2018 July California Bar Forum

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psg190

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by psg190 » Wed May 30, 2018 2:38 am

a male human wrote:
psg190 wrote: I'll take answer choice C: the tutor's method was to learn through repetition and everything was open book/open note. My expression of doubt with respect to this methodology was constantly rebuffed and I was encouraged to stay the course. At the end of the day, I didn't know the law.
Out of curiosity, how much did you pay your tutor?
$6,000

psg190

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by psg190 » Wed May 30, 2018 2:47 am

LockBox wrote: This is something I took issue when I interacted with my own tutor. However i did exactly ZERO open book essays. ZERO. And I failed a lot and had to argue with my idiot tutor because they insisted that I was going about it the wrong way. However, I passed.

The takeaway is you don't learn the law by reading it in a book and writing it down. The bar is testing what is in your head. For me, every time I wrote an essay my approach was "let's see what's in my head and how I can reason my way through this." I consistently scored 55's but you know what - with each of those I learned what I didn't know and then figured out what the law was. This repetition burned the law into my mind.

My advice is that your goal is to fail over and over during bar prep so that you can pass the real thing.
That's good advice. Was this on your first go around or second?

I'm working through BarBri lectures, etc. now to supplement my law knowledge (I'm six years removed from law school). Trying to find a healthy balance between completing their materials and doing extra essays/MBEs/memorization on top.

LockBox

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by LockBox » Wed May 30, 2018 11:36 am

psg190 wrote:
LockBox wrote: This is something I took issue when I interacted with my own tutor. However i did exactly ZERO open book essays. ZERO. And I failed a lot and had to argue with my idiot tutor because they insisted that I was going about it the wrong way. However, I passed.

The takeaway is you don't learn the law by reading it in a book and writing it down. The bar is testing what is in your head. For me, every time I wrote an essay my approach was "let's see what's in my head and how I can reason my way through this." I consistently scored 55's but you know what - with each of those I learned what I didn't know and then figured out what the law was. This repetition burned the law into my mind.

My advice is that your goal is to fail over and over during bar prep so that you can pass the real thing.
That's good advice. Was this on your first go around or second?

I'm working through BarBri lectures, etc. now to supplement my law knowledge (I'm six years removed from law school). Trying to find a healthy balance between completing their materials and doing extra essays/MBEs/memorization on top.
Second. I was too scared to deviate on my first go around and did everything barbri/tutor told me to do for fear that if I did my own thing and failed i'd have no one to blame but myself. In the end, I realize that I still only have myself to blame (and congratulate for passing).

My advice for the first go around is to listen and take notes during the lectures, but I wouldn't spend too much time outlining. By the midpoint you should be failing essays/MBE's etc. and going through those motions. Remember, it isn't necessary to be "bar ready" (if there is such a thing) a month before - you only need to be ready to pass the thing on the day of. It will come together by test day so have the courage to grind through essays/MBE's/PT's before you're "ready" in order to get a feel of where you're at and what you need to do. Good luck. This is a stressful time, but understand that it will be over in a matter of time.

Bla Bla Bla Blah

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by Bla Bla Bla Blah » Wed May 30, 2018 12:21 pm

Just throwing in a heads up, but even if you are like I was and only have a week left at the end to prep for the written portion, do it. I thought it was most important to vizualize exactly how I would set my essays up, and developed a system re: how to do this from CA Bar Essays (a book that only cost me an extra 45 on Amazon). You want to take the guesswork out of how you will approach questions on game day, and each legal area (you will find) has a slightly different way that it should be done.

Like I said, I only spent a minimal amount of time reviewing the written portion of this test, but even as a good writer, I'm positive that my scores went up because I had a confident approach to the written portion of this exam (and hedging all of my bets on the MBE portion would have just been too risky).

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by carcollector » Wed May 30, 2018 12:26 pm

Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:Just throwing in a heads up, but even if you are like I was and only have a week left at the end to prep for the written portion, do it. I thought it was most important to vizualize exactly how I would set my essays up, and developed a system re: how to do this from CA Bar Essays (a book that only cost me an extra 45 on Amazon). You want to take the guesswork out of how you will approach questions on game day, and each legal area (you will find) has a slightly different way that it should be done.

