BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[old_soul]

149/200. 94th %ile. If anyone would like some info/tips on what I've been doing to study, etc. I would be happy to provide. I also feel like i got lucky on a lot of the questions though. I definitely had not been performing anywhere near getting 75% right on the MBE MPQ's or whatever they are called. Maybe its just becoming familiar with the particularities of BARBRI's tricky questions.

Yes, please elaborate.

[old_soul]

For those who have received 67%+ correct on Torts -- how did you study? This is my worst subject. Literally getting like 40% correct.

[jamescastle]

For those who have received 67%+ correct on Torts -- how did you study? This is my worst subject. Literally getting like 40% correct.

My lecturer for torts wasn't that great so I just went through the CMR and made my own outline.
It's helped me get down the stuff I was constantly fouling up like products liability and stuff.
I also made a full chart of all the torts with the elements of each and I think going through that (and seeing it all together) was helpful as well.

[corgibutts18]

Is anyone else feeling like the MBE review videos are worthless? I'm finding that they're confusing me more. I'm not sure if they're the best use of all those hours, or if I should just start going through the CMR again for every MBE subject...

[3|ink]

Is anyone else feeling like the MBE review videos are worthless? I'm finding that they're confusing me more. I'm not sure if they're the best use of all those hours, or if I should just start going through the CMR again for every MBE subject...

I haven't watched one. I just read the explanations in the book. It takes a lot less time and probably has the same effect.

[corgibutts18]

Is anyone else feeling like the MBE review videos are worthless? I'm finding that they're confusing me more. I'm not sure if they're the best use of all those hours, or if I should just start going through the CMR again for every MBE subject...

I haven't watched one. I just read the explanations in the book. It takes a lot less time and probably has the same effect.

Thanks! That's what I decided to do too. The explanations in the book are better anyways.

[old_soul]

My strategy for preparing for the essays -- work through all Barbri essays problems and memorize the rule statements from those prompts. Good or bad strategy? That should be a passing strategy at least?

[ohhoney]

Okay so I've only watched the evidence MBE analysis video, but it's honestly just kind of confusing and worthless. I'll give property a shot next, since another poster said it was useful, but y'all might be better off just reading the explanatory answers. Ugh, Barbri.

[RaleighStClair]

Okay so I've only watched the evidence MBE analysis video, but it's honestly just kind of confusing and worthless. I'll give property a shot next, since another poster said it was useful, but y'all might be better off just reading the explanatory answers. Ugh, Barbri.

All they do is read through the pre-printed answers. Unless you need them to stay on pace going through (for motivation or whatever), you're better off just going through them without the video. You can take more time on questions you need, focus on deeper issues they don't discuss, and skip explanations you don't need to hear.

[LawGuy321]

Curious as to why people are taking the MBE 200 questions this week instead of July 7...that's the one we're talking about right? I'm waiting until I get another week under my belt (then again, I'm a little behind -- haven't done ConLaw yet).

Are the people who are already taking the Simulated MBE just feeling really comfortable prior to going in? Have you done most of the Workshops/Diags/MPQs/homework yet?

As the poster above me stated, these individuals have already completed all substantive MBE topics. Out here in PA, ours is July 7th as well.

Oh, wow. Weird. I thought we are all on the same MBE schedule...here in NY I guess we did cover a few NY topics before finishing out the MBE topics (Agency, Mortgages, NY practice, and NY Professional Responsibility). But this helps -- thanks, folks!

Yeah, some states don't have any state-specific subjects at all, including mine. So my MBE schedule finished on Tuesday, and we technically covered 2 MEE topics during that as well. That left two days of normal assignments including diagnostic and practice sets before the test was scheduled on Friday.

As far as feeling comfortable, I didn't feel amazingly great, but I also didn't want to put in insane hours of review beforehand. I mainly went back to my very first MBE lecture topic and reviewed it once before sitting down for the test. My first one was Con Law, and I felt like that was the stuff I was most likely to have completely forgotten.

Thanks for your thoughts. What does MEE stand for?

[LawGuy321]

Okay so I've only watched the evidence MBE analysis video, but it's honestly just kind of confusing and worthless. I'll give property a shot next, since another poster said it was useful, but y'all might be better off just reading the explanatory answers. Ugh, Barbri.

All they do is read through the pre-printed answers. Unless you need them to stay on pace going through (for motivation or whatever), you're better off just going through them without the video. You can take more time on questions you need, focus on deeper issues they don't discuss, and skip explanations you don't need to hear.

How do the MBE analysis videos compare to the post-Workshops Analysis lectures? I've been doing the Workshops and then watching the videos as I follow the question answers, and I'm really liking them. So far, I've found them more helpful than the real lectures (also, if you haven't seen it, the CrimLaw one is particularly good and funny...the prof is great).

I haven't done Simulated yet, but I plan to do the analysis videos the same way I'm doing the workshop analysis lectures -- you obviously don't need every question, so even on 2X, you get a bit of a breather to write down/go through those areas of the topic you really need to know. So, e.g., if there are 3 questions on the CrimLaw that I got right and had no questions on, I read ahead to a question I missed or doubted and try to figure out exactly why I got it wrong/what i was missing. Then, it gets immediately reinforced when the lecture gets to that question. I'm enjoying the process!

