Ten Points...

I booked my hotel. Luckily, I had a voucher from the kind people at Expedia, and not only was I able to get a nice hotel room for $31, but they also are doing a promotion right now that gets me a $50 gas card for booking a summer hotel room. Not exactly the vacation I would prefer to take, but whatever. Ya gotta do what you gotta do.

I also talked to my bar prep instructor yesterday. Basically, after going over my scores with me, she said that she thought I could have taken a different bar with the exact same preparation I did last time and could have passed no problem. She said I just need to get *my* bar.

She's probably right.

Incidentally, I do feel the need mention that the bar review class that I broke down and took in January was absolutely the most appropriate class for me to take. I did not take Barbri, or PMBR, or any other big name prep course the first time around. I got a set of Barbri materials, a set of PMBR books, assembled various CD lectures, including sum and substance, law school legends, and the PMBR CD's, and Whitney Roberts' Cheat Sheets in Action book, and I went to town trying to do it all by myself.

Even though I did not pass in July, I now think it was because I cannot say no. What I mean by that is, I started a two new jobs, and continued my one part-time job, so I was working three jobs during last summer that amounted to 40+ hours a week. And I was learning two of those jobs at the same time as studying. I also had a 4 year old and a six year old, and my husband was working full time and studying for the bar as well. When I think about it now, I realize how ridiculously crazy that was. But, in all honestly, it was simply a continuation of what I had done all through law school so it didn't seem that bad at the time.

But, I was exhausted. I'm exhausted now just thinking about it. The logistical nightmare of figuring out what to do with two kids, one of whom goes to her dad's house an hour away semi-regularly, and the other who is very firmly attached to mom and does not like to be shuffled off to a babysitter, was neverending. I could barely remember where my kids were, much less perfect rule statements.

So, after that chaos, I decided I was doing what I needed to do for *me* in January. I loved Whitney's book, so I got on her website and found that she had an essay writing class that I could even do while working, so I signed up. So glad I did. Even having not passed this time because of ten stupid points on my one botched PT, I am glad I took her class. Reading the book is one thing, but sitting in class one day a week just made it all so clear. And their feedback on essays was initially very demoralizing, but I quickly saw the *right* way to do things and was able to get a grip on what I needed to do.

And, I am guessing unlike Barbri students who don't pass, Whitney went over my scores with me over the phone and gave me her assessment of what she thought, which wasn't far off from what I thought after seeing my scores.

So, I cannot say enough good things about The Bar Code. They are fabulous. And I will absolutely apply the Cheat Sheets to every single bar essay in July. My one caveat is that, while I also took the PT seminar, that class was way too long for that span of information covered. It could have been one full day and I could have saved the two hour drive to the class on the second day.

So, here's to July and ten more points.