Top Law Schools

Anyone taking new Barbri or Themis with newly updated PR lecture? How is it like? A lot of emphasis on the new changes? I got the old lecture and not sure what to do with it. I'd love to hear it if I could have an option to just get that lecture.

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just started studying, my plan is to hit a subject a week, maybe 2 or 3 in one week sometimes when they are shorter. Do a read through of the topic on the mini-convisor, do 100 mbes and through review of them (I have themis; not sure to get adapti bar or not because heard somewhere they are the same questions. AND do about 3-4 essays per subject from bar essays. I am a repeat taker.

Good luck to you. I was a repeat taker as well and just passed the exam in February 2018. Not sure how helpful it will be, but here's a thread I posted a few weeks ago detailing my approach when I finally passed the exam: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=298888

a male human wrote:What are peeps studying for February working on at this point? How are you feeling?

I am doing themis. Got a free re-do from them luckily. I'm mostly going to be using it to keep myself on track. I missed my July by 12 points, mostly because I got absolutely destroyed by mbes so that's going to be my focus, more so than essays.

I've got K, PR, and torts covered so far. Done a couple essays for each and worked on plenty of mbes so far. This time, using this Emanuel's mbe guide as well.

I'll probably buy adaptibar some time later, once I run out of this supplemental.

Any suggestions for active review?

I used flashcards during law school but for some reason they weren't much help for me during bar prep this summer. So I'm wondering if anyone used other methods to actively review.

I did a late registration today to take the exam in Oakland. Only the writing portion was offered, which is what i wanted.

Is it guaranteed that I'll get it? They closed the Oakland laptop and left the writing open, is that a good sign?

xonimi wrote:Any suggestions for active review?

I used flashcards during law school but for some reason they weren't much help for me during bar prep this summer. So I'm wondering if anyone used other methods to actively review.

Passed the Feb 2018 CA bar here. Was a multiple repeater.

The only thing I actively reviewed (beyond practice problems) was MBEs. After I'd do a practice set (30 questions), I'd review questions I got wrong and ones I marked as being uncertain about (even if I got 'em right). I'd then compile rule statements on a google doc over time. Every day, right before my MBE practice set, I'd go read through the document. Over time, I'd edit/revise the rule statements into my own words. When I became comfortable with certain issues/rules, I'd delete them from the document.

justanotheruser wrote:

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just started studying, my plan is to hit a subject a week, maybe 2 or 3 in one week sometimes when they are shorter. Do a read through of the topic on the mini-convisor, do 100 mbes and through review of them (I have themis; not sure to get adapti bar or not because heard somewhere they are the same questions. AND do about 3-4 essays per subject from bar essays. I am a repeat taker.

Good luck to you. I was a repeat taker as well and just passed the exam in February 2018. Not sure how helpful it will be, but here's a thread I posted a few weeks ago detailing my approach when I finally passed the exam: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=298888

I was an ultimately successful repeater as well and followed a very similar approach, using most of the same resources.

How often does the CBX test the same issue/subject from one exam to the next?

It happened with the last exam where they tested Contracts/Remedies and had in the Feb 18 exam too.

My impression is that they'll do that with the big subjects (they once tested 1st Amendment 3 times in a row) but not with the smaller subjects.

Heyall wrote:How often does the CBX test the same issue/subject from one exam to the next?

It happened with the last exam where they tested Contracts/Remedies and had in the Feb 18 exam too.

My impression is that they'll do that with the big subjects (they once tested 1st Amendment 3 times in a row) but not with the smaller subjects.

Not too often but they tested Remedies something like 5 out of 6 administrations in a row recently.

I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

Why not start to memorize while you practice?

a male human wrote:

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

Why not start to memorize while you practice?

I mean im doing that as well, but the feb 3rd and on is when I planned to actually set aside time just for memorization. Aside from that on what are some good tips to "memorize" while practicing?

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:

a male human wrote:

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

Why not start to memorize while you practice?

I mean im doing that as well, but the feb 3rd and on is when I planned to actually set aside time just for memorization. Aside from that on what are some good tips to "memorize" while practicing?

Keep using the rules. It's basically baked into your plan.

The basis for memorization is frequency of recall and attempts to recall (like when you fail to recall). So you can do your thorough review and rote memorize your topic outlines now. And you can also try to do closed-book and put the rules into practice; this also will help you understand how an issue and rule interact contextually.

To me, memorization and practice aren't all that attenuated from each other. When you asked when to start memorizing even though you were going to do MBE and essays, I felt your two goals weren't inconsistent with each other.

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

AMH is correct, practice facilitates memorization. When you hit February it should be the case that you’re focused on writing or issue spotting more essays per day. You really don’t want to be making flash cards, mini outlines or spending a lot of time learning a subject in Feb. January and December probably are better used for rote memorization of the bar’s subject matter and minimal bar exercises (50 Mbes + 2-3 essays per day).

In Feb your time is better spent digging through the essay bank on the bar examiners site and looking at tons of older essays. Ideally, you want to look at every essay posted online and even some of the older ones available in bar study books. The difference between Ca and other states is that the Ca examiners want essays structured in a very specific way depending on the subject matter. Which is why you want to practice and be very familiar with the setups the month of the exam.

Can those of you that have taken the bar exam on back to back occasions confirm are the questions always new or do the MBE examiners re-use questions? I would assume that it must be difficult to write 200 new questions every 6 months so they must re-use questions. Is that the experience of those that have taken the bar more than once?

