Thank YOU!!

Wow - been crazy busy last few days since exam... well by busy I mean watching shit loads of films that i wanna catch HERE before i have to fly back home tomorrow :( Since exam i have watched:
- 1408
- Simpsons
- Sicko
- Evan Almighty
... ok that isn't that much really for me but also been to a batting cage to get out some aggression (really not as easy as it looks!) and slept a lot!

But anyway - as it nears time for me to go back home to the horrible country i come from (ok i guess it aint THAT bad...) i just wanted to post on here to thank all of you guys on here! All of your support/advice as well as just your thoughts on the material and studying have been invaluable in the preceding weeks and during the exam... i definitely wanna stay in touch with you guys either via here or (if you are thinking of finishing with this now exam over) via email and i hope you ALL pass! :)

Day 3 - Bar-OVER!!

It's done!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!! NO MORE STRESS/STUDYING UNTIL MID NOVEMBER!!!!!!!

So can I be bothered to talk about todays exam?! Well it went alright i think - all the questions seemed doable which is a change from New York where one or two just seemed impossible!

Essay 1 - hmm can't even remember what it was?!? Ohhhhh right - the criminal murder/constitutional one - predictions were REALLY off this time! I heard people say that criminal would likely be a crim pro question cus they been on crimes A LOT recently - seemed alright tho but I wish i had read about mistake of fact/mistake of law - i looked at it the other day and got confused and was gonna look it up and figure it out but decided couldn't be bothered - dammit! Con law was alright - symbolic speech stuff... reasonably ok

Essay 2 - how many issues were in that question!??! I filled a page of scratch paper with the thousands of issues but then when I came down to writing it, seemed to work out ok. Contract/remedies one - kinda predicted this yesterday. Went through formation and stuff - was a bit of agency referred to in q but not especially relevant - i stuck in something i remembered from commercial law at uni about the rule re: undisclosed principals but that's ENGLISH law so unlikely to be right anyway!

Essay 3 - Community property - dunno if anyone else found this.. .could have been I missed something but there really didn't seem a whole lot to write on this one. The rules that I stated anyway kinda cut off any further discussion of anything because it was just like 'that's the rule - it applies here - disposition is X.' I probably missed a load of stuff but whatever!

PT 2 - after yesterdays snoozefest I refilled my caffeine tanks at lunchtime and went in wired... not bad PT to be fair - was expecting some crazy hard document thing but a persuasive letter seemed reasonably doable - again could quite easily have fucked it up but then again - might have got it sorted!

So here ends the saga for now until mid November... gonna try find a film to watch later tonight but right now i could just do with some sleep... altho don't think i WILL sleep!

Bar exam - day 2!

MBE day! And i am not allowed to tell you anything about any of the questions orally or in writing but if any of you are slightly telephathic i could send telepathic signals - those are not excluded!!

Well what can ya say - kinda hard q's, got really tired in the afternoon session and left a little early - then took ole metro back to proper LA and now considering the possibility of sleep or study...

One more day! Need to be awake for it tho!

Bar exam - day 1!

Um.. ok?! That was a strange day of 'barring!' Got there nice and early, got my seat - front row center - best view in the place! lol

So essays (i'm hoping I got the subjects right anyway - anyone thinking differently - do put me right! lol)

1st one = Real Property - Landlord tenant stuff - ummm ok?! I thought everyone was going on about how unlikely landlord/tenant stuff was gonna be for this one?? I think i did ok... constructive eviction? bit of s/f? commercial lease? Pah i don't care - it's done! lol

2nd = Tort - strict product liability/negligence - nice one - pretty much just went methodically through each one analysing with regards each s/l and negligence... went crazy - reached page 8 on this one - more than the PT!

3rd = Evidence - this was the shocker - what the fuck?! I mean the question itself was fine but I read the instructions on the front where it said 'answer in federal law unless it states otherwise' and the evidence q DIDN'T state otherwise?! Thought this was sposed to be first evidence Cali distinctions?? I wrote the whole question mainly focusing on the whole Federal side but now and then just sticking in brackets something about Cali just in case their quality control is realllly shit and they actually wanted cali law...

