Good idea?!?.....

It was a good idea to start with Torts- total confidence booster. I scored 91% on the set of 70 released questions I did from the Emanuel book. I outlined 2 essays- one was a defamation/invasion of privacy fact pattern, the other was a products liability. Then I simulated 1 that dealt with products liability as well as special landowner duties. Put together my 'attack pack', and narrowed down flashcards to the absolutely necessary ones that I don't solidly know. Now on to contracts...

And we're off!

Today is Day 1 of bar prep minus the hand-holding of Barbri. I designed my Paced Program on steroids last night, made my official motivational bar exam soundtrack, and tidied up my house for the absolute last time before this is over. So here's the agenda for today:

• Go for a run and listen to my bar soundtrack to get motivated for the day.
• 70 released torts MBEs from Emanuel's Strategies and Tactics book
• Outline 2 Torts essays
• Simulate 1 Torts essay
• Put together my patented "Tort Attack Pack" which will basically consist of Sakai's outline, any Conviser flow charts that make sense to me, and a one pager of the most necessary memorized concepts.
• Lunch Break
• 64 released contracts MBEs from Emanuel's Strategies and Tactics book
• Outline 2 Contracts essays
• Simulate 1 contracts essay
• Put together a "Contracts Attack Pack"

This schedule will be pretty typical for the next two weeks. Most days will have either 2 of my stronger subjects or 1 weaker subject and a performance test. On days where I only cover one subject, I will do one 'random subject' essay. Once I get into the CA subjects next week, I'll do a mixed set of 50 MBEs each day. I'm also doing PMBR next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So that's it. It's all printed out and pretty so I have to stick to it. Have a great day everyone! I'm sure I'll be checking in soon...

A few of my favorite things...

If I got to pick one essay question that I've done so far to show up in two weeks it would be the Real Property question on p. 159 of Sakai's In-Class Workbook handout. To use my geeky husband's gamer speak, I just totally pwned that question. It was a property/remedies/tort cross-over with landlord/tenant duties, private nuisance, easements, and injunctive relief and damages thrown in. It was a thing of beauty to realize I knew all the applicable rules. On the other hand, if this had been an essay in the Barbri book with a Barbri sample answer instead of an actual passing answer that Sakai gives us, I'd probably be feeling really bad about myself right now. But I won't dwell on that. Instead, I will take a study break to pat myself on the back.

No blind squirrel here.

On intro day, Barbriman told us to make sure to review all the MBE explanations because we would often get questions right but for the wrong reason.... as he so eloquently put it, "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then." I did the 40 assigned torts questions and got 88% right- I was especially proud, because reading through the explanations I generally was not that blind squirrel. woo hoo!

Then I went ahead and outlined the first two essays, which isn't technically assigned until tomorrow, but my husband wasn't home yet, and I figured the more I got done when he wasn't here, meant more time I could spend with him when he was. That was probably a bad idea, since they killed my confidence a bit. Like Biff noted earlier, doing the essays makes you realize that you actually have to be able to recite this stuff, not just know it well enough to guess best out of 4.

So I whipped out the flashcards I made while going through the conviser and spent a solid two hours memorizing them. I actually like memorizing stuff, and when I was in college, I developed quite a system... memorize 5 cards at a time, review after you make it to 20, then 5 more at a time, then review at 40, etc. etc. Just reviewed the thick stack of all 100 or so and I'm feeling pretty confident again. Don't worry... I actually understood the concepts that I was memorizing, and if I didn't I made myself look it up in the conviser or the 'big book' if need be.

On the agenda for tomorrow: 50 advanced MBEs, and 2 more essays, but this time full out simulated. If I can also squeeze in getting through the Con Law material in the conviser and making flashcards, I would be done with the paced program until Tuesday, and I might reward myself on Sunday with a trip up to Bass Lake to see my grandparents and go out on their party boat. My grandpa called me about an hour ago asking if I would come (they're only about 45 minutes away) but saying that he understood because he knew I was really busy studying, emphasizing again how proud of me he is. He must have read that handout I sent with my graduation thank you notes...

Somebody get Sawyer a Lawyer

Did anyone else watch the Lost season finale last night? Could anyone else not help but to analyze the various torts and defenses presented? Here's a sampling...

* Dynamite in the tents- Certainly a battery committed against the Others. And yeah, I'm gonna go with not an acceptable defense of property- no deadly force in defense of property. They could possibly make an argument for defense of others since the Others were coming for the women... but deadly force may not have been reasonable because we don't really know what the Others were going to do with them. There were also some issues with immediacy.

* Desmond shooting the brunette Other in the underwater station... I'd go with a strong defense of others for Desmond if he is sued for battery.

* Hurley in the VW van.... he definitely committed battery on those unlucky Others, but probably has a valid defense of others.

* Sayed snapping the Other's neck... was deadly force warranted? I'd say possibly...

* As for Sawyer... as the title suggests, that guy needs a lawyer. Shooting Tom after he surrendered was completely not self-defense.

Too bad public necessity is only a defense to property torts.... otherwise Jack and the gang could obliterate the Others...

In other news... my day has been looking up. I finished the Barbri assignments by 6- improved to almost 60% on the torts MBEs. We made a good spaghetti dinner, went in the spa, and then husband went to get us some ice cream. Plus, I'm watching Keith Olberman and as it turns out I missed the best part of Dubya's press conference this morning- he got crapped on by a bird. : )

Great Success.

Borat is not the only one who makes great success. After a pitiful 40% on the PMBR Torts 50 questions test this morning, I reviewed all the explanations, listened to the lecture and then did another 50 PMBR questions at the library... this time I got 72% improvement. Awesome. Now on to Contracts.

Duh

If one more bar review book or lecturer reminds me not to misnumber my answer sheet on the MBE I will kill them- or at least their visual image. Seriously, Mr. PMBR Torts has been rambling on about it for at least 4 minutes now. That 4 minutes just cost me $1.30 ($890/9 days of instruction/5 hours per day). He's not as good as Mr. PMBR Con Law because I feel like he's just going over the questions and the magical "approach" and not actually giving us a big picture of torts. Oh well, back to paying attention.

Easy?

I'm in Day 2 of PMBR- Torts and the lecturer just said "Torts is the easiest subject tested on the bar." Hmm... that's what the Con Law guy said yesterday... By the way, I only got 40% right this morning so I'd better pay attention.