Top Law Schools

does anyone have a good chart or something for character/ impeachment evidence that designates when you can use specific examples and when you can use extrinsic evidence? I keep getting confused.

pixy1900 wrote:does anyone have a good chart or something for character/ impeachment evidence that designates when you can use specific examples and when you can use extrinsic evidence? I keep getting confused.

I just reviewed this and think the key thing to remember for impeachment is that you can't use extrinsic evidence for prior misconduct (also, additional thing to remember here that on cross, if the opposing party asks about prior misconduct to impeach, they have to take the witness's answer as truth). For most others (contradiction, bias, prior inconsistent statements, reputation for untruthfulness), you can use extrinsic evidence.

pixy1900 wrote:does anyone have a good chart or something for character/ impeachment evidence that designates when you can use specific examples and when you can use extrinsic evidence? I keep getting confused.

For character, I remember it this way:

Civil Cases - you can use any form of evidence if character is an essential element of the claim or defense.

Criminal- Remember here that D has to "open the door" to character evidence. D can present evidence of pertinent good character, but only in the form of reputation or opinion. On cross-examination, though, the prosecutor can ask about specific instances of conduct. Note here that similar to civil cases, if character is an essential element of the claim or defense, then D can bring in specific instances under FRE 405(b)

you can use extrinsic evidence of prior convictions to impeach though too, no?

thanks all!

saywhat88 wrote:you can use extrinsic evidence of prior convictions to impeach though too, no?

Yup! Sorry - missed that one in my list.

Wanted to update y'all on the response I got from Themis after I sent in a request to figure out the whole "does the underlying BARRK felony merge into felony murder or not" question after getting confused because Emmanuel's had a correct answer that a man should be convicted of both murder and arson.

"Without the question ID it is impossible for me to address the specific facts. But here's the rule: The offense of arson and felony murder would merge if the unintended killing was proximately caused by and during the commission or attempted commission of the arson (or any BARRK felony for that matter). See MBE Crim Law Outline pg. 14 "Felony Murder". With that being said, keep in mind that you are tied to the best AVAILABLE answer choice on the MBE. Additionally, pay close attention to the terms used in a question (e.g.: what crimes did the defendant commit is different from "for what crimes can the defendant be convicted?") I hope this helps."

Hey guys,

Does anyone have any guidance for Secured Transactions? I'm trying to figure out a way to remember all of the steps when there is a dispute over who has a priority/interest in something. Anyone have good Mnemonics or a way to remember the steps to address an essay?

I have a question about Wills (specifically, Abatement).

In one of the practice essays it says in a Will:

$25,000 each to A, B, C
$40,000 to Husband

Bank account has $60,000.

In the problem, the Husband was dead so his bequest went away ... but how would this work if he wasn't dead?

Would it then be that the $60k got split 4 ways cause they were all in general devise?

nichsull wrote:Does anyone else find the "interactive mode" of taking the MBEs to be distracting and more stressful? I used the "interactive mode" for most of my MBE practice questions but have switched to "Test mode" to have more of a test like setting and Test mode seems to be easier. Maybe because I am not taking the breaks in between each question to review the answers or not seeing how many I have wrong or right while actually doing the questions. Anyone else have the same feelings on this?

I'm the same.... the incorrect number freaks me out. BUT I really like to review as I go along... I started putting post-it notes over top of the correct/incorrect part of my screen. It has helped so much!

RLowry23 wrote:I have a question about Wills (specifically, Abatement).

In one of the practice essays it says in a Will:

$25,000 each to A, B, C
$40,000 to Husband

Bank account has $60,000.

In the problem, the Husband was dead so his bequest went away ... but how would this work if he wasn't dead?

Would it then be that the $60k got split 4 ways cause they were all in general devise?

Abate proportionally. Husband was supposed to get 40/115 so he gets that proportion of $60,000 (approximately $21,000) and the other three split the rest of the $39,000 equally

Blackberie wrote:Hey guys,

Does anyone have any guidance for Secured Transactions? I'm trying to figure out a way to remember all of the steps when there is a dispute over who has a priority/interest in something. Anyone have good Mnemonics or a way to remember the steps to address an essay?

