10 days to go… Ganbatte! July 13, 2007
Posted by j in Burnout, Reflections.add a comment
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:
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!
This sums it up February 18, 2007
Posted by j in Burnout.add a comment
As Erica Fine (Wills lecturer said) – “You feel good, then you feel crappy”
Yeah, how about, I feel crappy every day and every question I look at I blank out and wonder what the f**k is going on. I really hope I memorise the essential rules for the essays.
Soul crushing MBE practice February 7, 2007
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Oh dear. I did the practice MBE, got the worse mark ever. Should I even put it up? Ok, I got less than 50%. It is totally soul destroying and I now fear that I will not pass at all.
But, I do recommend doing it, at least I know my weak points.
On another note Barbri were delayed in sending me the answer sheet and I made this poor girl at the phone read out the whole instruction sheet. I think maybe my big firm experience is coming out now in a ‘i’m mean and why can’t you do things for me’ kind of BS that I HATE having to do but man, I am stressed, the course costs heaps and you can’t even help me on a little thing? Is it because you have a virtual monopoly over the bar study prep courses in the USA? Ok. I was extra grumpy because I had to stay up late so I could actually ring. [I am on the otherside of the world from the USA]
Still a bit behind… January 24, 2007
Posted by j in Burnout, Distractions, Gripes, Reflections.1 comment so far
My brain is tired and I can’t seem to keep up with all the assignments. Sometimes I stare at ebay listings, out the window, watch TV, cook… mindless things not requiring the mind to think TOO much but things that I can do which achieve something other than stress and confusion (fixing my network/ computer aside).
Today I did the first contracts question where I confidently knew some stuff. Cool. I’m slowly catching up on the questions I misse. I looked at the Bar Exam Survival Kit and Jeff recommends that when you first do the essays, you do it open book. I did that, it was good to have a safety blanket but I was only using it to refer to one or 2 points. So maybe I did learn something.
Meanwhile, since Barbri didn’t bother to give us self-study schedule a lovely Paced Program (yeah considering that we paid so much more for the ipod, you’d think we’d get a personalised paced program for us as well), we had to swap around everything ourselves and the assignments are out of wack. So maybe it’s a blessing I am slightly behind. I emailed them with the timetable as altered literally and the STILL haven’t gotten back to me 
Back to the RP lecture I go.
Damage after 1 week January 1, 2007
Posted by j in Burnout.add a comment
Or should this be damage after reading all of NY Practice?
There is good reason that I am not a litigation lawyer – I really hate it. Give me a contract, some business development work or even a long academic research and essay on some particular issue (which the client is never going to pay for) and I’m happy to work on it.
NY Practice is all about litigation. The time limits have done my head in and I don’t know how I will remember any of it. The good thing is I can’t remember much about litigation from law school and my trusty widget of an Oxford American dictionary is helping me out with commonly used terminology. I don’t think we use depositions, and impeach is a word ordinarily associated with treason or a crime against the state. We also don’t use a lot of latin, but I am glad I worked on a research paper on certiorari and mandamus for work last month. Thanks boss! Having said that, why am I dealing with admin law.. again?!
Happy new year, btw.
