3000

After finishing the last of the MDR mixed sets tonight, my official MBE tally has now hit 3,002. I told my husband that I've now done over 3000 MBEs and he said "tonight?" Way to marginalize my achievement! : ) I have 200 more from the strategies & tactics book left on the agenda for the weekend, but I won't be too hard on myself. I've averaging 80% at this point. Tomorrow I tackle civil procedure, finish my attack binder, and start to see how many essays I can fit in before Monday at noon. Until then, I think I deserve a good night's sleep.

Warm-up

If there has one thing that has become abundantly clear over the last few days, I need a warm-up before the MBE. Each morning this week, I have started with MBEs, and with the exception of torts, I have scored lower than 60% on my first set of 17 and higher than 75% on my subsequent sets. Coincidence? I think not. I think I read in Talamo's book that it's a good idea to do a set of MBEs right before the actual test to get yourself warmed up. And I'm beginning to see his point. So that's what I'll be doing on a Wednesday morning in the not so distant future...

In other exciting news, I bought a new pair of running shoes last night. My old pair were cheapies from Target and had begun bruising my toenails. Pretty gross, right? I've never really felt athletic enough to buy name brand running shoes before, but seeing as how the bar exam has pushed me into running upwards of 3 miles a day, I figured it was time to make an investment. They are beautiful. I feel a little like Forrest Gump. It was also interesting to see the outside world/inside of a store again. I just wandered around Kohl's with a dazed look on my face.

Then I went to Office Depot to get a binder and tab dividers for my patented 'Bar Exam Attack Pack'. Wandering around Office Depot, an employee asked if he could help me find something. I said "no, just looking, thanks." He probably thought I was crazy. Who goes to Office Depot just to browse? Back to the grind now though- I guess I know how Paris Hilton felt when they sent her back to prison after her brief stint out.

Ready to rock the MBE

Started off today with the contracts essay for grading.... ugh. I tried really hard to be the master of the flying obvious that I thought they wanted me to be (i.e. going through the elements of a valid contract and mentioning that the statute of frauds was satisfied even when the facts state 'there was a valid written contract'). As it turns out, today they didn't want the obvious. If there's a such thing as 'over-issue-spotting', I am really really good at it. And then, I tried to organize the essay using "Armadillos from Texas play rap eating tacos" since the call of the question was pretty broad. Nope- apparently I was supposed to set out the plaintiff's rights, the plaintiff's remedies, and then the defendant's defenses... even if that format makes no logical sense in the context of the question. So in that vein, I am absolutely thrilled that after the MBE simulation tomorrow, we get a nice break from MBEs for a while so that I can focus on that elusive passing essay...

As far as the MBEs go, I'm feeling great. I scored 80% today on my set of 50. My overall weekend average was 72%, and each set got progressively better. I was super dedicated about reading the answers and explanations thoroughly, making flashcards for the concepts I didn't know, and then actually reviewing those flashcards. So I feel ready for tomorrow- 6 hours of testing, here I come.

TGIF

We got our first graded assignments back yesterday- a con law essay. I failed in all respects except as to the rules. I'm trying to look at this as glass half full situation. I KNOW THE RULES!!! Woo hoo! Now, I just have to figure out how to spot the issues so that I can apply those rules, analyze those rules, and say it all with style. No problem... Seriously though, everybody failed. Right? Anybody who didn't is lying. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

I'd also like to comment that I think Barbri sucks for worrying more about covering their own asses than helping us pass this damn thing. What I mean is this: of all the graded assignments we will be turning in, none- count them NONE- of them is in one of the new subjects. Except maybe civ pro... but I don't feel like going to get my paced program to confirm that. Regardless- I really do get the impression that they're trying to cover their asses to our detriment- just give us your best guess as to how they're going to test it- I won't hold it against you!

In better news, we've wrapped up the big 6 and have our MBE Simulation on Monday. This means the weekend assignments including approximately 4 kazillion MBEs. I did my first set of 50 tonight and scored 72%! Better yet, I timed myself and ended up with plenty of time leftover. I think I might actually slow myself down a bit- some of the questions I'm missing are really because I'm reading too fast and missing important facts. I'll try that on the 100 questions assigned for tomorrow- gag.

Until then, I'm actually DONE for tonight. Yes, you heard me right. I finished today's assignment at 8:30. I sort of don't know what to do with myself. So I went to the grocery store to stock up on the lean cuisines that are on sale this week (thanks Poobah). And now hubby and I are going to take his sports car (a suped up '93 Toyota MR2 for the car enthusiasts out there) out for a little cruise. Hopefully to somewhere that will serve me a wee bit of alcohol.

Oh yeah, my mom gave me a bar exam 'care package' full of goodies to get me through... she put it all in a gift bag that had Oscar the Grouch on it. I think she's trying to tell me something. You know... maybe he was misunderstood- he could have been studying for the bar exam too.

** Note to the anonymous commenter- the email update on Evidence was just pertaining to CA, so if you're not in Cali don't worry about it.