Flashcards...

Someone posted a comment on how to do flashcards... so, for whatever it's worth, here is my method. This is the result of years of memorizing speeches for collegiate competition, and teaching classes as a grad student where I would learn the students' names the first day by going person by person and learning the names in order, building on the mental list in my head until I knew them all.

Grab the Conviser Review, sit down with a large stack of cards, and start working your way through. One topic at a time, go through the outline, and read the rule, synthesize what that means, and start working it into a SHORT statement. This will take a lot of time. It is exhausting. It sucks. And, I think it is necessary. It is both substantive review and the beginning of the memorization process.

Items that go on flashcards are:

1. Definitions. This means on the front of the card write "Definition of Contract". On the back write, "A contract is a promise or a set of promieses that courts will enforce." On the next card, write on the front, "Elements of contract", and on the back write "Offer, acceptance, consideration". Keep it simple.

2. Lists of things to remember. This means get in the things that will need to be remembered while writing an essay or thinking through an MBE. One the front of the card write "Exceptions to Knock and Announce" and on the back write a list of the exceptions. Try to order them with an acronym. I forget what I used for knock and announce, but I came up with one and it helped. Follow that card with a card for each exception, and the definition, if that is needed. Keep the cards in the same order all the time. Memorize them in the same order all the time. Your brain will remember better if you go in the same order and build on what you have learned previously.

3. Breakdowns of an issue. I attended The Bar Code's Essay Writing Intensive, so I was on board with the idea of a specific outline for how to deal with specific issues. For example, equal protection has a certain list of subissues that need to be discussed in order, so I made a flash card to help me memorize that order. But again, don't put lots of words on the flashcard. Your mind can compartmentalize and remember little bits, but too much on a flashcard makes it useless.

4. I did a larger version of flashcarding at the end, because I took the Cheat Sheets, and additional self-developed cheat sheets that I made myself (some are posted on this  blog) and the last two weeks all I did was memorize. I spent part of the day with a ream of blank paper. First I wrote out the cheat sheet, looking at the template. Then, I continued writing it over and over, starting with a blank sheet each time, until I could write it without referencing the template. Usually it would take 5 or 6 times of writing out the entire cheat sheet until I could do it on a blank sheet without assistance. I could remember first the shape of the outline on the page, and then once that shape was imprinted in my mind, I could quickly fill in the details. Then, I would build on that by adding a second, then a third, and so on. On day two, I would do all the cheat sheets from the day before (5 or so) and then add five more to the process. On day three... another 5, until the night before the exam, I sat in the hotel bar with a glass of wine and wrote every single one out with barely glancing at the templates. I am convinced that I got an 85 or 90 on the defamation question last February solely because of that process. (I knew what to do with that question after reading the first sentence.) 

The other thing I did to memorize was working through my completed flashcards in a similar fashion. Here is what I did after I had five boxes of flashcards, each topic rubber banded separately.

I would get on the treadmill with my con law flashcards and once I could state word for word what was on the back of the first card three times, I moved on to the second one. It would take one to three hours to get through a whole topic memorizing my flashcards. Then, day two, I did the con law ones and added my evidence ones. Each day got a little easier, because I would go through the topics I already knew and had about 85-90% accuracy on them (you will not get to 100% and you don't need to) and the hard part was the addition of the new topic that I hadn't yet learned. I saved the smaller topics, like community property and wills and trusts, for later days in the memorizing process because memorizing the smaller stacks was easier later after I had a huge stack of the MBE topics I already reviewed first that day.

I also carried a couple of stacks of flashcards everywhere. When I went to pick up the kids at school, I sat in my car for the ten or fifteen minutes and tried to get through as many cards as I could. If I was waiting in line at the bank, I pulled out some cards. I looked stupid, but I didn't care, because I figured it was better than looking stupid by not passing (again).

Did it suck? Yes. Was it necessary? For me, yes. I needed the comfort of knowing how I was going to address every rule and every essay topic before I walked into the exam, so that period while they were reading directions did not result in a rising anxiety that made my brain freeze up. That happened the first time around, and also the second.

Now, I can say, the second time I studied, I made those flashcards, and the third time around, I pulled them out and used them, and added some more. So, did I spend 12 hours per day any time I studied for the bar? Nope. But over time, I did all that stuff and it was worth it. The satisfaction of throwing those boxes of flashcards away was supreme also.

I also agree with Whitney Roberts when she recommended that you study by practicing essays, learning how to write essays, and do some MBEs up until two weeks before the test. Then, you focus only on memorizing. That last two weeks is crucial with so much information. And, when I spent 3-4 hours a day memorizing flashcards, and then 2-3 hours per day writing out cheat sheets to memorize them, that took a lot of time and energy. It is okay to give yourself permission just to do this. I also did 20 MBEs per day during this time. One morning each of those weeks, I did a set of 100 MBE's, timing to make sure I could make the three hours. For me, that was no problem. I usually finished in 2:10. However, at the exam, I usually took up to the last five minutes on one MBE session, for some reason.

If it sounds like a lot. It is. But, get it done, and you won't have to do it again.

Good luck. I felt your pain, the thought of all that work still makes me shudder, and I sympathize, but it's doable. When you study, focus wholeheartedly, and when you are done, stop thinking about it and relax. For me, learning to relax was the hardest part.