Studying for the bar using books from an old Barbri course Forum

[HETPE3B]

Taking the bar in July 2013. As an alternative to taking an online course, I am considering using a set of books that a friend of mine used to study for the bar this past summer. The books are labeled 2012-2013, fwiw. I understand that I will not have access to online lectures, but do I really need them? What are some other significant drawbacks?

Curious to hear opinions of those who took the Barbri prep course. Any other advice welcome.

[NotMyRealName09]

The lecutres ARE what's important. The most important things for Barbri are, in roughly decending order: (1) Lectures and the accompanying fill-in outlines, (2) the Convisor mini-outline, (3) the multiple choice questions, and (4) being able to enter your MC answers online for analysis of your strengths and weaknesses.

Even just reading over someone else's already filled in lecture outline just isn't going to be as effective as if you filled them in yourself.

Good luck, I know BarBri is expensive, but you got this far, why cheap out at the very end?

[I.P. Daly]

I think it depends on your learning style. I thought the bar lectures/fill in notes were almost worthless. They were long and dry and sometimes difficult to absorb.

Reading over the canned outlines and doing practice MC questions and essays is where I thought I learned the most.

Will you have access to essays and MC questions?

[941law]

can you get registered for the lectures but not purchase new books? I'm in the same boat.

[timbs4339]

I did this with various Barbri and Kaplan books from 2007-2011. Paid $0 for my bar prep. Will let you know how it went in about a month.

It really depends on which bar you are taking. For New York, a friend let me borrow a prepared commercial outline with about 100 rule statements that had been on each previous exam. There was not a single issue on the essay portion that was not on that outline. Had I read it through each night during the study period, I would have known all I needed by heart. NY essays do not usually turn on very odd points of law.

However, had I not had the CMR (New York subject outlines from Barbri) I might not have been able to answer a single New York MC question, as they all turned on fine points of procedure.

For the MBE (200 question multiple choice exam), you really need the full Barbri outlines and practice questions. Then you just need to do practice questions until your eyes bleed. Do 2000 (look up all your answers) and you should pass. There are some online question banks that you can buy separately from the courses- I would recommend those.

If you've written a legal memo, you can do the MPT. That's a relatively small portion of the exam, but can make up for one shitty essay. You don't need to study for it.

[XxSpyKEx]

The lecutres ARE what's important. The most important things for Barbri are, in roughly decending order: (1) Lectures and the accompanying fill-in outlines, (2) the Convisor mini-outline, (3) the multiple choice questions, and (4) being able to enter your MC answers online for analysis of your strengths and weaknesses.

Even just reading over someone else's already filled in lecture outline just isn't going to be as effective as if you filled them in yourself.

Good luck, I know BarBri is expensive, but you got this far, why cheap out at the very end?

Are you a BarBri rep? Because you should be.

The BarBri lectures are worthless. They are pre-recorded, and look like they were recorded in the early 90s. They so fucking boring and long too. A complete waste of time. And for most of them, it will basically be the lecturer reading the same crap in the lecture hand-outs. If you can get a set of filled-in lecture outlines, that's just as good and will save you a lot of pain. Under no circumstances pay $4,000 (or whatever it is) for BarBri. It is a complete rip-off.