Today we got a good overview of MT Crimlawââ�¬â��at least from the perspective of a 30-year prosecutor. But I learned a lot about how MT law differs from federal or MPC or common lawââ�¬â��both substantively and procedurally. Examples of those differences after the jump…¹
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1. No need to bore those of you who really could care less about the details of MT criminal law, which I’m guessing is about 99.9% of the people who will see this post.↩

I’m just saying.

First, the law library at the University of Montana Law School has copies of every Montana Bar Exam (at least the Montana essay portion)since 1991. Anyone can get copies of these just for the cost of the photocopying. Good to know!

Second, in the same place you can find a chart of the frequency with which each subject has been tested in the last five years on both the MTEE (Montana essays) and MEE (Multistate essays). Also good to know.

For the curious, I’ve summarized those frequency charts after the jump….
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California Bar Girl says she’s heard that BarBri is telling everyone to mark the answer “C” on the MBE if you don’t know what the right answer is. If enough people answer “C” and get a question wrong, the question will get thrown out and it won’t be counted against anyone. Sounds like a great idea. Thousands of people are taking BarBri so if they all get this same advice and act on it, we can all game the MBE. Sort of.

But then, Monica says her BarBri property lecturer told her that, when in doubt, the answer is “A.”

Hey BarBri! Get your story straight, will you?

For the record, I haven’t heard any BarBri lecturer give any advice on this subject at all. All I’ve heard is you should answer every question b/c there’s no penalty for guessing. (A wrong answer counts against you the same as a non-answer.)

If BarBri isn’t going to call this one, I will: When in doubt, answer “C.” It’s always the right answer, anyway, isn’t it? [tags]barbri[/tags]

Ok, I’m finally getting my head around this bar exam thing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I’m beginning to feel prepared; far from it. What it means is I finally feel like I can see it as a coherent whole and how I should have approached preparing for it. I should have done what everyone else is doingââ�¬â��spent the first month getting the MBE subjects in my head and preparing for a practice test this weekend or last. Then I could shift focus to the essays and everything else for these last two weeks.

That’s what I should have done. But I didn’t. So forget what I said yesterday about taking a practice MBE today. It would be a complete waste. I spent at least 8 hours yesterday doing practice questions in multiple subjects and I’m just getting far too many wrong to make a practice test meaningful. Although I hope to take a practice test next weekend (the next time I can realistically block off the required 6 hours for that purpose), I take some small encouragement from the Millbarge School of Bar Review (scroll down to #5):

I didn’t start studying until after July 4th. I mean, I went to the BarBri lectures and filled in the blanks in the book, but I didn’t do any out-of-class studying until July. That gave me about three solid weeks of heavy-duty studying, and not much else. . . . But I also never took a full practice test and didn’t write any practice essays. I think I (a) take tests pretty well, (b) retained a lot from the lectures, © felt pretty good about what I learned and remembered from the courses I took that were tested on the exam, (d) studied hard those last three weeks, (e) took the bar in not the most difficult jurisdiction in the country, and (f) didn’t get freaked out about it. Depending on how any or all of those apply to you, adjust your own study time accordingly.

[Link via Wanye's 2006 Bar Exam Blog.] I have only just begun the “heavy-duty” studying with only two weeks left to go. Otherwise, the plan sort of fits: I (a) take tests ok, (b) don’t feel like I’ve retained a lot from the lectures but I’m confident that a little review of those notes will bring it back, © feel just ok about what I learned in the courses I took that are going to be tested on the exam (mainly just MBE subjects; everything else is pretty new to me), (d) am going to study very very hard for these last two weeks, (e) am taking the exam in not the most difficult jurisdiction in the country (about an 80% pass rate), and (f) am fighting against the freakout.

Along with the sheer lack of time left to prepare for the exam, the freakout is really the biggest foe. At about midnight last night, after getting question after question wrong, the prospect of catching up and turning this trainwreck around just looked impossible. Freakout loomed. But sleep is often a magical cure for such heebeejeebies. Today’s a new day and a new chance to cram more of this into my head. It feels a little like a perverse mental eating contest (how many property hot dogs can you shove down your mind’s gullet in the next hour?!?), but, well, I do like to eat….

Going over my notes from Prof. Whitebread’s BarBri crimpro lecture I’m reminded that in discussing the Miranda rules he said (and this is just a close paraphrase):

All studies have found Miranda has no effect on suspect willingness to talk. But portrayal of Miranda on tv has told everyone they have rights. They don’t know what they are, but they know they have them. I don’t understand why they don’t repeal the Miranda requirement except that that ct. would be known as the ct. that took away everyone’s rights.

I think he was trying to be a little bit funny and I doubt most people even record stuff like this in their notes. Still, it’s a rather provocative thing to just toss out there offhandedly when you consider that Whitebread was speaking to literally thousands of recent law school graduates who will, in all likelihood, actually be practicing law within just a few months.

