BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[Ineedhelpplease]

I am really considering spending the money on Adaptibar... spending 2 or 3 days condensing my outlines... and just doing 30-50 questions for each subject everyday. I did the property workshop questions and felt like an idiot (4 out of 10) I just threw crap down and went to the gym.

O and for the essays, just reading Seperac.. I spent an hour just re-writing the joint tenancy summary he has in the master outline and found myself able to type it out on point.

[cdelgado]

So the consensus is that Barbri's MBE simulation will under prepare us for the bar, so we need to rely on Adaptibar?

It's so expensive after the money spent on Barbri.

[charlesxavier]

So the consensus is that Barbri's MBE simulation will under prepare us for the bar, so we need to rely on Adaptibar?

It's so expensive after the money spent on Barbri.

No. But, if you're not doing well then it might be worth it. However, everyone I know who took barbri passed without Adaptibar. Don't spend the money out of fear. Maybe try Emanuel first because it's cheaper and still has real MBE questions. Personally, I find them significantly easier than Barbri.

[3|ink]

I'm starting to notice that the MPQ "target" scores are below average. I took 3 evidence MPQs last night and scored right on the target each time. I'm in the 44 percentile. I guess it's close, but it appears that most students do better than the target scores.

[Ineedhelpplease]

Freer is amazing for NY Corps - I'm on 3 hours sleep and still able to somewhat keep up.

[THE_U]

I'm starting to notice that the MPQ "target" scores are below average. I took 3 evidence MPQs last night and scored right on the target each time. I'm in the 44 percentile. I guess it's close, but it appears that most students do better than the target scores.

This has kinda been freaking me out also. I'm starting to get highly annoyed and scared that Barbri's questions appear to be total garbage.

[victortsoi]

dont be- im doing both adaptibar and barbri and really think that barbri questions are much harder and more detailed-not "garbage". The real thing will be shorter and easier. Basically, Barbri throws a mess at you and forces you to really think hard about what you know, while adaptibar(and i assume the actual mbe) just tests on one rule or exceptoin and calls it a day. Im doing much better on adaptibar than barbri.

[3|ink]

I'm starting to notice that the MPQ "target" scores are below average. I took 3 evidence MPQs last night and scored right on the target each time. I'm in the 44 percentile. I guess it's close, but it appears that most students do better than the target scores.

This has kinda been freaking me out also. I'm starting to get highly annoyed and scared that Barbri's questions appear to be total garbage.

Even if they are garbage, 56% of barbri students are performing better. That's what's freaking me out.

I know the barbri questions are harder. That doesn't bother me so much. It's that everyone else is doing so much better.

[victortsoi]

remember-test of minimum competence and also, my suspicion is that barbri is already a self selected pool of people not representative of your true "rank" on test day(everyone taking the bar with you). I'm in NY, so I'm not freaking out unless im in the 20th percentile, and even then, these problems are fixable.

[charlesxavier]

remember-test of minimum competence and also, my suspicion is that barbri is already a self selected pool of people not representative of your true "rank" on test day(everyone taking the bar with you). I'm in NY, so I'm not freaking out unless im in the 20th percentile, and even then, these problems are fixable.

My thoughts exactly.

[gk101]

you guys are going way overboard. If anything, Barbri over-prepares you for the bar exam

[diowad]

I'm starting to notice that the MPQ "target" scores are below average. I took 3 evidence MPQs last night and scored right on the target each time. I'm in the 44 percentile. I guess it's close, but it appears that most students do better than the target scores.

This has kinda been freaking me out also. I'm starting to get highly annoyed and scared that Barbri's questions appear to be total garbage.

Even if they are garbage, 56% of barbri students are performing better. That's what's freaking me out.

I know the barbri questions are harder. That doesn't bother me so much. It's that everyone else is doing so much better.

Glad I'm not the only one. I've hit my targets or maybe one question short for my strong subjects like Evidence and Civ Pro but am hovering in the 40-45th percentiles.

[diowad]

Also, for those suggesting Emmanuel, are his questions more like the actual MBE? I've heard from pretty much everyone everywhere that Barbri makes their questions way hard. And now I'm getting to the point where I'm overthinking simple questions and missing them.

Don't want to spend the extra money to get adaptibar, but emmanuel may be an option if the questions are more realistic. Otherwise, I'll just stick with getting my ass handed to me by BarBri.