Like I said, I only spent a minimal amount of time reviewing the written portion of this test, but even as a good writer, I'm positive that my scores went up because I had a confident approach to the written portion of this exam (and hedging all of my bets on the MBE portion would have just been too risky).
Can you share a link or isbn?

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Bla Bla Bla Blah

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by Bla Bla Bla Blah » Wed May 30, 2018 1:39 pm

carcollector wrote:
Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:Just throwing in a heads up, but even if you are like I was and only have a week left at the end to prep for the written portion, do it. I thought it was most important to vizualize exactly how I would set my essays up, and developed a system re: how to do this from CA Bar Essays (a book that only cost me an extra 45 on Amazon). You want to take the guesswork out of how you will approach questions on game day, and each legal area (you will find) has a slightly different way that it should be done.

Like I said, I only spent a minimal amount of time reviewing the written portion of this test, but even as a good writer, I'm positive that my scores went up because I had a confident approach to the written portion of this exam (and hedging all of my bets on the MBE portion would have just been too risky).
Can you share a link or isbn?
Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam (Bar Review)

How it Helped.
It really helped me understand the material from a theme based approach, which gave me a better way to construct my essays and remember what was up... especially with PR. It also simplified the way I organized by suggesting simple, bold faced, concise topic headers as the goal (kind of like what I placed just above this paragraph). So I didn't get caught up in underlining, Bold w/caps, or anything that slowed me down much. When I had to either set up a title header, or undo it so I could write, it was as simple as Control B (and with my tendency to overthink things, it was good to have a book that set up a titling system that, though common sense to some, is not something I would have figured out on my own prior to game day).

scard

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by scard » Wed May 30, 2018 2:58 pm

Ha haha haha.. just got this email

Dear Scard,

Thank you for recently registering for the California Bar Exam. After hearing from many of you, the State Bar is making available a pilot program designed to help you prepare to sit for the July 2018 bar exam.

In this program, recent test-takers describe their experiences and strategies preparing for the California Bar Exam. Their stories may help you anticipate what further preparing for and then taking the Bar is like. While this program was originally designed primarily for first-time test-takers, we are making the program available to those who are repeating the exam, in case the information is useful to this group as well. As part of the program, you will be asked to share your thoughts and expectations about preparing for the exam, so we can share your experiences with future test-takers. These stories will help those future test-takers as they approach the Bar Exam.

The stories will become available in mid-June as you prepare for the exam, and after the State Bar’s registration process closes. To receive them, please sign up now. (Please allow up to 10 minutes to complete the interest form.)

To sign up for this opportunity, click here: California bar exam strategies and stories

Sincerely,

Leah Wilson
Executive Director
State Bar of California

Bla Bla Bla Blah

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by Bla Bla Bla Blah » Wed May 30, 2018 3:11 pm

scard wrote:Ha haha haha.. just got this email

Dear Scard,

Thank you for recently registering for the California Bar Exam. After hearing from many of you, the State Bar is making available a pilot program designed to help you prepare to sit for the July 2018 bar exam.

In this program, recent test-takers describe their experiences and strategies preparing for the California Bar Exam. Their stories may help you anticipate what further preparing for and then taking the Bar is like. While this program was originally designed primarily for first-time test-takers, we are making the program available to those who are repeating the exam, in case the information is useful to this group as well. As part of the program, you will be asked to share your thoughts and expectations about preparing for the exam, so we can share your experiences with future test-takers. These stories will help those future test-takers as they approach the Bar Exam.

The stories will become available in mid-June as you prepare for the exam, and after the State Bar’s registration process closes. To receive them, please sign up now. (Please allow up to 10 minutes to complete the interest form.)

To sign up for this opportunity, click here: California bar exam strategies and stories

Sincerely,

Leah Wilson
Executive Director
State Bar of California
How I read this:They know they done fucked up by announcing a non-existent program (apparently past the point when this nonexistent program could even be signed up for) in the Feb 2018 results specifically for retakers. And now they are trying to make believe that this "pilot-program" did exist, but only for first time takers, and the program is really just an email with "Bar test-taker stories"?!

Unreal. Surprised that Above the Law hasn't taken the Bar to task for this nonsense yet.

hope2018

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by hope2018 » Wed May 30, 2018 3:20 pm

Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:
scard wrote:Ha haha haha.. just got this email

Dear Scard,

Thank you for recently registering for the California Bar Exam. After hearing from many of you, the State Bar is making available a pilot program designed to help you prepare to sit for the July 2018 bar exam.

