BarBri Thread: People taking Barbri for July 2013 exam Forum

[BaiAilian2013]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

[dudders]

What scale does NY grade essays on? This is giving me anxiety because CO grades on a 1-6 scale ...

1 - 10, and Barbri says to aim for a "4.5 so they round up to a 5"

Phew. I think months ago they told us to aim for 4s (out of 6) but I don't really remember anymore ...

[get it to x]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

I did this and did most memorization/studying up front and pushed the essays and a moderate amount of MBE questions to the end of the course. I never took a practice exam in law school w/o studying the material beforehand.

[Myself]

.

[remz]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

I did this and did most memorization/studying up front and pushed the essays and a moderate amount of MBE questions to the end of the course. I never took a practice exam in law school w/o studying the material beforehand.

get it to the x, did you pass? It sounds like you took the bar last year.

[get it to x]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

I did this and did most memorization/studying up front and pushed the essays and a moderate amount of MBE questions to the end of the course. I never took a practice exam in law school w/o studying the material beforehand.

get it to the x, did you pass? It sounds like you took the bar last year.

Whoops, late night studying impacted my grammar. I'm taking that approach now. My wife did the same last year and passed with flying colors.

[BaiAilian2013]

I did this and did most memorization/studying up front and pushed the essays and a moderate amount of MBE questions to the end of the course. I never took a practice exam in law school w/o studying the material beforehand.

You are fine. Stick with what you know and what works for you. Anecdote: 1L year, I tried doing all these different things people told me law students just HAD to do. I casebriefed each case, highlighting and writing out the facts, holding, etc. Maybe for some people it worked, but I realized it was a waste of time and taking away from how I really learned. After I just settled down and used the strategies that I had used throughout high school and college (the strategies that were comfortable for me) I did a lot better. So take that for what it's worth and may your guilt be assuaged.

Thanks guys. This is a much-needed sanity check.

[traehekat]

Anyone taking Illinois bar? I remember them saying that Federal Taxation is never tested, is this right?

[goodolgil]

Just got the simulated MBE breakdown. Somehow managed to finish in the 2nd percentile for Duty of Care questions. Guess that's an area to work on...

[rnf1292]

Has anyone done the MPQ2 half day exam (first thing in the book)?

I thought it was extremely tricky and am not happy with my score. As if I wasn't already freaking out enough I thought I had heard others on here saying the MPQ2 was supposed to be easier..

the MBE simulated final exam in barbri's MPQ2 is an outrageous flame... i thought we were done with this super-hard material we've never learned crap... after consistently hitting 80% on the mpq2's i scored a clean 51% on the this today. they say the goal is 60 so i'm below. yet again, more barbri scare tactics. very annoying that they assume nobody wants to study for this thing. would rather they taught us the frequently tested tricks in a non-sociopathic way.

The SFE (Simulated Final Exam) at the end of MPQ2. Haven't done the simulated 200q MBE at the beginning (unless that's the barbri simulated midterm we took a few weeks ago, but I think that is somewhere else). The SFE is insanely hard... it is 100 questions all on the level of set 5s/6s or even harder. A bunch of exceptions to the exceptions that they haven't taught us. Would be nice to just get a lecture on "advanced tricks" and then a quiz instead of nothing, and then a quiz on this crap in mid-July.[/quote][/quote]

Sorry to be confusing- I originally posted this about the MPQ2 exam being difficult, but I was referring to the very first exam in the front of the book called the half day practice exam. I haven't done the SFE at the end.

I doubt I will have time to do all of these. They are also extremely draining. Thinking of cutting out the SFE since you mentioned it was ridiculous and just focusing on the MPQ2 mixed subject sets.

[remz]

Just got back my simulated MBE score and I did terrible. I need to watch the Simulated MBE review videos. However, I noticed that you can either watch the videos by subject or by individual question. I also noticed that the subject videos are taught by one professor while the individual question videos are taught by someone else. For those of you who have watched the videos, is one professor better than the other? Thanks

[kaiser]

Just got back my simulated MBE score and I did terrible. I need to watch the Simulated MBE review videos. However, I noticed that you can either watch the videos by subject or by individual question. I also noticed that the subject videos are taught by one professor while the individual question videos are taught by someone else. For those of you who have watched the videos, is one professor better than the other? Thanks

I watched a bit of the subject-specific videos for my worst subjects. It is much more in depth, and discusses tricks and tips for how the the subject can be tested. If you are weak in a specific area, I'd watch the subject video. The 200 question videos are all very brief, and don't really convey much more than the written explanation does. He tells you what the trick of the question was, and how it could have been answered correctly. But its not like it helps create a framework for approaching the subject.

