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Perception and Reality

Lots of bar exam takers at this point (3 weeks until the exam) tend to lose perspective and in some cases, any touch with reality. That prompted me to record this video about "The Map and the Territory..."

I hope you find it helpful!

Internal Representations

I rarely give up an entire post to someone else, but one of my "heroes" is Bill Harris, the founder and CEO of Centerpointe Research and the developer of the Holosync meditation system. His unique methodology has been employed by many of our bar review students as part of our Successful Test Application Resources ("STAR") with incredible success.
Bill recently sent out an email that I thought perfectly summed up the problem facing lots of bar students right now and so I want to quote it at length and encourage you to go to his website (or ours) for more information.
Take your time and read this (more than once if necessary). He's describing a basic truth about how we process information and act on it...based on something he calls "internal representations..."
------------------
"Because the internal representations you make create your moment-to-moment feelings and other internal states, which then lead to your behaviors, the people and situations you attract or become attracted to, and what meanings you assign to the events of your life.

There are two basic categories of internal representations:

• Those of what you want (or what you think is possible)…

• Those of what you don’t want (or, what you’re worried about, afraid of, or want to avoid).

When you make internal representations about what you want, you feel good and things go pretty well. When you focus on it, you quite often get what you want. But when you make internal representations of what you don’t want…

…you feel bad, and you
often end up with more of
what you don’t want.

When this distinction first occurred to me a number of years ago, an important question immediately popped into my mind. 

You’ve probably already thought of it: 

Why do some people continually make internal representations of what they don’t want when the consequences are so negative? In other words, why do some people focus so much on what they’re afraid of, what they’re worried about, or what they want to avoid—when doing so increases bad feelings and…

…increases the possibility
that you’ll get what
you don’t want?

Perhaps you do this—though I’d be willing to bet that you’re doing it a lot less now that you’re using Holosync.

People who focus a lot on what they don’t want, unfortunately, tend to attract or create more of it. The mind is a goal-seeking mechanism. And, you tell it what to seek by making internal representations of it.

Oops.

In fact, I’ll make a blanket statement here: if an area of your life that isn’t working very well, you can be sure that in that area of life you’re focusing on—in other words, making internal representations of…

…what you don’t want.

And, you’re probably not aware that you’re doing it! What’s more, if you’re doing this outside your awareness, how much choice do you have about it?

None.

If you have trouble making money, you’re probably making internal representations of what you don’t want regarding money (not having enough of it). 

If you’re have trouble making friends, you’re probably (unconsciously) focusing on what you don’t want in that area (not having any, being alone, not being liked). 

In fact, any area of life that’s chronically problematic for you, if you’re curious enough (and aware enough) to look inside, you’ll find that when you think about that area of life, you’re focusing on what you don’t want. 

Amazing, don’t you think?

Here’s a crucially important rule about life:

Those who focus on what they want in any particular area of life tend to be successful in that area, all other things being equal. 

Those who focus on what they don’t want generally have trouble.

Another obvious and crucial question: 

What causes a person to
habitually focus on
what they don’t want?

I’m glad you asked.

If someone, experiences some sort of trauma, especially during childhood, that person will develop an underlying belief that something about the world is dangerous, or at least potentially dangerous. 

To avoid that danger, then, doesn’t it make sense that you would watch out for that danger, so as to avoid it? But, to do that…

…you have to focus
on the danger!

In other words, you have to make internal representations of what you don’t want. And doing that creates two unfortunately outcomes:

• It instantly creates some sort of bad feeling, and…

• It gives your mind an instruction: figure out a way to create or attract MORE of it.

Let me now introduce another important principle:

You can create negative feelings and negative outcomes ONLY if you do so unconsciously. If, however, you focus on what you don’t want with awareness, you will clearly see how you are creating bad feelings and negative outcomes, and…

…you won’t be able
to keep doing it.

Any motivation to keep doing it will dissolve.

To create negative outcomes, whether internal or external, the internal representations you make have to happen outside your awareness. 

