The word "defeasible" should not be allowed to exist

I hate property law so very, very much. I think I even hate it more than secured transactions, which at least sort-of make sense after you understand how to read the statutes. I want to travel back in time and whack English judges with this BarBri book.

That is all.

Rinse and repeat

I feel like I've settled into the studying every day thing. Astonishingly, while it is hard for me to sit down and study, it's not the fight I thought it would be every day. I've mentioned before that I am NOT a big studier. I'm not good at it; I can't focus for long stretches of time; I don't know what to do with myself; and worst of all I tend to put it all off till the last possible minute. There were tests in law school that I didn't start studying for until less than 24 hours before hand. Many tests.

I'm aware that I can't pull that kind of nonsense with the Bar, it's too hard and too important, and I don't have that same confidence about it that I did with the law school finals. Perhaps that's what keeps me slogging away. The hardest thing for me right now is the fact that I know I have 10 more weeks of this ahead. I'll finish up a study session and pat myself on the back for getting through it, and then I remember that I have to do it all again tomorrow. It kind of sucks the spirit out of you, so I try not to think about it.

Today is my last day of torts: torts took less time than contracts, and I'm going to put in an essay today, which I am unaccountably nervous about. I guess I feel that it's more of a test of my review and memory than the MBE questions, and I'm nervous about possibly proving to myself that I can't remember a darn thing. One thing I forgot to account for in my reckoning is the relative amount of material in the subjects; for example, I budgeted the same number of days for contracts and torts, forgetting that contracts took 6 credits worth of classes to teach, and torts took 4. Duh! With that in mind, and remembering how hard civ pro was, I think I'm going to alter my schedule to extend the time for that. (Civ pro review starts tomorrow!)

I've been scoring between 9 and 11 right out of 17 on my daily MBE practice; 11 today on a set of "advanced drills" today. Which makes me happy, but I'll count on it more once I start doing mixed-subject drills. I just feel that for now, till I get more review under my belt, it's more beneficial to use the MBE both as practice and evaluation on the subjects I've already reviewed. What I should start doing is mixing problems from the subjects I've already done...Although that still leaves little mystery. The thing I'm worried that I'm not seeing is the actual difficulty and the time eaten up by having to determine what subject a question is in, and shifting gears quickly from one to another. But there's time to get there.

For now, I'm going to go do this torts essay. Wish me luck.

I am so exhausted

I seriously underestimated how hard it would be to come home from a full day of work and sit down to study. (At least I've now been proven right in my belief that I wouldn't have been able to hack it as an evening student.) I'm doing it, but it is hard.

Almost through with contracts and sales review- tonight should be the last night. Tomorrow: torts! I tried doing the MBE questions first for a couple of nights, but I've switched back because it really just seems to bring more closure to the session. Especially since I find that after a long period of fairly open-ended study, something as focused as answering MBE questions and analyzing the results helps me stay on task at the tail end of the study session, when I've started to get bored and distracted.

I'm going to have to hit some essays this weekend, as I haven't had a chance to tackle any yet.

I'd forgotten...

How much I really loathe studying. Real studying, where you sit down with your books and work, not the kind I usually do where you spend half the time on AIM bitching about how much you hate studying. Ugh. I went home early and spent the evening on contract formation, specifically offer, acceptance, and consideration. That's like 4/5 of Contracts I right there, isn't it? Anyway, the studying part went okay. The MBEs were extremely depressing though.

I stuck to just contracts problems, and still only got 7/17 right. (41% for those who are bad at math.) Not so great. It's day 1 so I'm not too upset, it's just kind of disheartening to do the MBEs after all this studying and then think, "Arggghhhh I'm so stupid I'll never remember all this! I'm going to fail!" I think I'll move the MBE Hour up to the start. What's probably most disturbing is that I ran out of time with 4 questions unanswered. Not cool. I made a note of the spot and did the last 4 questions anyway, just to see if I could, but I need to learn to pick up the pace. More practice required, is all I can think.

Tomorrow: contract defenses and rights of third parties. Also possibly damages, depending how far I get. I will probably use the extra time I have allotted for contracts (I think it was 5 or 6 days) on sales. (My contracts professor taught us both at once, but I am very rusty.)

And so it begins.

Job update: still looking. But my current job (the one I lose at the end of the month) is letting me work more hours for the rest of the month, which is nice. Another few hundred bucks never hurts.

I picked up my gown and my graduation tickets yesterday; May 21st is the big day. I'd be more excited if the job search and the bar weren't hanging over my head, but I'm still looking forward to it.

Still, my last final exam of law school is behind me, my bar application is signed, notarized, attached to a hefty check, and mailed, and you know what that means: time to study for the bar! Hooray! Yesterday, I spent some time going through the 2005 Barbri material I have and finalizing my study plan, but today I plan to put in a good 3 hours plus of studying.

My plan is to study 6 days a week, with a 7th as a free day. The 6th day will be a review of the review, so to speak- going over the week's material again and doing practice essays. The other 5 days will consist of about 3-4 hours of study (including breaks), including substantive law and practice MBE questions. I've broken down the subjects that will be tested and allotted 4-6 days per (depending on how well I remember the testable material and how much I'll have to learn or relearn in the subject). Running that through the end of July, then I'll take a week to do a blitz review of everything and practice, practice, practice. Finally, I have some cushion space so I can afford to add another day for subjects if I think I need to (I might need more time than I budgeted for civil procedure, for example). Then final review, and a completely study-free de-stressing day before the bar exam itself.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of material (and I often do) but I have a plan and I think this will be doable...I just have to have the discipline to follow the schedule. So in about an hour I head home. After a shower and a bite to eat, my plan is:
10 minutes meditation and planning
1 hour substantive contracts study
5 minute break
1 hour substantive contracts study
5 minute break
1 hour for 17 contracts MBE questions, including time to go over the answers and review the principles I didn't remember

Wish me luck...