[blindlaw] Keeping Track of Key Facts on Bar Exam Essays

Sybren Hoekstra sy.hoekstra at gmail.com
Wed Jun 6 20:34:46 UTC 2018


You can also use place markers if you're using jaws. I find that to be faster than inserting text and searching for it 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 6, 2018, at 16:28, Michal Nowicki via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> Thank you so much for all your suggestions. I think placing three asterisks at the beginning and end of each block of text I wish to highlight will work best for me. Although I do have a Braille note taker, (1) it is an additional device I would need to bring to the test center and (2) I did not request use of a Braille note taker as an accommodation, and it is now too late to request any changes to accommodations for the July exam. Of course, I must now make sure that I get the exam in an editable format; my accommodation grant does not specify the file format, only that I will be able to access the exam electronically with JAWS. Thank you, all, once more.
> 
> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
> 
> From: Luis Mendez via BlindLaw
> Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2018 2:29 PM
> To: 'Blind Law Mailing List'
> Cc: Luis Mendez
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Keeping Track of Key Facts on Bar Exam Essays
> 
> Good afternoon:
> 
> That's a good strategy.  I place triple asterisks immediately preceding and after text that  seems useful so that I can retrieve  and copy the text as a block if I decide to add it to a research file or document. 
> 
> When I took the New York State bar, the highest text available was a cassette  recorder; so I used that to dictate  facts that seemed relevant.  Perhaps the same strategy could work using Dragon Anywhere or other means of  quickly jotting down important facts.   I could have used a braille writer, but I didn't want to take both hands off the page. 
> 
> Luis
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tai Tomasi via BlindLaw
> Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2018 1:01 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Tai Tomasi <ttomasi at driowa.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Keeping Track of Key Facts on Bar Exam Essays
> 
> I don't have much to add, since I accessed the exam in Braille. I did have use of a computer for typing my answers and taking notes,  allowing me to jot down notes in a text file pertaining to the essays. I often use Jim's idea of placing asterisks next to text to which I want to refer later and using the find and find next commands to refer back to them.
> 
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> Ms. Tai Tomasi, J.D.
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Jim McCarthy via BlindLaw
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2018 11:46 AM
> To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Jim McCarthy <jmccarthy at mdtap.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Keeping Track of Key Facts on Bar Exam Essays
> 
> Michal
> Others may have a better idea on this than have I. To me, you might be best to bracket the text, if you can do that with braces, brackets stars, some sort of punctuation or symbol you will not regularly see, but one you can search for. I took bar exams using computers, but it was in the days when that was an accommodation available mostly only to those with disabilities and I had the ability to alter the document. I am not sure that still is an option. If it is though, you could also add little notes like (for negligence) or (intent) all between the punctuation mark you choose. I think of the JAWS functions you suggest, place markers may be the most useful. Speech and sound schemes can be helpful reading legislation; I think text analyzer is a good start point in proof reading legal documents you might develop; and skim reading helps for summarizing long documents but I am not sure those work as well for your task. Sending positive thoughts your direction as bar study is a life altering experience for those months one engages in it.
> Jim McCarthy
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michal Nowicki via BlindLaw
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2018 11:53 AM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List
> Cc: Michal Nowicki
> Subject: [blindlaw] Keeping Track of Key Facts on Bar Exam Essays
> 
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I am studying for the Illinois Bar Exam, and I am seeking advice on improving my time on bar exam essays. Currently, even with the double time I have for each essay, I can never finish in the allotted time. The problem is that I have not figured out how to annotate the fact patterns so that I can quickly find relevant facts. According to my Barbri instructors, this is an important step in maximizing efficiency: at least for sighted people, who can easily highlight information and jot down margin notes that quickly jump out at them as they skim the passage.
> 
> Do any of you have any suggestions on how to keep track of legally operative facts efficiently using JAWS? Some JAWS features I’ve been considering trying out are (1) speech and sound schemes, (2) text analyzer, (3) skim reading, and (4) placemarkers. Have any of you found those or other features useful on the essay portion of the exam? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Michal
> 
> Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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