News

Some of you had a great year and passed the bar exam.  Well done!

For others, your time is coming.  Congrats on continuing to pursue your dreams!

New Year's Eve can be quite an interesting time.  For those who took the bar exam but haven't passed yet, it's a time to look back and feel pain and sorrow.  In 1999, I chose a different approach.  I chose to think about the opportunities that the new year presented.  I felt that the next year was my year and that I was going to put it all together, pass the bar exam, and have the best year of my life!

If you did not receive good news on Friday, I'm sorry to hear it.

Some of you received your results letter on Saturday or Monday and the MBE was part of the reason you failed the exam.

Happens all the time.  For some of you, it's that you've historically not been a good standardized test-taker.  For others, you didn't have books that reflected the diffculty of the exam. 

So how do you get help on the MBE?  Individual help?

Congratulations to all that passed the Cal Bar Exam!  The official statistics are:

San Francisco, Nov. 18, 2011, 6:00 p.m. – The State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners reported today that 54.8 percent of the applicants passed the July 2011 General Bar Examination (GBX). If the 4,635 people who passed the July 2011 exam satisfy other requirements for admission, they will become members of the State Bar.

To all those awaiting results from the July 2011 Cal Bar Exam, I hope you hear good news in the next few minutes!

I told you that this time would come!

Remember how I mentioned that you law students should start outlining in October?  That you'd thank me in mid-November for all the hard work you pushed yourself to put in over those six weeks? 

Well, here we are... the Ides of November!

This is a horrible time for law school students, isn't it?  Trying to catch up with outlining.  Trying to write practice exams.  Reading for class?  When was the last time you did that?

To those who took the Baby Bar exam today, good luck and I hope that you passed!

Hi everyone!

If you're in law school, you know what October means... it's time to outline your classes.  You know this because 1) you're a 2L or 3L and you've outlined in October before; 2) you're a 2L or 3L and you never start outlining until December but wish that you started in October; 3) you're a 1L and you heard you should start outlining early.  Regardless, one thing's for sure:  if you do nothing until November 15, you will wish you started in October.  So let's get started!

So, uh, what is an outline?

As part of my blogging about the Cal Bar and Baby Bar Exam experiences, I've decided to blog about the law school experience as well.  I'll be drawing on my experience as a student at Hastings as well as a Legal Writing and Research Professor at Hastings for the past 12 years.  The Law School Blog is meant to help 1Ls and advanced students alike.

I nailed Questions 1-4, and 6 on the July 2011 exam.  And I told students on Wednesday that I knew that I wouldn't get them all correct, so I am probably wrong about Con Law, and that it would be Evidence or Property instead.   Well, at least I was right that I was wrong... or something.

This is the second time I've gotten 5 out of 6 correct.  Usually I'm good for 4 or 4-1/2 out of 6.

I wish I had six precise and perfect predictions for you.  But I don't.  And you don't need them.

What you should know is that 4 or maybe even 5 questions should be pretty fair and about issues you should have seen in your bar prep if you had adequate exposure to the essays.

The big question is what happens on the other 1-2 essays.

Many of you are Bar/Bri first time takers who took the Simulated Exam recently.  If you're score is around 100, FEAR NOT!  Please remember that the national average on the Bar/Bri Simulated Exam has been 105/106 out of 200, or 53%, every year for the last 13 years that I know of.  So if you're in the neighborhood (i.e., 90 - 110), it's totally normal.  If you're scoring 120 or higher, WOW - GREAT JOB!  You're way in front of the curve on that one.  If you're under 80, then I'd be sure to memorize the law to help you get more of that black letter law down.