For your good subjects, I'd just watch the question videos to fill in the holes. But if you are like me and suck at one particular area (mine is property), I'd watch the video since he lays out pretty clearly how certain things are tested and what to look for.

[Headybrah]

Anyone else do the simulated MBE Monday but still not have a score back?

[remz]

Just got back my simulated MBE score and I did terrible. I need to watch the Simulated MBE review videos. However, I noticed that you can either watch the videos by subject or by individual question. I also noticed that the subject videos are taught by one professor while the individual question videos are taught by someone else. For those of you who have watched the videos, is one professor better than the other? Thanks

I watched a bit of the subject-specific videos for my worst subjects. It is much more in depth, and discusses tricks and tips for how the the subject can be tested. If you are weak in a specific area, I'd watch the subject video. The 200 question videos are all very brief, and don't really convey much more than the written explanation does. He tells you what the trick of the question was, and how it could have been answered correctly. But its not like it helps create a framework for approaching the subject.

For your good subjects, I'd just watch the question videos to fill in the holes. But if you are like me and suck at one particular area (mine is property), I'd watch the video since he lays out pretty clearly how certain things are tested and what to look for.

Great, thank you so much for the info.

[1L1284]

Did anyone find MPQ2 Mixed Subject Set 4 surprisingly easy? I have not been doing too well on any of the BarBri MBE sets (barely hitting the goals or below) and I did really well on this set. Not sure if I'm improving of this was just a false sense of confidence.

[DwightSchruteFarms]

Did anyone find MPQ2 Mixed Subject Set 4 surprisingly easy? I have not been doing too well on any of the BarBri MBE sets (barely hitting the goals or below) and I did really well on this set. Not sure if I'm improving of this was just a false sense of confidence.

Ya, I did. I have been scoring around the mid to high 70's and on this one, I hit the 80's

[dudders]

Did anyone find MPQ2 Mixed Subject Set 4 surprisingly easy? I have not been doing too well on any of the BarBri MBE sets (barely hitting the goals or below) and I did really well on this set. Not sure if I'm improving of this was just a false sense of confidence.

Ya, I did. I have been scoring around the mid to high 70's and on this one, I hit the 80's

I found it easier than normal too. I'd been at or above 35 on all the mixed sets I've taken, but this one was my highest yet.

[blong4133]

Did anyone find MPQ2 Mixed Subject Set 4 surprisingly easy? I have not been doing too well on any of the BarBri MBE sets (barely hitting the goals or below) and I did really well on this set. Not sure if I'm improving of this was just a false sense of confidence.

I think I pulled a 45 out of 50 on that one. Been hitting around 70 - 80% on all other mixed sets (except I got a 63 on set 9 which was the benchmark, and pulled a 55% on the half day practice exam...which has me slightly freaked out)

In regards to the half day exam, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of the MBE stuff based off of my scores on the Mixed sets. But when I did that one I immediately went back into freak out mode. Then I couldn't even really spend time studying the stuff I was screwing up because we had a new lecture for essay subjects every damn day this week. Now I'm supposed to start reviewing and memorizing tomorrow. I'm kind of ticked the way Barbri had this organized. I should have just said to hell with it and just covered the stuff earlier. But now I have about 5 essay subjects that I barely know, and no time to study them except for the 1 day that barbri has allotted for them.

I'm just frustrated and pissed off. I just want to pass this damn thing, and Barbri seems to just be doing stuff to try and feed the paranoia.

But I will say, that I'm glad that I made the plunge and took secured transaction and commercial paper first semester of 3L. I would be in absolute meltdown mode if I had just covered that stuff for the first time in the bar prep course.

[5ky]

If you were in NY, you'd have new subject lectures all the way until next Friday, which is really swell. just lol at my life

[blong4133]

If you were in NY, you'd have new subject lectures all the way until next Friday, which is really swell. just lol at my life

That sucks man. How many essay subjects does NY have?

I'm taking it in WV and we just have all the MEE essay subjects. (so what...like 16 possible topics including the MBE stuff?)

[khorshid]

Hi All,

Sorry I have no idea how to use forums. So I might be posting incorrectly.

Anyway, I am curious does anyone know if Barbri provides just the plain rules for Evidence? and if so, where? The CMR is confusing and all over the place.

I just want to read the rules. But I also only want to cover the rules barbri covers. I was planning on just using my Mendez evidence rule book and sift out the main ones barbri covers and ignore the ones they do not - but that would be too time consuming.

So, I'm wondering do they just provide the plain rules the cover anywhere?

If anyone knows that would be great! Thanks.

[DwightSchruteFarms]

Did anyone find MPQ2 Mixed Subject Set 4 surprisingly easy? I have not been doing too well on any of the BarBri MBE sets (barely hitting the goals or below) and I did really well on this set. Not sure if I'm improving of this was just a false sense of confidence.

