California Bar Exam (February 2014) thread Forum

[EZ as AsDf]

Am I too early?

If you're re-taking, you can now submit an application for the California Bar Exam at https://www.calbarxap.com/applications/ ... _Bar_Exam/.

Aren't you all excited? We can use this thread to share information, questions, etc.

[a male human]

Thanks for getting the new topic started. I don't plan on forking over more $ to the Calbar until December.

Current plan:
- Wait for score report and see where I missed. One thing I shouldn't have done the first time is spend 6+ hours a day trying to get down everything the lecturer said on my notes. Lectures are for suckers (like in law school) (depending on your learning style).
- Assume (for now) I need less time or equal time to get to the level I need to pass since I already took in the material over the summer and should be familiar with a lot of it. Already got outlines and shit that I hand tailored. Probably will drill away on doing practice sets (hopefully I don't need more help in essays because that's what I did almost all of the last 2 weeks before the July Bar)
- Consider the above factors to decide whether to purchase supplemental help.

[DwightSchruteFarms]

Checking in here unfortunately

[AntiHuman]

Posted this in another thread, but got my scores back today and got an 80 on an essay I thought I bombed and 2 55's on essays I thought i did very well. I'm really confused at this point. I wasn't even close to 1440 either. MBEs were mediocre too.

Come from a good school, but near bottom of the class. I took Barbri and don't know what different I can do.

I can throw down for a private tutor(along with following Barbri's paced program again). Anyone know if its worth it if I have the cash and where I can find a good one in the Bay?

Also, I feel I need a lot more time to study this time around. Anyone know if I can start the Dec 9th course offered by some schools(check barbri website for class schedules and some start Dec 9th). The rest tend to start Jan 2nd.

[a male human]

Posted this in another thread, but got my scores back today and got an 80 on an essay I thought I bombed and 2 55's on essays I thought i did very well. I'm really confused at this point. I wasn't even close to 1440 either. MBEs were mediocre too.

Come from a good school, but near bottom of the class. I took Barbri and don't know what different I can do.

I can throw down for a private tutor(along with following Barbri's paced program again). Anyone know if its worth it if I have the cash and where I can find a good one in the Bay?

Also, I feel I need a lot more time to study this time around. Anyone know if I can start the Dec 9th course offered by some schools(check barbri website for class schedules and some start Dec 9th). The rest tend to start Jan 2nd.

I won't be able to check my mail until later tonight, but I am considering a tutor depending on where I most need help. I'm acquainted with one of the academic department people at my school who is or used to be a bar tutor. I plan to ask him as I shop around for a tutor. If you're interested, I can ask if he'd be interested in tutoring you or referring you (and/or me for a group price or whatever if I decide to). He is in the SF area.

[jack919]

Not too early at all. If anyone has any essay topic predictions, now would be a good time to post them.

[worldtraveler]

Joining this thread. Failed by around 5 points. FML.

I'm most annoyed that this is going to cost me a ton of extra money and I have to pay for it myself.

[a male human]

I still haven't received my score report. I assume these are sent from LA? I live in NorCal, so hopefully that's why and not because they think I didn't even take the test.

[worldtraveler]

I still haven't received my score report. I assume these are sent from LA? I live in NorCal, so hopefully that's why and not because they think I didn't even take the test.

Mine came to SF today. May depend on where in Nor Cal you are there.

[a male human]

I still haven't received my score report. I assume these are sent from LA? I live in NorCal, so hopefully that's why and not because they think I didn't even take the test.

Mine came to SF today. May depend on where in Nor Cal you are there.

I'm in the San Jose area. I'd better get it tomorrow.

[a male human]

WTF? I just checked my mail, and I still don't have anything from calbar. Did I really take the exam?
Just got it this morning. 1338 written, 1423 MBE. Killed on PTs. Not sure if I should even retake this shit again.

[MURPH]

Joining this thread. Failed by around 5 points. FML.

I'm most annoyed that this is going to cost me a ton of extra money and I have to pay for it myself.

Hahaha. That is what I was going to write.
1435. Dammit. How could I have come so close and blown it? I am taking a Mavis Beacon typing class. I know I could squeeze out a few more points if I could just write another 200 words per essay or 400 on the PTs.

I also stopped doing MBEs in mid summer because I was behind on studying for the other subjects and I was doing very well on the MBEs. Big mistake. I will do MBEs during the whole time this round.
Aargh, but the money. I just paid off my credit cards from the summer. Now I've got to spend hundreds or thousands on this again. They aren't even having a test in West La. I have to get a hotel in Pasadena for this test.

[worldtraveler]

Joining this thread. Failed by around 5 points. FML.

I'm most annoyed that this is going to cost me a ton of extra money and I have to pay for it myself.

