Everything is moving along. I am a far cry from the whining cry baby who felt so sorry for himself just a few weeks ago. Reality has galvanized me. Every day I turn on my computer, I see the days on the countdown timer winding down. Watching those days disappear is a gutcheck every single time.
I can't emphasize this enough, but "I am a fighter." It is one thing if I get beat, but it is another thing if I get beat and don't put up a fight. Life is a series of beatings, and we are judged by our ability to recover from them. This includes the beatdown I have twice taken called the bar exam. It is a necessary adversary and I will do my best to overcome it.
My confidence is growing as far as my test preparation is concerned. My adopted strategy of writing out the answers has really helped me to improve my practice percentages and overall recognition, and memorization of the law. However, the answer writeups are taking much longer than I would like. As I posted previously, I have adopted a strategy of taking chunks of MBE questions under heightened time constraints (90 seconds instead of 108 seconds per question), reviewing my answers to see where I went wrong or where I got lucky, and writing out the rules to those answers by hand or by typing.
I have recently been doing them by hand. This is great, because I am forced to pay attention to what i am writing thus reading and engraving said rules in my brain. Typing, has a similar effect but it is easier to type something without paying as much attention to it. But even with typing, familiarity still increases. But for people who type faster then they write, this may save 1/3 or more of your time when doing write ups. So my dilemma is this: Do I type to cover more questions thus giving me more overall familiarity with questions and question types; or should I sacrifice a little speed for more in depth familiarity with the law and certain question types?
I read in a successful repeater's blog, it may take 2 to three times as much time to do a writeup review of your answers as it does to take a set number of MBE practice problems. I have found this to be true. Couple this with the fact I am now doing MBE questions at a clip of 100 questions. I gave myself 2 1/2 hours to do the test under a heightened time constraint. However, it still took about 3 to completely finish.
The weaker your familiarity is with the subject, the longer your writeup will be. Although, this is said to get much easier as you grow in familiarity with previous mistakes and start to score more efficiently. For instance, I did very well in torts in law school and I understand it well. I did horrible in Contracts. I was able to finish my torts write up for 100 questions and about 34 misses in about 5-7 hours. My write up for 100 contracts questions and 33 misses took me nearly 9 hours. I handwrote both of these.
This is a matter of bar exam strategy. As of now, the Florida Board of Bar Examiners allows bar exam takers to pass either the state or MBE portion of the exam and fail the other portion. If this happens, an applicant can still pass with enough aggregated points from the combined state and MBE scores. If the applicant does not have enough aggregated points, he or she may retake the exam portion they failed and carry over the score from the portion they passed on the previous examination.
As for my MBE I was 2-5 questions away from passing on both exams. I believe this write up strategy will get me over the top and allow me to score the extra points I need to pass. So, based on my previous MBE scores and my increased knowledge and familiarity, I should pass whether I type or handwrite my MBE practice writeups. However, I still need to get as many points as I can to try to help me on the state portion.
I have been much weaker on my state portions in the past most especially on my essay scores. Most of this has to do with a lack of strategy, lack of practice, and poor practice performance. My newly adopted essay strategy will increase my score. In fact, it should increase it enough to help me pass. But, I don't want to take any chances. I will have to weigh the merits of my MBE strategies and modify accordingly. I'll have to think this out today and make a move.
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