Essays, MBEs, PTs... Oh my!

I feel like I've been at a crazed pace all day, so this blog will hopefully allow me to step back and evaluate where I'm at without losing productivity points : )

Accomplishments Today:

• Essays: Simulated one random essay from the monkey o' fun- A Con Law question about dormant commerce clause/ federal pre-emption with PR crossover. I did it using examsoft to make sure my computer wouldn't explode. Good news- it didn't. The essay was good. I feel like doing 'random' essays like this is probably the most helpful thing I'm doing at this point- makes sure I'm on my toes about every subject, not just the one I'm tackling that day.
• MBEs: Did 60 MBEs out of the Barbri MDR mixed sets. Does anyone know if these are supposed to be harder than released questions? It sort of seems like it. I scored 72% but it just seemed like a lot of the ones I missed were abstract points like the ones tested on the PMBR 3-day. I'm thinking I'm just going to go back to the rest of the released questions in the Strategies & Tactics book. At this point, I don't know that I see the value in psyching myself out with super hard questions. Plus, there are 200 more released questions in the S &T book and that's about all the time I have left for MBEs anyways.
• Substantive Law: Today was all about community property. I feel really confident about community property- a little like I'm that guy that Sakai talked about, pumping up his already super buff community property arms. So although I have it on the agenda to outline a few more CP essays, I may do another random essay instead.
• Performance Test: Sat down at 2pm sharp with the best intentions to completely write out the Westside Community Development Corporation PT. The first 85 minutes were great. Read the file, the library, organized it, made a great outline, took my break.... But I just couldn't force myself to type it out. It seemed like it would be a waste of time since I was pretty sure my outline was good enough to translate into a passing score had I taken the time to write it out. So I looked ahead to the answer. I certainly didn't hit every issue, but I got all the headings right and most of the big stuff. So I felt ok about my choice. I'm wrestling a little with where to go from here on the PTs. I have myself scheduled to do one more (Estate of Keefe) on Friday, but part of me just wants to devote that time elsewhere since I know that I'll be able to pull it together on the test days. I think I will at least devote some time to reading back through Honisberg's handouts and familiarizing myself with the odd-ball documents that we might be asked to prepare.
• Interaction with Outside World: I went to Wal-mart and did not kill any small children. There was a little old lady who was really pissing me off though... she kept pushing her cart really slowly through the aisles and then parking right in the middle. When I tried to get by, she would just smile. I wanted to scream "It's really nice that your retired and all. That must be fun. Congrats. But some of us need you to stop blocking the lean cuisines so that they can get home and study." Anyways, the reason for my Wal-mart adventure was because I needed a couple of necessities: earplugs, lean cuisines, yogurt, shampoo (in case I decide to wash my hair between now and the 27th), and new earphones for my mp3 player (turns out just the headphones crapped out, not the whole unit). The grocery store obviously doesn't carry all these things, Target is too far away to justify during break time, and I don't have to really get dressed or put on make-up for Wal-mart since even without trying I still look more presentable than 2/3 of their customers.... so Wal-mart it was... A risky move, I know- I can barely handle the population at that store when I'm not 5 days away from the most important test of my life. But long story short, I got all my stuff, didn't kill anyone, and even managed to tell the cashier to have a nice day.

All in all it's been a productive, but crazed, day. I'd still like to: outline a few more community property essays, do another random essay, finish going over the PMBR questions from Monday, get in at least 34 S &T mixed released questions, and type out a list of all my mnemonic devices. That's a lot. But on the bright side- one week from today, we'll be 2/3 of the way finished with this damn thing!!!