Pls share study schedule or routine - passers, retakers and new examinees Forum

[AReasonableMan]

i wasn't blindsided by the Admin essay much, as I took a lot of admin courses (environmental law) in law school. i guess i didn't give them what they wanted. had i just gotten a 40 on that one I would have passed. but the past is past. the good thing is that now we actually get to see what they expected on that one once i get my essay materials.

There's a song about this exact situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPRhmKojfTc

[BVest]

I did barbri but adapted it as I saw fit. In the end, I completed 86%. Though I'd first look at the day's schedule for barbri and do any lecture plus whatever else I wanted to from there, I'd often turn to the barbri "past due" page and rely on that as an overall to-do list.

Specifically:

Start Date: Started according to the barbri calendar the day after Memorial day, 9 weeks prior to the exam

Throughout: Did all lectures on day of assignment (with a couple exceptions such as sick kid where I had to play catch-up later); same with practice MBE, practice half-day of lecture/MPT, and MBE refresher. Also I did about 36-54 MBE practice questions each day (weekdays to start and then on weekends) through the entire period.

First couple weeks: Did lectures in AM (by attending location), diagnostic questions, and some MBE questions, but largely ignored the essays; worked from 9 to probably 1 or 2 and then another 30-60 minutes in the evening. I'd do a couple hours per day on weekends.

Remainder of June: Stepped up my MBE work so that I was doing more like 7 hours/day and about 3-4 hours/weekend day. Started doing the essays that I'd passed over, starting with the subjects I knew.

By the beginning of July: Up to about 8 hours/day and about 5 hours/weekend day; at this point I'm doing state specific essays pretty routinely, but there are a couple subjects I don't have down yet and I'm largely avoiding those. Oh, but take the 4th of july (and either the 3rd or the 5th) completely off; i guess for feb this would be the first weekend of Feb or last weekend of Jan.

About two weeks out: Buckle down on the 2-3 state topics ramp things up to about 10 hours a day.

Final weekend: Down to about 4 hours of studying a day and lots of chilling out.

Day before Texas Procedure and MPT: Re-did 2 old Texas procedure tests; reviewed sample answers from a couple others; looked at different types of sample MPT answers for format only.

Night before MBE: Looked over self-made lean sheets for MBE subjects.

Night before Essays: spent about 4 hours reviewing the subjects I had not taken in law school (the same that I'd saved to the end of bar prep) -- specifically the 2-3 topics within each of those subjects that Barbri said were most often tested.

[Nybar2015]

Thank you all for your feedback. Your inputs are very valuable. Many bar prep courses never really talk about these things. I understand that it is a personal effort at the end of the day but to hear what worked for many of the passers does really help us. You guys have put in tremendous amount of hardwork and time and you deserve it all.

[captainplanet]

First time taker, passed the CA bar

I was one of those people who came to TLS with under a month left before the exam freaking out at how behind I was in BARBRI. The response I saw for people in my situation was mostly "you're screwed." I wanted to post this to give people hope that turning things around is possible.

BARBRI assigns too much work and I quickly fell behind. What I should have done is realized that BARBRI's schedule is like a model answer; I don't need to do everything, just enough to pass. So, if you're a person like me who freaks out about getting behind and starts avoiding the work because you're too freaked out that you're already behind (thus making things worse), set yourself a realistic goal of doing something like 2/3rds of BARBRI.

I did not do that and found myself with 3 weeks left before the bar and about 11% of the course completed. It was looking really bad and I had zero chance of passing at that point. So in the last couple of weeks, I focused on the area that's the easiest to improve: the essays. First, I finished the lectures at 1.75 speed. Then I wrote out and outlined 1-2 essays from several subjects. I found that my biggest issue was not knowing the law, which would then mess up my analysis. So I looked at 5 essays from each subject and memorized the rule statements for every issue that was tested. I wrote the rule statements out, repeated them in my head, and did this several times over several days under I had it down cold. I also reviewed the lecture outlines and an outline that a friend had made based on BARBRI and would repeat elements in my head and write them down several times for the main issues. I then did a couple of essays in my head (basically, a 10-minute exercise where I'd spot the issues and do a mini analysis and then check it against the model answer). In the last couple of days, I did 50 MBE questions (MBE is such a crapshoot and I always felt like I was guessing even when I knew the law because the answers are phrased in such a tricky way so I didn't feel like I would improve much by doing more of them). I also skimmed various types of PTs to get more comfortable with the type of questions they ask.

