Evidence still makes me cry.

I hate evidence. If we get an evidence essay, I will cry.

I just had a privileged marital communication with my husband regarding what I'd like to do to the ladies enjoying their party upstairs. Because there is no privlege regarding blogger communications, I will not expound on those intentions here.

Me & My Dragon

After a day full of MBEs, comparison charts, flashcards, essays, and a bit of frustration, I think I have begun to slay my dragon. In fact, here's a picture of me and my dragon now:

Here's how I did it:

1) focused on perfecting my understanding of the FRE through MBEs. Once I felt comfortable with my scores...

2) moved onto the comparison charts in conviser. I ripped out all the comparison charts in the FRE outline and then read through the California distinctions chart, writing in important notes to the comparison charts and making my own charts when necessary. I also supplemented this with the distinctions from Adachi's Survival Kit supplement.

3) Focused on the big areas that they would seem likely to test distinctions in: impeachment (especially concerning convictions) and hearsay exceptions.

4) Boiled down the big stuff to a new set of flashcards. This was after I decided my old ones were worthless thanks to the wonder that is Victor Gold.

5) Started practicing essays. This is where I got really excited- as it turns out Barbri gave us a little bit better than the butter knife I described earlier... the sample answers in the CEWB book actually have California distinctions worked in.

So far I've outlined three essays (2 from the essay workshop handout and one from CEWB) and simulated one more from CEWB. I did really well on the last simulated one, thus allowing me to post the picture above. I'm going to shoot for simulating one more (probably the one from the graded assignments book) and outlining the rest from the CEWB book tonight. It's been a good day considering I was dreading it this morning- at least I won't freak out now if get an evidence question on the big day...

Slaying my dragon...

I'm trying to do my final review of evidence today. To use Grand Poobah's analogy... I am slaying my dragon. Unfortunately, Barbri hasn't given me a very good sword. I sort of feel like they shoved me into the dark dragon's cave with nothing but a butter knife, a "distinction chart" and a disclaimer to cover their own asses. Has anyone come up with a great way to do this with some level of sanity?

P.S. Prop 8 is solid proof that the initiative process makes for stupid laws in CA.

Operation Paced Program Plus Deployed

That's right folks. The Paced Program just isn't cutting it this week, so based on my self-diagnosis, I'm adding to it. I feel surprisingly less stressed, having done more today.

I spent about an hour and a half reviewing community property and finishing my flaschards since this was entirely new subject to me. (Thank goodness I remember my parents' divorce or else it would all be completely foreign!) Then I spent an hour or so memorizing the flaschards I had made. Then I outlined the first two Community Property essays. I think I'm going to like the CP essays- very straightforward as long as you know the rules. This completed the Paced Program for today.

So here's my plus program:

• Essays: Per Sakai's instructions and my own assessment of weak essays, I am writing out one additional essay each day. I started today with Torts. Why? Because that was the first subject we covered so let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start... Anyways, I did the one from the graded assignments workbook because the feedback is a lot better on these. Tell me again why they include an essay in this book from every subject if they have no intention on having us turn them in? I was surprised at how much I remembered. That's a good sign. Let's hope it's true of the other subjects.
• Evidence: I did a set of 17 evidence MBEs from the PMBR book. I got 65% right, but always at least had it narrowed down to 2. I just have to figure out how to pick the right one of those two...

So far, so good. Now, I just have to keep up this pace for three more weeks. Three weeks from TOMORROW to be exact!!!

Evidence may not be so evil after all..

Maybe I'm not as ignorant of evidence law as I thought... despite my poor showing on the Barbri simulated MBE (barely over 50%), I just got 82% right on the 56 questions in Emanuel's 'Strategies and Tactics' book. Even better, the intro to that book says these are released questions. Hmmm.... is Barbri just tricking us into thinking we're going to fail?

The Paced Program Made Me Do It

So today, me and the girl I sit by in Barbri realized that we both wore green shirts, and ate bananas on our first break. We agreed that it must have been on the Paced Program. Otherwise, why would we have done it? Then we started to talk about our sick devotion to the paced program- if it told us to jump off a cliff, would we? Probably... these Barbri people have years of experience in figuring out how to pass this thing, and apparently green shirts, bananas, and jumping off cliffs have something to do with it.

In other news, we finished Contracts today, thereby wrapping up the Big 6 subjects. Epstein was good- entertaining hypos that proved he is obsessed with armadillos, grits, and Sharon Stone. The highlight, however, was learning that Conviser is a person- the founder of Barbri to be exact. Shows what I know- I thought it was some fancy synonym for 'Summary' or something. I loved when Epstein pointed out that a buyer still has a duty to pay even if the subject matter of the contract is destroyed- after all there is still money left in the world... and Conviser has most of it. : )

Speaking of Conviser overcharging us for his services... was anyone else angered by the 'Evidence Update' email we received last night. Thanks Barbri- those corrections would have been super helpful BEFORE I spent the weekend memorizing what you'd told me before. Now I have to go back and figure out the differences. No worries, I'll do it in all the free time the paced program allows me. [insert sarcasm here]

Oh, and we survived another day without a bar prep rival gang riot in the hallways... ah well, we can always hope for tomorrow.

