Thursday, July 5, 2012

No News Is ...

... no news. 

Working on PTs and Essays (and a little bit on MBEs to stay fresh.)

Like the Cherokee Lone Watie in "The Outlaw Josie Wales", I'm going to "endeavor to persevere".

Here's another appropriate quote from that movie: [Josie Wales] "Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is."

So I'm endeavoring to get plumb mad-dog mean on the bar exam this time, and I'm not going to lose my head and give up, because ...

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like you're thinkin' right I I reckon
Think you'll nail it this time.
That's what I think, at least.
Lookin' and hopin' for the best.
Every dog has his day and all that.

C'mon, now, GP. This is your time!
And you need to take the reins!
That's what I think anyways...
!

Anonymous said...

Good luck GP. I am on third try..my PTs and essays higher scores but my MBEs were horrid ;( still are in practice...
Your suggestions for resources are helping . i am self studying too. Please check out my blog California Bar Exam Three Times a Charm.blogspot


Also, whats been your experience with Bar Exam Guru...I received a scholarship, promise I would get study materials then silence. I have called, emailed, nothing. Anyway, good luck to you.

Anonymous said...

Balla! That is what GP is.
It's going to be a good July.
GP going to pass.

Can I ask you a question GP?
Advice from blog-master GP is sound!
The ? - what subjects will be on essays?

Have any idea?
U are the wisest blog cat around.
No advice matters to me like GP advice.
Great blog.
Really thoughtful posts.
You out blog me for shizzle.
!
!

Jonathan L. Kramer, Esq. said...

Always sending good wishes to my friend and colleague, GP.

Jonathan L. Kramer, Esq. said...

Always sending good wishes to my friend and colleague, G.P.

Anonymous said...

you gonna pass this Bar Exam or whistle Dixie?

Anonymous said...

Boy oh boy ...
I'mma bored.
Going to be hard to push through.

Can you tell me how you focus GP?
Any advice would be great.
This is just really hard to keep up.

Have another question?
Any advice about what to do post-bar?
Take some time off?
Eat shrimp?
Sip on vino?

Lots of efficiences cont. to study.
Is that what GP does?
Try to keep bar info it head or
Take a break?
Life is too short I suppose ...
Eat ice cream.

Can't say I am excited for 3-day bar.
At least it will be done soon.
That's all folks ...
!

The Grand Poobah said...

Focus, I don't need no stinkin' focus!

But seriously, folks, I find that I am better able to focus in the late afternoon/evening when I have a few uninterrupted hours to study. It's tough to focus when I'm constantly being interrupted. Also, it helps to be in a place without a lot of distractions. Unlike some people, I can't study at a coffee shop. I do better at my office after everyone has gone home.

Post-bar? I have no suggestions. I usually just jump back into work because I've neglected it while I was studying. I really don't get any time off to relax. The pressures of trying to make the house payment, et. al., are unrelenting.

I try to keep it all in my head, but I usually don't start studying in earnest again until I've found out that I didn't pass the last exam. I know some people who take a month off after the exam then start studying again, before the results are released. I would like to do that but the aforementioned house payments, etc, are more urgent matters for me (which seems counter intuitive because, theoretically, if I passed the exam I would be able to make enough money to meet all of my obligations. Theoretically.)

Ice cream. Yes, it's a staple of my diet while in bar prep mode.

Excited for a 3-day bar? Though it sounds bizarre, I am excited to take the exam. I'm an eternal, incurable, unrelenting, incorrigible, unwavering optimist (which, I firmly believe, is a form of insanity) so I am always looking forward to the day that I get the news that I passed. And I can't get to that day without taking the 3-day exam. So, yes, I am looking forward to those three days in the last week of July.

The Grand Poobah said...

Thanks, Jonathan, for your unwavering support. It's very much appreciated.

Anonymous said...

We got somethin' in this territory called the Missouri boat ride...

The Grand Poobah said...

Indeed! Love that movie. Full of great quotes.

Anonymous said...

hey all- came across this tonight in my break. Brief background- took sC bar in July 2010 and passed first try- but let me tell you, SC Bar is NO CA BAR! Not even close, aside from the MBE portion. I'm crazily behind in my studies because I've had work full time this summer because living in CA is way more expensive than SC. I practiced for a year and a half and it took a lot to get back into "study mode" I have to pass this thing on first try. I'm trying to bang out essay after essay, and I haven't even looked at a PT yet. Yes, I realize the exam is in 2 weeks, I will look at it tomorrow first time. But man, it's just unreal what they expect you to know- differences between CA and FED law is straight cruel on essays. Anyway, good luck to all!

Anonymous said...

Blogmaster ...
I'm in awe.
GP blogs and studies!

Coolest cat around.
Any sense how you think July will go?
Thinking it will go differently?

