THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019 Forum

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Lancair

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Lancair » Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:27 am

I'm at 43%, but I started early.

ubebarstudying

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by ubebarstudying » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:26 am

I just want to say as a PSA, dont let your % complete and/or how it relates to everyone else because it may just cause unwanted stress. Everyone has their own study methods and the key is learning the material and how to take the exam, etc.

Now, if you're at 30% the week before the exam, that is a different story. But 6 weeks out? Dont stress about it yet.

Lancair

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Lancair » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:06 am

One month in! I don't know if I can deal with Ide-Don's oversized suit and tie any more thou: https://imgur.com/a/hBDGTLB

inyourhonor07

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by inyourhonor07 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:02 am

I'm at 61%, but I started in November and intend to finish at 100%.

My MBE scores are starting to get better now that I'm done with all the lectures and I can focus more.

Psmith0717

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Psmith0717 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:01 pm

I’m at 61% but I started in November as well. I’m focusing on memorizing and practice essays/questions since I’m working full time.

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Pepp2019

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Pepp2019 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:10 pm

frqw9201 wrote:Is anyone selling Themis California books? or willing to email me the epub files they provide?
Send me another DM with your email. I'm not sure how to send a DM reply to you here. Thanks

QContinuum

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by QContinuum » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:43 pm

Pepp2019 wrote:
frqw9201 wrote:Is anyone selling Themis California books? or willing to email me the epub files they provide?
Send me another DM with your email. I'm not sure how to send a DM reply to you here. Thanks
Moderator here - I believe new users can't send private messages until they've amassed at least 5 posts on the site.

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Neilt001

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Neilt001 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 12:25 am

sg.cambs wrote:
Neilt001 wrote:
washington_mystics wrote:What's everyone's strategies for memorising rule statements for the MEEs? Every time I write a graded essay, I'm just hitting blanks for the first ten minutes trying to bullshit the rule before digging into the analysis.
Hi there! My personal approach was to print off the themis model answers, (delete fact-specific parts) and highlight/mark them up. Then do you very best to learn the rule statements and be able to regurgitate them when needed. Themis is good because it overs a lot of bases (not all of course) and you'll do well to learn the answers well. But also make sure you can BS. I scored in the 90th percentile on the written day and two of the six essays were complete BS cause I had no idea how to answer them properly. In your answers, make sure you spend lots of time applying rules to the facts.
Hi! Great shout on deleting facts from the model answers and studying from those. Prior to doing that, did you spend much time actually outlining or writing the essays? Similar to you last year, I'm working full time but struggling slightly in keeping up with lectures/my own outlines/practice essays/graded essays/workshops... Wondering what to prioritise.
hey! I probably did a moderate amount of writing essay answers and outlining them. To be honest I often looked at the questions and really didn't know the answers, and so I think most of my learning was done on the model answers haha. As to what to prioritise, I would say the MBE PQs. Obviously lectures are key, and I wrote all my own notes based on the lectures. But the real learning is done on the PQs, and writing down all the rules you got wrong. I never cracked open the Themis outlines, not even once. But that's just me; I don't learn well from big slabs of text. I need to distill it into nice lists, charts, boxes, arrows, etc.

zmg100

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by zmg100 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:07 am

inyourhonor07 wrote:I'm at 61%, but I started in November and intend to finish at 100%.

My MBE scores are starting to get better now that I'm done with all the lectures and I can focus more.
Do the lectures basically finish around the 50% mark?

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KPocius

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by KPocius » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:15 am

zmg100 wrote:
inyourhonor07 wrote:I'm at 61%, but I started in November and intend to finish at 100%.

My MBE scores are starting to get better now that I'm done with all the lectures and I can focus more.
Do the lectures basically finish around the 50% mark?
I am currently at 52% and still have 4 MEE topics left, so I would say somewhere around 57%

inyourhonor07

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by inyourhonor07 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 12:43 pm

zmg100 wrote:
inyourhonor07 wrote:I'm at 61%, but I started in November and intend to finish at 100%.