In this program, recent test-takers describe their experiences and strategies preparing for the California Bar Exam. Their stories may help you anticipate what further preparing for and then taking the Bar is like. While this program was originally designed primarily for first-time test-takers, we are making the program available to those who are repeating the exam, in case the information is useful to this group as well. As part of the program, you will be asked to share your thoughts and expectations about preparing for the exam, so we can share your experiences with future test-takers. These stories will help those future test-takers as they approach the Bar Exam.

The stories will become available in mid-June as you prepare for the exam, and after the State Bar’s registration process closes. To receive them, please sign up now. (Please allow up to 10 minutes to complete the interest form.)

To sign up for this opportunity, click here: California bar exam strategies and stories

Sincerely,

Leah Wilson
Executive Director
State Bar of California
How I read this:They know they done fucked up by announcing a non-existent program (apparently past the point when this nonexistent program could even be signed up for) in the Feb 2018 results specifically for retakers. And now they are trying to make believe that this "pilot-program" did exist, but only for first time takers, and the program is really just an email with "Bar test-taker stories"?!

Unreal. Surprised that Above the Law hasn't taken the Bar to task for this nonsense yet.
Aren't we sharing bar stories on this site? That should be sufficient if not better than the program they offer.

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a male human

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by a male human » Wed May 30, 2018 3:22 pm

Can't wait to see what kind of video of people in a bright studio with upbeat background music they're going to come up with

Nightcrawler

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by Nightcrawler » Wed May 30, 2018 4:55 pm

hope2018 wrote:
Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:
scard wrote:Ha haha haha.. just got this email

Dear Scard,

Thank you for recently registering for the California Bar Exam. After hearing from many of you, the State Bar is making available a pilot program designed to pretend we arehelping you prepare to sit for the July 2018 bar exam while we try to distract the world from the fact that this exam has nothing to do with minimum competency and that we are just trying to limit the number of attorneys in California through an unnecessarily high score in a cost-effective exam that makes us $12,000,000 a year.

In this program, recent test-takers describe their experiences and strategies preparing for the California Bar Exam. Their stories may help you anticipate what further preparing for and then taking the Bar is like. While this program was originally designed primarily for first-time test-takers we realized we screwed up by not including repeaters in a study that is supposed to look like we are trying to help people pass, we are making the program available to those who are repeating the exam, in case the information is useful to this group as well. As part of the program, you will be asked to share your thoughts and expectations about preparing for the exam, so we can share your experiences with future test-takers. These stories will help those future test-takers as they approach the Bar Exam.

The stories will become available in mid-June as you prepare for the exam, and after the State Bar’s registration process closes. To receive them, please sign up now. (Please allow up to 10 minutes to complete the interest form.)

To sign up for this opportunity, click here: California bar exam strategies and stories

Sincerely,

Leah Wilson
Executive Director
State Bar of California
How I read this:They know they done fucked up by announcing a non-existent program (apparently past the point when this nonexistent program could even be signed up for) in the Feb 2018 results specifically for retakers. And now they are trying to make believe that this "pilot-program" did exist, but only for first time takers, and the program is really just an email with "Bar test-taker stories"?!

Unreal. Surprised that Above the Law hasn't taken the Bar to task for this nonsense yet.
Aren't we sharing bar stories on this site? That should be sufficient if not better than the program they offer.
To provide some clarity, I redacted the letter to better reflect the intent of the author.

DISCLAIMER: it's a joke, so if you are the State Bar Person reading: this is just an opinion so you'd better respect my 1st Amendment rights, HA.

valentina

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by valentina » Wed May 30, 2018 5:35 pm

mattinfll wrote:I've been practicing for 9 years in Florida, which I passed the first time relying on Kaplan Online. My practice is plaintiff's and transactional (very focused on torts of all kinds and contracts/remedies). I am the researcher and writer of my firm so I'm always writing complaints and briefs.

I am taking the CA attorney exam and since I have to pay for this myself, I really don't want to spend $2700 on Barbri if I don't have to.

Are there any other experienced attorneys out there who don't have to take the MBE and are just focusing on the essay and PT courses and materials that are out there? SmartBarPrep, baressays, Mary Basick, etc. ? Instead of Barbri or Themis?

