How to Choose a Bar Prep Company

THE BAR EXAM

Words that strike a small sense of terror into every law student. The test that determines whether or not you will be allowed to practice law. The test that quite literally determines your future. If you want to be a lawyer and you are not thinking about the bar exam, you should start now.

My law school starting prepping us for the bar exam right in orientation. Bar exam passage has been low universally among all law schools the last few years so they wanted us to start off strong and do everything we could to prepare over our three years in law school for the bar exam. The strategies they implemented included requiring all students to complete classes in bar tested subjects, multiple choice questions on all exams, semester check in's on where we should be in our bar prep process and a professor dedicated to helping us with bar exam questions.

One of the most important parts of the bar examination process is choosing a company for your bar exam preparation course. Basically, if you graduate in May and take the bar exam in July, you spend those 3 months studying basically nonstop for the exam. The most effective way to do this is with an intensive commercial bar preparation course. Some of the most popular companies are Themis, Barbri, and Kaplan. These intensive bar preparation courses provide you will condensed instruction on the relevant black letter law, practice multiple choice questions, practice essay questions, essay grading, support staff and test-taking strategies to excel on the exam.

Sunday Six 1/27/19

Happy Sunday all!!

Last week was a 4 day week (Hallelujah!) and though busy, it was pretty good. I was very busy with school and research and work but I managed to get plenty of quality time in with my hubby and fur children.

We held our first "Book Club Day" for the online book club I started with a friend on Friday (more on that here).

On Saturday, I attended an Advanced Leadership Conference for representative graduate students at my college from all programs (Law, Med School, Pharmacy, etc). In order to attend you had to be nominated by a professor based upon exceptional leadership skills. I was honored to have been nominated and it was a very educational day full of networking and growing leadership skills.

Today, I am relaxing a bit and prepping for another busy week. Since I didn't do my Friday Five this week, I opted for a Sunday Six instead.

Book Review: Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan

Good Morning! Happy Friday!

Now that I am co-hosting an online book club with Danielle of the Love Danielle Blog, I decided to start doing book reviews of the books we read each month. Today is book club day (we open up our discussion for comments on the book) and I am sharing my full review of Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan instead of doing my traditional Friday Five post.

This book has excellent reviews and has been a #1 Amazon bestseller. It is being adapted as a movie that will star Tom Holland as the stories hero, Pino Lella, an Italian teenager who unexpectantly becomes a part of the resistance against the Axis powers and a spy in the German military.

I was so excited to read this book because I LOVE WW2 history. It is by far my favorite period to learn about and read about. However, I know the least about the Italian theater of the war so this book was very educational for me on that front.

Overall, I loved the book. It was a little slow to start but once it hooked me I couldn't put it down. There were three distinct sections in the book- the beginning where Pino was not involved in the war, his time in the Mountains accompanying Jews over to Spain on Ski's (which I enjoyed reading about because I am an avid skier) and his time as a Nazi soldier and spy for the Allies.

All three parts of the story take place while Pino is 17-18 years old... he was still a child and yet he risked his life over and over to help the war effort and fight the Nazi's in every way he could. We also learn in the book about Pino after the war and how he lived his life during peace. He is still alive to this day and lives in Italy. There are several colorful characters in the book that either incited my adoration or my anger.

I don't want to give away too much but I will say that there is much more to this book than just war and heroism. There is currents of strong friendship, the love of family, the strength of faith in hard times and a dash of romance, humor, and tragedy. Overall, I fell in love with the idea of an Italian teenager who ended up in the middle of a war and instead of choosing to keep his head down and just get by, he jumped into the effort with both Ski's and did his part of the war effort. He is an inspiring figure and I am so glad that his heroic story was not lost to history. I wish I could thank Mark Sullivan personally for sharing the story of Pino Lella and making sure he gets the recognition he deserves for his heroism during one of the darkest times in our history.

5 out of 5 stars!

If you are interested in our online book club, here is some more info:

• There will be a book chosen at the beginning of each month
• We have no specific genre. We are just picking books we think are interesting and are always open to suggestions or ideas. 
• We will have a private discussion board for members of the Book Club to discuss, compare opinions and get to know each other. This will be hosted on GoodReads and the link to our group is here: A Novel Idea Online Book Club 
• Toward the end of each month, we will have a "book club day" to discuss the book and our thoughts on it. 
• We will also be having some guest bloggers to choose the book of the month and moderate the discussions to shake things up

If you are interested in joining the Book Club (everyone is welcome!), please follow this link to sign up for the email list: https://goo.gl/forms/159wUDKpxqXXZySD3

Have a great weekend everyone!

Latest Purchases

Happy Monday!

