So I was riding the Metro home last night after BarBri- the train was rather full because one of the four cars was "isolated" (as the driver kept saying) which meant that the doors to that particular car didn't open, forcing everyone into the other three cars.
Classmate A was sitting a seat away from me. I think we heard it at the same time- from some guys a couple of seats away...
"yadda yadda...Paced Program...yadda yadda"
A leaned toward me (we were sitting on opposite sides of the chairs in the middle of the car that are back-to-back) and said,
"Did he just say, 'Paced Program'?"
Me: "Yep, I heard it too"
Amazing what images two little words can conjure up.
I continued to listen to these guys talking about the Conviser, looking for the various levels of scrutiny for Con Law, hoping to keep all the info in Property straight, etc. Initially I couldn't tell what bar they were studying for, but then they started talking about whether or not they were going to do a Control-F search for their name when the results came out and then they mentioned Virginia.
Brothers-in-arms ... Good luck to you (and enjoy wearing your court attire during the exam).
I got back my third graded essay in BarBri and I got pounded on this one. The first two were 12/15. This one was a a 6/15, even though the first comment from the grader was "Very good essay"...apparently I was a bit sloppy with my analysis and didn't dig deep enough. The full-day simulated MBE is this Sunday...which should be great fun.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Nothing much
Nothing special has been happening this week. BarBri keeps on moving. I must say that the prof doing the Property lectures, Paula Franzese, is pretty funny.
I was suffering from some Metro rage the other day. First, a bunch of people getting on the red line at Chinatown decided that they needed to start sticking out their elbows. Now I know we all wanted on that train bad, but elbows? I wanted to let those elbowers know that I did remember how to box out from my hoop days (and I weigh more than I did when I was a sophomore in high school, making my efforts more effective) but I refrained. Then, I had to tell people to pack it in the car....about 20-25 people came out our door, then only about 15 got in. C'mon people- fill it in!
To continue my level of annoyance- the damn people at the Farragut West platform NEVER get out of the way. The train stops, the doors open and there is usually a wall of people there. Move the fuck over, people. Seriously, there have been a bunch of times in the last week where I have to part people and move through them. I'm ready to make my train departure a little more forceful. Or maybe I'll just stand there until people move. That should get everyone happy. What I don't understand is that it seems to be worse at that station compared to others. The Pentagon was fine this morning- people leave the entire door width clear for people exiting the train. Perfect!
Yes- I just found it...I knew I saw a blog post somewhere about this same problem with elevator doors....over at Barred for life you can learn her tactics for dealing with it.
Enough about my commuting adventures. Last weekend I did quite a few MBE problems (from StudySmart, the PMBR red book, and the Strategies & Tactics. For some reason, the intermediate Contracts and Torts on StudySmart really kick my butt. I decided to do a quick tally of how many MBE problems I've done to date and I was surprised to see that I'm just over 1100. I'm running about 60% correct overall, which isn't too bad, but needs to improve. I haven't done many problems in Con Law or Property yet as I've been working a subject heavily as we encounter it in lecture to try and reinforce what I'm hearing. I'll be hitting Property hard this weekend.
I was suffering from some Metro rage the other day. First, a bunch of people getting on the red line at Chinatown decided that they needed to start sticking out their elbows. Now I know we all wanted on that train bad, but elbows? I wanted to let those elbowers know that I did remember how to box out from my hoop days (and I weigh more than I did when I was a sophomore in high school, making my efforts more effective) but I refrained. Then, I had to tell people to pack it in the car....about 20-25 people came out our door, then only about 15 got in. C'mon people- fill it in!
To continue my level of annoyance- the damn people at the Farragut West platform NEVER get out of the way. The train stops, the doors open and there is usually a wall of people there. Move the fuck over, people. Seriously, there have been a bunch of times in the last week where I have to part people and move through them. I'm ready to make my train departure a little more forceful. Or maybe I'll just stand there until people move. That should get everyone happy. What I don't understand is that it seems to be worse at that station compared to others. The Pentagon was fine this morning- people leave the entire door width clear for people exiting the train. Perfect!
