Sunday, April 05, 2009
My experience with the February 2009 California Bar Exam
I graduated law school in December 2008. I took a non-traditional route to law school in that I already had a Masters degree and about six years work experience in advertising. I didn't see myself in advertising for the rest of my life and this was something that was always in the back of my mind, so I decided to go for it.I joined Santa Clara Law School, which I think is a great law school not only because of its flexibility (I think it's one of the few ABA law schools that has a part-time program), but also because of the close knit community of faculty and administrators and especially the students. I felt a genuine camaraderie with my classmates, okay fine, some of my classmates. Some of them were cliquish, but for the most part, they were very helpful. It’s funny how even the most self-proclaimed liberal will wall themselves off in the quest for the best grade, but that’s a whole other essay on human nature and the survival of the fittest, which I guess would relate well to law school, but another time perhaps. The focus of this essay is the 2009 Feb Bar exam, which I will get to eventually. Maybe the last two paragraphs. ;0)
I started off in the part-time program for various reasons, the first being that I couldn’t get into the full-time program. The school is very flexible though, and after a year, I switched to the full-time path, as I knew I wouldn’t last out four years in law school. In hind-sight, being in the part-time program was great. It gave me enough time to adjust to the vigorous demands of the law school curriculum, and having been out of school for so long, I wasn’t used to staring at pages and pages of legalese. Not that full-time students were, but a majority of them had just graduated, so I’m assuming it would have been an easier transition for them. Prior to the start of my second year, the Fall of 2006, I had a revelation. I started law school in my early 30s. I realized that by the time I would graduate, pass the bar and get a job, I would be in my mid-30s, three to four years later. I couldn't visualize myself as a first-time mom or even as a pregnant woman in the first year of my first job in this profession, so my hubby and I decided that it would be best to have a baby in law school. Brilliant idea, let me tell you, that, along with starting law school as a mid-life career change. Not!!! Ever heard of sucker for punishment? Yours truly will gladly take that honor. The spring semester of my second year, semester two, is when I was happily pregnant and I found out soon after the start of the year. Again, not!!! I was happy and pregnant for all of 2-3 days, when I realized what I got myself into. I had signed up for about 15 or 16 credits that semester. It was not fun studying or sitting in classes when you are constantly nauseous or with a growing waistline that meant you didn't fit into any of your clothes. That coupled with reading assignments, Honors Moot Court and other law school requirements... What was I thinking???
Oh, and I almost forgot to write that all this while, I was commuting on a weekly basis from Sacramento to Santa Clara for law school. Yeah, I know what you are thinking… Santa Clara allows you to visit away your third year, so my big plan was to finish the requirements, 56 credits by the end of the second year, to be able to visit away in the third year and to be closer to school.
Fast forward a few months. About a week or so before my finals, I found out there was a problem with my baby in utero and at that time, we didn’t know what happened or what the outcome would be. I’m surprised I passed, even with the smattering of C’s I received, which seemed to be no different than when I studied hard. Oh well!
I took the Fall semester, the start of my third year off, and after a string of emails back and forth, I joined UC Davis law as a visiting student for the Spring of 2008, the start of my third year. At that time, however, I didn’t realize that UC Davis has this antiquated rule that if you apply for the Spring, you can only visit that one semester, and I didn’t know about it. So when I re-applied for the Fall of 2008, I found out that I couldn’t go back to UC Davis’ Law School in the Fall and I had to apply to another law school nearby.
So I applied again to McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, my saving grace. I finished up the required coursework, and even got a good GPA, surprise, surprise!
Finally, I was ready for bar prep for the Winter Bar Exam, in February 2009. I realized when applying for the bar that the results are released with the well-timed synchronicity of a ballet performance. By the time the results and released, and worst-case, if you failed, you would have enough time to reapply for the July bar exam. Interesting, but let’s not dwell on that. I’m being positive about the bar exam. :0) And yes, I will update this space in mid-May, after I find out.
Going into bar prep, I would recommend that given a choice, take all the bar courses that are offered at your school during your law school years. I found that it helped me remember the material better when it came around to bar prep time.
More about Multi-state prep (MBE, not the MPRE silly! :0)
I signed up for PMBR’s 6-day, 3-day combo, and for Barbri. I found that most students don’t do both, which was surprising as I was told that was the way to go by some of the Bar grads I spoke to. I thought PMBR’s 6 day course was pretty good, and scary, because I performed so badly – almost as if I was taking the multiple choice questions for the first time, minus three+ years of law school.
