Barbri workout

Well, I am waiting for that official letter to arrive but apparently I passed.

The State Board of Law Examiners congratulates you on passing the New York State bar examination held on February 27-28, 2007. An official notice has been mailed and will contain your Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) scaled score. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this lookup screen, each applicant must rely on the official notification (via U.S. Mail) as to whether he or she has passed the examination.

OMG – through the little java applet at the bottom of the browser on the NY Board of Examiners website, is the news that the bar exam results are out at 10 AM… that is, Friday, May 4 2007.
I am nervous now. Very nervous. Will probably not get enough sleep tonight.

Good luck everyone.

From the NY Bar Examiners:

RE-APPLICANTS

(1) If you took the February 2007 bar examination, you need not re-apply at this time. Please await the release of the results from the February 2007 examination. When the results of the February 2007 are released in May, failing applicants will be given 21 days from the date of the failure notice to re-apply for the July 2007 examination.

(2) If you applied for the February 2007 exam but did not sit for the entire examination, the deadline to re-apply for the July 2007 exam is still April 25, 2007.

(3) If you previously filed an application to sit for the New York bar examination within the past 5 years, you should file either the on-line or paper version of the Re-Application form. The deadline is April 25, 2007. If you have not filed an application to sit for the bar examination within the past five years you must file either the on-line or paper first time application.

(4) If you were issued a credit voucher for your application fee, you should download and mail a Re-Application form together with the Credit Voucher.

I am not suggesting that I failed, or am thinking that I failed but this is info that is handy. The exam was surreal that I cannot really ‘attach’ a feeling to it, all I can say is I don’t know if I passed of failed but I would not be surprised if I failed.

And I still don’t remember anything!

Barbri was right – should really condense the notes down to a few pages (but with more details). I am frantically reducing my notes further and further.
Barbri’s Post course time table recommends studying 12 hours a day!! I am flying out to NY in a week so it’s all hands on deck. If they don’t collapse from typing and writing. My brain is going to explode.

PMBR is being reimbursed as a course for us as well now. I think it’s because people are right in saying those questions are those questions are more like the MBE. This is probably because PMBR were found to have infringed the NCBEX copyright in the questions.

But Eastern Distsrict of Pennsylvania Judge John P. Fullam disagreed and said the evidence showed MLSI had copied both the detailed facts in the questions as well as the correct and incorrect answers.

“I conclude that nearly all of the 113 challenged questions are substantially similar to copyrighted MBE questions,” Fullam wrote. “In many instances, evidence of copying practically leaps from the page.”

I admit that I dont’ like the Barbri questions anymore because I am grumpy at my miserable score in the MBE. But I would rather do questions ‘more like the real thing’ – PMBR questions are shorter (apparently closer to the exam.. and as a bonus it doesn’t consume your concentration) and the explanations are clearer than the Barbri ones

Oh it’s some rule it’s gotta happen once in your life. It only happened once to my own iPod, years ago, I almost forgot about the freezing of iPods! I was a bit freaked out (the thought of having to deal with Barbri over a non-functioning iPod at a time when the technicians were away was too painful) but then, thankfully, I have How to reset iPod bookmarked..

1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
2. Press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.

I am also now charging this iPod nano via my firewire cable – because these are 1st gen, they only charge through the firewire and not via a usb, so no fear of ‘accidentally transferring iPod nano contents’ to my harddrive & therefore erasing my self-learning iPod. (I even rang Apple to confirm, since I couldn’t take the silicone case off… the guy was quite amused.. he was like, ‘what do you mean it’s not yours and how come you cant’ take it off?!’, yeah they should all fire up .. it’s just that the 2nd gen ones have a different dock charger)

I would actually be interested in seeing what type of DRM they have installed! I mean, it’s only $150 to reformat the iPod right? There are lots of different ways that you can transfer music off your iPod (see iLounge tutorials. The pain of waiting for Barbri to send another iPod could be painful though. That would be cool to have the lectures on my computer, so I could fast forward adequately.

Is anyone out here in cyberspace also doing the NY bar self study…..?

Or anyone from a common law foreign jurisdiction doing the NY bar this feb?

Yups, the Mac version of the Study Smart is temporarily unavailable. I hope they fix it soon.

Meanwhile NY practice is not too bad. It’s a good thing that I have forgotten a lot of this procedural stuff but there are enough similar ideas for me to be able to grasp it. I have the Crim questions to do tonight. I’m procrastinating, but I guess I should really give them ago. AFTER i summarise these notes.

Some people who have done the course say you should attend lectures. And others said not to worry about dong the lectures, because you show up and someone talks to you for 3 hours straight.

I’d previously been advised that it would be good to move to NYC in the winter, and go to the lectures and basically spend an entire winter sitting there learning. I could have study groups and share notes.

But since I thought the above option was expensive and I have never studied in groups anyway, this option was the way to go. So far, it’s been ok. Each lecture is broken up into hour chunks so I can take a break whenever I want. And I can study whenever I want. And, if I am stuck on something, I can go back and listen to the point again.

I wondered whether anyone else was blogging about doing the Barbri self study option… or the Barbri at all. I guess people are too busy to be blogging?

I am doing the self study option, for the NY bar exam. I have been armed with the books, a Paced Program and an iPod nano filled with lectures.