No mnemonic that's earth shattering, but the big picture I try to remember is APP:
1. Attachment (Value given/Right in property/Signed security agreement that is authenticated,is intended, describes collateral)
2. Perfection (by filing, possession, control, automatic)
3. apply Priority rules (rules for secured parties / liens / buyer / pmsi... I didn't try to remember fixtures)

star fox wrote:That 100 question MBE set was hard as shit

Glad I'm not alone.

twenty wrote:

star fox wrote:That 100 question MBE set was hard as shit

Glad I'm not alone.

Yeah I struggled hardcore too. We probably didn't all have the same questions but it was still ROUGH.

Slytherpuff wrote:

twenty wrote:

star fox wrote:That 100 question MBE set was hard as shit

Glad I'm not alone.

Yeah I struggled hardcore too. We probably didn't all have the same questions but it was still ROUGH.

Set 17 was by far the hardest yet. I think it may have been the same for us all this time though. I shut it off and came back a couple of times, and I noticed the questions did not change like they usually do. Either way, it was rough! Anyone have an idea what an average score is on it? I hit a 64/100, and was very surprised to see that I even did that well.

Anybody else using the quiz builder? It just keeps showing me the same questions over and over again ... like questions that I just did on the immediately prior set and answered correctly already. If I'm out of questions, I would think it would at least give me questions that I answered incorrectly so I could review those ones. I also don't understand why it isn't giving me new questions if Themis' claim that there are 2600+ questions in the bank is correct because I have not done that many. Frustrating.

2014applicant wrote:Anybody else using the quiz builder? It just keeps showing me the same questions over and over again ... like questions that I just did on the immediately prior set and answered correctly already. If I'm out of questions, I would think it would at least give me questions that I answered incorrectly so I could review those ones. I also don't understand why it isn't giving me new questions if Themis' claim that there are 2600+ questions in the bank is correct because I have not done that many. Frustrating.

Same thing happened to me. I wanted to practice mortgages because I suck at mortgages and just kept getting the same questions about easements on the quiz builder

Steve2207 wrote:

Slytherpuff wrote:

twenty wrote:

star fox wrote:That 100 question MBE set was hard as shit

Glad I'm not alone.

Yeah I struggled hardcore too. We probably didn't all have the same questions but it was still ROUGH.

Set 17 was by far the hardest yet. I think it may have been the same for us all this time though. I shut it off and came back a couple of times, and I noticed the questions did not change like they usually do. Either way, it was rough! Anyone have an idea what an average score is on it? I hit a 64/100, and was very surprised to see that I even did that well.

I would love to know if set 17 was more typical of what the real bar will look like than the other themis sets. Or maybe I wouldn't love to know but I feel like I should.

Finally got around to the simulated MBE. Did the first portion yesterday afternoon and the second this morning.

81% and 65%

I definitely felt more tired for today's morning set and especially bombed property 6/14 after going 13/15 on yesterday's. I've apparently become a ConLaw scholar though, going 25/29 combined.

Back to essays...

Where do I find the total number of MBE PQ's I've done on the Themis page?

foundingfather wrote:Where do I find the total number of MBE PQ's I've done on the Themis page?

Click on the Course Progress header and then "MBE PQs" in the Overall Module Progress section. It doesn't count your practice exam questions for that section, but it's a good way to see how you did in general.

What are people's completion percentages at right now if you've been following along?

I'm at 93.4%.

villanovajew wrote:What are people's completion percentages at right now if you've been following along?

I'm at 93.4%.

73.5. Should be right at that MAGIC NUMBER for game day.

villanovajew wrote:What are people's completion percentages at right now if you've been following along?

I'm at 93.4%.

88.9%. I have only a few hundred MBE practice questions left, which would normally add 3% at most. Since I have all other progress bars at 100%, not sure how you actually get to 100% overall. Maybe some of the "review" tasks just go away permanently if you don't do them on time? Or the last few MBE sets have outsized percentages attached to them?

At this point I'm focusing mostly on reviewing short outlines, so I doubt I doubt I will get much past 90%.

98%