Then had a wander around, grabbed some pizza and headed back for Act 2:

The PT! - was a nice ish one - i mean i do mean to place warranties on all this stuff cus it is quite possible that I fucked it ALL up but it seemed to be a nice straightforward objective memo - soooo an essay in memo form?! Well just wrote loads for that one too - was being a full scale SHEEP - listed all the factors from the different lists from different subjects... great fun!

Came out - phoned to check if my lift was gonna happen - wasn't - bailed on me! lol - was too wired/strangely calm to care so i went back in found out where the metro line was and rode it right back to Hollywood!

Now I am tired... VERY tired... think the pro plus wore off - i was gonna read thru my subjects but I may just goto sleep instead...

Hope it went well for everyone else... and hope it actually DID go well for me lol... any predictions on next essays? I dunno for sure but doya think that PR PT was all the PR we gonna get?! Or do you think it's still lurking around? My calculations suggest that the next essay exam should be at least 2 non-MBE subjects - maybe civ pro and community property and then i would guess contract/remedies or something...

Day 40 - The Final Reckoning

Wow - really didn't realise that i started precisely 40 days before the bar exam! Crazy stuff!!

My initial plan for today was to read everything twice... literally everything - under the idea that, I managed to read loads of pages of Harry Potter yesterday and thus I could easily just read all my notes etc twice today and finish by 2pm. Didn't quite work - just felt myself getting more and more mired in different subjects, seeing possible questions in every single specific little area of the law that I didn't know too well... I seem to remember in NY bar exam there was an entire question on grand jury proceedings and that was THE criminal question?! Ugh - whatever....

I guess that it is true that to some extent - what you don't know by now, you ain't gonna before tomorrow... hating tomorrow the worse cus I'm alright at MBE's and theres only 6 subjects needed to review the night before... plus the last day should be alright as it's
A. The LAST DAY
B. We should have some idea of what subjects will/won't come up and so less to review.

Problem is - this first day - anything could come up... tried to look at patterns and saw that vaguely more Multistate subj q's on first day but VERY vague pattern...

I think i'm gonna leave it all up to fate now and go watch some film or something, sleep early and get up ready to face my demons/dragon tomorrow!

Good luck to everyone on here!!! :)

Day 39 - Succumbed....

Ok so I decided that i would in fact read it (new harry potter book) took a while but it's done, it is no longer a distraction, I no longer have to worry about inadvertently finding out what happens in the end and am now 100% focused on the impending doom of Tuesday! (AND the book was AWESOME :))

Did some PR work this morning and gonna review a bit of stuff... recently been worried about getting there and that sorta thing - is anyone NOT gonna work tomorrow? I know they suggest you set a time and finish but I think that will be hard! Plus - is anyone handwriting it? I am and started wondering if the whole 'ball point pen' thing is strictly enforced... I write best with fountain pen so will probably just use that....

The end is in sight :)

Day 38 - Temptation..

Not especially productive day yesterday - heat plus boredom kinda took its toll. In the evening actually did go and get the new Harry Potter book, then read first 2 chapters and went to bed. SO hard to just go to bed! Was really tempted to get it out of the way and just read the whole thing and still am this morning but I keep telling myself - PR is SO much more interesting as is a crazy little subject called Community Property!

Ugh!

Kinda want this all just to be over now but also need more time really to cover everything properly!

Day 37 - Final countdown...

Did ok yesterday overall - managed a 40/50 on released MCQ's yesterday and 43/51 this morning - weird... i'm convinced these q's must be easier than what is going to be on the exam... either that or maybe i'm actually peaking at the right time..

As other people have said tho - the essays/PT's are really where the main stuff lies... have received the 'updates' from barbri - panic averted to some extent - they simply sent out the same lecture handout I had since I got the course plus a coupla evidence distinctions and some agency essays and answers - not bad!

Last night, after immersing myself in Civ Pro and Greig, I emerged and went through a list of the subjects to determine which subjects I'm actually still going to work on - it was kinda scary knocking out subjects that I wouldn't look at again, potentially until the exam starts!!

Woke up this morning with the symptoms suggesting an imminent cold - not good but possible - often get one when I first get here after breathing that crazy recirculated plane air for 11 hours!

So on to todays substantive stuff - was gonna do evidence and agency but seeing as agency seems not to have changed much I will turn some efforts towards PR... also have now decided NOT to visit the convention center pre-exam - no time really...

