My Journey To The New York Bar - More Exams?

Once I returned back to England after sitting the Multi-state Bar Exam in New York, I had to start preparing for the New York Law Exam (NYLE) which was the New York element the multi-state bar exam. Confused?

Okay, so before, the bar exam used to cover both the multi-state federal law (which is general legal principles and law across the USA) and the New York State law (which is law just applicable to New York ). But in 2016, it changed and New York state law, is tested separately. It is an online open-book exam with 30 questions. Which meant I could do it from the comfort of my dining room kitchen!

The date of the next exam was mid March 2017. As I had just sat the two-day multi-state bar exam in February, I did not have the head space to start spending less than a month to prepare for a second exam. I was also broke by then, as I had taken a whole month off work, which was on unpaid leave and needed to return back to work to start making money. All of my money I had made up until then, had been going towards paying for the exam fees, flights to America and accommodation, as well as trying to keep up with bills at home and personal expenses. I also needed a break from studying, as it had been a tough six months of continuous studying.

I decided to sit the NYLE on 15th June 2017, which would give me enough time to prepare. I took about four to six weeks off from studying and resumed my studies and prep for the NYLE in April. I felt this was more than enough time for me. By this time, I was now working Monday to Friday, full time hours and continued to do so up until the day of the exam. I used my evenings and weekends to study and would carry my revision notes to work so I could read through them whilst on my commute.

Sometimes we are in a hurry to accomplish things and just get things over and done with, because we do not want to be left behind or miss out on opportunities that everyone else one around us seems to be getting. This can sometimes do us more harm than good. Sometimes, it is better to take our time with things, to take time out and have a break so that our body and mind can recharge. Sometimes it is better to say ‘not yet’ to certain things, instead of rushing and trying to keep up with the Jones’.

If I had applied this mentality, when I first registered to do the bar exam, I probably would have given myself more time to study for it, instead of thinking that a three and a half month online study programme was enough. I may have had a better chance of passing the exam first time, instead of failing and having to resit the exam again, seven months later, and having to spend more money on exam fees, flights, accommodation etc.

My Journey to the New York Bar - Revision revision revision!

I took this photo exactly one month before the February 2017 New York State Bar exam. The closer it got to exam day, the more anxiety seemed to kick in. 

I was still working three days a week, so I had at least 8 hours in the day where I wasn't thinking about the exam. But when evening came, it was time to hit the books again. By this time, I had stopped learning new content. Whatever I knew, I knew and was it was instilled in my brain somewhere and I was holding on to the belief that everything would come flooding back to me when it was time to answer the questions in the exam, (which by the way it did and I even got excited in the exam when I experienced this lol, but I'll delve more into that in a later post).

During the last four weeks leading up to the exam, I focused on strengthening my knowledge on the topics I previously struggled with first time round; tackling any exceptions to rules that I was still unsure about and tightening my essay and multiple choice exam strategies. When there's twelve areas of law which you have to learn for a two day exam, especially when you're re-sitting exams, you really don't want to spend time going over what you already know. It's what you don't know well where your time and effort needs to be spent.

In the multiple choice questions, you know that there are two completely wrong answers. You have to use the power of elimination techniques to eliminate those wrong answers, from reading the closing sentence of the question (and maybe a few sentences above the closing sentence), before you read and analyze the whole question, so that you can narrow it down and focus on the two remaining answers. When you've got 200 fact pattern multiple choice questions to answer (separated by 100 questions in the morning and another 100 questions in the afternoon, in three hour exam segments), time management is everything.

I was constantly doing essay and multiple choice practice questions every other day and reviewing my answers. This was really helpful second time round, as I didn't spend as much time as I could have on practice questions when I sat the bar exams for the first time in 2016.

During the last few weeks, I was still somewhat antisocial, not doing much with others outside of work and studying, but I did spend time in between study breaks to go for walks, exercising, and going to church. Prayer, meditating on the scriptures and being outside around nature kept me sane!

Although it was an intense time, I refused to allow it to completely take over my life, to the point where I may become obsessive about the exams. I had to have a balance and so do you. Get enough sleep (your brain and body needs this), go to the gym (or exercise at home) to let off steam, go for walks, bake, cook, sew, paint or do whatever you find therapeutic and relaxing to help you take your mind off things for a few hours when it gets a little bit too much. When you go back studying, you will feel rejuvenated and have a clearer head to think and absorb more information. You may even see things you didn't notice before.

My Journey to the New York Bar - Focus During the Holidays

When I logged into Facebook three days ago, an “On This Day” picture posted three years ago, popped up. It was a selfie picture I took on a Sunday afternoon with my study materials on the dinning room table, just before I started studying for a few hours. It was during the start of the Christmas holidays and I was taking advantage of the holiday season to fit in some quality study time.

I was thinking that during this holiday season, many people here in the UK (and in other parts of the world) have time off work until the 7th of January. Many are using this time to unwind from what has been a very busy and even stressful year; catching up with sleep; spending time with friends and family and just enjoying the time they have off work.

I’m all about taking time out to unwind, rest and spend time with family. However, I’m not all about using the holiday season as an excuse not to do anything at all; leaving everything until the New Year! There are some things that we really need to get done now, before the New Year, to make way for new things to take place or so that we can move on to the next thing.

