Contract with the Devil

I've finished the first substantive area for bar review: Contracts.

The way class works is that we have a study schedule. Each day we are given assignments to do. By signing up for Barbri, I got a huge box with about 8 or 9 books in it. Two are big outlines of substantive law and the rest are either multiple choice or essay practice questions.

Each day I have reading for a particular topic and then at night, I got to the wonderful Atlantis where I watch a DVD lecture for 3 hours with 3 ten minute breaks. So we had 3 lectures on Contracts alone. This weekend I'm doing the first real practice questions.

I just finished the first set of practice contract multiple choice questions and I got about 1/2 right. I'm not sure how it compares but I'm just happy I didn't get them all wrong. After all, I haven't had contracts since my 1st year of law school and I only read the outline from Barbri once. Then I listened to a DVD explaining the answers.

According to the lecturer, "Contracts is not an area that you can beat, it's only an area where you can hope to minimize losses." Both DVD lectures said that Contracts is the hardest subject because the bar examiners are not consistent in the questions and they don't have "patterns" in the questions. It's just all about knowing the black letter law. Worst still is that several of the questions I got wrong contained the correct statement of law, but the answer was some bizarre exception that wasn't covered in the lecture. Another question said that the answer was wrong because "D was the better choice". Meaning it was close, but not close enough.

WTF?! I hate that. Two can be the answer, but one is slightly better. How the hell do you prepare for something like that?

I've kinda been slacking and I need to kick it up a notch. Friday we went and saw Pirates of the Carribean and today we went and saw Shrek 3. Really, I can't get behind on my summer blockbusters because so many are coming out that I doubt they can remain in the theaters long. Ahahaha.

Tomorrow I have to write 2 Contracts essays. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm generally better at essays, but still iffy on the substance. I'll let you know how it goes. Next week we have criminal law and criminal procedure. I got the highest grade in Criminal Law and I just took Criminal Procedure, so I'm feeling good about those.

I'm off to bed now. Here are some funny quotes I wrote down from the DVD Lecture:

Mnemonic: Armadillos from Texas, Play Rap Eating Tacos = Applicable Law, Formation, Terms, Performance, Remedies for nonperformance, Excuses for nonperformance, Third Party Issues

- Irregardless of the dollar amount

- You virtually have an armadillo whispering in your ear as you approach a contracts question

- It's necessary that Sharon Stone be in the shower with me

- I'm old enough to be the father of most of you and I'm up here blushing about lusting after Sharon Stone

- Remember this shit, it will be on the bar exam

- The word house reminds you of that wonderful TV program that you're missing while studying for the bar

- Anything less than putting paint on the damn walls is mere preparation

- I offer you my cadillac for $400 and you say HELL NO

- How long will John Tesh perform? It might feel like years if you were there.

- Finally we've completed the F word

- I was willing to ignore the boundaries of good taste

- Putting this more delicately, we have a situation where the rats got into the packages of coffee and did nature's calling

- It's best described as a mixed blend (talking about rat poop in a sack of coffee beans)

- All the clerk had to say was pick out your own damn shoes

- It's not law school that screwed you up

- We cannot have a legal doctrine known as the major screw-up doctrine

- For those of you who are culturally challenged....

- You have that damn armadillo eating tacos

- Armadillo eating that damn taco

- In Texas, there are grits everywhere. You can't walk down the street without stumbling on a sack of grits

- They have now extended the internet all the way into Texas

- Get out of here Boy Wonder.

Welcome to the Suck

I decided to create a new blog to chronicle my experience with the bar exam. Then I can look on it later and fondly remember how much this summer sucked.

Tonight was my first class of Barbri. If you recall from the other blog, Barbri is the bar review course that just about every law student takes. Barbri has a monopoly on the market. Seriously, a group of law students got together and filed a class action lawsuit against the company for antitrust violations. It was awesome. Totally the wrong group of people to piss off.

The class is in the Atlantis in one of the conference rooms. The good part is that we're right around the corner from the game room. So I can totally go out and play dance dance revolution on our breaks.

The bad part is that it's a conference room, so the tables are narrow and there's not a lot of space for a laptop plus the huge ass books that we're supposed to bring to class. Also, the chairs are very uncomfortable after a while. We get 10 minute breaks every so often, so I guess that's good.

Basically the way it works is we go in and watch a DVD lecture. Yes, that's right. I paid over $2500 to go and watch a DVD. They have "live" lectures in some places, where a real person is talking to you. But even then, you can't ask them questions. So either way, you have no real way to get help if you don't understand something. It's complete bullshit, but it is what it is.

We received our study schedule. It looks pretty intense. So although I created this blog, I can't promise it will be updated regularly. Probably it will devolve into a bitch fest about how much I hate studying. But I'll also try to post anything amusing or funny that happens during class or studying.

I'm going to try my damndest to go see a movie once in a while. I definitely want to see all the big blockbuster movies while they're still in the theaters. So maybe I'll make sunday afternoon my time off. Otherwise I'll go insane.

Worst. Summer. EVER!