WonL
The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Bar Prep Week 1
Yeah, so, um, I couldn't do it. I tried, I really did. Beanie was right...there is no damn way I am getting through this summer without a written outlet for whining about the Bar Exam. Dear lawd, I already have three days worth of pent up Bar-related "stuff" and it doesn't fit into my pretty work-in-progress outline and I'm pretty sure no one wants mass emails of my daily Bar trials and tribulations. In fact, WonL readers probably don't want it either, so I hereby deem this blog to now be "WonL: The Bar Edition." If it does not interest you, you may wanna move along because I do not foresee it getting any better. But this is for me, not you:-)So, I am taking a BarBri summer course in preparation for the Bar Exam. Although I have always hated the BarBri monopoly and all it stands for, I cannot fathom how anyone could be doing this on her own. After a WHOLE LOT of money changed hands, they gave me ten or so books with outlines, questions, answers, charts, practice exams, etc. Every day, I have four-ish hours of class and daily assignments that are a part of a "paced program" they have set up for me for the entire summer. They tell me what to read, which problems to work, what to organize, etc.
All I have to do is follow their instructions and retain the information. Easy, right? HA! According to their paced program, when I get home from class everyday I should be putting in between 5-9 more hours of work. Then, I should spend 10-12 hours on weekends. They say to "treat it like a full time job." Is it too late to just get my MBA?
Honestly, I am on track for week one even though I haven't been putting in the full time they request. However, I have also only had three classes, all of which I took in law school (Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Federal Jurisdiction & Procedure). We'll see how I feel when we start in on the things I have never heard of like Commercial Paper.
I have noticed a few things in my first week of classes. First of all, for the past three years, everyone has said that BarBri will teach me what I need for the Bar and I will not learn it in school. Thus far, I must disagree. So far, BarBri is refreshing what I found I already learned. I am realizing that I must have really gotten a good education because this stuff stuck somehow. (Yeah, Kerr, that means you too.) I have also found a tiny bit of respect for BarBri. The jovial, energetic professors on tape do this really great thing: they tell you what the VA Bar Examiners have consistently tested over the past 15-20 years and they focus on that. No wasting time on things that have very little chance of appearing on the Bar. I like that. I like that a lot!
Okay, back to reviewing my lecture notes.
Feels good to be back for a little while :-)
Labels: Bar Exam