they came up. And they came up a lot!

What I found was that I was not as dumb as I thought, and that I could write a decent law school exam. However, I also found that the people who felt as I did tended to psych themselves out and under-perform.

So, my advice to my past self or anyone else about to take their first set of exams is as follows.

  • Acknowledge the fear. Exams are scary. Especially the first time around. There is no point in denying that fact.
  • Use that fear. Fear can be a great motivator.
  • Come up with an “attack plan.” Get a calendar or download an app and set up a daily to-do list to keep track of what needs to get done.
  • Get it done. Now that finals are coming up, this is the time to put your head down and grind out work.
  • Never, ever, ever compare yourself to others. In fact, it’s probably best to avoid other law students as much as possible at this point. There will be a desire to ask other students what they’re doing, how they’re outlining, what practice exams they have taken. DON’T do this! Focus on your well-thought out and designed attack plan (see step 3).
  • Use Tools. While everybody else is nervously Googling study aids, thumbing through E+E’s, or checking out secondary sources, use no-nonsense tools, like BARBRI Amp, or BARBRI’s course outlines. I kid you not, BARBRI’s criminal law outline saved my life.
I am implementing this strategy as we speak. For instance, here’s my plan for tomorrow:
6:00am: wake up 1:30-3:00: Study Fotolia_68520688_Subscription_Monthly_M
6:15-7:30: gym 3:30-5:00: Class
7:30-8:15: shower/breakfast/
check emails		 5:30-7:00: Study
8:15-10:30: Study 7:00-7:30: Dinner
10:30-11:00: zone out, check emails, whatever 7:30-9:30: Study
11:00-1:00: Study 9:30-10:00:
Pleasure Reading
(never give this up!)
1:00-1:30: Lunch

As far as my attack plan: I just finished my evidence outline, I am about 2/3 done with my bankruptcy outline, I have some reading to do, and I have a bit of work to catch up in another course.

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#The3Llife: Being a BARBRI Rep

GUEST BLOG By Shaun Sanders,
3L at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law

When I started law school, there weren’t too many things I was aware of out of the gate.

Realistically, law school is unlike just about any experience people may endure. It wasn’t until the first week in when I stumbled across a term I was familiar with: BARBRI. My older brother, currently a patent attorney, used BARBRI while studying for the bar. Likewise, the handful of other lawyer friends I have were also BARBRI students. Needless to say, when the opportunity arose to join the BARBRI team, I was eager to accept.

As I’ve said in previous blog posts, I am somewhat of an information broker on my campus. All notes, outlines, and supplements find their way through me and, at one point, I had a few thousand dollars worth of supplements that had been donated to me by various alumni. Based on their value, I assumed they were the best tools to give me an edge, so I set aside free supplements, including BARBRI’s. It wasn’t until about a month before finals when I realized my error. BARBRI’s supplements and outlines were the most concise, straightforward way to study for exams. It felt silly to have amassed so many resources when, the whole time, I had the best outlines at my fingers.

Luxuries aside, being a BARBRI rep is great simply because I don’t feel like I am a salesperson. Other bar prep courses need to sell — I just need to be there to remind students who we are. I can look at the entire student body at my school and know with confidence that a vast majority of them will end up successfully using BARBRI. I don’t look at myself as a sales rep as much as I consider myself an advocate for the BARBRI brand. It makes it much easier to straddle the line between “rep” and “fellow classmate.”

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Five Tips for Exceptional 1L Performance

By Chris Nikitas, Esq., BARBRI Director of Legal Education

Many people view 1L year as the most important year in law school, and it’s easy to see why.

By May, you’ll know where you stand in comparison to your classmates. For many, it’s a year of trial and error as they try and find a study system that fits them and works. So, here’s a few tips to help you avoid the most common pitfalls and get you on the right foot.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Prepare to be tested on rules and elements[/highlight]

Knowing the black letter law is going to be key: every element, every rule, etc. Even if the professor limits class discussion, you should be prepared to know it. The professor is testing two things: whether you know the law and how well you can apply it to fact patterns. So, knowing all elements of the black letter law will be critical to excelling come exam time.

