P.A.S.S. The Bar Exam

Doing your daily practice tests???

Yessssssssssssssssssssss!

Turn off the TV

And, study for the Bar Exam!  Distractions there will be, every day.  Don't succumb.  Put in a full productive day's worth of studying before you let leisure in!!! 

Nervous about PTs?

There is time still to really get a handle on Performance Tests.  If you don't feel ready to walk into your bar exam confident about the PT sessions, it's time to master that part of the bar exam now.  Sign up today for a powerful PT supplement --a course you can do conveniently from your home or office, anywhere you have internet access, in less than two days.

PASS the Performance Test Online at  http://www.passlaw.com/passptonline.htm  Buy the book separately from Legal Books, or receive PASS the Performance Test with your course enrollment. Sign up today, and start mastering the Performance Test right now.

Performance Test Study Guide available at www.legalbooksdistributing.com or by phone at 800-200-7110

What did you do for July 4th?

Did you take off and have a fun night?  Hopefully, and hopefully your battery feels re-charged this morning!  Time to get at it!  (It's Sunday --do you have a 2pm date with a Performance Test?  Not a bad idea.  2-5, knock it out.  Remember, these are insurance.  And, folks, be honest with yourself now, if you are not practicing doing these under timed conditions, get rolling.

Happy July 4th!

Do your MBEs this morning.  Review whatever subject you studied in bar review the last day or two, and complete an essay under timed conditions in that subject.  Put in a good study day, and then don't think about bar studies again until tomorrow morning's MBEs.  Go enjoy Independence Day!

Go to a barbecue, watch some fireworks, and enjoy your favorite July 4th drink!!!   Have a FUN night, and a safe holiday celebration. 

The Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The Declaration of Independence

Stress Power or Stress Paralysis

When stress powers and motivates you, it can be a most effective tool for bar exam preparation.  But feeling paralyzed from stress can hurt, a lot.  How to avoid that?

       -Talk it through.  Remind yourself you are just taking practice tests.  The scores are not a referendum on your ability to pass on the real exam; they are exercise, training, opportunities to learn.

        -Keep doing practice tests. 

               

MBEs- If facing a large set of practice MBEs freaks you, do smaller sets of MBEs.  Think of how more frequent, smaller meals are said to increase your metabolism more than fewer large meals.  For some folks, they can face the nerves of doing 30 minutes of MBEs every day, but any more than that feels too daunting.   So just keep at the smaller amounts, consistently, completed under timed conditions.

                        -If even doing a few MBEs feels too overwhelming now, read the first few out loud.  That may calm you and get you in the flow. Another tip is to start with a subject you are more comfortable with.  On the real Bar Exam, it may not be wise to go out of order generally, but, even there, if you are frozen, better to skip one or two questions and move on to one you can start in effectively with.  CAVEAT: If you go out of order, mark any question you skip so you are certain to go back and answer them before ending. (More posts to come on going out of order, on MBEs and Essays.) 

   

                ESSAYS --If facing a full essay question flips you out right now, try simply outlining a few.  After you have done that and you are in a less stressed mode, then write one out in full.  Note: If you are totally blocked, just read and outline a question and read the model answer; do one like that and you may be able to relax then and go on to write a question without a block. 

                              --If you start essays but get paralyzed when you hit an issue that don't know how to handle, maybe you forgot the rule or have some other block, try skipping that issue, write the rest of your answer, and come back to the finishing the rest of the question once you have completed the remaining issues.  (Sometimes, it's just getting the "flow" going, then you'll see "Oh Yeh," that's how that issue I didn't know how to handle when I first saw it should go.  Rules you think you "forgot" also tend to come back to you when you relax and start writing other rule statements in that same area of law.)

                            --Read the facts out loud, two or three times, before pressing yourself to write your outline or answer.  Sometimes, the "pressure" you put on yourself to "see it all" on a first read, freaks you out.  But, calming down and just letting yourself read a few times before having to act, can help you see more clearly how to proceed.

                PTs --Some of the same suggestions made above with respect to essays will also help with PTs (reading aloud, outlining a few, reading some model answers).  Another idea --go ahead and re-do a PT you have already completed, maybe a month of two back.  It will likely seem a lot easier the second time, and you may feel more empowered in your analysis and writing.  (Maybe give yourself a bit less time than you would have for one you have never seen before.) 

                            -Do an MPT as practice.  They are 90 minutes long, and may be easier for you to jump into than a CA PT.  Do an MPT, to get the flow going, then go back to doing CA PTs.

The suggestions above are just a few of my ideas on how to move through stress paralysis.  What helps you when you are stuck?  Readers, please write in and tell us!!!

                        -

It's July. Are you freaking out?

Some people do.  It's OK.  Hang in.  For some people, it's just seeing that calendar turn from June to July, realizing it's weeks away, not months.  It plays with your mind.  Don't let it. 

    -Think back to how much you learned in law school in the days before certain final exams --days!

    -You still have a long time.  This exam is not until the very end of July.  Today's the 3d, you have until the 27th to make all the mistakes.  The only days that really count are the 28th, 29th, and 30th (if you are taking the CA Bar Exam).

    -Remember, you are months into your study; you are "primed" and ready to make your learning geometrically more effective this July.  It's not like you are just now opening books and saying, "Gee, I think I'll take that July Bar Exam.")

    -Make stress your friend.  Freaking out means you are nervous.  Nerves can be most powerful.  It can keep you awake, alert, it can motivate you to put in extra hours, extra concentration ---if you let it.  The key is to make the stress positive and powerful energy; do not let it become paralyzing.  (More tips on how to avoid stress paralysis in past and future posts!)

It's OK to take the night of the 4th off

Go watch some fireworks.  Go to a barbecue.  Spend time with friends and family. 

Whatttt??   Yes.  You must pace yourself now.  You have four weeks.  It seems like nothing, but it's really a lot of time --if you are ON and productive every single day.  How to stay that way?  Pace yourself.  Do not let yourself burn out.  Take an occasional evening to replenish the well.  (Yes, you can probably see one or two movies even, between now and the bar exam.) 

July 4th is a perfect time to take for you.  Everyone around you will be celebrating.  Why set yourself up to feel deprived?  Study all day, or put in a good 8-10 hours (whatever your weekend routine is), then take the evening off.

READERS: Write in and tell us where the best fireworks displays in your neighborhood are!!!

Afraid you'll never be able to learn it ALL??

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear."

--Mark Twain