One last thing - anyone taken this exam before know if they are really that strict about digital display watches?!??!

Day 36 - Up and at 'em...

Spent a part of yesterday evening memorising that opening statement about CP - enlisted girlfriend's help in helping to test me on it and then this morning when I woke her up her first words were 'California is a CP state' :-/ lollol - Crazy bar!

So today I wanna probably reschedule the rest of the time we have left - got email through from barbri - apparently they sent out new agency/evidence stuff through to my home address day before yesterday (day i left england) and this is 'vital' distinctions or something. They seem to have been quite good cus it seems like now it's BarBri themselves doing stuff rather than the English division - seems like they gonna fedex whatever the stuff i need to me here and they emailed me coupla other updates to Evidence distinctions - is there that much changed to Evidence in last few months? or to agency?! Hope not! :(

Wow I CAN do something right re: PT's!

Finally got my mark back for that Sunrise PT:

Essay Grade 7/10
In Re: Sunrise Galleria Mall Curfew
Alternative Draft - This candidate’s alternative was properly objective. The level of clarity is more than acceptable. One of the better submission this grader has seen.

Letter - Properly persuasive. Correct level of language. Client’s situation properly presented in best light. Strong points emphasized. Well organized, well reasoned and well argued.

Day 35 - Back in the USA!

Thanks for all the suggestions as to what to do on the plane - decided to listen to as many evidence lectures as I could because actually didn't listen to all of them the first time through - thinking that it would be mostly same as NY. Was definitely worth listening tho - much clearer understanding of hearsay now... altho that doesn't mean i now have a GOOD understanding of hearsay! :)

So flew in yesterday - REALLY HOT here! How is everyone managing to study in this heat?! lol - Was hot back home now and then but been quite lucky recently with relatively cool weather/rain - ideal for studying! Didn't manage much else once I got here yesterday - just went to bed knackered pretty early.

This morning so far - got up early - 8ish and finished evidence lectures, then trecked to 'Smart and final' to buy copious amounts of red bull and have now returned here to turn my attention to some MCQ's. Really feels like the final stretch now that I'm actually here and the exam is very much impending - before flying here it was relatively easy to think the exam isn't until I fly out to LA and seeing as I'm not in LA yet there still this 'buffer zone.' The buffer zone has now gone and so begins 'home stretch' time.

Day 33 - Ready to fly...

Literally - spent majority of today (annoyingly work wise) getting everything sorted for flying tommorrow out to LA - making sure I take everything that I might end up wanting on the next week before the exam - MDR/MCQ book and essay book etc! Crazy!

Anyone out there have any suggestions as to what is best to study on board a plane? I'm on there for like 11 hours tommorrow - was gonna do an MPT but kinda thought I wouldn't - would be kinda cramped to do that! All I'm actually gonna take on plane is me BIG folder of goodies so I guess I'll just try and review that shit and maybe re-listen to some lectures on civ pro and evidence... gonna be tempting just to watch movies tho! lol..

Ok so this will be last entry before I get onto LA time! Bye for now!!

Day 32 - The BAAH exam

Had good day on this stuff yesterday - got Crim done fairly earlyish and then decided to actually do the Westside PT in the evening so that all the frustration I got from it wouldn't ruin today lol. Just doing the PT workshop 4 now and it just annoys me - the 2nd memo wasn't worth anything?!?! How the FUCK are we supposed to know that?! I know the 2nd memo didn't look like it would be worth much but knowing about the people who set this exam, the fact we are SHEEP and sposed to just follow instructions, the fact that nowhere it stated what percentage each one was worth I kinda just assumed that it must be 50-50 so tried to sort my time like that (with some bias towards first one anyway tho). But that means you end up wasting even more time on the PT - as you may be able to tell from previous entries i find PT's generally a waste of time and then when during that you have spent a good half hour or more on a memo that isn't even worth anything?! WTF is the point?!?!

I just hope I pass this thing so I never have to do one of these PT's again...