Starting any new study programs?
Are you using the Goat method?
You've tried them all GP.
Share which one is the best.

Please!
Lay it on me straight blogmaster.
Any advice will help.
Your new picture makes you look wise.

How do you get pumped for exam week?
Ice cream? Ha!
Me thinks you dance to Ice Ice Baby!

Of course I'm kidding.
Funny ...
Funny ... I know.

Keep on trucking GP.
Eyes on the prize.
You're going to pass.
Blogmasters will pass.
Offer to help me on my blog
And you will surely pass!
Revolutionary blog I have re: socialism.
Down with socialism GP?

Catch you later GP.
And remember ...
That Ice Ice Baby was the best ever.
!

Anonymous said...

Fun times, fun times studying...
Understanding the RAP now.
Cool.
Knowledge of RAP key to property.

GP has any problem areas?
Perhaps your readers can help?

Call me maybe with any questions.
Atta' boy GP.
Time to kick CBX and capitalism's arses!
!

Elizabeth said...

Hey, I'm a first time taker this year and I've been reading your blog for a little while. I just want to wish you the best of luck. If anyone deserves to pass, it's you.

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth:

There is no such thing as "deserving to pass the bar exam", for I am envisioning a generation of entitled non-lawyers petitioning the State Bar for their inability to pass the bar on the basis of an inability to write passing answers that merit bar passage.

GP: It is crunch time, my man. Stick to it!

The Grand Poobah said...

Anon 7:49: I concur. I was going to quote another Clint Eastwood line in response to Elizabeth's comment, but I appreciate her sentiment so I refrained.

The quote was from the movie Unforgiven, and Eastwood, as William Munny, was about to dispatch Little Bill (Gene Hackman). Little Bill looked up as Munny was aiming his Spencer rifle at Little Bill's face, when Little Bill said "I don't deserve this... to die like this. I was building a house." And Munny replied, "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it", right before put a bullet between his eyes (but we don't know exactly where he shot him because they left that part out.)

So my point, as you mentioned, is that when I pass, it will be because I wrote passing answers, not because I deserved it. Of course, I'll deserve to pass when I write passing answers, but one doesn't exist without the other.

Of course, an argument could be made that I do deserve to pass, but that would be based on factors external to the bar exam, and in that regard, Elizabeth is correct. But that's a story for a different blog.

The Grand Poobah said...

... and regarding "Crunch Time", in this last week before the exam I'm outlining and partially writing 4-6 essays and one or two PTs per day. It's grueling, considering every thing else I have to do, but it's got to be done.

I'm leaning heavily on what I learned from Jason Tolerico, and I feel even more confident this time around (knocking on my wooden head [again].)

Anonymous said...

I am in the boat with you, my friend. I was top of my class in law school...and have tutored students in law courses. Yet, I cannot pass this darn test.

I think the worst part is finding out how close I come each time. Missed by 12 pts (that's five MBE for crying-out-loud!!), 26 pts, 32 pts...16 pts. Really, I am starting to think it's a conspiracy!

People that never showed up to law school, never briefed a case, and never understood that the heck was going on in law school passed the first time and are practicing.

I have even made it into Third Read (yes, there is such a thing) when I was a breath away. There, my 80s on the essays were slammed to 60s, and then averaged out to 70s...so heartbreaking.

I love your blog. You speak for the masses of us that seem to have "missed it by THAT much."

90% of the people who never give up eventually pass the exam. I just hope I pass before my 90th birthday!

Anonymous said...

Wow, deep dialogue here.
How do you have time to 4-6 essays/day?
You're a superhuman capitalist GP!

Did you get any help on PTs?
Only PT performance held you back in Feb.
Ethics essay too.
Sucky score (focus on ethics!).

GP is a blogmaster so will pass.
Pass, then go on socialist adventure.

Have some advice for GP.
And this advice is important.
The key to essays is focusing on patterns.
Every pattern is not obvious.

But you see patterns I am sure.
Is that something u do w/ ur IT background?
GP and I build great blog once he passes.

Can't wait!
Apply yourself GP to get good karma.
That and pattern recognition is key.
?

Anonymous said...

For the past 5 years I have read this blog and have read the comments that people have posted. For me, I did not pass the California Bar Exam the first time, and it took a lot to gather the determination to study for it again, but this blog helped me to do just that. I wasn't close to passing in July 2011, but rather than follow other people's approaches, I went back to the form of studying that has helped me pass other classes that I have taken. For me, it was reading every essay and MBE answer and creating flashcards. After doing this for 500 MBE answers, you start to see patterns and it teaches you how to analyze. This approach must have worked because I passed the February 2012 bar exam. Another thing I learned from the time between the 1st and 2nd time is I need to keep my stamina up for each part of the exam, so before each session I played my favorite music to help me get in a zone and fire up my brain waves. Remember, all of you who have taken the exam in the past know the information, stop psyching yourselves out, being angry about not passing before, and calmly just answer the questions being asked. You can show the graders that you have what it takes to pass this exam once and for all. Just my two cents. Good luck next week.