Yes- I just found it...I knew I saw a blog post somewhere about this same problem with elevator doors....over at Barred for life you can learn her tactics for dealing with it.
Enough about my commuting adventures. Last weekend I did quite a few MBE problems (from StudySmart, the PMBR red book, and the Strategies & Tactics. For some reason, the intermediate Contracts and Torts on StudySmart really kick my butt. I decided to do a quick tally of how many MBE problems I've done to date and I was surprised to see that I'm just over 1100. I'm running about 60% correct overall, which isn't too bad, but needs to improve. I haven't done many problems in Con Law or Property yet as I've been working a subject heavily as we encounter it in lecture to try and reinforce what I'm hearing. I'll be hitting Property hard this weekend.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The freak train last night
I was headed home late on the Metro and I swear, my train was the freak train.
First, I had the LOUDEST LOUDTALKER ever. She was on the phone with a friend, but insisted on trying to talk as we went in and out of tunnels...which caused her to drop the call each time. I had my iPod on (glued to my ears lately with the gripping PMBR lectures) and I could hear just about every word of her conversation. How annoying.
As if the loudtalker wasn't enough, there was a woman behind her, across from me, that was, well, a handchewer. She sat there and gnawed on the back of her hands. I could see her teeth scraping. She would do it a while, then stop, then switch hands, stop, repeat. She looked normal in all other regards. She eventually pulled out a Washington Post to read- I thought that would curtail the gnawing. Nope- she just held the paper with one hand and kept at it. Very strange.
First, I had the LOUDEST LOUDTALKER ever. She was on the phone with a friend, but insisted on trying to talk as we went in and out of tunnels...which caused her to drop the call each time. I had my iPod on (glued to my ears lately with the gripping PMBR lectures) and I could hear just about every word of her conversation. How annoying.
As if the loudtalker wasn't enough, there was a woman behind her, across from me, that was, well, a handchewer. She sat there and gnawed on the back of her hands. I could see her teeth scraping. She would do it a while, then stop, then switch hands, stop, repeat. She looked normal in all other regards. She eventually pulled out a Washington Post to read- I thought that would curtail the gnawing. Nope- she just held the paper with one hand and kept at it. Very strange.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Trudging along
It sure looks dreary outside today...gray skies and some sprinkles.
This weekend was a pretty good one for studying.
Yesterday I watched the DVD and did the Evidence questions...14/17. I'm feeling a lot better about Evidence so far this winter.
I did my first batch of PMBR questions from the red (vol. 1) book. I did 34 Crim Law and got 20/34, but there were five where I had it down to two answers and just picked the wrong one so I am on track there I think.
I worked on my outline more- adding in the Agency notes from this past week and tweaking some Evidence stuff. This week we have Torts and Contracts for lectures.
I saw on the news this weekend that there was a gang of people that rode the Red Line on Saturday without pants - No Pants 2k8. Apparently some guy started this movement in New York on the subway in 2001. Just as a funny expression. I think it is pretty funny. I might have done it had I not been buried in a Conviser reviewing outlines and working on MBE questions.
This weekend was a pretty good one for studying.
Yesterday I watched the DVD and did the Evidence questions...14/17. I'm feeling a lot better about Evidence so far this winter.
I did my first batch of PMBR questions from the red (vol. 1) book. I did 34 Crim Law and got 20/34, but there were five where I had it down to two answers and just picked the wrong one so I am on track there I think.
I worked on my outline more- adding in the Agency notes from this past week and tweaking some Evidence stuff. This week we have Torts and Contracts for lectures.
