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passx3

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by passx3 » Fri Sep 16, 2016 6:10 pm

Law&coffee wrote:
passx3 wrote:Donno if I passed yet, but Adaptibar was the bomb. Good explanations, easy and almost fun to use. I felt prepared for the MBE.

Took Kaplan as my primary source but I mostly used Adaptibar for practice questions... I think I did like 1,200 total Kaplan questions including practice exams and I did 1,505 AdaptiBar.

Note that I did feel the Adaptibar civ pro questions were terrible, so I only did like 20 and gave up on their Civ Pro. They were way too "hard" in my opinion, and they're not actual MBE questions. The percentage of users who tended to get their civ pro questions right was usually like 15%, as opposed to 60% or so for real MBE questions. In hindsight I should've just continued with them and probably would have learned a lot.
I had a mentor who used Kaplan for bar prep and he told me there were lots of errors (not only typos, but errors in the black letter law itself) in Kaplan's materials. I have always been reluctant to use Kaplan as a result.
There were errors, but nothing that would cause you to fail the exam. Just little discrepancies here or there. Kaplan is probably still the best prep course for MBE prep though. State materials, YMMV.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Neve » Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:05 pm

Barbri was excellent for state (Texas), but poor for MBE. That's why I turned to supplements to help me prep for the MBE.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by zoomzoom88 » Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:32 am

I thought adaptibar was excellent. Well priced and shows you how you rank against other test takers in your state. I would do about 40 a day.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by zoomzoom88 » Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:32 am

zoomzoom88 wrote:I thought adaptibar was excellent. Well priced and shows you how you rank against other test takers in your state. I would do about 40 a day.

I obviously mean this as in addition to a full bar prep course - not just on its own.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by doctoroflaw91 » Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:38 am

zoomzoom88 wrote:
zoomzoom88 wrote:I thought adaptibar was excellent. Well priced and shows you how you rank against other test takers in your state. I would do about 40 a day.

I obviously mean this as in addition to a full bar prep course - not just on its own.
I also used Adaptibar, and would start each day of bar study with 50 MBE questions. At first, I would target certain subjects, but by late June I was doing mixed sets. I found it to be incredibly helpful, so much so that I stopped using Barbri's written MBE questions. On test day, I felt pretty confident in my MBE, something that I largely attribute to Adaptibar.

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a male human

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by a male human » Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:30 pm

squiggle wrote:
JoeySkoko wrote:is there any utility getting BOTH adaptibar and emmanuel?

I already have emmanuel,and just weighing up cost / benefit? Is there big overlap in the questions?
I'm using both. I think there's some overlap as both use real questions, but Adaptibar has 1,700 questions (and great data regarding how you're doing on each subtopic, how you compare to those in your state, and your performance timing-wise). Emmanuel's has outlines and arguably better answer explanation, but it has less questions overall. Adaptibar has a free trial that you can do if you're curious but not totally sold. I also have a $50 Adaptibar discount, which I can send you if you PM your email address. Each has their benefit, and I'm finding both useful.
AdaptiBar is the ultimate go-to supplement for real MBE questions.

Emanuel is a great (and a must IMO) for getting started on your MBE studies. TBH, Emanuel Vol. 1 (and maybe 2) should be all you need. For $70 or less, you can work with about 600 questions, including a full 200Q practice test.

You might think, "B-but everyone else is doing thousands of questions! I don't want to fall behind!"

Friend, it's about quality over quantity. They could do 2000 questions and not study why they got the questions right or wrong. If that's the case, they might not as well have done that at all. It's more important to review each question thoroughly. Each question should be a LESSON or a VALIDATION.

Also, don't be afraid to redo questions to drive home the point. If you think you don't need to look at old questions again because you "get" it, you should be able to get 100% right the next time you go through the questions. You will not get 100%.