Creating a feeling or a behavior has three steps:

1. You have an experience. You see, hear, touch, taste, or smell something.

2. You respond to that experience by making certain internal representations.

3. Those internal representations cause you to feel something, which leads to a behavior, a response.

Where is the choice in these three steps? 

In the second step. You have some choice about what you experience, but not a lot. You do, however, have a choice about how you respond (i.e., what internal representations you make) to the experience…

…IF you are aware of that step.

If you aren’t aware of it, it will happen automatically, based on your internal programming.

Once you become aware of what you are doing, once you actually see the internal representations you (unconsciously) make, and see the direct connection between these internal representations and what happens in your life, you’ll stop making them! 

As I said earlier, awareness gives you choice, and no one with a choice would…

choose to create bad feelings
or negative outcomes.

The key insight here is that your experiences, and certainly your response to your experiences, don’t “just happen” to you. Your experiences—how you feel in each moment, how you behave, and the people and situations you attract or become attracted to—are something you DO. 

So when you feel overwhelmed, over your threshold, ask yourself, “Okay, how am I DOING that? How do I DO feeling overwhelmed?” Overwhelm doesn’t “just happen”—there’s something you DO that creates it. 

You DO feeling overwhelmed by focusing, in some way, on something you don’t want. 

The way out of this is to develop the awareness that allows you to clearly see what you are doing inside that create the bad feelings, the negative behaviors, or that causes you to attract or become attracted to people and situations that don’t serve you.

This is exactly what happens to those who use Holosync regularly. Long time Holosync users universally report that over time…

…they become amazingly
aware of HOW they’re
creating their lives.

Next, if you practice directing that awareness to the internal processes that directly create how you feel and behave, what seemed to be just happening becomes a choice."

Are you crazy yet?

I know, I know. There's less than 45 days until the Feb 2012 bar exam and no one understands what you're going through! Awful, isn't it? Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. Here's a video I recorded on that subject. I call it "Reality Sets In." I hope it helps!

Exercise actually helps you study...

For quite a while now, I've been a proponent of the newer educational theories linking physical activity and exercise to improved mental performance. Here's a link to one of my videos on the subject.




Last week the following article quoted Dr John Ratey, who wrote the book "Spark" that I reference in my work. I think the article is worth a read...


“Exercise doesn’t make you smarter…it just makes you normal.” This great quote from John Medina in Brain Rules illustrates the essential role that physical activity plays in maintaining a sharp mind. The brain is best at solving problems related to surviving in an unstable environment, and to do so in nearly constant motion. This is what the brain did for virtually all of human history until we engineered the need for physical activity out of everyday life.


Rush to the Head
Exercise literally increases the blood volume in a region of the brain called the dentate gyrus, a vital part of the hippocampus. Exercise also stimulates BDNF, a protein which exerts a fertilizer-like growth effect on certain neurons. This protein keeps existing neurons young and healthy, rendering them much more willing to connect with one another. It also encourages neurogenesis, the formation of new cells in the brain. The cells most sensitive to this are in the hippocampus, inside the very regions deeply involved to human cognition and memory.
It’s what happens after exercise that optimizes the brain. Exercise increases levels of IGF-1 (a growth hormone), and in the hippocampus IGF-1 increases neuroplasticity (the way we learn associations with things), and neurogenesis. It’s another way exercise helps our neurons bind.
“The way exercise changes our brains is more effective than wine, medicines, and doughnuts,” says John Ratey, author of Spark. But too often, this is what we use to attempt to manage stress.


Find Stress Relief
Stress, lack of exercise, and junk food harms your brain. Stressed brains don’t learn the same way. The hormones released in response to stress are meant for immediate danger response, not chronic stress. Chronic stress makes adrenaline scar blood vessels while cortisol damages the cells of the hippocampus. Since exercise influences metabolism, it serves as a powerful way to influence synaptic function, and thus the way we think and feel.
As hard as it might be right now, instead of wine, medicine and doughnuts, what might be best to deal with stress is to get moving. Even if it’s just taking a short walk. The more you move, the better you’ll feel. Your movement choices don’t have to be exercise or nothing. A little exercise with a lot of movement in general can help you cope with stress – a great coping strategy to have at this time of year.
No matter how sharp or smart you are, your brain gets better with physical activity. It has a 100% effectiveness rate and the side effects are a healthier body as well!"