The questions were good and the instructor review was also good. But I found that the multiple choice explanatory answers could have used some improvement, especially with regard to the incorrect choices. Usually, the explanatory answers would explain the correct answers and at the most one other answer choice, but, if you were like me where your answer choice didn’t necessarily reflect these two, you were second-guessing a solution that may not have been the right one.
Also, the PMBR outlines were very confusing. Unlike Barbri’s more simplified, or some would say simplistic outlines, PMBR was more of a collection of treatises. They are good in that they are accurate explanations of the law, but they are lengthy and in legalese, which means you have to work further to condense it yourself.
PMBR vs. Barbri
Many people I’ve spoken to differ in terms of which one they prefer. So, it’s a personal preference issue, perhaps. I thought that PMBR’s questions were better formulated than Barbri’s multiple choice questions. Although the tips in the lecture or the online video, in case you missed a lecture were similar to Barbri’s tips in approaching a subject.
Also, I thought that the extended practice questions by Barbri were more of the same, and didn’t seem to have as much breadth as PMBR’s extended practice questions did. So, if you did Barbri’s initial sets and the four sets per subject, the extra practice questions didn’t seem to have new areas within that subject. But, since this differs from person to person, this is my opinion regarding my experiences with both companies.
February 2009 MBE
I thought the actual MBE was tricky. They have condensed their fact patterns and on the February exam, the longest fact pattern was probably a tad bit more than half a page, but true to their word, according to PMBR and Barbri, they didn’t have any multiple question sequences – you know, the ones that say, questions 9-11 are from this fact pattern. But, as a result of this, the answer choices on the MBE were very concise and the wording was tricky. I ended up spending more time in the two choices I was able to get down to, and I made decisions based on a change in words, more than anything else.
The scariest part of the MBE is that I have no idea how I did. I don’t know if many of the others were able to tell. One of my friends thought he did really well. But personally, I can never tell with that much certainty when it comes to multiple choice.
The answers involve more mastery on the grey areas of the law and don’t be fooled into thinking that because a question is a few lines, it is an easy one. Some of the ones I was perplexed by were property questions that had one or two answer choices related to Wills. I figured this subject was under Property, at least per Barbri, which has a small section at the end of the Property Conviser review, if I remember correctly, but, it took me by surprise because I wasn’t prepared.
I think both PMBR and Barbri need to brush up their question banks significantly, to make their questions tighter/concise and to make their answer choices more challenging.
Barbri Essay & Performance Test Prep
I thought Barbri did a great job with their essay and performance test preparations. The best part of the Barbri program, the ones most worth the money/time/effort, were Professors Sakai and Honigsberg. They were absolutely phenomenal in their approach to the Essay and Performance Test Workshops.
The Conviser review was pretty straight-forward. Some of the Professors put me to sleep – I don’t want this to be a slam fest or a rating for Professors, so I’m not going into that aspect of it. But, I thought that this past February’s paced program (Barbri’s schedule and daily program that students follow along with) was extremely tight and could have used more free days at the end. The paced program ended on Feb 14, and the Bar exam started on Feb 24, which was less than 10 days of self-study.
For someone like me who could not keep up with the paced program’s schedule, it was very hard to catch up, since you get so short on time toward the end, where there are a million things to do. I would have liked an extra few days to be able to get on top of things, but given the vastness of the syllabi and the subjects, I doubt that is feasible…
I thought the predictions by the Barbri team were fairly accurate. They talked about Civ. Pro not being covered for a while, and sure enough, it was on the exam. Also, the first time that California Evidence was tested, was on the Feb 2009 exam. So that was interesting.
So, finally, moving on to the Tue/Wed/Thur, (Feb 24-26, 2009, the California Bar Exam), the results of which (out in mid-May) will determine whether or not I am fit to be a lawyer in California.
Before I proceed any further, I promise I am not making any money from this, and had I started taking it sooner, I would have been better off, but regardless, I must give a shout-out to Rescue Remedy for any test-taker, or someone who is stressed out. It is a Bach Flower remedy and while I had it all along, my sister recommended I take it after I told her about a yelling match my husband and I had while trying to find the bar exam location (I took it in Sacramento – Cal Expo) on the Saturday prior to the exam. It was wonderful. I kept it in the car and I would take a dose prior to the morning session, and one prior to the afternoon session. It really made a world of difference.
