First Day of PMBR

I liked it. First, a couple FAQ that should be on their website but are not.

What to bring? You DO NOT need to bring either the red or blue book (lighten those backpacks, guys!). They will provide you with a smaller book for the class – it is the only one you need to bring each day. You probably should bring paper to take notes and/or a laptop. Out of approximately 75 participants, I only saw a dozen or so laptops, so it seems to be a matter of personal preference. I took all my law school notes on my laptop, but today I preferred to write out only the basic rules/tips/explanations. I don’t need 160+ pages of more stuff I won’t have time to read. By the last hour my hand was starting to cramp, so I may take it with me tomorrow just in case I need it near the end.

What do we do there all day? We will start the each day by answering 50 MBE-type questions – today was Torts, tomorrow will be Evidence. They don’t tell you whether to or what to study beforehand. I woke up early and read about half of the BarBri mini-review on Torts. I do not want to do artificially well on early practice questions by cramming too much, but it seemed a little foolish to just go into it cold without reviewing anything. Not sure what the best way is – but I did like being able to see where I had retained material from law school v. the [many] areas where I don't have a clue.

The instructor told us that the average score on Day 1 was 17 [raw] out of 50. It made me feel a little better about my 22, but not much. The correct answers with explanations are in the back of the practice book so you can self-grade each day’s questions. I graded mine as soon as I finished (90 minutes, 1.8 per question – excellent for someone who always runs out of time!) by bubbling in the correct answer and circling it in the book using green ink. I used pencil during the test, so the contrast made it easy to see my answers compared to the correct ones. Because the explanations are in the back of the book, I also penciled in my wrong answer beside the correct, pre-printed letter. A lot of the explanations include specific details such as ‘why A was wrong’ or ‘why D was a better answer than C, even though C is also true.’

Tonight we are supposed to review Torts, and tomorrow we will cover Evidence.

Total hours for the day:

Read ½ BarBri short section on Torts: .5 hours
Answered 50 MBE Torts Questions: 1.5 hours
In-Class Review of those 50 Q’s: 3.0 hours

Reviewed Written Explanations: 1.0 hours
Read BarBri short section on Evidence: 1.0 hours
__________

Total: 7.0 hours

I can tell it’s not enough, even without the PMBR Rep’s admonition that we should spend 8-10 hours per day studying, outside of class, but I am glad to have finally begun.