If the bar exam was administered at 11pm....

I would probably fail. I started the advanced evidence question set a few hours ago and rocked the first 20- 17/20 to be exact. Then I took a short break, started to feel the tiredness setting in but decided to push through anyways. Just finished 10 more... this time 4/10. Time for bed.

Objection Your Honor! They're misapplying the rules of evidence!

In an effort to de-stress after a long day of studying, I turned on one of those cheesy Lifetime tv movies that I used to enjoy. Unfortunately, studying evidence all day completely ruined it. The dramatic court trial was full of ridiculously fake objections such as "Objection your honor, that question is unfair and prejudicial." When they started introducing documentary evidence without proper authentication, my head almost exploded and I almost had to change the channel. The final straw was at the end when she found evidence that proved the real murderer was her husband, she confronted him, and he told her "you can't testify against me- you're my wife." Sorry dude- your Witness Wife holds that privilege because we're not talking about confidential marital communications. Will we ever be normal again?

A sunny summer afternoon...

My husband is at a beerfest up at a nearby lake. Children outside my apartment are laughing and dancing in the summer sun. I am committing to memory the inane distinctions between CA and federal evidence law. Would anyone like to join me as I bang my head against a wall repeatedly?

The Unavailable Declarant

An example taken from Professor Gold's scintillating Evidence 2 handout:

Action for divorce. To prove adultery by husband, Donald Trump, Wife offers statement of Paris Hilton, a permanent resident of a psychiatric hospital in Europe, made during an interview for America's Most Disgusting Celebrities: "I got drunk and had an affair with Trump." Admissible?

Answer:
In the federal system- No, because although the declarant is unavailable, the statement is not a declaration against her financial or penal interest.

In the California system- Yes, because the declarant is unavailable and the statement is against her social interest.

Perfect timing.... justice has been served and Paris Hilton is once again UNAVAILABLE

Loathsome

The meaning of my title is two fold.

ONE- Could Mr. Evidence BE any more dry???? Seriously, that man was putting me to sleep. He talks so slowly he could have fit evidence into one day if he just picked up the pace a bit. Quite a change from the fabulous singing Paula Property. Even the cynics in our class who spent the last three days making fun of her were asking for her back today. So, I officially loathe evidence merely on the basis of its dry presentation.

TWO- Today's big 'hot topic' on The View was, of course, the release of Paris Hilton from jail. I won't focus on the fact that I am so enormously pissed off about the way this makes our "justice system" look.... but the ladies on The View were speculating as to what 'undisclosed medical condition' Paris was released because of. Joy Behar suggested that Paris' herpes is acting up. Ding ding ding. Red flag! Loathsome disease alert!! Luckily for Joy Behar, Paris Hilton is a public figure because a loathsome disease is a one-way ticket to slander per se. But because of the constitutional implications of a public figure, we'd get to see Paris Hilton sue and then lose because the assertion wasn't false. : )

In other news, a friend in Barbri made a great suggestion today... If the California Bar were to say... Ok, there are two ways to become a lawyer in this state- (1) pass the bar or (2) give us one eyeball.... there would be a lot of one-eyed lawyers in the state... including me.

Property is a buzzkill

We had our last day of Paula Property today. I really started dragging around the 1.5 hour mark. Unfortunately, that was also the most important part- the part about mortgages that my 1L property professor NEVER mentioned. But, talking to some others on the break, I realized that property is really serving as the buzz kill in the midst of Barbri. I felt like I was chugging along, keeping up, truly understanding the forest while still memorizing the trees... and then we got to property. Is anyone else just completely overwhelmed with this subject? There are A LOT of trees in this forest that I don't know, not to mention the fact that I don't quite see the forest just yet. And now we're already moving onto Evidence- another subject I'm incredibly worried about because of a shitty law professor and my short attention span in law school. Eek.

On another note, I tivo 'The View' every day (because I am a loser), but I have decided that it is actually a valuable show to watch on my lunch break. Yesterday, in discussing the new court ruling in New York regarding free speech and what cuss words they can air on TV I felt it necessary to recite outloud for them the free speech test that they were not understanding. Today, they started a healthy debate on California community property laws in light of Larry Whats-his-name's impending divorce.

And finally, is anyone else the least bit pissed off that Paris Hilton gets to keep her hair extensions while in jail? What about the poor Rustafarian (sp?) man a few years ago who had to go all the way to the 9th Circuit to argue his religious right to keep his dred locks despite the penalogical interest in a safe prison where guys don't hide guns in their hair?? And yet Paris doesn't even have to fight for her right to wear hair extensions? Ah well, it'll just make it easier for someone to make her their bitch- grab her by the hair!

On to crush my spirits with 40 more intermediate Property MBEs and 2 property essay outlines. Then on to come to the realization that I don't know jack about evidence. Have a nice day studiers.