The Grand Poobah said...

Anon 4:13: Hey BC, I don't have time to completely write out 4-6 essays per day, but, like I said, I do have time to outline and partially write them. I begin my analysis of each issue, which helps me remember how to write it, but I don't write it out completely. Same with the PTs.

Anonymous said...

I miss you GP friend. But GP does not allow me on my little animals that are not dogs on his super-awesome blogosphere. I still rub belly when I think of GP and warm milk. We are all good my capitalist friend.

Anonymous said...

The think that I most
Hate about this site is that Poobah
Enforces comments on his blog but
Guys still manage to troll him time
After time by making a whole new
Message using the first letter of
Each innocuous message's row.

The Grand Poobah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Grand Poobah said...

Now THAT's Funny! Call me clueless, I guess, but I missed that completely. I never expected someone to work so hard to get past my admittedly weak and not-very-strenuous screening process. Thanks for the tip.

In case anyone is wondering, and I wonder why you would (wonder, that is), I'll not be deleting the no-decoder-ring-required coded comments.

However meaningless their content, I think they speak volumes.

Anonymous said...

Can you do a review of barwinners.com?

I've heard that is a good course but haven't tried it myself!?!?!

Thanks

The Grand Poobah said...

It might be a good course for some people, but I can't imagine who they might be. I tried it on my second attempt, and I didn't like it. In my opinion, it was way (WAY!) too expensive for what I received. And I've heard from many (many) people who agree with me.

Bottom line, I would run away. As far and as fast as possible. But that's just me.

Elizabeth said...

I think my prior comment was a little over-analyzed; I only meant it as a statement of support. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was parsed by bar studiers :)

The Grand Poobah said...

Parsed!?! Whaddya' mean by that? "Parsed" sounds a lot like "arsed", which sounds a lot like "arse"! Are you saying bar studiers are a bunch of "arses"? I think you owe us all an apology, missy! And you might as well apologize to yourself while you're at it, because you're a bar studier too!

Sheesh! People can't parse a statement around here without being defamed!

And by "defamed", I don't mean to imply that you've removed anyone's fame, I simply mean ... Oh what the heck. It's back to studying for the bar I go.

The Grand Poobah said...

On the positive side (And am I never positive? Negative!), the fact that we are all "parsing arses" right now speaks well of our bar studying efforts. After all, we have to parse our arses off on the exam to divine the relevant issues, so in this case being a parsing arse is a good thing!

Anonymous said...

I hope all of you are on your Omega 3s.....

It is very important for your brains...

Best Wishes...

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say good luck to you GP! Appreciate the blog and your attitude on all of this!

Anonymous said...

Busted!
It's finally come out.
GP figured out the code.

Call it what you want GP?
Admiration for your awesome blog.
That's all it is.

Lucky am I for having met Poobah.
One smart capitalist lawyer to be.
Very hard worker too!
Extremely good blogger!
Someday we blog together.

GP needs to pass the bar first though.
Please let July be the time!

Cal bar exam is going down this week!
Analyze, write and kick butt GP!
Then we go on adventures together.
!

Anonymous said...

GP:

Using this logic, every bar review in the State runs afoul of your measure:

Quoting you: "I tried it on my second attempt, and I didn't like it. In my opinion, it was way (WAY!) too expensive for what I received."

Plug in the attempt and the bar review course and there you have it!

Funny stuff, man!

Anonymous said...

Good 11th GP...the code to passing the exam:

ISSUE - Very Important
RULE - Not Important
ANALYSIS - Very Important
CONCLUSION - Not Important

That goes for your PT as well, without saying.

That alone gets you at a min. 65's across the board, coupled with your awesome MBE abilities and voila, you are a lawyer come November, God help us all, lol.

The Grand Poobah said...

True. I thought of that as I was writing that comment, but time being as precious as it is these last few days, and not wanting to get into the merits of the program and why I thought it was too expensive (notwithstanding the fact that it didn't work for me), I elected to ignore it.

But your comment is exactly right. By that measure, my comment is laughable. On the other hand, that program is way too expensive for what you get. This forum, however, is not appropriate for an in-depth analysis.

Simon said...

Good luck GP! I think your strategy of not commenting on this blog until Thursday evening is a good one. Best of luck! So many of us are sending you good vibes and wishing you well.

Anonymous said...

GOOD LUCK, Grand Poobah!!! You can do it. Stay calm, and I-R-A-C everything. This will be the one.

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