Thanks
I'm also a practicing attorney barred in FL and I passed the CBX in July 2017. I had to abandon BarBri the first week of June due to a very unexpected death in my family; after that, I mainly relied on baressays.com. I wrote a more extensive post regarding how I studied in another thread, if you'd like to look for it under my profile. Feel free to shoot me any questions.

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by maiden42 » Wed May 30, 2018 5:39 pm

Any resources for rule statements for essays?

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by Nightcrawler » Wed May 30, 2018 5:58 pm

maiden42 wrote:Any resources for rule statements for essays?
SmartBarPrep

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by FinallyPassedTheBar » Wed May 30, 2018 7:03 pm

maiden42 wrote:Any resources for rule statements for essays?

BarEssays.com

Email me for a discount code: discounts@yesyoucanpass.com

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by LockBox » Wed May 30, 2018 7:42 pm

maiden42 wrote:Any resources for rule statements for essays?
https://law.stanford.edu/office-of-stud ... formation/

Stanford Law school's website, scroll to the bottom. This is all I used to pass.

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by scard » Wed May 30, 2018 8:20 pm

LockBox wrote:
maiden42 wrote:Any resources for rule statements for essays?
https://law.stanford.edu/office-of-stud ... formation/

Stanford Law school's website, scroll to the bottom. This is all I used to pass.
I'm getting a gateway error timeout

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maiden42

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by maiden42 » Wed May 30, 2018 8:26 pm

scard wrote:
LockBox wrote:
maiden42 wrote:Any resources for rule statements for essays?
https://law.stanford.edu/office-of-stud ... formation/

Stanford Law school's website, scroll to the bottom. This is all I used to pass.
I'm getting a gateway error timeout
Same. Does anyone have these saved that can share?

barjamie8

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by barjamie8 » Thu May 31, 2018 2:30 am

I ran across this post on Facebook about the Selected Answers on the Cal Bar website and thought it was pretty interesting, for those of you who are using those answers to study. I think it was originally posted by the owner of BarEssays.com:

For those of you who are using the "Selected Essay Answers" on the Cal Bar website, I recently ran across testimony from Dean Barbieri who was the #1 person in charge of the California Bar Exam for 10 years and also selected those "Selected Answers." The testimony is pretty incredible. I transcribed it and am copying it below.

Barbieri says that the selected answers "do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination" because they are the "top 1% of the top 1%" of answers that receive a score of "90-100" and "people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can."

Barbieri actually advocated that students look at essays that score 65, 70, 75 instead, which he thinks would be much more helpful. Obviously, he is not aware of BarEssays.com.

If you want to see it, the video is at http://calbar.granicus.com/MediaPlayer. ... lip_id=204

His testimony about the selected answers starts at 1:07:14.

Here is the full text:

August 15, 2017 Testimony

“Earlier someone mentioned about the selected answers that appear on the state bar website. I used to be responsible for selecting the selected answers. They do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination. They are represented as [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who have passed. They are not [typical] "good" [essay answers]. They are all 90s-100s. They are extraordinary [essay answers]. They may be on the performance test people who are research attorneys for the United States Supreme Court who come to California.

The[] [selected answers] are not [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who passed. They are the top 1% of 1% of people who have been successful on the bar examination. Bar review companies and law schools and law students who are studying for the exam look at those and [erroneously] think - 'this is what I have to do to be successful' and they try to pattern their answer as a result. In reality . . . you don’t know if someone spent an 1.5 hours on the [essay answer] that’s turned in [and ultimately published] . . . You are sending a terrible message to bar takers . . . people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can.”

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by ubebarstudying » Thu May 31, 2018 10:14 am

Hello from the East Coast, California friends. In my doing...my thing, I discovered a blogger who also founded a review company and she has quite a few followers as well as viewers and also blogs free information about the Bar Exam in general, and the California exam in particular. Her website is https://barexamguru.com/ and she is the owner of "Bar None Review." I just thought I'd post this for you guys, I think it is worth looking into.

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by justanotheruser » Thu May 31, 2018 12:56 pm

Got my MBE score advisory from NCBE this morning for the exam. Confirmed that I got at least a scaled score of 150 in February. That probably gave me more room for error on the essays/PT, which I knew for sure I improved on this time around.

