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I need some opinions: is it possible to book study for the California bar? I'm really trying to save money on a bar prep class and I don't really have the time to complete a bar review class anyway because I'm clerking right now in North Carolina. I passed the NC bar in July, and finished top 10% from a T25 school, to the extent that this is relevant.

Speaking generally, since you just took the bar in July, I'd think if you got hold of California BarBri (or Kaplan or whatever) books, you'd be fine. But I can't speak to California specifically.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Speaking generally, since you just took the bar in July, I'd think if you got hold of California BarBri (or Kaplan or whatever) books, you'd be fine. But I can't speak to California specifically.

My plan was to get the BarBri books from a classmate who took CA. Some people say that CA is too difficult to do without taking a prep course...but I think I remember enough from MBEs that I would just be able to do minimal studying on that.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, by the way, I haven't been on in a while and just saw that there are a ton of CA bar threads in the law students forum.

ndirish2010 wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Speaking generally, since you just took the bar in July, I'd think if you got hold of California BarBri (or Kaplan or whatever) books, you'd be fine. But I can't speak to California specifically.

My plan was to get the BarBri books from a classmate who took CA. Some people say that CA is too difficult to do without taking a prep course...but I think I remember enough from MBEs that I would just be able to do minimal studying on that.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, by the way, I haven't been on in a while and just saw that there are a ton of CA bar threads in the law students forum.

So, I don't entirely know what I'm talking about, but I thought you had to return your books to Barbri upon finishing the course to get your deposit back? I thought Barbri does that to prevent this kind of problem exactly.

Sorry, just posted above... didn't mean to do anon. Habit.

OP, I don't think you need the video lectures if you already have taken a bar and have access to the books. Having taken California this summer (and while still awaiting results, so take this for what it's worth), I don't think the lectures were all that necessary over the books. If you have a solid grasp of the MBE subjects, there are only a few things you'd need to hit home for California specifically: Evidence, Civil Procedure, Wills and Community Property if I am remembering correctly.

As far as getting your deposit back, it's true you only get the $250 if you send back the books within 30 days or so following the exam. But I know more than a few people who just kept their books for whatever reason.

Yeah, Barbri does the deposit thing in the hopes of encouraging people to return their books instead of selling the books on ebay. But I think you can usually get around $300 for a used set of books, so plenty of people don't (and do).

Get baressays.com. It's $100 (free for some schools-check the website) and you get access to tons of essay questions and sample answers. If you did well on the MBE, just getting bar essays and then some kind of used prep material or baroutlines.com should be fine.