That said, you do need to get a broad coverage of the scope of what's tested. Emanuel does just that with an excellent curation of real questions from each MBE subject. And if you want even more questions to work with, analytics, fancy online PDFs, etc... get AdaptiBar for a premium experience at a premium price (PM me for $30 off). It is a great product that people swear by if you have the budget.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by sadday » Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:49 pm

I used Barbri and Adaptibar, ended up with a 157 on MBE.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by detonate » Thu Nov 03, 2016 4:59 pm

I will be retaking the NY bar. I took the July 2016 Bar with just Barbri.

So I have BarBri already. I'm going to get Emanual's book 5th edition and maybe the 6th edition. I'm going to sign up for Adaptibar.

Will anything else be helpful? Maybe Criticalpass?

What's good to learn BLL?
What's good to improve on essays?
Last edited by detonate on Thu Nov 03, 2016 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by a male human » Thu Nov 03, 2016 5:02 pm

detonate wrote:I will be retaking the NY bar. I took the July 2016 Bar with just Barbri.

So I have BarBri already. I'm going to get Emanual's book 5th edition and maybe the 6th edition. I'm going to sign up for Adaptibar.

Will anything else be helpful? Maybe Criticalpass?

What's good to learn BLL?
Just FYI, if you're going to get the 6th edition, you don't need the 5th edition

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by gerrod11 » Thu Nov 03, 2016 5:42 pm

a male human wrote:
detonate wrote:I will be retaking the NY bar. I took the July 2016 Bar with just Barbri.

So I have BarBri already. I'm going to get Emanual's book 5th edition and maybe the 6th edition. I'm going to sign up for Adaptibar.

Will anything else be helpful? Maybe Criticalpass?

What's good to learn BLL?
Just FYI, if you're going to get the 6th edition, you don't need the 5th edition
I liked the criticalpass flashcards, but essentially they are just the barbri outlines on notecards. I used Emanuel's to study for the MBE and found it outstanding. It did a great job of explaining the BBL and the examples/explanations were amazing.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by 3lephant » Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:36 pm

EvelynS wrote:Hey guys!

Would you recommend buying supplements in addition to a Barbri course in order to pass the MBE portion? I was looking at Adaptibar, Critical Pass MBE Flashcards, and Emanuel's Strategies and Tactics. Any thoughts?
That's up to you. But if you did well in your classes, imo there's not much reason to think you won't also pass whatever bar exam you're taking. As someone else said, you know what works best for you, and you should stick largely to how you studied during law school.

Here's what bar exam studying looked like for me:

I did not use any supplements, only completed ~25% of my Barbri course, and still passed NY & NJ by a wide margin (~50 points). What I did in the last 3 weeks of studying was more effective (for me) than anything I had done the previous month. I just created personal outlines from the CMR/class outlines for the major bar subjects, and kept reviewing until I felt comfortable with the practice MBE questions I was doing (of which I did maybe 600-700, including a half day and 2 full day tests). I read over the non-core subject outlines maybe once or twice (and then once again in 1.5 hrs the night before the exam). Besides doing a few of the graded essays and 1 MPT with Barbri, I focused exclusively on the MBE.

I was not trying to be the best at taking the bar, and I spent the first half of my summer largely easing into my study schedule. The last 3 weeks were pretty ramped up, but I work better on short, intense schedules.

But to give you some perspective, I took crim pro & conflict of laws just before graduation, and was already very comfortable with civ pro & corporations. That being said, I still don't know anything about either evidence or secured transactions. So you definitely don't need to be rock solid on every subject, merely competent in all and above average in a couple.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Law&coffee » Sat Nov 19, 2016 11:46 am

detonate wrote:I will be retaking the NY bar. I took the July 2016 Bar with just Barbri.

So I have BarBri already. I'm going to get Emanual's book 5th edition and maybe the 6th edition. I'm going to sign up for Adaptibar.

Will anything else be helpful? Maybe Criticalpass?

What's good to learn BLL?
What's good to improve on essays?
Critical Pass is good for learning the black letter law. There are discount codes in this thread for ordering this cards. However, Critical Pass is not a substitute for a bar course or for MBE drills. I think using a bar course with Adaptibar, Emanuel's, and Critical Pass will get you an improved MBE score.

