An excellent supplement to any bar-examination study regimen.
In his first book, author Donnelly provides a general tutorial for the aspiring lawyer studying for the bar exam.
Donnelly clearly states three primary objectives. First, he wants to improve the test taker’s overall essay writing skills. To this end, Donnelly furnishes an excellent discussion of the well-known IRAC format (Issue-Rule-Analysis-Conclusion), helpfully explaining both its effectiveness and limitations as a paradigm. Second, Donnelly focuses on Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, a topic that often arises on the bar exam but gets short shrift in other preparatory manuals and courses. Finally, the author directs the reader to myriad free online resources for studying for the bar, including the websites of the National Bar of Conference Examiners. He astutely reviews the websites, itself a valuable service. The emphasis on sharpening writing skills also expands the utility of the volume; as Donnelly notes, “The sooner the student can develop a strategic methodology with which to approach essay exams and develop their expertise with writing essays, the more rewarding their law school experience will be.” Donnelly is a lawyer who has passed four different bar exams, so he writes confidently from the perspective of successful experience. Maybe the most profitable aspect of the work is the extended discussion of what Donnelly calls the “exam paradox,” or the problem presented by the pulverizing mountain of material a student must learn within tight time constraints in order to be ready to pass the bar. Even the student faithfully dedicated to his studies can, and likely will, neglect some material that will appear on the exam. Donnelly sketches out a reasonable strategy for apportioning one’s time, which involves taking seriously practice exams while also acknowledging the potential pitfalls to overemphasizing them. This is a lucidly written handbook that covers an extraordinary amount of ground given that it is intended to be a “short book with a narrow focus.”
An excellent supplement to any bar-examination study regimen.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