After tossing and turning all night (does anyone really sleep soundly Monday night, through Wednesday night?) I headed out to Cal Expo. No major hitches. I took cushions and a foot stool (they’re some of the few things allowed, so why ever not?). The exam actually started early, at 5 minutes to 9:00 a.m., which threw me off, as I thought they would wait and it messes up your calculation. So, be prepared for that. In fact, Wednesday and Thursday, we started at different times, always before 9:00 a.m., if I remember correctly. Also, there is a bit of paperwork to do, so don’t come strolling in a few minutes before the exam. If you are a lap-topper, (as people using the computer and Softest are called), then you have to be in extra early to set up your computer. My Softest started acting up the afternoon of the third day. It was slow and the words would show up a few seconds after typing. It was annoying, but thank God it did not crash!!! Also, make sure you set up Softest in advance and also download the mock test and upload the test answer to ensure everything is okay. I had one setup issue, which I spent a nervous half-hour on, a few days before the exam.
So, Tuesday morning, ready to start, the first exam is Professional Responsibility. The essay is about a lawyer that is helping a corporation owned by a single shareholder, or something like that, and if I remember correctly, she takes a portion of the company shares as her fee and also is signs on another client who is suing a second corporation set up by the same shareholder who sets up corporation 1. We were asked to answer under ABA and California law.
Essay 2 was Civ Pro. I kept looking to see if they would ask for California Civ Pro, but it was Federal Civ Pro, and like the Barbri Prof said, it was basic Civ Pro rules, regarding venue. Luckily this essay had parts that asked specific questions, so you didn’t need to go crazy issue-spotting unasked issues. It was about a plaintiff who was injured by a copy machine at a copy-shop, but she was suing the manufacturer.
Essay 3 was California Evidence. This is the first time this subject has been tested, so lucky us. :0) (Not). It was not in narrative fashion, but in a testimonial fashion, with the sentences numbered, and we were asked to raise the evidence issues presented and answer according to California law.
Tuesday’s Performance Test – I made sure I had a light lunch, but I still felt sleepy about an hour or so into the exam, perhaps the lack of sleep or something. For some reason, I can’t seem to recall the subject matter of this exam. If anyone does, please send me a note to jog my memory. All I can remember is that it was long.
I remember reading someone’s blog about the California Bar Exam and this person studied law outside California. He or she said something to the effect of the Cal. Perf. Test being easy, because it was 3 hrs, while theirs was hard because it was 1.5 hours. Hello! Three hours, means twice the amount of material. So, go figure… I wouldn’t say it was hard, but it was a challenge, given the amount of time and the amount of material you have to digest and prepare.
Wednesday – MBE day. This was the most disconcerting. I have no idea how I did. Hopefully, when I pass (note the “when” and not the “if”), I won’t need to know…
On Thursday, essay 1 was a Torts/Defamation/Con Law question. Seemed relatively easy after Barbri’s prep. Essay 2 was a Contracts question, and this one had a few parts and was long. Even had a remedies thrown into it. I went too long on this question and had to sacrifice the remedies part by reducing it to a few sentences. I left it feeling I didn’t do it justice. Essay 3 was a Corporations Essay! Why?!! I don’t think anyone was expecting this subject, out of all the subjects. Anyway, most of the question dealt with fiduciary duties of care and loyalty. There was one part to it that left a few of us confused – a question about how to remove an interested director. I don’t recall covering this indepth in Barbri, perhaps it was there, but I just didn’t pay attention. Oh well!
Thursday’s Performance Test – this one I remember pretty clearly. It was about a Housing discrimination suit, by a couple that have a child and are asked to vacate because they violate the number of occupants rule or something. This was also extremely lengthy as they asked us to cover a number of things – one main thing was the recommendation to the client – and they listed three options to review, and wanted us to ask if they needed any further information, etc. So, it was long to say the least.
And then, we were done. I have never felt a bigger sense of denouement. We wound up, took our stuff and left. Everyone was so exhausted, that while there were some whoops of joy, people were glad it was over.
Now, we wait and wait some more. Wishing all my fellow warriors good luck!
