Bar Review Support Group Forum

[chris0805]

I just wanted to start a thread about the horrendous process of studying for the bar. Is anyone else unreasonably afraid of failing? Where are people taking the bar? What courses are you taking, and how have things been going so far.

I'm taking the NY bar and taking the Pieper course. So far it seems like a good program, but it's a little harder than I thought it would be. There's an IMMENSE amount of material to learn and I (apparently) haven't gotten the hang of writing these kinds of essays yet.

[NewHere]

Checking in. A support group sounds like an excellent idea.

Taking the NY bar, studying with BarBri. I'm pleasantly surprised at how the program works, and some days I think it's not so bad and I might be able to pass this thing, but on other days I just panic, as it feels like there's too much material to ever know properly. Very afraid of failing.

[chris0805]

Checking in. A support group sounds like an excellent idea.

Taking the NY bar, studying with BarBri. I'm pleasantly surprised at how the program works, and some days I think it's not so bad and I might be able to pass this thing, but on other days I just panic, as it feels like there's too much material to ever know properly. Very afraid of failing.

The bolded is exactly how I feel.

You'd think coming from a school with a 97+% pass rate would quell our fears, but no lie, I went to bed at 11:30 and sat awake until 3 getting more and more certain that I was going to fail the bar until I finally fell asleep. It's getting ridiculous. I don't know how we're supposed to retain this much material and worthless minutiae. I'm hoping I'll feel better about it by the end of June.

[TTT-LS]

,

[NewHere]

It is working for me right now, but I had the same issue last week. After spending 50 minutes on the phone with a clueless BarBri rep, it turned out that it worked under Internet Explorer, but not under Firefox. The next day it was fine again under Firefox also. In the meantime I had done several rounds of logging in and out, deleting cookies, deleting cache, closing browser, and rebooting, so one of those things or a combination of them may have solved the problem, or it may have been a temporary glitch on BarBri's end.

In other words, I don't have good advice, but you could try to
1. delete cookies, delete cache, close your browser, and reboot your computer;
2. wait a day;
3. use IExplorer in the meantime, if it works, assuming you're using FF also.

[TTT-LS]

,

[RUQRU]

...

[NewHere]

What is barzam prep?

As for your second question, this is the bar review support group, so I don't think any of us know yet whether what we did turned out to be a good decision or not!

Back on topic: it seems there's only a handful of recent graduates on TLS. Almost everyone here is either a current or a future law student. I hope those of us here can keep this thread going, though.

I've gone a step up in panicking, as (a) Various things came up this week so that I couldn't get all the assignments done; and (b) With a new subject piled on every second day or so, it is starting to get crowded in my head and in my outline. With only Torts to memorize, I felt pretty much on top of things, but now, after Torts, Agency & Partnership, Contracts, Con Law, and NY Practice, things are getting a little shakier. And this is only about 30% into the course. I can't even imagine what it will be like at the end.

[NewHere]

For the BarBri people, if you go to the MBE Drills online today, do you get an option to switch to 'paced program mode'?
It seems that this button has disappeared for me, so now I don't know how to do it so as to get the right question set.

Edited to add: once again it appears to be a Firefox issue. It works under IExplorer.

[chris0805]

I've gone a step up in panicking, as (a) Various things came up this week so that I couldn't get all the assignments done; and (b) With a new subject piled on every second day or so, it is starting to get crowded in my head and in my outline. With only Torts to memorize, I felt pretty much on top of things, but now, after Torts, Agency & Partnership, Contracts, Con Law, and NY Practice, things are getting a little shakier. And this is only about 30% into the course. I can't even imagine what it will be like at the end.

I go through this AT LEAST once every two days. I got up at dawn yesterday and got in a surf before watching my lecture and got right back to work and felt fine for the first time in about a week. Something about getting in the ocean calmed me down I guess, I don't really know. But today, I'm back to OMGz! I'm going to fail the bar exam and get fired! Seeing how I really have no conceivable back-up plan, that's kind of a terrifying prospect.

From a logical standpoint, I think we'll be fine, but it can be tough to be logical about this stuff. I'm just throwing my trust into my course, doing extra PMBR MBE questions (or will be as soon as my book arrives in the mail), and hoping that what works for thousands of other people will work for me.

P.S. Does it ever stress you out to think that you could always be doing more work? I go to bed every night feeling like I should have studied more. It's ridiculous.

[NewHere]

P.S. Does it ever stress you out to think that you could always be doing more work? I go to bed every night feeling like I should have studied more. It's ridiculous.

Yes! All the time! And even if I do spend a lot of hours studying, I feel I have been going at it too slowly, and could have done more. Same as in law school really.

Actually, I think that's one reason why even a crazy-hours lawyer job could be less stressful (at least in some ways) than law school (or bar study). In school, there is always something you could be doing. When you're taking a walk, you could have been studying. When you're reading a non-law book, you could have been studying. I could go on. When you're working, it could be that you're working almost every night and almost every weekend. But if you do get a Saturday off, you really have the Saturday off and can do whatever you like. No need to feel like you should be doing something useful.

You're probably right that rationally we should be OK. It just doesn't make it any less scary, though, does it?

Good idea to go surfing. That kind of thing is probably helpful. I keep meaning to start taking early-morning yoga classes, but so far there has always been something else to do. (Like catching up on essays and MPTs. Argh.)

[Undead_Ed]

I am doing Colorado with PMBR Complete Online. Anyone else in this program? I really just got on here to compare notes about how many essays my peers were doing in each subject. I don't feel like I am doing enough... a feeling which seems to be the general consensus in this forum.