It's encouraging that my MBE score went up even though I thought the MBE was much trickier in Feb '18 > July '17.

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hope2018

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by hope2018 » Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:32 pm

barjamie8 wrote:I ran across this post on Facebook about the Selected Answers on the Cal Bar website and thought it was pretty interesting, for those of you who are using those answers to study. I think it was originally posted by the owner of BarEssays.com:

For those of you who are using the "Selected Essay Answers" on the Cal Bar website, I recently ran across testimony from Dean Barbieri who was the #1 person in charge of the California Bar Exam for 10 years and also selected those "Selected Answers." The testimony is pretty incredible. I transcribed it and am copying it below.

Barbieri says that the selected answers "do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination" because they are the "top 1% of the top 1%" of answers that receive a score of "90-100" and "people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can."

Barbieri actually advocated that students look at essays that score 65, 70, 75 instead, which he thinks would be much more helpful. Obviously, he is not aware of BarEssays.com.

If you want to see it, the video is at http://calbar.granicus.com/MediaPlayer. ... lip_id=204

His testimony about the selected answers starts at 1:07:14.

Here is the full text:

August 15, 2017 Testimony

“Earlier someone mentioned about the selected answers that appear on the state bar website. I used to be responsible for selecting the selected answers. They do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination. They are represented as [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who have passed. They are not [typical] "good" [essay answers]. They are all 90s-100s. They are extraordinary [essay answers]. They may be on the performance test people who are research attorneys for the United States Supreme Court who come to California.

The[] [selected answers] are not [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who passed. They are the top 1% of 1% of people who have been successful on the bar examination. Bar review companies and law schools and law students who are studying for the exam look at those and [erroneously] think - 'this is what I have to do to be successful' and they try to pattern their answer as a result. In reality . . . you don’t know if someone spent an 1.5 hours on the [essay answer] that’s turned in [and ultimately published] . . . You are sending a terrible message to bar takers . . . people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can.”
Some of the selected essays have incorrect answers or rule statement. I followed Baressays.com and compared the essays to the selected answers.

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by LockBox » Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:42 pm

hope2018 wrote:
barjamie8 wrote:I ran across this post on Facebook about the Selected Answers on the Cal Bar website and thought it was pretty interesting, for those of you who are using those answers to study. I think it was originally posted by the owner of BarEssays.com:

For those of you who are using the "Selected Essay Answers" on the Cal Bar website, I recently ran across testimony from Dean Barbieri who was the #1 person in charge of the California Bar Exam for 10 years and also selected those "Selected Answers." The testimony is pretty incredible. I transcribed it and am copying it below.

Barbieri says that the selected answers "do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination" because they are the "top 1% of the top 1%" of answers that receive a score of "90-100" and "people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can."

Barbieri actually advocated that students look at essays that score 65, 70, 75 instead, which he thinks would be much more helpful. Obviously, he is not aware of BarEssays.com.

If you want to see it, the video is at http://calbar.granicus.com/MediaPlayer. ... lip_id=204

His testimony about the selected answers starts at 1:07:14.

Here is the full text:

August 15, 2017 Testimony

“Earlier someone mentioned about the selected answers that appear on the state bar website. I used to be responsible for selecting the selected answers. They do a terrible terrible disservice to people studying for the bar examination. They are represented as [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who have passed. They are not [typical] "good" [essay answers]. They are all 90s-100s. They are extraordinary [essay answers]. They may be on the performance test people who are research attorneys for the United States Supreme Court who come to California.

The[] [selected answers] are not [typical] “good” [essay answers] from people who passed. They are the top 1% of 1% of people who have been successful on the bar examination. Bar review companies and law schools and law students who are studying for the exam look at those and [erroneously] think - 'this is what I have to do to be successful' and they try to pattern their answer as a result. In reality . . . you don’t know if someone spent an 1.5 hours on the [essay answer] that’s turned in [and ultimately published] . . . You are sending a terrible message to bar takers . . . people try to mimic those and there’s no way in the world that they can.”
Some of the selected essays have incorrect answers or rule statement. I followed Baressays.com and compared the essays to the selected answers.
Counterpoints: First, you should be looking at a 1% answer - that should be the goal. I think what he is getting at is that it is a disservice to look at this answer and think that this is the result you should produce. I mean, ideally it is, but in reality you shouldn't beat yourself up for falling short. In the end, a good balance would be to look at the 1% answers and study them, but to also look at the 60, 65, 75 answers to gauge what a realistic (and scaled) essay looks like.