During the exam, I felt like I knew enough to (probably) pass every essay. I'm sure my rule statements and analysis were clumsy, and I definitely missed some issues (on question 6, I only wrote about takings and nothing else, no PDP or SDP or variance or zoning, for question 4 I didn't know how much child support needs to be reimbursed to community property so I guessed). I struggled with time somewhat on the PTs, so it would have been good to practice writing them out more, but I guess whatever I did was enough. And the MBE was a crapshoot and I guessed on most of the questions.

I obviously don't recommend my approach as a bar study plan (I was crazy stressed out and developed an ulcer), but know that turning things around is possible if you find yourself in a jam. This does depend on what your areas for improvement are, since some things you can just cram for (like memorizing facts), while others really require time and practice (like IRAC). I don't think I could have pulled it off in 2 weeks if what I needed to improve was my writing and analysis skills, rather than just memorizing rules of law. Good luck to anyone taking the bar in February!

[mushybrain]

I passed the CA bar. I was a first-time taker. I'll answer the questions and then give a whole bunch of detail on the off chance that's actually useful to anyone.

- how many hours of studying per day?

Like 7? I treated it like a job and worked on it during business hours, but I definitely had plenty of minimally productive hours during that time. I took a break for lunch most days. If BarBri assigned weekend work, I did it, unless I was ahead in the schedule. In the last few weeks I spent maybe a few hours on Saturdays looking at some material or doing a question set, but for the most part I made myself take weekends off until the weekend before the exam. The after-dinner hours were off limits and I used them to do anything else I felt like doing. I think that was very, very important for my overall mental health.

- how many essays per day?

I'll explain how I approached essays below, but in the end I was exposing myself to several every weekday.

- how many MBEs per day?

However many BarBri told me to do that day, plus whatever remedial stuff it assigned to me when I screwed up (until later on when I gave up on doing those). I also hit a great deal of the Strategies & Tactics MBE questions on days that I didn't do BarBri sets, particularly toward the end when I felt like reviewing Sets 5 and 6 of BarBri's questions was a total waste of my time.

More details (behind spoiler for length):

[+] Spoiler

I did BarBri, and I did not feel like it properly prepared me for the MBE at all. I also found BarBri to be very MBE-heavy, which I did not appreciate as a CA taker since it's worth less here. And I felt very uncomfortable with the very limited coverage of essay writing for state topics. If I had failed, I would have moved to a combination of Adaptibar, Smart Bar Outlines, and baressays.com.

I focused on just exposing myself to everything after getting through the lectures and trying to make good choices about what would actually help me. For many of the essays it said to write, I outlined and then compared. For the additional essays it throws at you at the very end before the exam, I just read the prompt, and then looked at the grading rubric. I ended up getting my eyes on every single essay they gave us that way, and exposed myself as much as possible to the structure/rule statements that BarBri thought were ideal. I turned the rule statements I wasn't very comfortable with into Quizlet flashcards and skimmed them a few times, but really the practice was in the typing and I didn't actually review them much. I skimmed the PTs to familiarize myself with the various formats and did one full PT.

I did actually do all of the assigned MBE sets, although I think the final sets for each subject section were a total waste of time and unnecessarily shook my confidence too much heading into the exam. At that point it wasn't motivating because I had no time left to change course--it just made me really concerned.

I also used that Strategies and Tactics MBE book that's recommended here to expose myself to some real questions. I'm very glad I exposed myself to a different type of question than the things BarBri dreams up, even though I didn't feel like either really looked like the MBE as it exists today.

I made/found Quizlet sets for the state topics, because the BarBri outlines were awful and/or far too complicated. That helped a LOT in those areas where I was getting zero reinforcement from MBE prep. I reviewed those heavily, particularly in topics I'd never been exposed to in law school.