[ebm3q]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I searched on TLS and could not find any mention of it. On the Barbri enrolled student center we have practice sets marked A & B for each subject and a skills drill, in addition to our assigned mixed sets. Does anyone know if these are additional practice questions (the Sets A & B, I mean)? They don't seem to be exact replicas of any of the MPQ book sets, but as they haven't been on our PSP, I wanted to see if anyone had used these yet.

[kmp127]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

[BVest]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Bear in mind the extent to which some subjects (especially the crossovers) are tested and allot them an appropriately small amount of time. (e.g. the Tax prof calculated that Tax would, on average, make up 1.4% of the bar exam).

[kmp127]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Bear in mind the extent to which some subjects (especially the crossovers) are tested and allot them an appropriately small amount of time. (e.g. the Tax prof calculated that Tax would, on average, make up 1.4% of the bar exam).

Totally aware - but the few crossover topics still present entire subjects you need to review and understand, at the very least, to even have a chance at guessing and getting it right when it does show up. Yes, I skipped Tax altogether bc it's a small percentage, but not knowing what part of that giant topic is tested leaves me pretty much taking a voluntary 0 if I choose not to spend much time on it... and that doesn't sit well.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Don't worry some subjects are not that important. In NY the lecture for Agency and Partnership is one lecture combined and the outline (large print many hypos) is 19 pages total.

[mushybrain]

For whatever it's worth to anyone who hasn't watched yet, I'm finding the the Simulated MBE analysis videos by Professor Guzman to be a lot more informative than the ones by Shonholtz after having watched two by each.

Guzman seems to spend more time identifying the "sucker" answers, pointing out "always wrong" options, etc. He talks really slowly but sounds fine sped up, other than all the throat clearing. Shonholtz isn't bad or anything but I don't really feel like there's anything to his lectures beyond what's written in the explanatory answers and his voice kills me on higher speeds. I'm planning to skip the last couple Shonholtz ones and just watch Guzman's Crim/Crim Pro video today.

Just thought I'd share because I know I'm always in here asking stuff to get a sense of what I can skip.

[kykiske]

149/200. 94th %ile. If anyone would like some info/tips on what I've been doing to study, etc. I would be happy to provide. I also feel like i got lucky on a lot of the questions though. I definitely had not been performing anywhere near getting 75% right on the MBE MPQ's or whatever they are called. Maybe its just becoming familiar with the particularities of BARBRI's tricky questions.

If you could explain your strategy, that would be great. Need to pick up about 15 raw points to better position myself on the MBE.

Thank you!

[myrtlewinston]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Torts is fairly straightforward. You've completed 2 bars. You can do this.

[kmp127]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Torts is fairly straightforward. You've completed 2 bars. You can do this.

Awe thanks... but I feel like having taken them 8 years ago right out of law school is hurting me this time around bc I seriously don't remember anything and am tormented when I see a subject I knew so well before, but is a foreign language to me now.

sorry, I know this isn't for venting, so I'll stop now.

[LawGuy321]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Don't worry some subjects are not that important. In NY the lecture for Agency and Partnership is one lecture combined and the outline (large print many hypos) is 19 pages total.

Yeah, but the hard part is that these aren't just multiple choice questions that you can sacrifice...if the NY test has an essay on Agency and Partnership, Domestic Relations, and Trusts...then you're screwed if you brushed them off, yeah?

I mean, I'm looking the frequency a topic is brought up in an essay, and almost no subject is "rare" as far as I can tell from teh 15-20 state topics in NY. Can't speak for TX... Any clarifications/rebuttals welcomed (hope I'm wrong!)

[5ky]

STILL getting through the lectures, haven't even had Torts yet, so have no confidence to do a practice MBE ... heck haven't had time to breathe yet! TEXAS and your STUPID 25 different subjects tested... how is it possible to grasp info for it all!?!?

Don't worry some subjects are not that important. In NY the lecture for Agency and Partnership is one lecture combined and the outline (large print many hypos) is 19 pages total.

Yeah, but the hard part is that these aren't just multiple choice questions that you can sacrifice...if the NY test has an essay on Agency and Partnership, Domestic Relations, and Trusts...then you're screwed if you brushed them off, yeah?

I mean, I'm looking the frequency a topic is brought up in an essay, and almost no subject is "rare" as far as I can tell from teh 15-20 state topics in NY. Can't speak for TX... Any clarifications/rebuttals welcomed (hope I'm wrong!)

NY Practice, Wills, Trusts, Domestic Relations, Corporations and PR are the big six. I learned those cold. The others are just not as important, e.g. commercial paper, secured transactions, conflict of laws and so forth.

[LawGuy321]

Thanks! I'm starring those on my TO DO list... hey my icon is a star, too. It's a star-filled day. #1up

[jas31]

Does anyone know how to judge our scores on the MIXED subject set 1? I put my score in (74 %) but it didn't tell me anything else or log my score on the thing that tracks your weekly progress. Thanks.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

NY Practice, Wills, Trusts, Domestic Relations, Corporations and PR are the big six. I learned those cold. The others are just not as important, e.g. commercial paper, secured transactions, conflict of laws and so forth.

Do you mean among the NY only subjects or overall? Because it seems like PR and NY Practice (maybe others also) are often used in conjunction with subjects like Torts or Crim. Law/Crim. Procedure.