[mushybrain]

Yes, Emmanuel = actual previous questions on the real thing. I'm having the same issue re overthinking, I think, and my copy of the Emmanuel book arrives today to test that theory.

[THE_U]

Also, for those suggesting Emmanuel, are his questions more like the actual MBE? I've heard from pretty much everyone everywhere that Barbri makes their questions way hard. And now I'm getting to the point where I'm overthinking simple questions and missing them.

Don't want to spend the extra money to get adaptibar, but emmanuel may be an option if the questions are more realistic. Otherwise, I'll just stick with getting my ass handed to me by BarBri.

This is where I am at.

[diowad]

And another thing, for anyone that has taken the actual Bar, are the questions really this effing long? The Crim Set #2 has about 15 questions that take up at least 3/4's of a column. Not only that, but apparently I suck at Crim, so this just makes the agony worse. End rant.

[mushybrain]

Now that I'm going through the stuff I got wrong on the first MBE 50 question set, I'm convinced I'm overthinking. It's like I get the straightforward stuff wrong because the right answer I identified looks like it might be a trap, and then I pick an answer I'm not sure about after rejecting the right one. I'm annoyed at myself.

[RaleighStClair]

And another thing, for anyone that has taken the actual Bar, are the questions really this effing long? The Crim Set #2 has about 15 questions that take up at least 3/4's of a column. Not only that, but apparently I suck at Crim, so this just makes the agony worse. End rant.

This is what I want to know! The contracts sets, I'm legit doing in like 2.5 minutes each on average - while in most other subjects I'm in the right timing zone. Also, I think the civ pro questions are notably shorter/easier than others (which is confirmed by my 68% correct, yet only being at the 49th percentile in civ pro.)

My Emanuel's arrives today so I guess I'll see how the actual MBE questions are. From just doing 5 random questions on the NCBE website, I got 4 out of 5 right and they were really quick. Small sample size for sure, but they were noticeably easier and faster than 95% of the questions Barbri gives us.

[kykiske]

Switching back and forth between Barbri's MBEs and Emmanuel's MBEs has been quite difficult for me.

I overthink the ones in Emmanuel's, and get them wrong.

I do a set in Barbri, and get 8/18 because the questions test on super narrow exceptions that I don't remember.

/shrug

[moreheesh]

Can someone who is a fellow slacker that passed NY bar comment?

I've been slacking off. Only at 21% completion, just finished 1/3 NY property lectures and have only done 2 essays. I'm not a genius. For reference, I scored 86 (!) on the MPRE w/ about 6 hours of CALI lessons.

[myrtlewinston]

Any computer whizzes here? The Barbri mini-outlines for the MBE subjects are very useful. They can be found in the StudySmary section of the website or via the Barbri app (somewhat easier to read). Can anyone figure out how to print them?

[murray18]

Quick question about the bar passage rate statistics. My state allows people from non-accredited law schools to take the bar. When comparing the pass rate to my studysmart percentile rate, should I be using the first-time accredited school passage stat, or do you think the overall passage rate is more representative?

85% pass rate vs. 65% for everybody (including repeats) makes for a pretty significant change in my confidence level.

[mushybrain]

For people who have done both the first and second mixed MBE sets, how did your scores compare? I did considerably better on the second one without having studied anything in between, and I'm thinking it's just an improvement in trying not to overthink after seeing where I screwed up on the first set. But I'm wondering what others thought before I pat myself on the back.

[murray18]

Switching back and forth between Barbri's MBEs and Emmanuel's MBEs has been quite difficult for me.

I overthink the ones in Emmanuel's, and get them wrong.

I do a set in Barbri, and get 8/18 because the questions test on super narrow exceptions that I don't remember.

/shrug

My Emmanuel's should arrive Friday, so I can't speak to that, but I agree that alot of the Barbri MBE sets (particularly the later ones) test some narrow nonsense.

[florentine]

For people who have done both the first and second mixed MBE sets, how did your scores compare? I did considerably better on the second one without having studied anything in between, and I'm thinking it's just an improvement in trying not to overthink after seeing where I screwed up on the first set. But I'm wondering what others thought before I pat myself on the back.

Did a little bit worse on the second, but that's not saying much because I didn't do well on either. I missed about 19 on both for about 62%.