KAPLAN BAR REVIEW hangout Forum

[Pokemon]

Oh who cares about a case being wrong... if you think that such mistakes will lead one to fail then am not sure what to say. Personally, considering the amount of material they are producing, I would have been shocked if they had no mistakes.

Also, my plan is to make attack outlines for commonly tested areas, tonight and tomorrow. Tuesday take the additional MBE. Then Wednesday through Sunday memorize NY Law + MBE LAW for NY via flashcards.

Tonight...as in now at 1am?

and tomorrow... am just doing those 90 questions that Fromm advised us on. Just doing torts now. If your clock says 1, I am also an hour west of you.


Also, do not forget the Kaplan crim dude: the more you sweat now, the less you will bleed on Tuesday.

[shock259]

Kaplan invents Supreme Court opinion quotations.

Why are you looking up the quotes for Supreme Court cases to "nail" Kaplan instead of just ... studying for the bar? Mistakes are bad and everything, but it's not like that misquote is going to cost you points on the exam. Focus up.

[Pokemon]

Kaplan invents Supreme Court opinion quotations.

Why are you looking up the quotes for Supreme Court cases to "nail" Kaplan instead of just ... studying for the bar? Mistakes are bad and everything, but it's not like that misquote is going to cost you points on the exam. Focus up.

Barbri rep trolling Kaplanites.

[Mr. Pink]

Kaplan invents Supreme Court opinion quotations.

Why are you looking up the quotes for Supreme Court cases to "nail" Kaplan instead of just ... studying for the bar? Mistakes are bad and everything, but it's not like that misquote is going to cost you points on the exam. Focus up.

Barbri rep trolling Kaplanites.

Hahahaha

[a male human]

Kaplan invents Supreme Court opinion quotations.

Why are you looking up the quotes for Supreme Court cases to "nail" Kaplan instead of just ... studying for the bar? Mistakes are bad and everything, but it's not like that misquote is going to cost you points on the exam. Focus up.

Barbri rep trolling Kaplanites.

I am (was) a Kaplan rep, and I don't care who gets nailed.

Is Kaplanite a real word? It sounds like kryptonite.

[annalisa]

I just googled this forum and created a TLS account for the sole purpose of posting this:

Kaplan invents Supreme Court opinion quotations. At least they did it once, and I think it's egregious enough to post publicly. Let me be clear: I'm talking about referencing Supreme Court cases using quotation marks, and the phrase between the quotation marks is not in the opinion. This one also happens to be wrong on the law.

Here's an example, on page 650 of the 2013 Multistate Workbook, Criminal Procedure question 50.

In Uncle Kaplan's explanation for why attaching a GPS device to a car for the purpose of a criminal investigation is not a search, he says: "In United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705 (1984), the Supreme Court concluded that 'the mere installation of a beeper is no search because that act alone infringed no privacy interest.'"

Here's the actual quote:

"The mere transfer to Karo of a can containing an unmonitored beeper infringed no privacy interest."

That's right. Uncle Kaplan, who apparently isn't aware of the Jones GPS tracking case from 2012, is not only screwing up in the vanilla bar prep company variety but is even fake-quoting Supreme Court cases to do it.

I'm just too tired of studying for this BS to actually complain to Kaplan.

I think you are just using an old book? My Question 50 is the same question apparently, though on page 662, and the first sentence starts, "In US v. Jones..."

[JenDarby]

From implied he used the restroom A LOT while taking bar exams. I will probably use bath room breaks to keep from getting insanely bored during the MBE.

[northwood]

From implied he used the restroom A LOT while taking bar exams. I will probably use bath room breaks to keep from getting insanely bored during the MBE.

MBE- more booze essential

[shock259]

From implied he used the restroom A LOT while taking bar exams. I will probably use bath room breaks to keep from getting insanely bored during the MBE.

MBE- more booze essential

I've been outlining a lot of essays over the last few days. It's actually pretty encouraging. All of the Kaplan essay picker things are from past exams, and I've been doing pretty well on them. The essays seem to test mostly basic law. And the prompts are so narrow that even if you are totally lost, you can still kinda gist it a lot of the time. They spot the issues for you most of the time.

