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.