And finally, I had the Critical Pass cards and Lean Sheets. I used Critical Pass cards whenever BarBri told us to review a subject area, so mostly early on in the summer. I used the Lean Sheets during my final review heading into the exam, and glanced at them the morning of each day.

[doctoroflaw91]

Stickying this thread for the summer.

[northwood]

Please kindly share your study schedules as it would helpful to many of us. I have tried Pieper in the past but feels exhausting. I know that each one of us have a different approach but I am sure if the passers share your experience, it would be great. I heard many say that you should practice MBEs and Essays everyday until few weeks before exam. It would be great, if you can let us know your experience:
- how many hours of studying per day?
- how many essays per day?
- how many MBEs per day?

Passed using Pieper on first attempt. Did one lecture a day ( since you have to handwrite the outline I could not speed it up). Took some days off from lectures, but always did at least 35 MBE Questions a day. ( Sundays were relaxation days).

Ended up studying about 9 hours a day at the end. Had shorter days earlier in bar prep. Also had to move in June (lease was up at end of june- and had to move into new place- ended up moving in a month early so that I could move in the first week of June).

50 MBE questions/day on average. But at the end was doing MBE question sets of 100 (mixed topics)- Adaptibar is great for that.

Wrote/Outlined an essay every other day from week 3 on. But at the end was writing/outlining essay sets of 3. Once you get the formula down and can do 3 essays in a row under allotted time, I didn't see a need to write full responses.

Wrote 3 MPT essays, but read 10 total. (again to get the formatting down).

Spent last 10 days memorizing the mnemonics that Pieper is known for. Would review the mnemonics throughout bar prep as I went over the topics of law and tried to convert them into canned answer responses ( under 7 sentences for each).

I treated this as my full time job. Focused on "learning for the bar" for each topic. Also handwrote 3 essays in a row so that I knew that I could do it if I had a computer malfunction on essay day (which happened right before they distributed the essay and I had to handwrite all 6 essays- BTW they will NOT give you a refund) . Didn't do anything extra besides MBEs and Essays. Highly recommend adaptibar for additional MBE work.

I purposely gave myself less time to compensate for test day distractions/ nerves. By giving myself less time, on the actual test I didn't feel rushed as I had a built in bufferzone if needed ( or to edit when done). I also made sure that by the end of bar prep I could do 100 mbe questions in a row and 3 essays back to back to back, just like the formatting on the actual bar exams. Even if I didn't know the topic that well, I used this time to formulate an attack plan to deal with these questions so that I would not freeze.

[caveman2]

I'll share my story if it helps anyone.

July 2014/Texas/Themis: failed
Feb 2015/Texas/Themis (free repeat): passed
Feb 2016/Pennsylvania/Self-study: passed

TEXAS

So the first time I took the test I decided to go with Themis because they had the public interest discount, and I thought Barbri was ridiculously overpriced. I still believe that and think that anyone willing to give Barbri that much money is a fool. And apparently Barbri doesn't even let you keep your books! WTF!!!

Anyway, that first summer I was extremely burnt out after finishing law school. The last thing I wanted to do was to turn around and study. So I was already feeling kind of lackadaisical about it. But I started doing the program, watching hours upon hours of those lecture videos playing the "listen for the buzzword and fill in the blank" game. It wasn't until I was near the end of the videos that I realized you could put them on 2x speed, because Themis neglected to mention that you could do that. I was mad. As time went on over the summer, I quickly fell behind where I was supposed to be according to the schedule. As I said, I wasn't super motivated, but also there was a lot of stuff going on around my house with my parents and brother. It was distracting. All that ended up happening was I got super stressed out because my little "% completed" number wasn't as high as all my friends' supposedly were, and I got more transfixed on that stupid number than I was with actively engaging with all the material. Long story short, I did abysmally bad on the July 2014 bar. My score was 597 out of 1000, and you need 675 to pass in Texas. My MBE was a mediocre 139.1.

