I took the CA Bar and survived. A few notes:
1) it was not as hard as I expected it to be. I felt like if you KNEW the law, you could totally rock the thing. *I* did not know the law for a couple of issues, but still, it was not the all-intimidating-oh-my-gosh-how-does-anyone-pass?!?! experience that people made it out to be.
2) the MBE was ridiculous. Whoever said PMBR/Barbri/MM questions were harder than the actual MBE did NOT know what they were talking about. One half of the MBE, at least, was a disaster. I think, if I fail, it will be because I scored a 4 on the MBE.
3) the whole thing was very anticlimactic (sp?) Everyone showed up in jeans and t-shirts and flip-flops, we crowded into this massive warehouse, and the instructions given in a dry monotone voice by the head proctor made us out to be total idiots. All in all, it was sort of a disappointing finale to the summer of studying.
4) Handwriting sucks, but it’s doable. Ending the day on Thursday, I definitely felt I had been at a material disadvantage handwriting the test. Granted, EVERY ONE ELSE IN THE ROOM was typing, so that was a little disheartening, but I really felt that handwriters deserved more time since all the others could outline on the computer and then fill in the body of text later, whereas I found myself writing things about 3x each just so I could get a decent idea of how to approach the question without having too many arrows or crossed-out sections. Our section’s proctor was so nice. At the end of Day 1 she asks me, “So honey, will you have a computer by thursday???” uh no. Bring the lined paper.
5) People are weird. At the lunch breaks, i saw people stretching like mad - legs in the air, arms every which way… i mean, really - have you NEVER sat for 3 hrs before??!?!?! it was bizarre. A few girls had made duct-tape purse straps to go with their little plastic bags. Interesting.
All in all, I don’t know if I passed or if I didn’t. Regardless of the outcome, I will not be surprised. I felt really good about the essay q’s today and both of the performance tests. Not so great about the MBE and the first day’s essays, but whatever. I heard a few people talking and it seems some people didn’t finish the essays, others didn’t know the law… I mean, I think almost all of us feel it could go either way.
It was definitely not as bad as I’d anticipated. AND - for those of you taking the Bar next year, etc. I really DON’T think you need to do Barbri. Everything that was on the essays & PT’s, I got from my MicroMash materials. I think though, in retrospect, I wish I had done more PMBR stuff. Maybe not the seven/six day course, but perhaps the 3 day course, or just spent more time doing their outlines. There were some things on the MBE that I had NEVER heard of before, that I think PMBR probably would have covered and did cover in their materials.
So - I feel ok about the Bar. I am not disappointed in myself, although I know there was stuff on there that I didn’t know, but tried my hardest to B.S. I’ll let you know how it turns out in Nov. But, tonight, I am on my way to utah!!!
1 comment:
Going back, you could tell yourself that you did a job well done and give yourself a pat in the back. It may be as anticlimactic as you said it was, but that wasn't just some years of nerve-wracking reviewing and studying. What can you say are the most effective study techniques, and overall, do you think that the test is really different from what you expected? In any case, you gotta give it to yourself and to the study tools you've used.
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