Second, I do not believe you fail based on incorrect rule statements. When I got my essays back the first time, I had a rule in a crim pro essay 100% wrong - I had the exact opposite cited, and my analysis bolstered the fact that I had the rule wrong. The score on the essay? 65. Obviously, it's better to know the correct rule vs. the incorrect rule, but all things being the same spotting the issue, writing a cogent rule statement and doing good analysis > correct rule statements.

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by justanotheruser » Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:25 pm

LockBox wrote: Counterpoints: First, you should be looking at a 1% answer - that should be the goal. I think what he is getting at is that it is a disservice to look at this answer and think that this is the result you should produce. I mean, ideally it is, but in reality you shouldn't beat yourself up for falling short. In the end, a good balance would be to look at the 1% answers and study them, but to also look at the 60, 65, 75 answers to gauge what a realistic (and scaled) essay looks like.

Second, I do not believe you fail based on incorrect rule statements. When I got my essays back the first time, I had a rule in a crim pro essay 100% wrong - I had the exact opposite cited, and my analysis bolstered the fact that I had the rule wrong. The score on the essay? 65. Obviously, it's better to know the correct rule vs. the incorrect rule, but all things being the same spotting the issue, writing a cogent rule statement and doing good analysis > correct rule statements.
After multiple repeats, I finally passed the Feb '18 exam. A lot of the points here mirror my own experience in studying for the final time. I'd compare what I'd written on essays to a 60, 65, 75, and the highest graded paper available on BarEssays.

As for rule statements, I realized I was soaking up valuable bandwidth with unnecessary stress in (1) trying to memorize verbatim the rule statements and (2) beating myself up if what I'd written wasn't word-for-word what I'd been trying to memorize. Studying went much smoother when I learned the rules/organization via osmosis from practicing essays over and over again. As I started writing out rule statements in my own words, it gave me tons of freedom to just focus on the analysis part of the essays.

LockBox

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Re: 2018 July California Bar

Post by LockBox » Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:58 pm

justanotheruser wrote:
LockBox wrote: Counterpoints: First, you should be looking at a 1% answer - that should be the goal. I think what he is getting at is that it is a disservice to look at this answer and think that this is the result you should produce. I mean, ideally it is, but in reality you shouldn't beat yourself up for falling short. In the end, a good balance would be to look at the 1% answers and study them, but to also look at the 60, 65, 75 answers to gauge what a realistic (and scaled) essay looks like.

Second, I do not believe you fail based on incorrect rule statements. When I got my essays back the first time, I had a rule in a crim pro essay 100% wrong - I had the exact opposite cited, and my analysis bolstered the fact that I had the rule wrong. The score on the essay? 65. Obviously, it's better to know the correct rule vs. the incorrect rule, but all things being the same spotting the issue, writing a cogent rule statement and doing good analysis > correct rule statements.
After multiple repeats, I finally passed the Feb '18 exam. A lot of the points here mirror my own experience in studying for the final time. I'd compare what I'd written on essays to a 60, 65, 75, and the highest graded paper available on BarEssays.

As for rule statements, I realized I was soaking up valuable bandwidth with unnecessary stress in (1) trying to memorize verbatim the rule statements and (2) beating myself up if what I'd written wasn't word-for-word what I'd been trying to memorize. Studying went much smoother when I learned the rules/organization via osmosis from practicing essays over and over again. As I started writing out rule statements in my own words, it gave me tons of freedom to just focus on the analysis part of the essays.
I'll second this sentiment.

The way I thought of it was that the bar graders are attorneys. From a 10,000ft view, they are reading your work in order to evaluate and consider whether you should be admitted into the profession. From that perspective, I would believe that they are looking for those who can write in a lawerly fashion - not regurgitate generic rule statements (again, correct rules > incorrect ones). All i'm trying to drive home is don't worry as much about memorizing as you should about getting experience - as justanotheruser said, they learned more from "osmosis" by practicing essays over and over again. On game day, it will be your experience during bar prep that will come through - not doing a word dump onto the paper. Hope this makes sense.

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