Bar Review: Studying in Style

When you have to study for the bar, you might as well have fun doing it. Luckily, I can study well with noise and distraction around me. I am studying in a bookstore/cafe with a live jazz band playing. The music is very study-friendly. It beats staying home and falling asleep on the sofa one more time. An added bonus: I just finished my first practice essay question and did pretty well. I feel relieved. I will have a lot more practice essay questions to do before it is all over, and I hope I continue to feel good about it.

Bar Review: Winding Down on Sessions

We are now just down to two more BarBri classes. I will actually miss it--not only does the winding down of BarBri signal the final countdown toward the bar exam, but I will miss seeing the people. I am worried about getting lonely while I study. I have talked with a few friends about this, and they feel the same, so we are going to try to get together to study during the last four weeks. Just studying separately, while together, would be good. Just the feeling that you are not alone.

One disconcerting thing today was that our subject was something I did not study in law school. I know most people run into this, and I am lucky that for me it is only this one instance. I could have taken the subject as an elective, but chose not to. I took another elective in an area of law in which I might want to practice someday. I guess I made the right decision. It is easier to study a few pages for a bar exam than to surmise whether a practice area may be something I want to do. I will just have to study extra hard in this area.

Bar Review: Feeling A Little Depressed

I am looking ahead to next week and am feeling a little depressed. It is not reallyl what you may think. Yes, I am depressed about the mountain of studying that is ahead of me and doesn't seem to get any easier. And yes, I am a little depressed that my practice test scores don't seem to get better. What I am really depressed about (except of course for the checks that bounced in my account this morning because I forgot to make a deposit yesterday) is that after next Tuesday, for a week, we will not have Barbri anymore. I have liked going to class, because that has put me in contact with others, and as I mentioned the other day, it feels as if we are one big team. Now I will be studying for a week on my own, and that seems very lonely. Then we have the 3-day PMBR test, which will be nice, but then two and a half weeks on my own. I am feeling very lonely and overwhelmed.

Shocking News About Amy Winehouse

I really don't know much about Amy Winehouse, but I have caught snippets of her music, and it is good. All I have heard about is her bizarre behavior, and about her being one of the "rehab sisters." The news came out yesterday or today that she has emphysema, and she is only 24! I did not realize that someone so young could get that. Like lung cancer, it seemed to me that that was a disease you got after abusing your body for a long time. (Of course, there are the nonsmoking kinds of lung cancer.) This is really so sad. Apparently, if she doesn't stop using drugs and smoking, she may have to go on oxygen. I hope she can pull herself together and take care of herself and stop using drugs. And that there is something they can do to reverse the symptoms, or that there will be something they can do sometime soon. She is too young to have to face these consequences, even if she did do it to herself.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5itjO64MOY5zSRXGQET71vAk5Cw1QD91FR6PO1

Bar Review: We're In It Together

I have to say I have been impressed with the people in my barbri review. We are all from different schools and different states, but everyone has been very friendly and helpful. That is a nice feeling. By the end of the process, we will have been around each other long enough that some of us will know new people, at least on some level. We will recognize some of their names on the "successful list" when it is posted in the fall. And we will be so happy for them (and hopefully for ourselves too!) It is a nice feeling--that we are in this together. Not quite what I thought it would be; I thought there would be more rivalry, but it is a very nice surprise that it doesn't feel that way.

Bar Review: MBE Simulated Test

We took the BarBri simulated MBE test yesterday. It was not fun. Of course the questions were hard, but what made it harder was the noisy person sitting fairly near me. Kept opening candy wrappers or something all day. I couldn't believe it. And it got worse as the day went on. No one cares if you eat during a regular class, because in a class there is regular noise. But during a test, everyone needs to be able to concentrate. I didn't do well. Got about half the questions right. Felt like a moron. How am I ever going to learn this mound of material? But today I found out that most people had about the same score as mine. Makes me feel like I am still in the game. It turned my whole attitude around today, thank goodness.

Missing My Journalism Roots

After hearing all of the Tim Russert stories on the news, I realize what a great guy he was. I guess I knew that before, but I never really paid attention to him. Not really. I guess I thought he would be around forever. Now I see all of the great qualities he had. One thing that strikes me is that he seemed to be in such a hurry. Maybe he knew instinctly he wouldn't live long. His passing has made me want to touch base with my journalism roots. I have started emailing people I haven't seen in a while. Even though I am looking forward to practicing law in some capacity, I miss journalism. The good part is the fields are not mutually exclusive. Hey, look at Tim Russert: He melded them.