As for the essays, that is a tough one to improve upon because Barbri's strength is essay prep. Be sure to do ALL the essay workshops and all practice essays Barbri assigns to you. In Texas, the State Bar posts sample essays online from actual bar takers. I found these very valuable in essay prep and studied the format of these essays (the CRAC method).

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Neve » Sun Nov 27, 2016 8:51 pm

detonate wrote:I will be retaking the NY bar. I took the July 2016 Bar with just Barbri.

So I have BarBri already. I'm going to get Emanual's book 5th edition and maybe the 6th edition. I'm going to sign up for Adaptibar.

Will anything else be helpful? Maybe Criticalpass?

What's good to learn BLL?
What's good to improve on essays?
Since you already know about the supplements for the MBE (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, and Emanuel's), I will focus on essay tips. First, the method. You should be formatting every essay the same way. Either CRAC or CIRAC. I prefer CRAC since the issue is obvious on most essay questions.

Second, you need to drill yourself on the black letter law and then practice practice practice the essays! Do it timed! I spent a solid 10 days going over BLL and doing practice essays on top of what Barbri assigned! It paid off and I scored high.

Third, once you do a timed practice essay, review the issue against a model for black letter law, format, rule application, and whether or not you came to the right conclusion. Often, there is only one right answer to an essay question BUT not always. There were some times where the bar graders would count as correct two different conclusions assuming they applied and argued the law well.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by supersonicfast » Sat Apr 08, 2017 7:18 pm

Could someone please send me their AdaptiBar code? Thank you.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Poets » Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:27 pm

I have a lot to say about this. I have no relations whatsoever with those supplements companies, not even friends.
I took Themis for the last February bar and didn't use any of supplements until the final week. I used a simpler version (leansheet) and wanted to use adiadaptor and others but didn't have time.

In a nutshell, I totally wasted my time going over the same contracts, real,property, conlaw etc by watching stupid videos. I am very dissatisfied with Themis(idk about other services) and won't take any of those (kaplan, barbri etc) again. I would rather directly do these supplements.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by MRSP » Sun Apr 09, 2017 7:19 am

Poets wrote:I have a lot to say about this. I have no relations whatsoever with those supplements companies, not even friends.
I took Themis for the last February bar and didn't use any of supplements until the final week. I used a simpler version (leansheet) and wanted to use adiadaptor and others but didn't have time.

In a nutshell, I totally wasted my time going over the same contracts, real,property, conlaw etc by watching stupid videos. I am very dissatisfied with Themis(idk about other services) and won't take any of those (kaplan, barbri etc) again. I would rather directly do these supplements.

Poets,

If you don't mind me asking, did you pass using those programs? Or what would you do differently this time around? I was debating purchasing Themis but your review is making me think twice. Should i just stick to using Adaptibar?

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Bimmerfan » Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:27 am

I exclusively used BarBri and completed 99% of the program for Feb 2017. Very dissatisfied. Wasted so much time watching the lectures and following their program and scheduled assignments blindly.

Will look to Adaptibar and self-studying for July.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Poets » Mon Apr 10, 2017 4:32 pm

MRSP wrote:
Poets,

If you don't mind me asking, did you pass using those programs? Or what would you do differently this time around? I was debating purchasing Themis but your review is making me think twice. Should i just stick to using Adaptibar?

The bar results haven't come out so I don't know. I would NOT listen to boring, useless lectures. I would rather use my 1st year law school outlines and update them with these supplements (because state laws are different). Then take a lot of tests. Practice is most important, not watching stupid lectures. You will have to outline all over again with different formats, different words (but same meaning), different lecturers, etc if you use these services. the problem is that it ain't that different from your 1st year outlines but you need waste tons of time watching lectures and outlining again. If you have sufficient time, you can go thru all this process. But 2 months is very short for 15-ish subjects. After watching these lectures, there is insufficient time to practice tests! (they only give you all blank lecture notes so that there is NO way you skip lectures to use materials unless you only rely on their lengthy, useless outlines. (as far as I know, no one looks at these outlines)

I guess the above poster (3lephant?) realized this before he/she took the bar and saved her/his ass. I just envy her/his courage and wisdom, for god sake.