My MBE scores are starting to get better now that I'm done with all the lectures and I can focus more.
Do the lectures basically finish around the 50% mark?
No. I'm taking the IL bar, so I have more lectures than everyone taking the UBE (lots of IL distinction lectures). I think I was around 56% when I realized I still had 4-5 more lectures, so I just breezed through them in flex study mode because I wanted more than a month to focus on the MBE. I'm also working full-time, so I'm working with much less time than everyone studying full-time.

For future lurkers, my Themis rep called and told me I need to take a day or two off or I'm going to burn out, so I'm taking tonight off. So if I fail, I can blame her for it, right? I will admit I've been going a little psycho. I taped some Evidence rules to my wall in our home office and it's starting to look a little like a scene out of Homeland.

Beatthebar89

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Beatthebar89 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:45 pm

Can anyone explain to me how they are creating short condense outlines for each subject? Some rules are specifically included in the final outlines and some are only in the essay workshop. I am struggling to know how much detail to include and which way to structure my notes.

longagotaker

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by longagotaker » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:59 pm

Beatthebar89 wrote:Can anyone explain to me how they are creating short condense outlines for each subject? Some rules are specifically included in the final outlines and some are only in the essay workshop. I am struggling to know how much detail to include and which way to structure my notes.
I have been creating short outlines from the lecture notes primarily, plus any information that has come up on the essays or from the long outlines that I thought I might forget. I also have a separate running list of rules for each subject from any MBE questions I have missed. It definitely takes time out of your progress but I started early and now when I run through them I am much more familiar with the information. I haven’t used the final outlines at all because I didn’t think they were helpful.

That seems to be working for me but I’m interested to hear what others have to say.

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Lancair

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Lancair » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:52 am

Beatthebar89 wrote:Can anyone explain to me how they are creating short condense outlines for each subject? Some rules are specifically included in the final outlines and some are only in the essay workshop. I am struggling to know how much detail to include and which way to structure my notes.
I am basing my short outlines on the topics reviewed in the Ide-Don lectures. Using review of the FROs and practice questions to pick up the nuances.

ubebarstudying

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by ubebarstudying » Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:23 pm

longagotaker wrote:
inyourhonor07 wrote:
longagotaker wrote:How is everyone doing on the graded essays? Is the goal all 4s to pass or can we pass with a mix of 3s and 4s? If you have taken the course before, is the grading pretty accurate?
I got 4s on Contracts and Property. The property questions on that essay were very time consuming and I didn't hit submit until there were 2 seconds left. If you look through the threads on this forum, you'll see many people who consistently received 2s and 3s on the graded essays and still passed by a wide margin. I wouldn't sweat it if you've gotten a 4 and a 3.
Thanks for your response. I just like to know what I'm aiming for and whether I'm on the right track. I got a 3 on the Contracts essay and a 5 on Property. I guess it averages to about the right place. Hopefully, Torts will be another area to pick up some points.
With those scores you should not have a problem by/on exam day, for sure.

sg.cambs

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by sg.cambs » Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:03 pm

Neilt001 wrote:
sg.cambs wrote:
Neilt001 wrote:
washington_mystics wrote:What's everyone's strategies for memorising rule statements for the MEEs? Every time I write a graded essay, I'm just hitting blanks for the first ten minutes trying to bullshit the rule before digging into the analysis.
Hi there! My personal approach was to print off the themis model answers, (delete fact-specific parts) and highlight/mark them up. Then do you very best to learn the rule statements and be able to regurgitate them when needed. Themis is good because it overs a lot of bases (not all of course) and you'll do well to learn the answers well. But also make sure you can BS. I scored in the 90th percentile on the written day and two of the six essays were complete BS cause I had no idea how to answer them properly. In your answers, make sure you spend lots of time applying rules to the facts.
Hi! Great shout on deleting facts from the model answers and studying from those. Prior to doing that, did you spend much time actually outlining or writing the essays? Similar to you last year, I'm working full time but struggling slightly in keeping up with lectures/my own outlines/practice essays/graded essays/workshops... Wondering what to prioritise.
hey! I probably did a moderate amount of writing essay answers and outlining them. To be honest I often looked at the questions and really didn't know the answers, and so I think most of my learning was done on the model answers haha. As to what to prioritise, I would say the MBE PQs. Obviously lectures are key, and I wrote all my own notes based on the lectures. But the real learning is done on the PQs, and writing down all the rules you got wrong. I never cracked open the Themis outlines, not even once. But that's just me; I don't learn well from big slabs of text. I need to distill it into nice lists, charts, boxes, arrows, etc.
Ah ok thank you - good to know! Sorry to harass you with questions but did you find the civ pro and constitutional questions incredibly nuanced? I know of a few people who didn't use the large outlines (and I haven't done so myself), but even after lectures and Ide-Don's workshops, the MBE sets for those subjects seem to bring up rules I haven't covered.

washington_mystics

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by washington_mystics » Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:54 pm

How is everyone's overall MBE? I have a 56% out of 1200 MBE Qs. Not too comfortable w/ that.

