Friday, November 25, 2011

Barprep (or lack thereof)

Well it has been a few days since I last posted.  Bar review has kinda stood still for the last couple of days.  It also doesn't help that I can't access step 1 lectures from BarBri any more.  The course schedule has been posted though.  I like how this one is organized better than the one for the summer.  

So what have I been doing for the last couple of days?  I went on a family vacation to Vegas.  I'm 25 and had never gambled before.  I won $80 on a penny slot machine.  I am glad that class doesn't start until after Christmas but a little nervous that the bar exam is in 3 months and 3 days.  Starting tomorrow I pick back up on reviewing before bar prep starts.

Hope all my readers had a good holiday and if you aren't in the US (I'm looking at all the Russian readers) I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Landlord tenant law you are so boring

Today's lovely topic was landlord tenant law.  It went pretty well and I'm pretty sure my problem issue in property is (drum roll please) future interests (is that really any surprise).  Since property is pretty boring, and I am pretty tired I won't bore anyone (including myself) with the details of today's study session except to say that listening to the BarBri lecture was torture.  I'm super excited about reviewing my property outlines for tomorrow.

I did have lunch with one of my friends who passed the bar today.  I am happy to say I have reached the point where I can feel happy for my friends who did pass.  I was told that I have a better outlook than many people in my situation.

Which brings me to the topic of why blog about retaking the bar exam.  To be frank, not many people seem to discuss retaking the bar.  It was almost a taboo topic at my law school.  I know that my graduating class had almost 20 people fail the bar, so I know I am not alone.  I was surprised to find that the topic wasn't discussed much.  Bar prep in general is discussed quite a bit, and I remember several lectures from the deans of my law school talking about how important passing the first time is, but what about those who don't pass the first time.

I did law school out of state, and I know that the people who failed the bar in the state I went to law school in received emails from the school about how to pass on the next try.  I have yet to receive any thing like that from my school (even though we had at least 4 fail the Texas bar exam).  In short if you are reading this and are retaking, you are not alone.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Torts, Property, Con Law

So, I got bad about updating this, but never fear, I have been studying.  With Torts I finished negligence.  Gotta love working with duty, breach, causation, harm (damages) again.  The second half of the Barbri lecture finished out breach an covered causation and harm.  It has been since I was last in Barbri that I focused on proximate cause.  I'm a little relieved that I still remember the causation rules.  The lecture also covered everyone's favorite rule in torts the eggshell skull plaintiff.  I was surprised at how many cases were referred to in the torts lecture.  I found that I didn't remember the cases by the names, but when the facts of each case were told, I was drawn back to those horrible memories of first year and being on call.  I think I'm set to start BarBri in torts, but I will keep reviewing my Kaplan flashcards and my outlines.

This week is a Property and Constitutional Law week.  I remember last time in bar prep after the practice MBE during the question by question lecture being told that I knew too much about obscene speech by the video.  It is funny what parts of Constitutional Law stuck with me through law school.  I have quite a bit of work to do with Property.  I didn't really do well in Property during law school and it was consistently a weak subject for me during last bar review.  It isn't surprising that I didn't do well with it during the bar exam.  It was also my weakest essay subject.

Well, it is bed time.  Hopefully I will be better about updating this week than I was last week.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Torts, Torts, Tarts, Torts

Yesterday's post didn't actually post.  I tried making a post on my Iphone and it had an error.  So today there will be more than one post.

Yesterday I worked on reviewing the intentional torts.  I am surprised at how much I remember from the last go around since I did so poorly on torts.  This makes me think that my problem was with negligence.  As I was reviewing the Barbri outline I saw that there are a ton of questions on negligence.  Today is a negligence review day for me, so hopefully it won't be too scary.  I was wondering yesterday if the reason I had so much trouble with torts on the bar was that my school only required Torts 1 which covered just intentional torts.  We didn't even cover all of the intentional torts in the class.  Oh well, torts are just elements.  I look forward to today with the reasonably prudent person in same or similar circumstances.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Day 2

I decided to start studying today.  Studying for the bar this time seems a little less daunting for several reasons.  I've already taken the exam and I know what part I did poorly on and even more specifically I know what parts of law I need to work on the most (can you say MBE Torts and Property).  I downloaded the free KaplanPMBR flashcard app for my phone.  I was shocked that a bar prep company was giving away something so useful for free.  So today is full of reviewing Torts.  I think my issue with Torts was that I didn't know the elements of each tort well enough.  With property, well, my property teacher wasn't that good and I knew I was struggling in property going into the first exam.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Day 1

Bar results came out for Texas on Thursday (a day early according to all the stuff that was sent). My name did not appear on the pass list, so after some crying I had to figure out what was next. I was given some good advice about my situation. It is not the end of the world. I spent the weekend a bit mopey, but my best friend (who failed in a different state) came down and we drank. I also decided to attempt blogging about restudying and retaking the bar exam to try and help me stay sane. So now Monday after I found out I failed the bar exam I have re-enrolled in BarBri, and and finishing up my reapplication for the bar exam. It is a much shorter application this time. On Friday I did get a letter from the state bar that told me how I did, and come to find out I royally messed up the MBE section. So today's to do list: 1) Go find a notary and get my reapplication out in the mail; 2) Send the letter into BarBri so I get my retake class for free.