BAR/BRI begins

This week began my serious study for the Illinois bar exam. Yes, literally the day after graduation.

During first year, I signed up for the quasi-official bar review class - BAR/BRI. A few weeks ago, I received the nine big books for the lectures and practice exams of the next few weeks. (See sad photo at right.) Amazingly enough, there are even two more books than this pile shows.

All those books are about to fight their way into my brain.

This week is the "preview," which is basically a series of practice exams that do two things: (1) show you the areas you really need to work on and (2) scare the shit out of you.

Monday was torts (18/25 correct) and criminal law (14/25). Yesterday was real estate (12/25) and contracts (12/25). Today was constitutional law (18/25) and evidence (18/25). With those points, I got 92/150 - about 61%, which is about on target for bar passage. (Unfortunately I need to learn about a dozen more subjects for the bar. These are just the core subjects.)

Tomorrow I take a big practice exam and then we talk about it on Friday - and then we begin substantive classes with a full torts lecture on Tuesday.

Luckily I've been able to relax a bit this week, with a Kuma's excursion on Monday, a stitch and bitch on Tuesday, and reading in the park and a free orchestra show today. And after tomorrow's 100-question practice exam, I fully intend to take advantage of the free week at the Art Institute to check out the new modern art wing.

Oh, and Harry Potter exhibit on Monday! Lawyers I talked to said that the summer of their bar study was actually pretty fun at times. I guess I'm living up to that so far; I'll probably have to dampen the fun in a couple of weeks.