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Update - spent most of today 'spidering' PR as seems certain to be on exam - really feels like I'm back at school writing lines as a punishment like 'I will not have sex with client,' 'I will not commingle client money with mine,' I will not run in the corridors' etc etc

Day 31 - 'Luckily for you'

hehehe - the immortal words of the essay workshop guy - just been listening to the essay workshop last hour where he was predicting what subjects would come up on the February bar exam - reasonably useful because those subjects that he predicted that didn't come up are even MORE likely this time I'm guessing. Loved the way he spoke of how the Civ Pro and Evidence CA distinctions don't come into effect until the July bar exam (luckily for you) - it's times like these you wish you DIDN'T have the essay workshop lectures from the last February bar exam! lol

Anyway onto work - gonna hit Crim hard today - think I've almost got it sorted out so this may be the last major time spent on it - after today I got MPT workshop 4 tommorrow and then flying out on Tuesday. I need to remind myself that apparently, from someone who went to the ACTUAL last essay workshop lecture for July bar exam, the main subjects that are most likely to be tested (potentially) are:
1. Civil Procedure
2. Community Property
3. Trusts
4. Proffesional responsibility
5. Remedies (I noticed this has been on every summer exam since 1999!)

Day 30 - hitting the wall..

Was just listening today to some of the essay workshop for real property and at the beginning the guy was saying, coincidentally enough, that after around 30 days you will be starting to hit the wall but DONT PANIC... you still have the entire month of February before the exam! Lucky for them! lol - kinda began to hit the wall yesterday/today but obviously with less than 2 weeks until the exam it isn't really possible to 'take a step back' so imma gonna do a Beatrix Kiddo on that fuckin wall and smash through even if it leaves my hands bloody and broken! :) (for anyone who isn't a Tarantino fan - this is a reference to Kill Bill Vol 2)

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MCQ's done today - RP Adv 37-66 (13/30)
RP Released MCQ's 1-34 (21/34)

Day 29 - Potter!!!!

Just got back from cinema - actually took time out to see Order of the Phoenix - I liked it! Didn't much remember the book to be honest but the film was pretty cool... can't wait for the final book/the NEXT film!

Anyway... back to reality :( lol - studied till 4am last night trying to finally grasp Evidence/Cali Evidence once and for all... got past relevance and character evidence but I do know there is much more to come before i can say it is completely mastered... anyway as to today - it's Tort day - sooo gonna try and sit myself firmly somewhere within Negligence and work outwards; I do hear though that it is anticipated that if there is a Tort question it is more likely to be related somewhat to defamation/privacy torts so that will also feature highly in todays work - it may be almost 4pm already and so far not started but with a little bit of work (well a lot of work) i should hopefully be sorted on tort by end of day... or at least by the time i go to bed maybe? Think positive!!

Day 28 - Middle-Aged Giant, Nuclear Irradiated, Fascist Aardvarks!

Fully back in, what I like to call, MCQ-land now - the title of the entry is actually part of Q51, Advanced Evidence questions in the big MCQ book. I actually got that one right! (It's apparently the name of a film that proves very popular).

Ok so as for the All-Star game: (IRAC analysis)
Issue = Should I have bet on the National League winning?
Rule = Never bet on the National League winning (they haven't won in 10 years)
(Exception = national league are due for a win!)
Analysis = WE WAS ROBBED!! Bases loaded, bottom of the 9th! Reyes on form! If only they had left on Brad Penny and then had Saito closing, the bet would have been won!! Ugh
Conclusion = despite my mate comparing me to Krusty from Simpsons betting against the Globetrotters, and all else, the bet was justified under the facts and should have been won - the National League erred in their decision!

In other matters - received through the post today a 'new and updated' Conviser mini review, a huge CA outline, and CD's with June's lectures of Evidence, Civ Pro and Agency. As much as this seems very nice I am slightly lacking on time seeing as the exam is less than 2 weeks away so haven't really got the time to sit down and listen to, in total, 15 hours of lectures! Any suggestions as to whether it's worth listening to them? Or is it worth just checking they havent changed since the January lectures i already listened to?

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MCQ's taken today - Evidence Adv (15/31)
Evidence Released MCQ's (27/34)

Day 27 - All Star Game

Got on with constitutional law today - didn't get up quite as early as I wanted to but did get on quite well once got up - starting to get to an almost comfortable position with Con Law - did some MCQ's then an essay, then some more MCQ's then watched bit of Rome and got back to just general review of con law/essay workshop.