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:I just set my calendar up for the next few months. The date I have scheduled as the day I finish substantive review of topics is Febuarary 3rd. From now til that day every four to five days I am doing a different subject and within those four to five days I am doing a thorough review of the subject, along with about 100-133 MBE's of that subject, and issue spotting 2-3 essays, and writing 2-3 essays. Is it too late to start MEMORIZING (while still doing mbe + essays every day) starting on Feb 4th?

Between strict memorization and practice problems, I'd go with the latter 9 times out of 10. I'm not sure there's a better way to memorize than by doing actual problems and learning rules in the context of actual fact patterns, etc.

thanks for the help guys, I guess I should of rephrased my question better, basically what I wanted to know is if it is okay to be done with looking at every subject by Feb 3rd. Basically after Feb 3 not learning anything "new" anymore, or should I be done way earlier.

Blueplanet wrote:Can those of you that have taken the bar exam on back to back occasions confirm are the questions always new or do the MBE examiners re-use questions? I would assume that it must be difficult to write 200 new questions every 6 months so they must re-use questions. Is that the experience of those that have taken the bar more than once?

Yup, can confirm. Passed TX in F18 and Ca in J18. The MBE questions used by the NCBE were different both times. To the best of my knowledge, there were no verbatim repeats.

DodgerBlues1991 wrote:thanks for the help guys, I guess I should of rephrased my question better, basically what I wanted to know is if it is okay to be done with looking at every subject by Feb 3rd. Basically after Feb 3 not learning anything "new" anymore, or should I be done way earlier.

I was a first time passer of that monstrous Feb 2018 exam. That is fine. Just start practicing essays now with your outlines. Focus on your weakness and make sure you have issue spotting down. You can get points for talking about an issue you know nothing about by just discussing it. If you miss the issue completely the grader thinks you are clueless. If you write a issue poorly you still get a lot of points.

As for MBE, I underlined parties, circled issues, wrote in margins and drew diagrams when needed. During the actual exam, when my brain was dead and felt like I couldn't do it anymore, I would revert to my training and circle, underline and diagram and it kept me going. During practice, I did about 10 at a time then reviewed the answers. The key is to find the trick. They are trying to trick you. If you spot how, then the answer is clear.

MBernard wrote:

Blueplanet wrote:Can those of you that have taken the bar exam on back to back occasions confirm are the questions always new or do the MBE examiners re-use questions? I would assume that it must be difficult to write 200 new questions every 6 months so they must re-use questions. Is that the experience of those that have taken the bar more than once?

Yup, can confirm. Passed TX in F18 and Ca in J18. The MBE questions used by the NCBE were different both times. To the best of my knowledge, there were no verbatim repeats.

They have 25 ungraded questions each time but not every candidate has the same set of experimental questions. So yeah, they are able to make 200 new questions each time - those bastards.

I took the bar a while ago, bit I remember Barbri having these ridiculous property MBE questions with like property lines and directions and forty five degree angles. They were incredibly hard (for me) and did not show up even once on the actual exam.

Whoever wrote those questions for Barbri should be kicked in the crotch. But I would take those questions with a grain of salt if they are still around.

Reminds me of the dinosaur logic game on the LSAT that has haunted me since 2012. I thought it was an experimental section. It was not.

This is the origin story of my avatar.

But yeah, if Barbri is going to make super hard questions and they don't appear on the exam, what's the point, besides keeping you on your toes as you prepare? Would take with grain of salt as rcharter suggests.

Can someone help me out with an impleader question?

I understand that a defendant can implead a 3rd party defendant for indemnity or contribution. My issue is can the plaintiff, once the defendant impleads the TPD, make a claim against the TPD?

Second part of the question is if the TPD is from the same state as the plaintiff would this destroy diversity? I know that since the defendant added the TPD, this alone would not destroy diversity, however, does the plaintiffs claim arising out of the same transaction or occurrence against the TPD destroy diversity?

Thanks for the help everyone!

davisr197 wrote:Can someone help me out with an impleader question?

I understand that a defendant can implead a 3rd party defendant for indemnity or contribution. My issue is can the plaintiff, once the defendant impleads the TPD, make a claim against the TPD?

Second part of the question is if the TPD is from the same state as the plaintiff would this destroy diversity? I know that since the defendant added the TPD, this alone would not destroy diversity, however, does the plaintiffs claim arising out of the same transaction or occurrence against the TPD destroy diversity?

Thanks for the help everyone!

Yes, the plaintiff can sue TPD if his claim arises from the same T/O; SJ does not apply here, so you must find DOCJ or FQJ for the plaintiff vs TPD claim.

yespasscbx wrote:

davisr197 wrote:Can someone help me out with an impleader question?

I understand that a defendant can implead a 3rd party defendant for indemnity or contribution. My issue is can the plaintiff, once the defendant impleads the TPD, make a claim against the TPD?

Second part of the question is if the TPD is from the same state as the plaintiff would this destroy diversity? I know that since the defendant added the TPD, this alone would not destroy diversity, however, does the plaintiffs claim arising out of the same transaction or occurrence against the TPD destroy diversity?

Thanks for the help everyone!

Yes, the plaintiff can sue TPD if his claim arises from the same T/O; SJ does not apply here, so you must find DOCJ or FQJ for the plaintiff vs TPD claim.

So the general rule is yes P can assert claims against TPD.
But what is DOCJ? My understanding is the same as yours, which I think what you were saying is that you cannot merely use SuppJx to defeat the diversity issue between P and TPD. If P asserts a claim T&O against TPD, need Fedq, div or supp. But if the P's claim is not Fedq and P does not have diversity with TPD, can't use Suppjx to defeat a lack of diversity.

It's been a while for me since I was studying for the bar so someone please confirm TY!