Many times people around me ‘advised’ me not to work so hard, to enjoy my time off etc. I believe some said this with good intentions so that I wouldn’t burn myself out completely (which by the way, I did have Christmas Day, Boxing day and New Year’s day off, to rest) however, I had exams to prepare for, which after the Christmas holidays, would only be a month or so away. I couldn’t afford to take the whole holiday season off like everybody else around me.

With all due respect, they were not on the same path as me, so therefore, they couldn’t understand my grind and the hard work I still needed to put in, regardless of the season or time of the year it was.

It is the same with you who are sitting or resitting the bar exams or any other exams in the coming months or starting a business and working on achieving something within the next few months. We are not living the same life as those around us. Our commitments and responsibilities are different and therefore, the time we have off and how we make use of our time will also be different to others.

By all means, take time out to rest and enjoy time with those around you, but don’t forget that you have a goal to work towards within the first few weeks and months of 2019 and only by putting in the hard work now, will you achieve the results you want. No one can do this for you, only you can, so be wise with your time and make the most of it.

Work hard now and play later!

My Journey to the New York Bar - Upped My Game

Now that I knew which areas of the substantive law I needed to strengthen my knowledge on, I got myself organised by creating a study plan. I really went to town with my study plan, setting out certain days of the week to study specific topics and divided each session between revising notes and doing both multiple choice questions and essay questions for each topic.

 The areas of law where I felt more confident in, I studied on the days I worked, whereas, the areas of law where I knew I needed to spend more time on, I used Thursdays and Fridays to focus on them as I was no longer working on those days.

I decided to take on board a suggestion given to me first time round which I initially dismissed. The suggestion was to wake up between an hour and a half to two hours early to studying before work. As a person who really likes her sleep, the thought of waking up at 5.30am to study before getting ready to go to work, was really difficult! I didn’t like the idea at all! I would rather sleep late and be up until 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning studying then wake up at 5.30am!!

However, when I thought about the benefits of doing this, I decided to do it. I had to be disciplined and go to sleep a little earlier than usual so that I had sufficient sleep. I mainly did this on the days that I worked in the office (which was Monday-Wednesday) because after work I knew I would only get a maximum of two to three hours of studying done, before my brain would want to retire for the night. I used the early mornings to revise notes and read through the text books and used the evenings to go through exam practice questions and review my answers (and make additional notes of the answers I got wrong so that I could revisit the topics).

This literally was my life for 10-12 weeks leading up to the exam! Study, work, church repeat.

I had already invested a lot of time and money into this and as I believed it was the path for me to take and succeed in, I had to see it through until the end and make the necessary sacrifices to achieve what I had initially set out to achieve.

Modern DIY: Sugar and Oil Exfoliate

This week I tried a DIY exfoliate using sugar and oil. I was actually supposed to use olive oil but I had none left so used normal cooking oil this time.

The purpose of this was to scrub off the dead skin from my hands and feet. I left it on for about 15 minutes before washing my hands and feet.

My hands and feet had been feeling rather dry and "rough" but afterwards my hands in particularly, we super soft. I was really amazed, I even asked my siblings to feel my hands!

Using Mayonnaise for beauty treatment

Mayonnaise! Oh how I love my mayo. I know it's quite fattening but I do like to use it when making tuna sandwiches or when eating fries! When a fiend of mine sent me a list of beauty treatments using mayo, I raised my eyebrows while reading her message lol! Straightaway I thought about food because that's what I always associate mayonnaise with.

A few weeks later, I decided to do a few DIY beauty treatments using Mayonnaise. I searched online and found out the benefits of using mayo for my hands, nails, feet and face. 

My feet: As the back of my feet has been feeling quite dry recently, I used the mayonnaise to exfoliate whatever dead skin may be on my feet. I simply put mayonnaise all over both feet, slipped on some cotton socks, and tied two plastic bag over both of my feet to prevent the product from seeping out and get all over the floor (hence why my feet is covered in plastic bags in the picture).

My face:  I applied the mayonnaise on my face as a facial mask and let it set for 20 minutes before washing it with warm water. I did this to remove any dead skin cells.

My hand / nails: I slathered mayonnaise all over my hands and massaged them. Not only is this good to soften dry cuticles but it also helps to strengthen our nails. 

After the treatments I noticed how softer my skin felt. It's definitely a cheap and cheerful way to take better care of our skin without having to spend lots of money. As DIY homemade treatments are the trend nowadays. It's worth a try :)

Today's Green Smoothie and 5 A DAY

Looking at what fruit and vegetables I had at home, I was thinking of what kind of juice or smoothie to make. I like to use up what I already have before I re-fill my fruit basket and fridge with more fruits and veg!

I was in the mood to experiment so this morning I made a Banana, Kale, Kiwifruit and Melon smoothie with a few squeezes of lime!

It was nice and healthy and I had 4 out of the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, before 9 o clock this morning 😊.

I always thought that as long as I had 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, even if they were the same fruit, then it would count.

However, I found out that our five portions should include a variety of fruit and vegetables. This is because different fruits and vegetables contain different combinations of fibre, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Almost all fruit and vegetables count towards our 5 A DAY and the great thing is that they can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or pure juices.

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