It's strange - every time I do these released MCQ's they really seem a lot different and the questions themselves seem quite a bit harder but the answers - there seems to be more answers that you can completely dismiss straight off! Was doing the 34 con law q's and felt i did shit but got quite a good result overall!

Now sitting and watching the All Star Game - nice old break :) lol - Go National League! Got a £5 bet on them (feel like they are due for a win!)

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MCQ's done - Con law Adv 36-66 (21/31)
Con Law released MCQ's - 1-34 (28/34)

Day 26 - I can't do essays!

Don't know if it's just me but I been TRYING to do these essays but each one I look at I think - I have no clue how to answer until i actually read the answer. Then I look at another one thinking I'm ok now but that one is COMPLETELY different and have no idea about that either! Ugh! I guess it's the way they have to do it cus it'd be stupid to have 8 or 9 essays on the same part of the same subject - I just realised I hate contracts!

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MCQ's done today - Contract MDR released 1-34 (19/34)
Contract Adv - 37-66 (19/30)

Day 25 - Worst Bar Exam Ever!

I was just pondering earlier as to what would be the worst possible combinations of questions on the bar exam, for me anyway! Essays would have to be:

1. Corporations
2. Evidence
3. Real Property
4. Civil Procedure
5. Constitutional Law
6. Professional Responsibility

And MPT's would be:

1. Drafting opening statement
2. Brief in support of a motion (including statement of facts)
(hmm is that partially due to the last MPT i did/mock MPT being precisely the above? lol)

Anyone else have different 'worst bar exam' combos? Kinda helps me a bit cus then I can think - even if the worst happened... I'd probably be able to write something for most of the essays...

P.S. That shift and tab thing really worked to get the title in - ty poobah!! :)

Day 24 - 7 7 7!

Ok so (isn't currently letting me write in the title box for some reason) tackled civ pro today - started out alright, think I've got the jurisdictional stuff sorted but then tried a move on Pleadings and got lost - why do they have to call them different things in California than under the Common law?! Why is the name even that important to warrant them changing it?!

Spent a bit of time looking at the essay subject frequency chart today, as such I now have provisional predictions re: which essays I think may come up:
1. Civil Procedure
2. Evidence
3. Remedies/Real Property crossover
4. Agency/Professional Responsibility
5. Community Property
6. Contracts

I never actually rely on question spotting tho - it always seems a good way to fail but I just kinda feel these subjects could be on their way - surely Evidence and Civil Procedure are dead certain as they both have these new Cali distinctions being implemented as of THIS bar exam... or maybe that's just some mean-spirited bluff by the bar examiners?!

Anyway to make me feel like I'm actually studying by being on here, gonna write out 2 acronym type things and then go back to it:

Temporary Restraining order requires SIN (security for costs, immediate irreperable injury, notice efforts)

The person presenting paper to court certifies that it is ICED (no Improper purpose, legal Contentions warranted by law, allegations have Evidentiary support, Denial of legal contentions is warranted by law)

Day 23 - It's all Bullshit!

Just did the mock bar exam thing - ugh! So annoying! Woke up - sat down to do the morning session and just sat there staring at the PR question for about 25 minutes before I finally started writing something - just drew a complete blank! (and found out later I missed out the major issue too!)

Then did Wills and Community Property essays - those were a lot better - after reviewing it I think I may have passed Comm Property and possibly Wills but definitely failed PR!

Then came the dreaded MPT - ugh! Started figuring out now why I hate them so much. I just can't see why they need to have them so long?! The NY one was only 90 minutes and that was JUST as hard as you just had slightly less materials and half the time but at least it was way easier to prepare for pre-bar exam. You could sit down and legitimately feel not a waste of time to do 90 mins and do a full MPT - but now with this 3 hour thing - thats most of the day gone reading some irrelevent BS about facts you don't need to know, then trying to write it out but failing miserably cus each time its a different structured thing you need to do and each time I screw it up! Like today - the task memo seemed to tell me to do one thing so I did THAT even though it seemed to conflict with the thing telling you how to write whatever the document was - and shouldn't have! GRRRR! I hate this shit - the sooner it's all over the better!