BARBRI MasterMind is an outstanding tool to ensure that you can take on the exam. You’ll get computer software that learns what black letter law you know and don’t know. It will make you BARBRI ready come the exam.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Begin the outlining process now[/highlight]

Outlining is tough. You have to have enough of a picture of everything to recognize what the most critical components of the subject are, how they fit together, etc. Wait too long to see the big picture and you don’t have enough time to complete the outline. If you haven’t started yet, now is an excellent time to get going.FiveTips_infographic_2

What I used to do was sit down every Friday afternoon with a cup of tea or a beer (if it had been one of THOSE weeks), go back through my notes and some supplements and hammer away at an outline, covering the week’s material. That way I was never behind. Do your outlining regularly. Weekly, or biweekly would be best.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Keep your outlines focused[/highlight]

It’s tempting to simply retype every single thing you have into your outline: all your class notes, all your supplemental outlines, all your BARBRI outline, etc. In the same way that highlighting everything is useless, including everything in your outline will fail to emphasize the important points. Your outline has to be your sword. Too light and it’s worthless, too heavy and it’s unwieldy.

Your outline is a chance to focus your notes towards the exam. If your professor told you that you aren’t responsible for a certain case or rule, skip it. If an entire section of the casebook was skipped, don’t include it. Your outline should only include what is covered in class and those rules/elements for which you are responsible.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Spend time wisely reading, briefing cases[/highlight]

One night in January of my 1L year, I was reading a Property case and I just could not get it. I had read it half a dozen times, but I could not understand what they underlying doctrine was supposed to be or how it worked. It was four in the morning and I just decided to forget it, I’ll figure it out later. The next day, I sat down with the professor after class, and we talked our way through it.

Now, if that had been my first and only reading of the night, that would have been well and dandy, but I had other classes to prepare for. After the second time I read the problem case, I knew I had to re-prioritize. I couldn’t spend all night on this case and forego my other classes. So, I did my work for my other classes and came back to it.

You cannot ignore time constraints. Prioritizing is easy when you have enough time for everything, but days will come when you find you do not. When those days come, make sure to put your assignments in the most workable order. If you don’t, you will not have time to master the rules and elements you need to know for the final exam.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Refresh your memory with practice exams[/highlight]

Knowing the law is obviously the most important aspect of exams and your 1L year, but there’s another crucial way to get a leg up: practice exams. You will want to work dozens of practice exams for each 1L course. Even if you know every nook and cranny of your masterfully crafted outline, you have to practice with it in action before you know how to use it. It’s just like football: players memorize the playbook, but they still lace up and practice every day to make sure they can execute before the game.

That’s where practice exams come in. They’re an opportunity at a dry run. You get to see your outline’s strengths and weaknesses, how well it functions in practice, if parts need to be lightened, or need more detail. Your professor can change facts all he/she wants. At the end of the day, a negligence question is a negligence question. Once you’ve got the basics of that type of question down, you’ll have a framework in mind for those questions the minute you start reading the facts.

So, where do you get practice exams? Well, there are plenty of practice essay questions and model answers in the BARBRI 1L Outline Volume. Some professors will have old exams on file at the library. These are great, because in addition to valuable practice, you can get in the professor’s head, seeing what they often test.

  1. [highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]Rely on your BARBRI DLE. Ask us questions, expect meaningful answers.[/highlight]

Don’t forget, we have a DLE at every law school, including yours, to serve as your advice column, mentor and, when you need it, sounding board. We all attended law school, used BARBRI materials, and remember exactly what it was like. (My hair was longer and I listened to a lot of the Clash.) We’re here to help. So, don’t be afraid to give us a shout.

If you’re about to be a 1L, check out BARBRI Law Preview at: http://lawpreview.barbri.com
BARBRI Law Preview will teach you everything you need to know about law school teaching methods and expectations, and give you the confidence and tools to perform at your best.

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#The1Llife: Outlining (Part 1)

GUEST BLOG By Lauren Rose,
1L at the University of Detroit Mercy

Outline. Outline. Outline.

It’s all everyone seems to be talking about but what exactly is an outline? Well, it’s essentially a study guide. You can buy outlines, receive them from upperclassmen, or you can make your own. It’s all about whatever works best for you. After attending an outline review session, here are some important things that I have learned thus far.

  • Make your own outline. While commercial outlines and upperclassman outlines are helpful, they should be used as supplements while making your own outline. Creating your own outline is useful because you are able to review the material while working it into a format that makes sense for you. If you’re stuck, then you should refer to other outline resources that you have.
  • Don’t procrastinate. It’s definitely easier said than done (trust me)! Even if you are only able to tackle one section of your outline at a time, it’s better than waiting until the last minute.
  • Ask for help. No, your professor will probably not review your outline with you. However, they will probably answer specific things that you have questions about. If you start early, you can go to your professor’s office hours to discuss these questions and clarify the material before the finals madness begins.
  • Use resources available to you. My classmates and I have found the BARBRI videos to be extremely helpful as a supplement to our class notes. Also, check out the books in your law school’s library. There are bound to be some type of supplemental materials available to you there.
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