Law School

I Passed the MPRE

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I got some good new this week.  When I took the MPRE last month I thought I hadn’t passed it.  I got my score report this week though and I received a scaled score of 91 and I only needed an 80 to pass.  I must have been doing really good at guessing that day.  I know the 80 and 91 numbers don’t represent percentages but I’m not sure what they represent exactly.  It doesn’t really matter because the only thing I need to know is that I passed.

I already received my approval letter for my Rule 13 application.  This means I can practice law under a supervising attorney.  I needed this for the Child & Family services clinic I’m taking at school.  I assumed I’d be approved for it but it is still nice to receive.  It makes it seem like I’m getting a little closer to actually being an attorney.

How I Screwed Up Law School

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If you’re thinking of attending law school you need to ask yourself why you want to go to law school.  Once you determine why you want to go to law school you need to ask yourself if your reason for attending law school is a good one.  I read this advice before I attended law school but didn’t really heed it.  I just had a fuzzy idea of getting my law degree, making big money for a few years and then retiring.  This could be a good reason for some but it wasn’t for me.

This led me to make mistakes on deciding which law school to attend.  Since I wanted to make big money I felt I needed to go to the highest ranking school I could get into.  I was accepted to a top 25 school with no scholarship money and decided to go there and forego the scholarship offers I received at other schools.  After a year of attending law school it was obvious to me I wasn’t going to land a big money job and even if I did it would be something I’d hate.

This led me to transfer to my state school to save about $15,000 a year in tuition.  This was probably another mistake.  Once I had decided to attend the high ranking school I needed to just stick with it.  Things were going well for me there and I should have remembered the old adage,” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”  After switching schools I had a hard time adjusting and struggled academically. Even though I’m saving tuition money here there is a good chance I could have made up the extra tuition expense at the higher ranking school with better paying job offers.  If I would have gone to the state school in the first place I would have received a good scholarship.  As a transfer student no scholarship was available.  It would have been much smarter to go to the state school in the first place or just stay at the high ranking school.

Now I’m not sure if I should have attended law school at all.  So far I don’t like any of the work I’d likely be doing as a lawyer.  I’m going to finish because I already have three years and many thousand of dolllars invested in it.  If you’re thinking of attending law school be sure of your reason for doing so and what you hope to get from it.

Reflections on First 3L Week

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I just completed my first week back in law school and I am finally a 3L. This school year will be my last one way or the other. Hopefully it won’t be the other. This semester will be the big test. I have 6 classes for a total of 14 credits this semester. Next semester I only need to take 9 credits to have enough to graduate so that semester should be easy.

My classes this semester are only on Tuesdays,Thursdays, and Fridays. My Friday classes don’t last all semester. I’ll have it even easier after those classes end. The classes I’m worried about are App Ad II and my Family Law clinic. Both require public speaking, legal research, and legal writing which aren’t my favorite things. They’re pretty important things though if you want to be a lawyer though so I need to do it. I also have to retake Biz Org which I think should be easy for me. I didn’t think the class was difficult last time but I bombed the final so I probably shouldn’t overestimate my knowledge. Overall, I don’t think this semester will be too difficult academically. I’m not used to getting up early for classes and I haven’t gotten into a routine yet. In another week or so that should be established and everything should be relatively smooth sailing.

Advanced Strategies for Saving on Law Books

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You should already be familiar with the triple-saving strategy. This is where you: 1. Buy your books used online from sites like Half.com or Amazon. 2. Visit these stores through a cashback shopping portal such as BigCrumbs or Ebates ($5 Sign-up Bonus). 3. Use a online coupon code from a site such as RetailMeNot.com for a further discount. If you make your purchases with a cashback rewards card than you can actually have quadruple savings.

It is actually possible to do even better than this though. You can save half off the price of a used textbook by sharing it with someone in your class. If you don’t feel like sharing you can buy a used textbook that is good for two courses. My real estate textbook for this semester is the same textbook I used for a different real estate class last semester. Since I’m getting double the use out of the book it is like getting it for half price.

Another strategy that should save you even more than 50% off a used textbook is to buy one edition back. I paid $5 for a book this semester that was available used in the new edition and would have cost me over $100 new. Glancing through the new textbook at the bookstore it appears there have been very minor changes between the editions. I probably wouldn’t have tried this strategy as a 1L but as a 3L I’m confident that it will work.

The best strategy is to take classes that don’t require a textbook at all. The clinic I’m taking this semester doesn’t require a textbook and I believe that is true for most other clinics as well. Or you can take a class where the professor has all the required reading material online. I’ve had a couple classes like this and there was an option to buy a printout for cheap at the university copy center but I found it unnecessary. Having my reading material on my computer was actually a benefit because it made it easy to copy and paste highlights to my notes.

Also consider how many credits the class you’re taking is. Buying a $100 textbook for a four credit class is a lot better deal than buying a $100 textbook for a one credit class. Sometimes you have to buy an expensive textbook for a one credit class but avoid it if you can.

These are several ways you can save money on your textbooks. This will save you a ton of money compared to what you would pay at the bookstore. All other things being equal when choosing a class take the one with the cheaper book, but don’t take a class just to save on the cost of a textbook.

The MPRE

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*Note- My intention has been for Saturdays to be for posts relating to law school and law but I haven’t been doing that on a regular basis.

A passing score on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam(MPRE) is required for admission to the bar in most U.S. jurisdicitions. Missouri is one of the states that requires it and I took the exam yesterday.  You can take the MPRE before or after you take the bar exam.  Most law students take the exam in either their 2L second semester or during their 3L year so they will have one less thing to worry about when studying for the bar exam and fulfilling all the requirements for admission to the bar.

Most (all?) law schools require you to take a Professional Responsibility course which covers much of the same material that will be on the MPRE.  I would strongly advise anyone who needs to take the MPRE to take it when they are taking the Professional Responsibility course.  This way the studying you do for Professional Responsibility or the MPRE will serve you for both.  This will make taking the MPRE much easier.

I took my Professional Responsibility course this spring but didn’t take the MPRE then because I wasn’t sure if I would be continuing in law school.  Once I knew I was staying in law school I registered to take the August MPRE.  I thought I would still remember most of the material I learned in Professional Responsibility and be fine for taking the MPRE but I had forgotten a lot already.  I’m hoping that I passed the test but not taking it in the spring is looking like it might have been a mistake.