Already Tired

I'm learning. Or not actually learning , but at least figuring out what it takes.

I concur with Uncivil Litigator http://uncivillitigator.blogspot.com/2004/08/failing-bar-exam.html that studying full-time may be a common denominator among those who pass. Not all, of course. But probably for me.

And I need a system - a schedule - my own, in addition to BarBri & PMBR. Right now my days are full of PMBR: read, test, review (test), review (notes), read, internet, Shiner, read. Well, mostly PMBR. But there's only one more day of that, and even BarBri is only 3-4 hours a day. In an 8-12 hour day, that leaves a lot of hours to constructively fill (or waste). A life-long procrastinator, this is the one time I need to overcome. In fact ~ I am so determined, I bought a book on overcoming procrastination while I was at FedEx-Kinko's yesterday, having that hernia-creating'red book' cut down and rebound into managable sections. Probably not the best use of my time!

PMBR today was a double session - not their regular schedule, but a work-around to accomodate graduation. Apparently PMBR is the logistical middle-child trying to find its place in the scheduling family. Big dog BarBri pretty much took over at my school last summer, relegating PMBR's 3-day to our final's week. You can imagine how well that went over.

Graduations always present conflicts in May, and BarBri has dibs on late May through most of July, so a lot of bar takers opt to only take the 3-Day session a week or two before the exam. In theory, it sounds good to take a full MBE and get tips before the big day, but I suspect that the reality is similar to what I saw in my LSAT prep. I took the full-length TestMasters180 (ScorePerfect in Texas) and decided to add the last-chance weekend course for the enforced discipline and repetition. I had not ever seen such a stressed-out bunch of people in my life! Some seemed to think the weekend course would be enough, but realized how much was involved after the first day - with very little time to digest the massive amount of information, much less time to practice the techniques learned. I found the short course to be just that - short - necessarily skimming and only highlighting what was taught in the full-length course. I wonder if people who have taken only the 3-Day or other short course to prepare for the MBE have the same 'deer in headlights' experience. I am a little overwhelmed at the amount of information I need to master for that 40% of the exam, but very glad I decided to start early and will have time to practice.

Today's double session covered Criminal Law/Criminal Procedure and Property. I did all 100 questions in 3-hour session to get a feel for that kind of concentration. A little slower in both areas as well as less accurate. On the initial tests I did better better on Evidence, so-so on Con Law and Torts, and not as well on Crim and Property. Tomorrow will be Contracts, then I will be on my own.