Just a quick note from the thick of bar study, but I'd like to reiterate what I said before: the BarBri New York essay writing workshops are AWFUL.
The professor's demeanor is completely unpalatable. Nearly humorless, he basically barks at us for an hour each session. Even when he "assures" us he terrifies us. Meanwhile he keeps yelling at us emphasizing the point values and exam construction, but without enough guidance for how to actually put the essays together accordingly. In fact, what he's saying seems to contradict the organizational tips BarBri had earlier given us. I could figure out how to IRAC, but I can't figure out how to IRAC under his instructions. Instead his (latest) workshop is focusing on minute issue spotting. Not so much on how to do it, but on specific rules of law that are raised in the example essays. So, yeah, great, we'll need to know all these rules. And his advice to know them specifically is well-taken. But he's currently dissecting a tort essay and we haven't even done torts....
Basically this is a complete waste of time, and a shame, because it's not like we don't need any essay writing instruction. But this is completely useless and unpleasant to sit through. And it should be noted that, as a result, most people don't.
(On the upside, the evidence prof we just had for three days was good. But that's going to help me more to pass the MBE. For the NY essays, I'm still pretty much on my own.)