I think I pulled a 45 out of 50 on that one. Been hitting around 70 - 80% on all other mixed sets (except I got a 63 on set 9 which was the benchmark, and pulled a 55% on the half day practice exam...which has me slightly freaked out)

In regards to the half day exam, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of the MBE stuff based off of my scores on the Mixed sets. But when I did that one I immediately went back into freak out mode. Then I couldn't even really spend time studying the stuff I was screwing up because we had a new lecture for essay subjects every damn day this week. Now I'm supposed to start reviewing and memorizing tomorrow. I'm kind of ticked the way Barbri had this organized. I should have just said to hell with it and just covered the stuff earlier. But now I have about 5 essay subjects that I barely know, and no time to study them except for the 1 day that barbri has allotted for them.

I'm just frustrated and pissed off. I just want to pass this damn thing, and Barbri seems to just be doing stuff to try and feed the paranoia.

But I will say, that I'm glad that I made the plunge and took secured transaction and commercial paper first semester of 3L. I would be in absolute meltdown mode if I had just covered that stuff for the first time in the bar prep course.

Don't worry bro. You've crushed the goals on basically every test. Don't let one half day exam that tests on exceptions of the exceptions get you down. If it helps, I've been scoring in the mid 70s, hit the 80s on Set 4 and got smashed on the Halfday w a 59. Just learn from your mistakes. That's all you can do

[Mroberts3]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

I feel the same way. Consider your guilt assuaged.

My logic goes like this: in law school, practice exams are crucial because everything is so class/professor specific and you don't know what you are doing yet. You need to practice and get used to what it is all about for each class. In addition, the focus was on nuance and sophisticated/creative analysis with the law.

Now, however, it is mostly review and the exam format/analysis is very straightforward. There are usually about 3-6 main issues in any given essay with fairly cut and dry analysis. Knowing the rules cold will make these issues easy to spot and analyze. In other words, the essays will generally fall into place once you know the law.

My plan in the last few weeks is mostly to read the CMR and then briefly outlining recent exam questions and then look at the model answers. Bought a baressays.com subscription that was worth every penny just to see what a 55 is compared to a 65 (CA scoring). Most 55 essays are like "ok you got 2 of 4 main issues and then just threw 5 pages of irrelevant garbage against the wall," so that makes me feel better.

[Djemba Djemba]

Barbri assigns a lot of essays to write/outline. But they also say to go based on what methods worked for you in law school. What worked for me in law school was focusing on the actual material and NOT doing a million practice tests. Once familiar with the bar essay format, I don't think I'm getting a lot out of practicing them, and also there are literally not enough hours in the day. Therefore, it should be fine that I have straight-up skipped like 80% of the essays, if it's in the service of learning things instead. RIGHT? Someone assuage my guilt. I am passing the graded ones FWIW. Barbri is just totally psyching me out.

I feel the same way. Consider your guilt assuaged.

My logic goes like this: in law school, practice exams are crucial because everything is so class/professor specific and you don't know what you are doing yet. You need to practice and get used to what it is all about for each class. In addition, the focus was on nuance and sophisticated/creative analysis with the law.

Now, however, it is mostly review and the exam format/analysis is very straightforward. There are usually about 3-6 main issues in any given essay with fairly cut and dry analysis. Knowing the rules cold will make these issues easy to spot and analyze. In other words, the essays will generally fall into place once you know the law.

My plan in the last few weeks is mostly to read the CMR and then briefly outlining recent exam questions and then look at the model answers. Bought a baressays.com subscription that was worth every penny just to see what a 55 is compared to a 65 (CA scoring). Most 55 essays are like "ok you got 2 of 4 main issues and then just threw 5 pages of irrelevant garbage against the wall," so that makes me feel better.

How do 65s compare with the barbri answers?

[Joe Quincy]

Hi All,

Sorry I have no idea how to use forums. So I might be posting incorrectly.

Anyway, I am curious does anyone know if Barbri provides just the plain rules for Evidence? and if so, where? The CMR is confusing and all over the place.

I just want to read the rules. But I also only want to cover the rules barbri covers. I was planning on just using my Mendez evidence rule book and sift out the main ones barbri covers and ignore the ones they do not - but that would be too time consuming.

So, I'm wondering do they just provide the plain rules the cover anywhere?

If anyone knows that would be great! Thanks.

They cover basically all of the ones you'd expect them to cover (almost all of them) so just look them up online. There are a few in the 100s they didn't cover I believe. Otherwise, I'm not sure what was left out.

But the reason they don't just provide the rules is because they all interact with each other and produce results you may not expect. That's why they cover them practically. It takes a pretty heavy familiarization with the rules to figure out the interactions and why one rule means evidence under another is limited to opinion or reputation, etc.