- the PMBR lecturer today.
It's amazing how much better you can feel about the state of the world when you have no idea what's going on in it. My excuse is bar review; sadly not everyone has one nearly as good justifying their sense of bliss...
Anyway, PMBR is now over. I'm satisfied, although I recognize that its utility may vary from person to person. While it worked for me other people learn differently and might have preferred to have just holed-up with an outline. Also, I think part of the reason it was good was because of the live lecturer, Professor McElroy, who was great. She had a ton of energy (the fact that she could manage to walk us through 200 questions without herself getting bored, despite having done this over and over in recent weeks, was quite inspiring, actually), good humor, and decent and accessible explanations with helpful restatements of rules. The only significant downside is that, particularly in the area of property law, there are a few things PMBR says that conflict with BarBri. She acknowledged them, and cited the source of her authority, but it's still hard to know whose rules to follow.
In the meantime, it's time for the homestretch. Nearly everyone I've talked to has scoffed at the BarBri 11-12 hours of daily study suggestion, but most people are getting in 6-8 (me too). Also, a lot of people are jettisoning the proposed BarBri curriculum (also me too) because it was just too hard to keep up with if you hadn't quite been on top of it from the outset. That said, everyone is recommending doing practice essays and questions, so for the next few days I think that's pretty much all I'll do. I've read about as much as I have patience for; now it's time to test out my memory and use the exercise to shore it up.
Everyone is also recommending bringing the study to a close by noon the day before the exam (Monday for me). I think I'll abide by that too, although I may save that afternoon to review the instructions for the test and look over the possible MPT formats. I got a decent enough score on the practice one that I'm not worried about preparing for it. Like I told my friend, “It's my gift to myself to not have to study for it. Sort of a ‘Congratulations for being competent.'” I think it's good to do that, since so often I don't feel competent... Besides, I have a tendency to actually learn the law that comes up on the practice MPT, and there's no spare space in my head to waste for that.