Great advice and I encourage you to try it for yourself. It will make a difference!

Exam Perceptions can be Deceiving...

The Nov 2011 MPRE results came out yesterday and as usual, most people passed and by wide margins. Our students all currently report  passing, which is good news!
What strikes me about the results, however, is a fairly common refrain that I hear after EVERY standardized exam (MBE, MPRE) but fortunately not from every student. It basically goes like this:
"The test was really hard. I never saw questions that tough. I'm sure I failed."
This is always troubling but with the MPRE it's almost laughable. You see, a person taking the exam has very poor perspective on the process. In the "heat" of the moment, every question seems inscruitable and every answer choice filled with nuance and danger. Fortunately, to mis-paraphrase Freud, "sometimes a bar exam question is just a bar exam question..."  In other words, perceptions of a test-taker can be deceiving and the feedback after the exam that claims a "doom and gloom" result is often misplaced. 
In the case of the MPRE, this is almost always true. The test is actually pretty easy and unless you talk yourself out of correct answers and over-think the exam or treat it as a test of your personal morality, you should pass.
One of our MPRE students was certain he had failed the Nov test and equally certain that the length and complexity of the questions was extreme. He was quite specific about how few questions took less than a page of the answer book so we went to the source - the NCBE, (who write and score the exam) to ask if something had changed. Of course, their response was "No. It's the same test for many years now." And the student's test results?
You guessed it. He passed. :-)
So if you're in a post-mortem session about a test, try to keep some perspective and if you have none, move on. You can't change the test after the fact and it does little good to brood over the test itself. 
We keep a pretty close eye on the tests and what the examiners are doing. It's one reason our results continue to outperform the averages in every jurisdiction where we prepare students for the exams. Your perceptions as a test taker are like those warnings on side view car mirrors: "objects may be closer than they appear" to which I would add, "and easier."

California Bar Results...Explained

Once again, the CA Bar Exam results are out and once again, the overall pass rates are awful. The overall pass rate was 54.8%, by far the lowest in the nation.


While we at Celebration Bar Review had much higher overall pass rates (close to 70%) that's still a significant number of failures and it's caused me to spend some time trying to analyze the bigger picture of what's going on with the California exam, and more specifically the scoring.


Here's my theory:
The most important score in California has apparently become the MBE number. If it is not a passing equivalent (approx 128 raw or 1440 scaled) it doesn't appear that the written part of the exam is being graded in such a way as to be truly "compensatory." In other words, in some jurisdictions (such as Georgia) if the applicant's MBE score is not high enough, the essays are not graded at all and a failing result is applied. In California, the same result is achieved but without quite as much candor. If the MBE score is not at a passing level, I think the essays and performance tests are only read in a perfunctory manner and assigned a relatively narrow range of scores. This quick scoring level (50-65) is simply not enough to overcome the lower MBE score and so the result is a nearly "automatic" failure.


What I'm seeing from those of our students who failed is that when their MBE score is below passing the written Raw scores are nearly uniform at 570-580 total. I don't think this is a coincidence, particularly since the quality of the practice essays of these students varied by far more than the 10 points shown in the official score results.


If my theory is incorrect, we should see a lot of results from applicants with a "passing" MBE score but a failing written score and an overall fail. In my experience, that is not happening now. If you had such a score, I'd love to see your score sheet. 


Otherwise, I think what we're really seeing is a de-facto non-grading of the written part of the exam based on the applicant's MBE score. In a perverse way, it makes sense for the examiners to do this since it minimizes grader resources on those exams that statistically have a much lower or nearly impossible chance of becoming an overall passing test. This would allow graders to spend more time on written work that could in fact tip the compensatory balance in favor of passing or failing. 


Still, I think it would be far more forthcoming to simply acknowledge this process or to require a minimum MBE threshold before the essays are read and graded. Until that time, I plan to focus  on the MBE score first for our California students and the written work secondarily.