Hahaha. That is what I was going to write.
1435. Dammit. How could I have come so close and blown it? I am taking a Mavis Beacon typing class. I know I could squeeze out a few more points if I could just write another 200 words per essay or 400 on the PTs.

I also stopped doing MBEs in mid summer because I was behind on studying for the other subjects and I was doing very well on the MBEs. Big mistake. I will do MBEs during the whole time this round.
Aargh, but the money. I just paid off my credit cards from the summer. Now I've got to spend hundreds or thousands on this again. They aren't even having a test in West La. I have to get a hotel in Pasadena for this test.

I had one low PT score that blew it. I hard a really hard time understanding the first PT and had a shitty answer. Everything else was fine, so that was what did it. Argh.

[zeth006]

+1 It's gonna be a long 2-3 months.

[DwightSchruteFarms]

Does anyone know any good Bar Exam tutors in the LA area? Everyone I contact off google creeps me the hell out and tries to get me to sign up right on the spot. ANy referrals would be greatly appreciated

[Max Cady]

Count me in for this bitch.

[EZ as AsDf]

Funny reading all your posts. The Holidays just wont be the same.

I took BarBri the first time and I'll be repeating the course. They want me to pay another 250 as deposit plus 25 shipping. fuck that. Anyone know a way around this? Called the regional office and they told me they were using a new set of books. Lyin.

BarBri is also doing a 3-hour review online on Dec. 6th.

Well, I look forward to hearing what you guys are doing differently this time around.

[Emma.]

Thought I'd be in this boat with y'all (sorry, BTW) so kept all my Barbri materials. Thought I'd offer them here before they go up on eBay. Not really sure what a fair price would be, but it would probably make the most sense for someone in SF in order to avoid shipping costs.

[GMVarun]

I took BarBri the first time and I'll be repeating the course. They want me to pay another 250 as deposit plus 25 shipping. fuck that. Anyone know a way around this? Called the regional office and they told me they were using a new set of books. Lyin.

I looked into that when I was deciding whether to send the books back in August. Even though you have to pay the $250 plus shipping, it's just a deposit again, right? I know I would be pissed to give Barbri any more money too. But if it's just a deposit that you get back, it may be worth paying the $25 shipping again. I doubt anyone will sell you the complete set of books for $25 (and you will ultimately get back the $250).

ETA: I guess it will be around $50 because you will have to ship it back to them as well. Maybe you can buy it off someone for $50.

[a male human]

Dang, Kaplan is giving me replacement books for free, no shipping, no deposit.

[EZ as AsDf]

yea man, it cost me about 50 bucks to send them back. +25. this will be my second time, shit. So 150 right there. I don't need more books, I just need to bypass the screen (on Barbri website) that requires me to "deposit" 250 and pay 25 before re-enrolling.

Is there anyway to avoid having to pay the BarBri book deposit again? Are any of you re-enrolling into the BarBri course?

[zeth006]

yea man, it cost me about 50 bucks to send them back. +25. this will be my second time, shit. So 150 right there. I don't need more books, I just need to bypass the screen (on Barbri website) that requires me to "deposit" 250 and pay 25 before re-enrolling.

Is there anyway to avoid having to pay the BarBri book deposit again? Are any of you re-enrolling into the BarBri course?

I called and was told nope, you're required to buy the new books. Sell your old ones.

[AMCD]

Yes, it's crappy alright. It ends up being $150 out of pocket for two sets of books as there are Barbri's two $25 fees and then $100 to return the books twice. I have not ordered them yet, as I have not decided what I need, or if I will use them at all. I mean I have all the outlines down to very short formats, and found the MBE prep. to not have worked for me at all, obviously an not going to listen to the lectures over, and the amp was worse than useless to me. Am thinking of Adaptibar and then if no great improvement, consider Barbri first of January just to get the books of MBE questions even though I did both books last time around. Just not sure what one needs from them at this stage???

[A. Nony Mouse]

Is there no Barbri office local to you? We could return the books in person, at least, which saved the postage.

[alaskaman]

Does anyone recommend a private tutor? I tried googling, and it's really hard to get a good read on who's the right person. A lot of them have tons of spam reviews online and it's hard to get a read on if they are actually worth it. I'm willing to spend whatever amount since my job is on the line, but I don't want to follow someone's regiment and find out later that I wasted my time perfecting some essay technique that isn't that useful. .

I was below passing on all three sections, so I could use improvement on everything. I've heard adapitbar and PMBRE are good too, and I've already signed up for the Barbri retake, but I dont want to overwhelm myself with too many materials pulling me in different directions, which is something I think happened last time. If anyone has honest assessments (good and bad) of John Holtz, Steve Zikman, John Crossfield or any of these other guys, that'd be helpful