Writing for the Bar, Day 1

Today was the first day of "Writing for the Bar," a one-credit course UBalt is offering this semester. It's careful to warn that it should not be taken instead of bar prep but in addition to it; which makes sense, because it only meets 4 times over the course of the semester. But we'll be talking about strategy, doing some practice questions, and reviewing them, so it should prove a bit helpful. Some of the strategy stuff today was already helpful, although some of it raised questions.

Of course the instructor advised us to take bar review. This is what I mean about everyone taking it as a given. We were also told that we should study 600 hours over the 10 weeks leading up to the exam (60 hours per week, aka 10 hours/Mon-Sat for those who are bad with math) and that we should take off work or avoid getting a job if we hadn't lined one up by graduation so that we'd have more time to study.

Thoughts:
1. Is it possible that 25% of the bar takers flunk because they've gone completely fucking insane from studying 10 hours a day?
2. Is this 600 hours a realistic expectation, or is it more bullshit, like the number of hours they tell you you're supposed to be studying per credit hour taken? (I can't find the exact figure, but it ends up being ridiculous, so full time students are supposed to be studying 40 hours a week or something in addition to taking classes and working.)
3. What planet do you live on where you can just not work for 10 weeks?

Maybe I'd find it easier to believe these kinds of things if the school didn't have a history of spewing nonsense at me. The hours of study per credit hour nonsense is one example. Another (that makes me take their suggestion that I not work as so much rubbish) is that first year, I was told by financial aid that I should avoid taking out loans as much as possible and that I should not work my first year. I clearly remember thinking, Where do these people think tuition money comes from?? The SKY? When you give advice that silly, don't expect me to take you seriously when you tell me I should study 10 hours a day for 10 weeks while foregoing employment. Perhaps the greatest measure of the law student's neurosis is that they manage to bring people to the point where the idea of taking out a loan so they can study 10 hours a day makes sense to them. I have not reached that point.

I see myself individually, as none of these recommendations do, and I always have done what I thought was right for me. I was sure I could have gotten on law review because my writing skills are excellent, but I finished half my case note and consciously decided not to complete it. I chose not to do moot court or to kiss the ass of particular professors who might have been able to help me find work. I did take a clinic, do a judicial internship, and start making connections at the place I know I want to work. I was perhaps the least frenzied first year and my attitude toward studying has always been fairly loose. As far as how successful I am, I'm at about the 25th percentile of my class, with a good GPA. Could I be doing better if I worked harder? Maybe. But I'm pretty much exactly where I want to be.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is the best course of action for everybody (although I think everyone needs to be able to relax, especially first years- seriously guys, you won't die if you go to a party once in a while). But I think deciding how to tackle law school and the bar exam should be something you do based on what you know about your own abilities and proclivities- NOT based on an artificial sense of panic or competition.

Now I have to go back to digging up my old outlines. I still have them on my computer, but I have handwritten notes on some of them...hope I saved 'em all. I also have a tentative study schedule for myself that needs to be fine-tuned, and I have to start looking at the barbri stuff and deciding how to work that into my study plans. I'm working under the assumption that I'm going to have a full time job this summer, so I'm planning my schedule based on that knowledge and on what I know I am capable of. (I'm not one of those machines that can sit and study for hour after hour without a break. I go numb in the head.) I'm thinking 3 hours of study on the weekdays, and 8 per day on the weekends. The ubiquitous "they" say you should do 2000 practice MBE questions, and that I will buy (the keys to good multiple choice test taking are strategy and practice, as everyone should know from the SAT and LSAT), so I'm planning on 25 questions per day on the weekdays and 50 per day on the weekends.

So, out of those 3 hours, 2 for substantive law and one for MBE taking and strategy. Or I can shake it up and throw an essay or two in there. I'm thinking 4 days per subject for substantive law (weekday-wise), which will leave me the last week of the period to do a blitz, reviewing 2-3 subject outlines a day. The weekends, since I have more time, I can spend both re-reviewing the material I looked at during the week and working on essay strategy and practice essays.

I feel like I'm off to a good start. If I can get the schedule more specific, know what materials I have available and how to use them, and follow the schedule rigidly, I will be well on my way to efficient studying.

Marching into the semester

I probably should have started in September if I wanted to document the full experience, because that's how long I've been working on my application. (In Maryland, you need to file a mile-long application at some point after you enter law school, and then an "original petition" a few months before the exam. The former is mostly character and fitness evaluation, and the latter is primarily to affirm that you graduated from law school.) But really, you didn't miss much because most of the posts would have consisted of me bitching. Suffice it to say, the application was a pain in the butt, but I mailed it off in the last week of December. Wahoo.

Two days ago, again thinking ahead, I started casting about online looking for study materials. By some bizarre trick of fate, I located a complete set of 2005 Maryland Barbri books on ebay. After much furious bidding, I nailed them for $275. (And in the process, reminded myself of why I hate ebaying.) I have read (and I don't know if this is true) that technically you are licensing the books from Barbri when you purchase them and are not supposed to sell them. The first sale doctrine under US copyright law would seem to make this bs (although it's clever bs), and besides, when you cut a deal to illegally divide the market and preserve your monopoly you lose your right to any sort of moral high ground.

Wha-huh?

Third-years are asked The Question approximately every thirty seconds, especially now when we're in spring semester. Getting down to the wire.

"So, which bar review did you sign up for?"

"Barbri," many will answer. Or, "Barbri and PMBR." Or "Shemer" (a popular all-in-one course run by one of the adjunct professors here at Baltimore). But me, I reply, "I decided not to sign up for a bar review."

They have a tendency to look at you as if you just admitted to fellating a sheep. Sometimes they do a comical, cartoon-esque double-take. And whether they tell you it's probably possible or fight to convince you that you should seek psychiatric help, you can tell from their faces that they're not entirely comfortable with this idea.

It's hard to decide whether to do bar review, because frankly very little data is available. Naturally all the bar review companies think you should do it, they're paid to think that. And so many students take bar review that it's hard to honestly evaluate how much it actually helps. Plus, there's the fact that everyone learns differently and everyone tests differently...a bar review that helps one person might be a waste of time for someone else.

In the end, I decided that I wasn't about to take out another loan just to fall asleep in some company's lectures. I test well, I learn best from reading and self-study (as opposed to lecture), and something in me deeply rebels at falling prey to these scam artists just because I'm scared it might make the difference between passing and failing. Because I don't believe that...that's just the fear talking.

This blog is here because one, I thought it would help me blow off steam, especially as we get closer to exam time, and two, there doesn't seem to be much out there about people who choose not to take bar review. Perhaps my experiences can serve as a signpost for others who want to strike out alone. Or perhaps they will serve as a tragic cautionary tale. Either way, you win!