I worry a little about my sleep habits because I had been the worst night owl in my school (since that one guy graduated). I hear that there are certain times of the day that you think most clearly, and it is based on your sleep habits. Just another thing to throw on the top of trying to remember all this crap.

Edit: You say you need to "catch up" on essays and MPTs. This is a little surprising to me. How many are you required to do by your program?

[ggocat]

Checking in.

I'm doing PMBR/Kaplan complete online for Texas. Loving the Q-bank and seeing the chart move every week. I've been a little disappointed by the "ask an attorney" feature, but I can't complain overall.

How are y'all planning to memorize the law? I've got a bunch of friends going flash card crazy. I think I may try that; it's what I did the last time I had closed book exams (1L). I'm going to test out CueCard (http://download.cnet.com/CueCard/3000-2 ... 75304.html). Has anyone tried it?

[NewHere]

Edit: You say you need to "catch up" on essays and MPTs. This is a little surprising to me. How many are you required to do by your program?

The schedule is different for every day, but a daily assignment (aside from going to class, converting class notes into outlines, and/or reviewing substantive outlines) might be, e.g., 2 MPTs. Or three or four essays. Or two essays and a set of multiple choice questions.

If you look at it on a day-to-day basis, it's perfectly doable. What's hard, I find, is doing it consistently every single day. Things just happen, and before you know it you've missed an essay here and an MPT there, and you find yourself trying to catch up. And unfortunately the assignments are getting longer the further in the course we get.

How does it work with PMBR?

[Undead_Ed]

The schedule is different for every day, but a daily assignment (aside from going to class, converting class notes into outlines, and/or reviewing substantive outlines) might be, e.g., 2 MPTs. Or three or four essays. Or two essays and a set of multiple choice questions.
...
How does it work with PMBR?

The program is nearly the same for class. We are supposed to read the substantive outline the night before the lecture. After class, we compare our class notes with the substantive outlines instead of making outlines. We also do 33-50 MBE questions per night. Meanwhile, we are only required to do one essay at the end of a subject. That means one out of every three days for the MBE subjects, and one per day for non-MBE subjects. We also spend a fair amount of time in review. If you score poorly on a checkpoint quiz, the system gives you extra homework like more MBE questions and videos about the quiz you bombed. Which is pretty funny actually.

Our structure is likely so different because the MBE is 50% of our total score, while the essay subjects are 30%. You don't even need to know the law for the MPTs (20%).

[chris0805]

Bump to say I'm feeling pretty good about things today. I'm still completely overwhelmed at times, but making some flashcards and some improvement in my MBE questions has me more optimistic. MAYBE... just maybe things are coming together.

P.S. I'll feel completely different tomorrow.

[ggocat]

Kaplan/PMBR had me scheduled for 12.5 of work today (exclusive of breaks/pausing for extra work). This schedule was unreasonable, no?

[chris0805]

Yes... that's absurd, especially if you don't get tomorrow off or something. I'm pretty certain your brain can't retain that much information in a day. I think some of this stuff is just to say, see, you didn't do EVERYTHING so... if you fail, it's not our fault; you're just lazy.

[ggocat]

I think some of this stuff is just to say, see, you didn't do EVERYTHING so... if you fail, it's not our fault; you're just lazy.

I agree. Plus, I think completing every assignment is a condition of being able to retake the course for free. But some of the assignments are pretty lame--for example, multiple choice quizzes for essay-only subjects.

[PKSebben]

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[orangeswarm]

I'm starting to think I've been really slacking on bar prep. I assumed most of the after-class assignments (aside from doing MBE questions here and there) were a little overkill so I have been blowing most of them off (I assumed everyone was until reading some posts on here). I think I need to get my act together. How much time is everyone spending on after-class work/assignments?

[ggocat]

I'm starting to think I've been really slacking on bar prep. I assumed most of the after-class assignments (aside from doing MBE questions here and there) were a little overkill so I have been blowing most of them off (I assumed everyone was until reading some posts on here). I think I need to get my act together. How much time is everyone spending on after-class work/assignments?

If you think people are doing a lot here, you should read some posts on xoxo. People talking about running out of questions and essays already.

Most people probably put in way more work than necessary, though. I've known people who passed while they were working full time and barely studying. It can't be that hard.

So far, I'm just doing the "assigned" after-class work, and even then, I'm not always keeping up (see post above about being scheduled for 12.5 hours in one day). I'll finish class a few weeks before the bar, and I think I'll use that time almost exclusively for practicing essays and questions.

[Miniver]

...

[PKSebben]

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[ggocat]

I'm starting to think I've been really slacking on bar prep. I assumed most of the after-class assignments (aside from doing MBE questions here and there) were a little overkill so I have been blowing most of them off (I assumed everyone was until reading some posts on here). I think I need to get my act together. How much time is everyone spending on after-class work/assignments?

If you think people are doing a lot here, you should read some posts on xoxo. People talking about running out of questions and essays already.

Most people probably put in way more work than necessary, though. I've known people who passed while they were working full time and barely studying. It can't be that hard.

So far, I'm just doing the "assigned" after-class work, and even then, I'm not always keeping up (see post above about being scheduled for 12.5 hours in one day). I'll finish class a few weeks before the bar, and I think I'll use that time almost exclusively for practicing essays and questions.

You know those posts are flames, right? It's like a running joke on XOXO.

I was hoping so. But there are peeps at my school who are that intense. I would believe it from some of them.