PMBR

Yesterday I started preparing for the bar exam by taking the PMBR course. The pupose of this six-day class is to prepare you for the Multistate portion of the bar exam. It deals with torts, contracts, criminal law, property, evidence, and Constitutional Law. One subject per day. Since I had lousy professors for Criminal and ConLaw, I'm behind the 8-ball. A lot of people on the Internet speak disparagingly about PMBR and its format. In the mornings you are supposed to take a mock exam on a subject and in the afternoon they go over it with you and talk about what the right answer is, and why the others are wrong. Along the way you end up getting a good overview of the substantive law on the subject of the day. Most of what you hear is also in the book, so a number of people believe the class is a waste of time. You could buy the books on eBay and go over the material yourself. I have to say that this is probably true, but the instructor does add his own material and insights into the analyses and into the exam itself. So I feel like I'm getting a pretty good value. Also, since I'm partly an auditory learner, it helps to be there and listen to him speak. Finally, it's better to sit in a roomful of people who are commiserating with you than to try to go it alone.

Finals

Finals have been keeping me pretty preoccupied the past couple of weeks. Family Law and Secured Transactions are out of the way, and my last exam is Thursday night. As I explain to people who ask me if I'm excited about being finished with law school, I have to say not really, because I still have the bar exam in late February, and in all honesty that's the only final exam that counts. So in a sense I'm not finished with law school, just finished with Phase I. Phase II is studying for the bar and involves more classes and a reaaaly long final. (Messed up, huh)?