The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Postcards and Flash Cards

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    Ruth Carter

    Rob-tastic and I are officially in the “heroin scratch” phase of bar prep. Our goals from here until the California Bar Exam are to learn and much as we can about what’s likely to be tested, and lock in our test-taking strategies to maximize the points we earn.

    Reminder: Rob-tastic and I teamed up with Barbri to document and share our stories from studying for the July 2017 California Bar Exam.

    I got it right!

    Practice, Practice, Practice
    We’re lucky that Barbri gave us hundreds of practice multiple choice and essay questions. I particularly appreciate the online multiple choice questions where we can read the explanation about which choice was correct and why the others were wrong right after we submit our answer. Even though I’m exempt from taking the multiple choice portion of the bar exam, this helps me learn the nuances of all the rules. Every time I get a question right, I punch my hands triumphantly in the air.

    Barbri gives us a full 6-hour MBE (multiple choice) practice test. Rob’s planning on taking it, but I’m not. He has to take the second day of the test, and since I don’t (thank goodness), my time would better spend focusing on the essay portion of the bar.

    Making Flash Cards
    Flash cards work for me. Making them by hand and going through them is the best way for me to memorize things. They got me through high school, college, law school, and my first bar exam. When I was studying for my first bar exam, I paced around the house going through my cards. I easily walked a mile a day. I even jumped in the pool and walked around the shallow end going through my flash cards until I learned all the rules for secured transactions. One day I lost my mind and took my flash cards for a walk because my 1,800 square-foot house felt too claustrophobic. I walked for over an hour in 110-degree heat going through the flash cards. I’m sure people thought I was crazy the way I was muttering to myself.

    At the beginning of this bar prep, I bought 1,000 index cards. (I made just under 1,000 flash cards for the Arizona Bar.) I suspect I’ll go through them and more this time around. When everyone was enjoying their Independence Day holiday, I wrote over 100 flash cards on all the concepts for real property.

    It turns out Rob was also studying real property over the holiday. He came in the office today and said, “No one should own Blackacre. That land is nothing but trouble.”

    Sending love and thanks from Arizona

    Sending Postcards to our Barbri Instructors
    It’s lonely studying for the bar exam. We spend long hours doing practice questions and watching hours of Barbri lectures. With all the stress and hard work that goes into studying for this exam, we appreciate anything in this process that makes smile. Rob-tastic said he laughed when our Corporations instructor, Douglas Moll, started his lecture by saying, “You’re not going to be tested on California law with respect to corporations. You’re going to be tested on majority rule principles. . . . Purge anything you know that’s California specific. That actually won’t help you.” (Yes, we have to know non-California rules for the California Bar Exam. It doesn’t make sense to us either.)

    We are grateful to the instructors who make dry topics bearable and complicated topics understandable. Over the weekend, I picked up some Arizona themed postcards to send to our favorite instructors to thank them for helping us through this. As the always-entertaining Chuck Shonholtz says, they’re setting us up to “beat the bar nine ways ’til Sunday.”

  • Hair on Fire | Birthday Memories

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    Ruth Carter

    Last year for my birthday, I asked my friends to send me stories related to our friendship. I spent my birthday taking a trip down memory lane, reading through all of them. This year, I asked some of my friends if I could share their memories with you.

    12 Molar Hydrochloric Acid by maticulous from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    12 Molar Hydrochloric Acid by maticulous from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    This final memory comes from Tavys Ashcroft, one of my classmates from St. Vincent High School. I remember this day from Mr. D’s Honors Chemistry class our junior year. (NEAT STUFF!) It was an experiment that required an acid that was so strong that thick white fumes rose from the bottle when you opened it. Mr. D. selected me to be the one who administered the acid, advising me to hold my breath.

    Here’s how Tavys remembers that day:

    I think it was 10, maybe 12 molar hydrochloric acid (mid-to-high thirties percent concentration). The kind of acid that could ruin your whole day. There was a story about highly diluted test-tube splatter dissolving pants.  

    Only one was to be chosen to dispense this liquid danger. Who among them had the implicit trust of the man at the front of the room?

    This was a serious production. Lab coats. Check. Goggles. Check. (Put down your strikers!) Notify all nonessential personnel to vacate the area. Do not reenter the laboratory until the “all clear” is sounded. 

    Out came the bottle, a surprisingly large plastic jug. Aitch Cee Ell. The cap only just removed and already a fine mist began to appear. And the clock was ticking.

    Bench to bench, beaker to beaker, she carefully administered each allotment.  

    Slowly enveloped in a faint fog, the room faded away. Out in the hallway, the wafting swimming pool aroma gave way to burning eyes and tightening throats.

    She emerged, lab assistant triumphant. The incongruous wisps from her brow a steaming halo of pride and sublimation.

    Was it sugar hydrolysis? Did carbon snakes leap from glassware? I don’t quite recall the purpose of the lab (me neither), but I clearly remember the poison cloud and the smoking hair.

    During the experiment, Mr. D. asked if I could smell the chlorine. When I said, “Yes,” he said, “You’re burning your lungs.” I probably damaged all the cilia along my respiratory tract that day. Ah, the sacrifices we make for science.

  • Day 76/90 – Dinner at Oden’s

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    Ruth Carter

    Day 76 of the 90 Days of Awesome is in the bank! What made today awesome? I got to have dinner with friends at Oden’s house.

    Love this photo of Oden and me (Photo by Sheila Dee, used with permission)
    Love this photo of Oden and me (Photo by Sheila Dee, used with permission)

    I know Oden through Ignite Phoenix and Improv AZ. She’s freakin’ awesome. She is a self-proclaimed “Jewish mother” and somebody I can always count on. With one friend visiting from out of state and another friend recently moving back to the Phoenix area, Oden had a group of us over to her house for dinner.

    It was a fantastic evening filled with good food and laughter. Oden cooked up a storm, including pulled pork, cheesy polenta, and homemade white chocolate ice cream for dessert. Everything was so good, and it was so great to see so many of my friends.

    I also fell in love with one of Oden’s cats. His name is Broken – because he has a crick in his tail. He is an attention-loving talkative older cat – complete with a deep loud old-cat voice. He was so cute.

    I left feeling stuffed, happy, and lucky to have so many awesome friends in my life.

    In case you missed it: Day 75 of the 90 Days of Awesome – I got a tour of the Fox 10 Phoenix TV station.