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Lancair

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Lancair » Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:55 pm

washington_mystics wrote:How is everyone's overall MBE? I have a 56% out of 1200 MBE Qs. Not too comfortable w/ that.
71% out of 1285.

inyourhonor07

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by inyourhonor07 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:34 pm

washington_mystics wrote:How is everyone's overall MBE? I have a 56% out of 1200 MBE Qs. Not too comfortable w/ that.
I think that's pretty average from what I've gathered from my friends. You're probably about to start doing mixed sets and those scores are what really matters. Just work on improving your % correct on the mixed sets and you'll be fine. Overall % is bullshit because you're still learning the rules and how to apply them for the first 800 MBE PQs.

Also, some people used their lecture handouts/outlines to answer some of the subject specific MBE PQs, so take the "I have 73% correct after 700 questions" people with a grain of salt.

inyourhonor07

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by inyourhonor07 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:45 pm

Full-time workers:
1. How much time are you taking off work before the bar?
2. What's your strategy for your time off?

I took off 2/8 - 2/27. It's definitely going to be hard to go back the day after, but I don't have a choice.

Psmith0717

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by Psmith0717 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:14 pm

I took off 2/18-2/27 I have to go back the day after as well. You’re lucky to get two weeks off! I’ll just be reviewing essays, practicing MBE and going over subjects that may still be giving me trouble. You?

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by washington_mystics » Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:28 pm

inyourhonor07 wrote:Full-time workers:
1. How much time are you taking off work before the bar?
2. What's your strategy for your time off?

I took off 2/8 - 2/27. It's definitely going to be hard to go back the day after, but I don't have a choice.
2/4 - 2/27, putting feelers around WFH on 2/28 and 3/1 but unsure how that's going to play out.
Just making sure I build enough "rest days" during the time off so I don't get burnt out.

inyourhonor07

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by inyourhonor07 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:42 pm

Psmith0717 wrote:I took off 2/18-2/27 I have to go back the day after as well. You’re lucky to get two weeks off! I’ll just be reviewing essays, practicing MBE and going over subjects that may still be giving me trouble. You?
Ya, I showed my boss how low the Feb. passage rate in IL is and he immediately understood why I was so nervous. He said the passage rate when he took the bar was over 90% and he went to a TTTT, so that's really saying something.

When I take time off, I'm going to hit memorization hard with my MBE note cards, lots of MBE PQs and review, and I'll read over as many model essay answers as I can. My essay scores are 4s and 5s, so I'm trying to focus more on the MBE right now. I'm still missing more Evidence and Con Law questions than anything else, so I'm trying to turn those around right now.

sg.cambs

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by sg.cambs » Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:11 pm

inyourhonor07 wrote:Full-time workers:
1. How much time are you taking off work before the bar?
2. What's your strategy for your time off?

I took off 2/8 - 2/27. It's definitely going to be hard to go back the day after, but I don't have a choice.
I took off 2/6 to 3/1, but only included the extra days as I don't live in the US and need to get back to where I work.

Plan is to try memorise as many essay rules as possible and practice MBEs. I'm worried about leaving too much to that couple of weeks - they feel like a lot of time compared to the hours I cram in after work/at weekends at the moment, but I imagine they will fly by.

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Re: THEMIS DISCUSSION - FEBRUARY 2019

Post by DodgerBlues1991 » Wed Jan 23, 2019 10:49 pm

I am just about done reviewing the MBE subjects, does anyone recommend a good productive quick way to go over all the subjects I have done so far. i wanted to take one of the next few days of to just take a day to review everything I have done so far for a second time. Anyone recommend a good method, I was thinking the leansheets?

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