I saw on the news this weekend that there was a gang of people that rode the Red Line on Saturday without pants - No Pants 2k8. Apparently some guy started this movement in New York on the subway in 2001. Just as a funny expression. I think it is pretty funny. I might have done it had I not been buried in a Conviser reviewing outlines and working on MBE questions.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
New title
I knew I wanted a different, better title from the get-go but I just couldn't come up with anything catchy. Maybe I'll try this one.
You know, the bar exam is sorta like barbed wire: it has its uses (limited?) and you sort of need it, but if you aren't paying attention it can f*&! you up bad, which is annoying. Now I sound like some tough rancher. I've never been on a real ranch, so that isn't me. It sounds good though.
Our room at BarBri last night was kind of smelly...I wish we weren't in a basement dungeon room without windows to the outside. I miss my summer class- fresh air in the room (when it wasn't too hot to have the window open), walks with my friend J on the breaks were glorious and lunch on the road as I went back to work.
You know, the bar exam is sorta like barbed wire: it has its uses (limited?) and you sort of need it, but if you aren't paying attention it can f*&! you up bad, which is annoying. Now I sound like some tough rancher. I've never been on a real ranch, so that isn't me. It sounds good though.
Our room at BarBri last night was kind of smelly...I wish we weren't in a basement dungeon room without windows to the outside. I miss my summer class- fresh air in the room (when it wasn't too hot to have the window open), walks with my friend J on the breaks were glorious and lunch on the road as I went back to work.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Weird black stuff
Another thing I forgot to write about the other day- what is with the weird black residue that you get from the handrails on the escalators in the D.C. Metro system? I like to grab them to make sure I don't take a digger as I hustle through a station but invariably I see later that I have this black gunk on my hand. It took me a while to figure out where it was coming from (somewhere on the train, something on the clothes/bag). I saw some Metro workers "cleaning" (or whatever they do to the handrails) and then put it together...it's like they put shoe polish on the rails and it rubs off. Annoying.
I only got in a handful of hours on Saturday due to a dinner date with the mrs and a morning of major sleeping in to catch up on some missed hours of sleep.
I had a monster day of studying yesterday- very good production. It is going to be really hard to get done some of the infamous paced program items during the week- work during the day and then class in the evening doesn't leave much time to do anything. I can get a little done on the train ride home which is pretty quiet. Yesterday I tried to tick off any many things that I could logically do for this week:
-Watched the DVD and did the questions on Crim Law (rough there...7/17 correct but there were four questions where I had the correct answer as my alternate choice...those damn "best two answers" scenario...)
-Reviewed the handout notes of upcoming lectures (Agency/Partnership, Corps, Evidence)
-Did all 74 intermediate Crim Law questions from the StudySmart (on par with easy questions at 70% correct)
-Did the first 33 difficult Crim Law questions from StudySmart (not bad, 48% correct)
-Read/outlined MEE questions 1-4 for Crim Law
Seeing Whitebread (on video) last week brought back all the goofy memories from last summer. That guy is quite a character.
I only got in a handful of hours on Saturday due to a dinner date with the mrs and a morning of major sleeping in to catch up on some missed hours of sleep.
I had a monster day of studying yesterday- very good production. It is going to be really hard to get done some of the infamous paced program items during the week- work during the day and then class in the evening doesn't leave much time to do anything. I can get a little done on the train ride home which is pretty quiet. Yesterday I tried to tick off any many things that I could logically do for this week:
-Watched the DVD and did the questions on Crim Law (rough there...7/17 correct but there were four questions where I had the correct answer as my alternate choice...those damn "best two answers" scenario...)
-Reviewed the handout notes of upcoming lectures (Agency/Partnership, Corps, Evidence)
-Did all 74 intermediate Crim Law questions from the StudySmart (on par with easy questions at 70% correct)
-Did the first 33 difficult Crim Law questions from StudySmart (not bad, 48% correct)
-Read/outlined MEE questions 1-4 for Crim Law
Seeing Whitebread (on video) last week brought back all the goofy memories from last summer. That guy is quite a character.