Day 22 - TS LEGUP over the LOGPIT

Spent all day today doing Wills and Trusts... well mainly Wills - SOOOO glad that we don't have to know that old TS LEGUP over the LOGPIT shit that had to learn for NY wills. Was something to do with Testamentary Substitutes or something - no idea what it was about anymore!

Day 21 - Live free or die HARDER!

In celebration of the 4th of July thing (which obviously isn't celebrated here... nor is it a day of mourning tho... hmmm) went to see Die Hard 4.0 - just came out today so I was there for first showing! Good fun! Nice escapism to sit and watch things blow up in surround sound! Once I got home I launched fully into Community Property and spent a good 3-4 hours spidering the entire subject - think I get it a lot more now - well... got a vague understanding - not ENTIRELY happy with it. After this my finger began to hurt... to explain - for some reason I write/hold my pen in a slightly strange way resting the pen on my ring finger - this has caused issues in the past as too much fast writing can lead to bruising/swelling on that same finger. Hence today I only outlined 2 essays and flashcarded 4 others on Community property - really wanted to just write one out but I suspect that there may be a community property essay on that simulated exam on Friday so will leave it till then...

Maxed out now - gonna sit and watch a movie with a beer...

Day 20 - Half Way Point!

Well for me anyway - done 20 days and got approx another 20 days left until the exams and the fun begins! lol. Been crazy weather today - its JULY and for the last month or so we seem to just have had constant rain or thunderstorms like today. Today there was masses of thunder for most of the afternoon, extreme downpours of rain and of course lightning which often seeemed to make my lamp dim for a second. Despite the fun weather - I got on with Professional responsibility today - the last substantive subject for the exam - must say the lecturer and the lecture notes were WAY better than what barbri had last year under the NY course! So much clearer and managed to maintain interest for most of the lecture as opposed to the other guy who just seemed as bored as I was!

In response to the comments with regards community property, I have decided to give it another chance... tomorrow lol. SO tomorrow I will try the flashcarding/boiler points thing for the entire subject (probably AFTER going to see Die Hard 4 which i hear is GOOOOD! :)).

As for all else - from tomorrow I have caught up to paced planner... to some extent. But as I am probably not quite as 'reviewed up' as you would be under the PP I sorted out a different schedule that should take me right through to the exam if it works... it also includes doing an MPT on the plane to LA :-D lol - well gotta waste 14 hours - might as well do SOMETHING!

Day 19 - Community Property

What the hell?!?! Kinda assumed this would be a reasonably easy subject - completely wrong - had never seen anything really like this shit before and it's relatively specific to Cali. Hence an additional subject of substantive law of which I have absolutely zero reference to at all so completely new. Took me ages just to get through the lectures - so boring!! Lecturer seemed alright but the subject- AGH!

Kinda feel like one of those people at the circus or whatever where there are like 15 plates spinning on sticks around the place and I'm one having to run around and make sure each one keeps spinning and doesn't fall off! It's like that here - you spend a coupla days focusing in a few areas and suddenly start to panic cus some of the other plates are about to fall off and you have to get back to refresh them!

Btw - has anyone noticed that the final Harry Potter book comes out like 3 days before the exam? Sucks cus I'm REALLY gonna wanna jus read it and find out what happens in the end but unless somehow I know all the material by then (not gonna happen) I don't see how it will be possible until after exam and by then it's probably gonna have been revealed everywhere how it ends! Dammit! I know, I know - exam = more important but these ancillary factors are annoying!!

More work tomoro!!

Day 18 - E-Stop-el

Ok spent today doing Agency/Partnership - good shit - actually like the lectures that guy does and the lecture notes - really clear and concise unlike some people!

Did another MPT too - crazy - took ages and really didnt do the affidavit quite right - sat there doing it thinking 'Ok - he said that all you have to do is do whatever they describe you should do - you don't have to know anything about the DOCUMENTS' - of course i completely forgot the whole thing about how Affidavits are kinda the exception and you have mandatory first 2 sentences - doubt that affected anything too much but annoying anyway. All else I think I did ok on - just need to get more organised with it but hopefully will be ok - have done a grand total of TWO MPT's fully now - one more on Thursday and another one some other day and I might be ready?