When I was studying that summer, I had nothing else that required my attention. I wasn't working, had no other responsibilities, and had the opportunity to devote 100% of my time and attention to studying. It didn't turn out well at all because I didn't study smart. But when I took the bar again in Feb 2015 I was working full time and lived alone. I studied with Themis again because of the free repeat, but this time I said to hell with their schedule and assignments and completion percentage. I did my own thing my own way. This time I ended up passing Texas with a score of 717 out of 1000, and my MBE jumped to 152.9 (keep in mind, too, that they had just added civ pro to the MBE). You guys, if you do the math my score IMPROVED BY 120 POINTS. That is absurd, really. I was also 42 points above the minimum passing score, so I had plenty of cushion. I started studying for the Feb test in the second week of January, and because I was working full time I was maybe studying only 4 hours a day. I did take off the whole week before the test to study, though. During my lunch breaks at work I would do practice MBE questions. I also did practice MBE questions on the Themis app on my phone when I was walking my dog in the evening. The biggest difference between Feb and July was that I didn't waste countless hours watching those pointless video lectures, and I didn't do any of the writing assignments. I basically didn't rely on Themis for the essay and short answer portions at all, which was what hurt me so bad the first time around. Instead, I had read somewhere (probably on these forums) that the Texas essay questions and short answers repeat like crazy. So I went on the Texas BLE website, where they had posted the last 12 exams with sample answers, and I printed out every single one. This was my exam bible. It was true, the questions every couple of years were verbatim repeats of past questions, with only the names changed. It was laughable. I'm not exaggerating when I say that everything I needed to know was laid out for me in those prior exams. I didn't even look at the Themis notes. I was kicking myself for all the mistakes I made the first time around. If only I had known then what I knew later, I could have passed in July.

So to sum up my Themis/Texas bar experience:
THE VIDEO LECTURES ARE A GODDAMNED WASTE OF TIME. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. I don't know how many hours in total they add up to, but I bet the number is shocking. There is a reason everyone talks about fast-forwarding through them -- it's because you are not actually learning anything, you're just listening so you can fill in the pointless blanks on the handouts they give you. I won't say that the handouts aren't at all helpful -- they can be at times. Some of the better professors break things down more clearly than the full Themis outlines do. This is especially true for the MBE subjects (I didn't find the essay subject handouts very helpful at all). That being said, I really wish Themis gave you the option to just download the professor's filled-in handout if you don't want to sit through the videos. For the very select few who do benefit from sitting through the videos, they could choose to print out the blank ones and listen along like normal. But seriously, this should be an option for people based on their preference. Themis MBE is great, I will admit. I thought the setup was nice, the questions were representative of what was on the test, and the answer explanations were clear. They have all sorts of graphs to show how you are doing in every subject and sub-subject. I would always read the explanation for each of the four answers, regardless of if I had gotten the question right or wrong. I really wish Themis had an MBE-only option like Kaplan does for $500 or so. I would opt for that in a heartbeat. I'm better at the multiple choice, so I don't think I did more than about 600 questions. I never did the full milestone exams under timed conditions. I'm also not very fast and have never once finished the actual MBE, I always have 3-5 questions left. Yes, I could have worked on improving my timing but I still ended up with a 152.9 the second time, so I was good enough.
What my success came down to was basically this: Relied on Themis for MBE prep, relied on Texas BLE-provided past exams for everything else. It was only by studying the past exams that I was able to find testing patterns and create my own outlines that made sense for me. By doing this I was able to accurately predict that Texas only will test on either Guardianships OR Trusts, but never both. Themis failed to mention that in their precious videos. Based on the testing patterns, I knew with absolute certainty that they would be testing Guardianships for the Feb 2015 test (which they did) and didn't even bother studying Trusts. More precious time saved for me.

