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!
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."
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.
I've just finished reading Walter Isaacson's wonderful biography of Steve Jobs. Near the end of his life, Jobs makes a statement about why the large tech companies have gone into decline: "The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of the product becomes less important. The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they're the ones who can move the needle on revenues...So the salespeople end up running the company."
I think the same analysis holds true in the bar review. The early pioneers in the bar review field were innovators at one time, but as they gained near monopoly strength, they stopped innovating. Indeed, they stopped teaching and began to simply put their energy, their resources and their focus on selling rather than on helping students learn how to pass the bar.
Compounding the problem is that the large bar reviews rely on law schools who simply don't hire professors who can teach. In a NY Times article this week, the point was made that law schools don't teach lawyering. One reason, according to the article: "there are few incentives for law professors to excel at teaching. ... it won't win them any professional goodies, like tenure, a higher salary, prestige, or competing offers from better schools." In other words, the schools don't teach, the big bar reviews hire the professors who don't teach and the student is woefully prepared for the bar and for a life of practice should they ever get past the exam.
Into this mess comes the law student with a six figure debt and no clue about how to get through the exam and to find a job. That's why I take our task at Celebration Bar Review so seriously. Instead of focusing on marketing, we focus on teaching. Over the last 20 years, education has made huge strides and we have attempted to implement them to our students' advantage through the use of technology, stress management, multiple intelligences, directed personal feedback and more.
The big bar reviews, and their companions, the big law schools, still live in the world of the Harvard Law School of the 70's - the 1870's - and Christopher Langdell's case method. It is just now being understood by the consumers of legal education that they are being cheated by their school - and their big bar review - when those institutions and corporations fail to adapt and integrate substance with effective teaching pedagogy. A system of education based on the assembly line "stand and deliver" model of Dean Langdell is doomed in our fast and competitive world. But don't tell that to the big bar reviews. They've invested millions in classroom settings, canned lectures and ponderous books that haven't changed more than an iota since they were created. And why should they? As long as the "salesmen" run the process, it's all good - at least for the companies.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Change can happen. #OccupyWallSt can become #OccupyBigBarReview. It can be done. At Celebration, we continue to have pass rates that far exceed the state averages, and often with a student base of repeat takers and foreign attorneys who are often the least likely to succeed. How do we do it? By continuing to innovate, research and employ the best technology and teaching methods with a passion for our students and not just our bottom line.
Go figure. The NJ results were released this morning without comment or explanation from the Examiners. At least they are out and good luck to everyone who took the exam! ...and NOW it just gets weirder... Apparently about 400 applicants have been told that their results are not yet available and no further explanation has been given by the Examiners. This is consistent with our previous information that approximately 400 exams were missing, so it is entirely possible that there was in fact a problem and it has not yet been resolved. Go figure...
Here's what we know as of now... Normally, NJ exam results come out at about the same time as NY results. Those came out a couple of weeks ago. July results typically arrive for NJ applicants by Nov 10 at the latest and we're obviously beyond that point now. We have made contacts with the Examiners and with some of our other sources to try and find out what's happened. As is often the case, when (and if) there is a problem, the Examiners go into a "lockdown" mode until a resolution has been decided upon. As a result, there is no "official" information to report. As you probably have heard, there are unconfirmed rumors that essays may have been lost. We think that's probably the case since absent a problem the results would typically be released. We know that there was not a problem with the MBE and so that leaves only the NJ essays as the source of any difficulty. We should point out that this is not an unprecedented situation. It has happened in other jurisdictions and other test administrations and if true, the NJ Examiners have several options. They can simply erase that question (or perhaps questions) for everyone, or they can impute the equivalent of a passing score on that question(s) for those applicants whose answers were lost. It has NOT been our experience that the entire test would be invalidated or that applicants would be required to retake the exam, however, that decision is state-specific and will be made by the appropriate bar authorities when and if it is necessary. When will results come out? The NJ Examiners have continued to say it will be the end of this week and we hope that's correct, however, we would not be surprised to see results held until as late as the middle of December. We'll let you know when we find out anything further.
I absolutely agree with the author about the novelty, portability and ease of use with tablets but I would add this about the use of an iPad for the bar - it just makes it all manageable.
Anyone who's received the stacks of bar review books and (in the old days, tapes or CDs) knows how overwhelming the process could be. I'm sure that many people took one look at the box and mentally gave up on their studies. The same for those in classroom courses - too much information, too fast and too many distractions. Not a good way to study productively.
Instead, today with our iBar program, everything you need to study for the test is in the palm of your hand. There's even a study guide book built in to the device!
We were the first bar review to put our course online, the first to use iPods, the first to offer tablet apps and of course, the first to put our entire course catalog on the iPad. We're proud of those firsts because they each represent a focus on the student and the learning rather than the marketing and the hype. If you're looking for a course that knows how to integrate technology and teaching, take a look at our offerings. Like our current students, we think you'll be impressed!