Friday, January 4, 2008
I've never seen...
so many black North Face jackets. I mean I remember from my days working at an outdoor retailer how TNF clothing was the hot ticket for thieves and gangs. But here in D.C., I think 25% of the people I see walking around have a TNF jacket on and of those, 75% are some black TNF jacket variation. Wow.
It doesn't even get cold here!! (Spoken from a born-and-bred midwesterner that has seen winters a lot harsher than here)
I've always been intrigued by the desire of people to be trendy and vicariously outdoorsy by wearing the latest goodies. It makes those of us that have had the gear for a long time a little bitter. I started using TNF gear because it was bomber gear that you could count on for a long time (like my Cat's Meow sleeping bag, circa 1989, that is still going strong after costing me $135 back in the day). I've had a TNF jacket since '96 and even went as far as taking a black marker to the white logo to tone it down and make it look different/less attractive to thieves.
I was refreshed last night at BarBri class #1 on how crazy their paced plan is. Unless you were a full-time bum that required almost no sleep, there is just no way one can do everything BarBri suggests.
It doesn't even get cold here!! (Spoken from a born-and-bred midwesterner that has seen winters a lot harsher than here)
I've always been intrigued by the desire of people to be trendy and vicariously outdoorsy by wearing the latest goodies. It makes those of us that have had the gear for a long time a little bitter. I started using TNF gear because it was bomber gear that you could count on for a long time (like my Cat's Meow sleeping bag, circa 1989, that is still going strong after costing me $135 back in the day). I've had a TNF jacket since '96 and even went as far as taking a black marker to the white logo to tone it down and make it look different/less attractive to thieves.
I was refreshed last night at BarBri class #1 on how crazy their paced plan is. Unless you were a full-time bum that required almost no sleep, there is just no way one can do everything BarBri suggests.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year
OK, so this is a day late. Sue me.
I actually got some decent studying done yesterday, which felt good.
I have also resolved to make sure my bar study includes more exercise. I didn't really do anything last spring/summer so I figure it would be better for me to vent on a machine or the pavement or something. I ran a mile on the treadmill last night (hey, you have to shake the rust off somewhere). I'll count my hockey game tonight as the outing for today.
The StudySmart questions are still going rather well. I'm running at 70% overall correct so far:
Con Law (14 questions answered), 71% correct
Property (4 questions answered), 25%
Evidence (4 questions answered), 100%
Crim Law (74 questions answered), 73%
Contracts (4 questions answered), 50%
Torts (78 questions answered), 69%
I did the first 10 Crim Law questions in Strategies & Tactics (by Walton & Emanuel) (the "S&T") and got 7 out of 10, so that is in line with where I seem to be running right now.
BarBri starts tomorrow, sort of exciting to get things going, but also a bit of a pain. I think Whitebread is our first lecturer. What a trip that guy is..."Now people..." and whatever other catch phrases he used last summer.
I actually got some decent studying done yesterday, which felt good.
I have also resolved to make sure my bar study includes more exercise. I didn't really do anything last spring/summer so I figure it would be better for me to vent on a machine or the pavement or something. I ran a mile on the treadmill last night (hey, you have to shake the rust off somewhere). I'll count my hockey game tonight as the outing for today.
The StudySmart questions are still going rather well. I'm running at 70% overall correct so far:
Con Law (14 questions answered), 71% correct
Property (4 questions answered), 25%
Evidence (4 questions answered), 100%
Crim Law (74 questions answered), 73%
Contracts (4 questions answered), 50%
Torts (78 questions answered), 69%
I did the first 10 Crim Law questions in Strategies & Tactics (by Walton & Emanuel) (the "S&T") and got 7 out of 10, so that is in line with where I seem to be running right now.
BarBri starts tomorrow, sort of exciting to get things going, but also a bit of a pain. I think Whitebread is our first lecturer. What a trip that guy is..."Now people..." and whatever other catch phrases he used last summer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)