PENNSYLVANIA

When I decided to take the PA exam, I knew it would be a waste of money to buy full Themis again, having already gone through it twice. Since I had had such great success in Texas when I committed myself to mainly studying past exams, I decided I would do that again. I bought some used Themis Pennsylvania books off of Amazon for $175 because I still needed state subject outlines. Since I had done pretty well on the MBE before, I decided to mainly focus on the PA essays this time. I started studying the second week of January, as I had done the previous year. I had quit my job and moved away from Texas back in with my parents in Connecticut, but my mom has been gone for an extended period of time and my dad travels a lot for work, so I more or less had the house to myself again most of the time. I had no job and no distractions, but even so I would say I averaged only about 5-6 hours a day of actual studying. I took frequent breaks to binge-watch tv. I slept in until about 10 or 11 a.m. and wouldn't go to bed until about 1 or 2 a.m. I didn't stress myself out about having a rigid schedule. I drank a lot of whiskey to calm my nerves. I don't know anyone here where my parents live, so I had no need to go out. I became a total hermit except for my evening walks with my dog. I had no idea what the PA test was like or what I needed to focus on the most, so I just committed myself to poring over the old exams and making lots and lots of charts, looking for patterns. I was able to determine that PA is basically the opposite of TX and doesn't repeat questions AT ALL, which was more challenging because that meant I had to have my shit down cold and had to study EVERYTHING. I read through all the full Themis PA subject outlines word for word and just condensed those down into 10-12 page outlines of my own creation. Some people think it's a waste to make your own outlines, but that's what worked for me. Those first 3-4 weeks I wasn't even really "studying" per se, I was just taking Themis outlines and condensing them down, subject by subject. I wasn't focused on retention or memorization, that would come later. This was more just about familiarizing myself with the subjects, the format of the test, and creating my own notes. The last week of January I figured I had better start dipping my toe back into MBE practice again, so I bought the Kaplan Qbank. I was trying to decide between Kaplan Qbank and Adaptibar because I had heard good things about both, but people were saying Adaptibar was sometimes oversimplified and people were saying Kaplan Qbank could be too hard. I decided it would be better to err on the side of my practice questions being harder than the actual exam, so I went with Kaplan Qbank. The jury is still out on how I feel about Kaplan Qbank, but only because I don't have my PA MBE score yet. I felt that indeed many of the questions were ridiculously hard, and many of them didn't even make sense or were filled with typos and spelling errors. Some of them were just plain wtf. Most of the time the answer explanations amounted to "this answer is correct because all the other answers are wrong." WHAT THE HELL. For the most part while I was doing it, I didn't like Kaplan Qbank. Themis MBE was WAY WAY BETTER. Again, I wish that Themis had an MBE-only option, that would've been great this time around. I did probably between 600-700 MBE questions. So for all those people insisting you MUST do 1000+ questions to do well on the MBE, they're wrong. It's more about the quality of your interaction with the MBE material and the answer explanations than the sheer quantity of questions that you do.

By the first week of February I was done making my own outlines and at that point started working on memorization and retention. I read through more old essay questions and tested my knowledge. I NEVER write practice essays, I think that's a waste of time. You either know the answer right away or you don't. And if you know the answer, then it won't be a problem writing it down on the actual test day. And if you don't know the answer and have to bullshit, what's the point of practicing bullshitting? It's smarter to use that time going back and work on actually memorizing the material. So when I read through practice essay questions, I'll just say aloud to myself "Well, the answer is such and such because of x, y, and z." Then I'll flip to the answer to see if I was right, or learn why I was wrong. This way I can breeze through many more practice essay questions than if I wasted time writing down full answers. This is also why I think the writing assignments for Themis were a total waste of time. They make you write an answer for a subject that you haven't really even spent much time studying yet (because all your time was wasted watching the video lectures) just so your answer can be submitted for some grader to come back and tell you that you need to study more because you obviously weren't comfortable with the material (Well, DUH). Honest to God you guys, I can't tell you enough how, in retrospect, 70% of the Themis program (MBE stuff excluded) was a waste of time and expense. And this isn't just Themis, it goes for Kaplan and Barbri too. You can learn ALL this stuff by just getting some used books and looking at old exams and signing up for Adaptibar or something similar and going at your own pace and by your own schedule. You'll be so glad you saved $1000-$2000 by not buying some priggish program.

I ended up passing Pennsylvania, and I'm thrilled I did it on my own. If you study smart and play to what works for you, you don't have to waste 10-12 hours a day like the test prep companies scare you into thinking you have to. I also think this is why so many people fail the first time like I did, trying to force yourself to learn via some program that just isn't structured the way that works for you. Build your own structure, don't try to jam yourself, a square peg, into the round hole that these bar prep programs are. I hope this has been helpful and enlightening for somebody.