This is NOT about Themis itself, but about bar prep services in general, although I only used Themis. If you still need a bar prep service, I would recommend going for the cheapest one (which is a common advice here if you are self-funded).

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by lawst_ » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:44 pm

I took Barbri twice, failed both times I used it. My MBE was pretty low both those times as a result.

I finally passed this time around and the main difference for me was using Ameribar and Adaptibar. Both use real bar questions, which are significantly different from Barbri's questions.

Seriously, I wouldn't even look at Barbri's MBE questions unless you completely run out of questions from Adaptibar.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by lawst_ » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:46 pm

Raiden wrote:You cannot go wrong with Adaptibar. Searching TLS you will find that Adaptibar has nothing but raging reviews from anyone that uses it. When I took the bar, I found the fact patterns on the actual bar to be similar to Adaptibar. Their mobile interface made it easy to answer many MBE questions without it feeling too taxing, helping with my MBE endurance on the actual exam. It's also nice how they change the questions you face according to your weaknesses. PM anyone who's taken Adaptibar for $50 off, feel free to PM me if you want the $50 discount.

I second this, especially the bolded portion. I think Adaptibar improved my timing on answer questions (previously, I ran out of time on the MBE portion) and I also definitely recognized multiple fact patterns from Adaptibar on the actual bar.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by melainaa » Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:04 pm

If anyone wants a $30 Adaptibar referral, PM me the email address you'll be using to sign up with them, and I'll send you the invitation through Adaptibar.
Note: Full disclosure, I get $30 for each referral.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Law&coffee » Tue Apr 18, 2017 1:39 am

lawst_ wrote:
Raiden wrote:You cannot go wrong with Adaptibar. Searching TLS you will find that Adaptibar has nothing but raging reviews from anyone that uses it. When I took the bar, I found the fact patterns on the actual bar to be similar to Adaptibar. Their mobile interface made it easy to answer many MBE questions without it feeling too taxing, helping with my MBE endurance on the actual exam. It's also nice how they change the questions you face according to your weaknesses. PM anyone who's taken Adaptibar for $50 off, feel free to PM me if you want the $50 discount.

I second this, especially the bolded portion. I think Adaptibar improved my timing on answer questions (previously, I ran out of time on the MBE portion) and I also definitely recognized multiple fact patterns from Adaptibar on the actual bar.
I passed the bar on my first time using Barbri & Critical Pass. I primarily used Barbri's simulated MBE questions, supposedly harder than "the real thing". Let me tell you, in the MBE day of the real exam, most felt like a lamb to the slaughter. The real MBE questions are nothing like the Barbri ones. If I were to go back in time, I would use Adaptibar in addition to Critical Pass & my bar course. The bar course is good for black letter and essay prep, but Adaptibar is needed to really conquer the MBE.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by Efoltys383 » Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:27 pm

Could someone please send me discount code for adaptibar ? Thank you!

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by GamecockEsq » Tue Apr 18, 2017 2:30 pm

I have an Emanuel's Strategies and Tactics for the MBE, 6th Edition, book that has never been used for anyone who is interested in purchasing it from me. On Amazon new, its $76. I'll sell it for $60 (minus the shipping cost). I also have the Critical Pass cards that were very gently used. Those run over $120, so I will sell mine for $30.

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Re: Do you need supplements (Adaptibar, Critical Pass, Emanuel)?

Post by ConfusedL1 » Tue Apr 18, 2017 8:20 pm

lawst_ wrote:I took Barbri twice, failed both times I used it. My MBE was pretty low both those times as a result.

I finally passed this time around and the main difference for me was using Ameribar and Adaptibar. Both use real bar questions, which are significantly different from Barbri's questions.

Seriously, I wouldn't even look at Barbri's MBE questions unless you completely run out of questions from Adaptibar.
Damn. What use is Barbri at all then?

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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