Like I said, most of those thousands who heard Whitebread’s comment probably won’t remember it and even fewer will take it to heart or adopt it as their own view. My point is simply that BarBri has a relatively captive audience of thousands of potentially influential people each year. If you were a BarBri lecturer, isn’t there some little radical or controversial idea you’d like to toss out to that audience to see if it would take hold? [tags]barbri[/tags]

Thanks to all who commented on my last post (last week!) for the congratulations on the job. I’ve been busy w/life things and haven’t been able to update here recently but it’s been great to check email sporadically over the last week and see another positive comment or two in my inbox each time. I couldn’t be happier myself; why wouldn’t I want to be part of this? Words are simply not adequate to describe how lucky and happy I feel that things have fallen into place so perfectly. (Knock wood!) Of course, now that I’ve told everyone I have this great job, the pressure is even greater to pass the bar. I have a spike of adrenaline several times a day imagining what will happen if I don’t pass. Bad things, man. Very bad things. Unfortunately, what with refinishing our floors, painting the basement, and finally moving in to our new house, I haven’t made a great deal of progress on the bar exam thing.

That changes today.

From now until the bar exam—only 17 days!—I will probably be holed up here in Missoula doing practice questions, reviewing notes and outlines, writing practice essays, and possibly doing a practice MBE.

Speaking of which, should I do the practice MBE? Is it crucial? Please let me know what you think in the poll down on the right and/or in the comments here. My BarBri course doesn’t offer a simulated MBE and I’m obviously not at the PMBR 3-day scarefest that started today, so if I do a practice MBE I’ll have to just do it on my own. Jeremy says it was useful and the Statute of Frogs makes it sound pretty worthwhile, too. Other thoughts?

Gotta study…

Hi. I’ve been playing hooky from the blog while focusing on other thingsââ�¬â��like sanding floors! But also, of course, I’ve been studying for the bar. A little. I need to do more, obviously. Which brings me to the point of this post, which is: Should I do the PMBR 3-day review next weekend or not?

I’ve asked this before and got lots of good feedback in these two posts from March and early April. The clear consensus from those who responded there was that PMBR just freaks you out and what you really need to do is just do practice questions practice questions practice questions. I think that’s right, but then I see all these people in my BarBri class signing up for this PMBR “crash course” next weekend and I think, “do they know something I don’t?”

See, Sua Sponte felt the same pressure at almost the same point last summer.

Baaaaa! Baaaaa!

I’m not gonna do it. You can’t make me!

p.s.: Speaking of last chances, today is also your last chance to lock in a lower interest rate on your federal loans by consolidating them. Yay.

(Sheep image courtesy of unadorned.org via a Creative Commons license.) [tags]pmbr, barbri, debt[/tags]

I still feel like I’m wading through a waist-deep swamp of $&*! as far as bar studying goes and now the test is basically one month away. Obviously I can’t go on like this if I’m going to pass.

What to do? Energy Spatula solicited a list of tips from her readers last week so perhaps I’ll find the magic bullet there. Oh, there is no magic bullet? Damn.

Elsewhere, Monica is taking simulated MBEs already, and that seems like a pretty good idea except I haven’t reviewed all the MBE topics yet. The last oneââ�¬â��propertyââ�¬â��is next week. I guess that’s good. I can use the 4th of July break to start finish my attack plans for the MBE and take a simulated test on my own. Oh yeah, one of the “benefits” of taking the least expensive BarBri class in the country is that you don’t get a simulated MBE, either. Cheaper obviously isn’t always better, but again, I have to remind myself that no one else in MT is getting a simulated MBE as part of their exam preparations eitherââ�¬â��at least not through BarBri.

Monica also recently pointed to this list of bar exam mnemonics. Maybe some of those will help, too.

Meanwhile, Energy Spatula expresses the frustration many of us are feeling about now (oh, and here, too), but she’s got it even worseââ�¬â��her BarBri classes are apparently seven days a week! Suddenly my three-day weekends are looking much, much better. But she’s also turning in practice essays to be graded. Here in MT? No. Our review course has so far been silent on essays except for those brief moments when the MBE video professors give you tips like, “so if you run into an essay where strict application of contract law leads to unjust results, be sure to end with a paragraph discussing the possible equitable remedies available under the theory of quasi-contract.” That’s helpful, but I bet those graded practice essays are going to be much more helpful for those who do them.

I’m sure I’m being unfair b/c we’re going to have a bunch of courses on MT-specific issues coming up so I’m sure we’ll get more tips on how to handle the essays on each of those subjects. Speaking of which, it’s almost time for my first-ever introduction to tax law. Yay.

And maybe I don’t have all that much to worry about. Wayne at the 2006 Bar Exam blog says studying for the bar is just like law school, and I’m sure he’s right, but something tells me my slacker ways will have to improve at least a little if I’m going to beat this monster.
[tags]barbri, montana[/tags]

Just finished three days of contracts lectures w/Professor David G. Epstein. He’s a funny guy, but for some reason the funniest thing he said in the whole three days was:

I’m just like Heidi Fleiss . . . for purposes of this hypothetical.

I’m doubtful that “Armadillos from Texas play rap, eating tacos”¹ is really going to help me remember this material, but here’s to hope. [tags]barbri[/tags]

1. This is the mnemonic device he suggested for remembering the major areas of contract law. It stands for: Applicable law, Formation of contracts, Terms of contract, Perfomance, Remedies for unexcused nonperformance, Excuse of nonperformance, Third-party problems.↩