I'll update this post with my Pennsylvania scores when I receive them.

Edit: I forgot to mention the MPT. Texas uses the MPT while PA has its own version of the MPT. It's worth 10% of your grade in TX and 11% in PA. I SUCK at the MPT. I'm far too slow and a total spaz at it. It's just not physically or mentally possible for me to do a task like that in 90 minutes. I spent zero time all three times I took the exam preparing for the MPT because I just knew it would not be a wise use of time. So I approached the exam with the assumption that I would bomb the MPT and would have to make up the points elsewhere. And I did bomb the MPT, all three times. I got next to no points for it. But I passed anyway, twice, because I studied smart. Know your weaknesses, know your strengths, and know what the risk/reward ratio is for everything you sink study time into. Granted, this would not be a smart strategy for a UBE state where the MPT is worth 20% of your grade, but you catch my drift.

[Shmuffalo_]

I did Barbri. On the offset, I'd watch the lecture, then do some multiple choice (maybe 25 or so questions). About 3 weeks in I began doing essays, but I never wrote anything out; I'd identify the issue, scribble down the law, and it would help me memorize things. As long as you know how to write a simple CRAC method, you'll be fine if you know the law. I'd also recommend reading sample answers, and not the model ones. Nobody writes like the model answers, but a sample answer gives a great idea of how to write, and how much to write.

If I wanted to fill my day, I'd re-outline the lectures in my own Word Doc, and review from there. Ideally, I'd condense an MBE subject to 10 pages, and a state specific subject to 1-3.

Watching some of the explanation videos are key, especially for Con Law stuff that always has the trick question.

I never really practiced the MPT. I glanced at how to write the MPT, and luckily my state gives very straight forward instructions on how to write it, so it wasn't much of an issue. If you struggled with Legal Writing, you're going to need to dedicate more time to this.

All in all, I'd wake up around 10 or so, do lecture until 1 or 2, workout/have lunch, and do another hour of review (So about 5-6 hours of work/studying per day). I normally wouldn't do anything on Sundays.


Edit: Reading some people say that the videos are a waste of time is totally different from my experience. I HEAVILY relied on the video and lecture handouts. I never cracked the Conviser review, and I looked a the Conviser Mini-Review for Evidence because I couldn't stand the lecturer.

Edit 2: I did none of the personal study plan that Barbri gave me. I don't need to know these petty nuances, and spend an hour drilling down a rule that depends upon a specific verbiage. It felt like a waste of time. The review of the multiple choice questions, whether I got the questions right or wrong were significantly more helpful than spending an hour doing a guess and check with PSP.

[kcam1991]

For those who used Themis, were the practice questions primarily in the books or online. I'm asking because I'm looking into buying a book set from eBay and self studying

[KTnKT]

For those who used Themis, were the practice questions primarily in the books or online. I'm asking because I'm looking into buying a book set from eBay and self studying

Primarily online. There were maybe a couple hundred in one of the books.

[Nybar2015]

Excuse me as this is going to be long but if it helps someone, I would be really glad.

TSL - Thank you all for the valuable inputs on how to knock the bar exam. Your inputs were really helpful to me and I did follow them during my 3rd attempt. In fact your inputs are much more valuable than the bar course providers.

For those who did not make it, I just want to tell you that dont feel dejected. You guys are nearly there and you can make it.

I am a foreign llm grad and passed NY Bar in my 3rd time. My first attempt was in Feb 2015, and I scored 556 (mbe 100) and my second attempt was in July 2015 and I scored 557 (110). My 3rd attempt, I passed with 126 mbe (I agree bad MBE score).

Now let me explain why kept failing. I had enrolled for Pieper and honestly this is the worse law reading material I had ever come across in my whole life. I really dont understand how some people pass with his material but to each their own. Pros: personal call before the bar exam (who the hell cares about such shit. I really wish no one calls me before the bar exam, but I did fall for it initially). Cons: most disorganized material, lectures were poorly structured, mnemonics is suicidal as he comes up with worse abbreviations you can ever remember and in fact some abbreviations have sub-abbreviation and repeated in other topics so its really hard to keep a count of these apart from the vast outlines, printed copies of ny bar essays without any information as to how they need to be structured or how the answers would be scored etc....well i can go on and on but truly the worse material. Please do not buy his material even for free, its waste of time and energy (unless u have a super brain).

