Anyone Know Of A Place To Eat In Ontario?

I feel very bad for the kids who are going to be stuck in Ontario for 3 days. That's where I took the bar exam last year and the sparse location didn't help on test day.... Ontario gets oppressively hot in the summer and I was sweating an unhealthy amount whenever I went outside for more than 5 minutes. Additionally, there really isn't a lot around the Ontario Convention Center except for a bunch of hotels. It was a daily adventure involving a lot of driving when trying to find a place to eat dinner w/ friends. After being stuck in a large room w/ thousands of other people taking a stressful test all day long, spending another hour in a car to get food is not fun.

For those of you going to Ontario in July, keep all of this in mind. Especially make sure to find places to eat beforehand to minimize the amount of time at night trying to get food.

I'm not sure that I'll have much of an appetite on test days. I was planning on just bringing a box of energy bars and bottles of water to sustain me throughout the three days of testing. But it would be nice to have a decent dinner with drinks after testing is completely over. So if anyone has any suggestions about eating out in Ontario please leave a comment or two.

If Studying For The Bar Exam Were Personified By...

Then I probably wouldn't mind so much that it's blowing my summer away.

Memorial Day Weekend

So who is taking tomorrow off and making it a four day weekend? Anyone? Anyone?

Not talking to those of you who are not studying for the bar, I hate your kind.

Free LA-Area Bar Exam Lecture

The National Bar review, a long-time Bar Review course, is offering a FREE LECTURE on the substance of the most recent Bar Examination, pitfalls, and specfic writing tips for achieving a passing score.

The lecture is from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at The La Cienega Tennis Center in Beverly Hills, 325 S. La Cienega Blvd. It is open to the public, and there is ample free parking on site. SCU is not sponsoring this event; you can direct questions to Fedora Nick, 888-634-9099, fedora@nationalbarreview.com

Tennis afterwards anyone?

Which Is The Bigger Lie?

1. I love studying for the Bar!
2. Alessandra Ambrosio...



and I had dirty sex.

This is not so much an attempt at humor as it is an excuse to post a pic of Alessandra.

Did She Take BarBri This Time?

Well if a former dean and professor at prestigious law schools, as well as a Democrat favorite for the Supreme Court bench can pass the California bar exam, then I've got very little to worry about.

Where To Show Off That I'm Going To Be A Lawyer?

yaz: I need to start looking for places to study
Bruin7089: like?
yaz: No idea
Bruin7089: i need two different places to study
yaz: Why two?
Bruin7089: i like the coffee places for when i'm just going over outlines
Bruin7089: but i need someplace different for when going over MCs and doing Essays
yaz: Somewhere quieter?
Bruin7089: i think so
Bruin7089: but i'm not sure
yaz: MAybe burbank library for me
Bruin7089: do you like quiet places?
yaz: No not really
yaz: But that is mostly because I like to be distracted

And taken from the same post linked to from my last one (lots of good stuff in that one post if you haven't already read it):

I spent my study time between three or four places. I was at a little coffee shop in town most days, with earplugs or headphones on, making index cards or taking practice tests or reading and noting the elements of the answers of all the past Maine Bar Exam essay questions about negotiable instruments or trusts and estates or professional responsibility. I worked at my kitchen table or my drafting table making posters about criminal procedure or hearsay exceptions. I sat out in the sunshine in my yard a lot. I took practice MBE tests on my green loveseat. I didn't study anywhere else, really, but I did drag a book or two around with me everywhere else I went. In retrospect it was ridiculous. I don't know whether at the time I really expected I would steal away and study at the grocery store or at dinner at my parents' place, or if I just wanted sympathy, but I always had a book or my flash cards in my bag or in the passenger seat of my car.

So where do you plan on spending most of your time studying?

So It Begins

I don't think people appreciate the misery of the bar exam. Even if the actual study schedule is reasonably manageable, as mine was, the anxiety and the perception that you're hugely far behind, that you'll never get it all into your head and that you'll space out or be unable to parse what's in your head into the specific answer format they want, that nagging doubt is always with you. It was relatively mild in me; I know I'm smart, I know I remember things really well, I know I'm good at tests, so far I've never been in the bottom 40% of any test I cared about. By contrast some of my classmates were hugely affected by the process; they became stressed out robots who could only talk about or do one thing: study. But even for me, with a degree of confidence and a commitment to sailing and seeing friends and enjoying life it was quite unpleasant, and something I hope never to do again.

I think what's really going to be tested over the next couple of months more than anything else, is one's self-confidence. I'm trying to start with the attitude that I will cram enough into my head and that I will learn to answer in a format that is passable. We'll see how long that lasts.

Good luck to all studying for the bar exam.