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Preparing for exam day July 13, 2007

Posted by j in Reflections, The Exam.
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Because this is the last weekend that you’ll have to maybe idle and procrastinate, here are a few things that you could do to constructively prepare.

  • do a dry run to the examination centre, and time it (and allow for traffic jams etc) – this way you know exactly where it is. I recommend even trying to get in so you can see the room. Go right up to the entrance or walk around the building so you know where you’re actually going to in.
  • book the car service/ mom/ dad/ friend/ gf/ wife to get you to the exam
  • prepare your exam day bag – pens, highlighers, eraser, pencil, pencil sharpener, tissues, snacks, lunch (because you wont’ have time to buy it, in all likelihood), water, earplugs, watch (make sure it works)

You get about an hour in between each session. If you go to a large testing centre, it may take a while to get out and pick up your bag (at bag check). I took my notes to the exam just in case I wanted to look at it at lunchtime. My testing room was tiny and everyone left their stuff outside on racks so you could get your  things easily and fast. If you’re lucky, maybe you can arrange for a friend to meet you there with all your notes and stuff.

I know that for a lot of people, they say there is no point in looking over your notes the day of the exam etc. But for me, it was great to have a safety blanket “just in case”, plus looking over at notes helped me remind myself that I DID know stuff. Just make sure that when you look at your notes during lunch that you’re not looking back at the topics that was covered in the morning going ‘oh shit i missed that point’. Once it’s over it’s over. So focus on the topics that were not covered in the morning’s session.

10 days to go… Ganbatte! July 13, 2007

Posted by j in Burnout, Reflections.
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Ganbatte is what the japanese would say to encourage and say good luck.

It’s 10 days left to go – I’ve just been speaking to a friend and I hope that these words of encouragement and “advice” is helpful. You are probably stressed right now, reading this blog in procrastination, wondering why nothing is soaking in and being dismal at low scores that you’re getting in your practice questions and exams. (and if you are not, then that is awesome).

I found an email that Jeff Adachi sent me, after I asked what I should be doing in the last 10 days of the exam. He wrote “Memorization is key in the last 7 days. You should focus on memorization exclusively at this point.”

I could agree to that. In my last 10 days, this is what I did. I ditched the pace program that Barbri gave me (because it was stressing me out) and did the following:

  • continued to do my PMBR questions – a few topics a day, and read the answers
  • picked 2 or 3 topics a day and learn them (ok this is like the pace program)
  • did quick answers to past exam papers (I went back to 1997, if i recall, so 9 years worth of them), then looked at the answers. (Baring in mind that the answers provided might not be 100% accurate but I’d cross check my own notes)
  • made sure I did quick answers to all the Barbri answers to released questions and then read their answer
  • looked over the MPT to the formats that I was not familiar with (eg writing a disposition) – no more than 2 hours spent looking over those sample answers in the MPT book
  • did half the practice PMBR exam in the blue book (100 questions)
  • made flip cards of NY distinctions – i think I got more out of printing and making them, rather than use them for real learning – i would not advise doing this before the bar exam!
  • hang on to notes for dear life. I am assuming you have condensed your notes to a few pages each subject. I looked at these notes whenever I could. It helps to get a pencil and lightly cross out things that you automatically do know, and focus on what you don’t know.

    • Things to keep in mind:

    • don’t panic
    • you got through high school, college, law school and all those exams, you can do this again, just one more time
    • you know more than you think you know
    • if you did do most of the work in the paced program you are in good shape – you’ve come across a lot of the issues that will probably appear in the exam (if you didn’t then it’s too late to panic anyway)

    Good luck, you’ve gotten this far, there is not much more to go!