During my first attempt, I didnt complete the Pieper material and didnt practice enough, so I blamed myself for the failure. During second attempt I still used Pieper and went through entire outline but I always felt empty after reading. Just could never understand the structure of basic subjects like contracts and torts. It used to take me lot of time to read his outlines and never found enough time to practice. Anyways when I saw my 2nd attempt score, I thought there must be something fundamentally wrong with me or the material. This is when TSL saved me. Someone suggested why dont you switch to Barbri. I was not convinced but just bought used books.

Guys - BARBRI is the best material I had ever come across and the worth every penny. Conviser is very well organised and absolutely a pleasure to read for an exam. I felt that things started to fall in place. I understood the structure of each and every subject and had time to practice all essays twice. I used Kaplan for MBE but guess should have used barbri or adaptibar. I did about 2 MPTs and just went through the rest.

To summarise:
1. BARBRI conviser is bible - just read through it and you would fall in love with law.
2. Barbri lecture outline - this is the barbri lecture outline. this book was really helpful as it explains terms in much simpler language than conviser. I even skipped conviser for few subjects and went through the lecture outline (thankfully the person who sold barbri books had legible handwriting so I could read without trouble).
3. Barbri essay book - do as many as possible unless you are confident about your essay writing skills. Since I am a foreign lawyer and new to essay exam, I did all the essays and went through them again before the exam. Just memorise the way it is answered. Initially it was pain to read through the fact patterns and understand the issues but soon you will get a hang of it. When you start dont bother writing the answer but rather read facts thoroughly, read answer, memorise the answer and now start reading the facts again and answer it under timed condition.I think by the time you do 3-4 essays in each topic you will start mastering it. The best part of barbri essay book is they tell you how each issue is scored. Follow IRAC or CIRAC. Believe 70% -80% of the essay portion of the exam is repeated from past exams.
4. MBE - I used kaplan but you can choose barbri as it has better explanations than kaplan. whatever be the course complete the entire mbe course 1400-1600 qs. If time permits do another course's mbe.
5. MPT - you need to practice. barbri material is sufficient. Follow the instructions and structure. I feel this is the hardest of all because all of us have different writing skills but anyways some find it easy.

So guys its a doable exam, just put in enough time and you can do it.

[BGR91]

Just passed the NY bar with a 160 MBE. I am a practicing attorney in a different state and I was working full time during my bar prep and had a fiance to keep happy as well. I opted to go with Kaplan as I heard they provided comprehensive coverage of NY law. I knew while working I could benefit from the structure the commercial courses offer. However, I found that Kaplan's recommended study schedule was nearly impossible to keep up with while working full time. I made sure to watch all of the videos and really focused on the MBE practice questions.

A typical day for me was waking up at 4:45 a.m to watch the video on whatever topic was being covered that day. That usually went from 5-7:30 or so. I would go to work from 8:30- 6:00 and do practice questions or essays for a couple of hours when I got home, usually for a couple of hours. I also tried to get some practice questions in during my lunch break when possible. On the weekend I would try to catch up usually spending about 5-6 hours on Saturday and a few hours on Sunday. I tended to save the practice essays more for the weekend as doing multiple choice practice questions were easier after a long day of work. I also used 2 weekends (midway through and towards the end) to do full length practice exams.

This was my routine for about 2 months. I definitely did not follow Kaplan's schedule as closely as I would have liked to but I did appreciate the structure to at least keep my somewhat honest during my preparation. I kept up with the state law lecture videos each day, however, my practice was definitely geared towards improving my MBE score. This was a conscious decision on my part as I was confident that I could put together a decent essay as long as I had some knowledge of the law.

I can't lie, preparing while working full time was a grind. The students who dedicate all day every day to studying definitely have an advantage but it can be made up with smart studying. Hope this helps and good luck to you.