Today I am posting a round-up of all of my most recent purchases. I am a bit of a shopaholic... I love clothes and Amazon and Target. I try to be mindful of the budget so I do usually confine my shopping to things that are on sale. And there is NOTHING I love more than a good sale!! So here is a round up of everything I have bought over the last few weeks.

AMAZON

I bought one of these quartz rollers to put on my face serum. It is supposed to encourage circulation in the skin. So far I like it! It was less than $10.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D27145L/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07D27145L&linkCode=as2&tag=thelegduc-20&linkId=94025483f5c4ddb2b99b37c58d0e5e2e

I ordered this to use on my face at night. Hyaluronic Acid is SO good for your skin and I love that this is a gel- it goes on SO smooth. It is also less than $15- score!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NR1YQHM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00NR1YQHM&linkCode=as2&tag=thelegduc-20&linkId=2a74ba17bbbddcd1306dc3a0e1a4318b

I needed a new pop socket for my phone but I got this instead. It is so cute in the Mickey Mouse shape and works great! I got a 2 pack for less than $7!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077CLVFFZ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B077CLVFFZ&linkCode=as2&tag=thelegduc-20&linkId=cdb00bb3193871b3ac71635d1265c487

These leggings are AMAZING and under $12!! The even have the pocket for your phone and come in a million colors. They are super comfy and wash well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F2GXW2Z/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07F2GXW2Z&linkCode=as2&tag=thelegduc-20&linkId=05c1930ed4dcb2a7400e53126477d9b2

I made a new years resolution to pack my lunch every day and these are perfect to pack in!! You get so many for the low price!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079QKJ6CQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B079QKJ6CQ&linkCode=as2&tag=thelegduc-20&linkId=aaf4587d6a18d82f1eef4c31503dabaf

J. CREW & J. CREW FACTORY 

This was my latest J. Crew Factory order. I LOVE J. Crew in general and they always run such good sales on the regular and Factory site. I was able to get all of this for less than $100 thanks to the code CLEAROUT!!!!!

https://factory.jcrew.com/p/J6140?color_name=hthr-graphite&N=2

https://factory.jcrew.com/p/K2187?color_name=black&N=2

https://factory.jcrew.com/p/K4944?color_name=black&N=2

https://factory.jcrew.com/p/J0584?color_name=wild-berry-white&N=SMALL

This was my latest J. Crew order. I snagged this whole order for $110 thanks to the 70% off promo code GOFORIT.

This cute bathing suit was around $11 for both pieces.

https://www.jcrew.com/p/J2489?color_name=CERISE&srcCode=EMOP00001&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=order-confirmation

https://www.jcrew.com/p/H8449?color_name=CERISE&srcCode=EMOP00001&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=order-confirmation

This gorgeous Tweed Jacket was under $60.

https://www.jcrew.com/p/K3783?color_name=BLACK%20METALLIC%20MULTI&srcCode=EMOP00001&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=order-confirmation

This adorble gingham suit was under $20 for both pieces.

https://www.jcrew.com/p/H7650?color_name=WISTERIA%20IVORY&srcCode=EMOP00001&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=order-confirmation

https://www.jcrew.com/p/J1771?color_name=WISTERIA%20IVORY&srcCode=EMOP00001&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=order-confirmation

Friday Five 1/18/19

Happy Friday!

My week has been a bit up and down. Classes were good, work is going well and I did some planning on some exciting things for my future. There is snow on the ground which always makes me happy. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of downs in my week and some bad news.... just asking for some prayers if anyone has a spare moment.

I am looking forward to a long weekend at home with my family and horses. It is much needed at the moment.

Now on to my Friday Five.


1. Walmart Grocery Delivery

I tried Walmart Grocery Delivery for the first time this week and it was AMAZING! I ordered online and they were delivered at 9am by a super nice guy named Blake. It saved me so much time and was so simple and straightforward. If you are short on time, seriously consider trying this out!

2. Game of Thrones
I know I am about 10 years late to this party but my husband and I finally started Game of Thrones. So far I am confused but hopefully I will start to keep everyone straight. Everyone says it is great so here goes nothing!


3. Yeouth Face Serum 

I have been using this for about a month and I am SO pleased with it! It is a perfect base full of good stuff for your face but I like that it goes on more like a moisturizer than a serum.

4. Space Force 

I saw this news and I AM SO EXCITED! The Office is basically the greatest show of all time so something new from those guys is the greatest news ever.

5. The Secret Rescue by Cate Lineberry 

I finished this book this week and it was so good! It is a very interesting story about something that history has largely forgotten. I am not very familiar with Albania nor did I realize that so many nurses ended up behind enemy lines in WW2. I would highly suggest this if you like informative, historical reads like me!