I think I may actually do an MPT today. As in write it out. Never done one and I have no idea how the timing works. But uugghhh motivation.

[annalisa]

From implied he used the restroom A LOT while taking bar exams. I will probably use bath room breaks to keep from getting insanely bored during the MBE.

MBE- more booze essential

I've been outlining a lot of essays over the last few days. It's actually pretty encouraging. All of the Kaplan essay picker things are from past exams, and I've been doing pretty well on them. The essays seem to test mostly basic law. And the prompts are so narrow that even if you are totally lost, you can still kinda gist it a lot of the time. They spot the issues for you most of the time.

I think I may actually do an MPT today. As in write it out. Never done one and I have no idea how the timing works. But uugghhh motivation.

Lame, 8/10 of my essay prompt is "what are the rights of the parties?" In one of my state-specific lectures, there was a bar app question with that call and the lecturer actually said there was no way the bar exam would actually say that... funny joke

[JenDarby]

From implied he used the restroom A LOT while taking bar exams. I will probably use bath room breaks to keep from getting insanely bored during the MBE.

MBE- more booze essential

I've been outlining a lot of essays over the last few days. It's actually pretty encouraging. All of the Kaplan essay picker things are from past exams, and I've been doing pretty well on them. The essays seem to test mostly basic law. And the prompts are so narrow that even if you are totally lost, you can still kinda gist it a lot of the time. They spot the issues for you most of the time.

I think I may actually do an MPT today. As in write it out. Never done one and I have no idea how the timing works. But uugghhh motivation.

I feel the same way about the NY essays. They seem SO straightforward.

I should probably do an MPT. I outlined one early on kind of and it was so basic I haven't been able to do another. Knowing it's a closed universe just makes it hard to convince myself to spend much time on it. Also 90 minutes is a really long time.

[Pokemon]

I got a 10/10. Super-happy cause all I was getting before was 4/10. I had however just randomly reviewed the subject before the essay.

[northwood]

ive written 4 MPTs. IMO the only thing that changes is the formatting, and if its obscure they tend to give you a sample to use as a reference. I'd rather spend the remaining time doing MBEs and memorizing as much of the law as possible and try to be as calm, cool, collected and refreshed as possible because I already know that i'd just be fooling myself thinking im going to be able to sleep much next Monday night

[shock259]

Ugh. I tried to do an MPT. I really did. Read and outlined in 45 min, per the Kaplan strategy. Couldn't bring myself to actually write it. Too bored. I'll assume I'm on track by doing the digesting/outlining on time, though.

[sidhesadie]

Ugh. I tried to do an MPT. I really did. Read and outlined in 45 min, per the Kaplan strategy. Couldn't bring myself to actually write it. Too bored. I'll assume I'm on track by doing the digesting/outlining on time, though.

I did one, and it was exactly like everything I did every day for 2 1/2 years at work and I decided that was sufficient time spent on that aspect of it.

I've come across a few things on the Qbank q's that are just flat wrong the way they were worded, and I actually sent an email about one of them, and basically the answer I got was: You're right, that's not correct the way it's worded, but the rest of the answers are all wrong too, so process of elimination! And, you seem like you have a good handle on the topic, so don't worry!

Um. Ok, yeah, I do, so thanks (it's the area of law I work in so...yeah), but I am sure lots of people who don't work in that area and maybe didn't take this class don't, so there's that. Also, this was not a case where one was 'less wrong' than the others. They were all just wrong. How am I supposed to pick between equally wrong answers by process of elimination?

[sandcastle45]

I was reading through an evidence essay and the sample Kaplan one was like "all 911 calls are non-testimonial." I messaged my friend and I'm like...erm...I'm not hallucinating that my evidence professor specifically went through a 911 call with us pointing out that some of the statements within it were to assist an ongoing emergency/non testimonial, whereas others were for the purpose of future litigation/testimonial, right? She assured me I was not hallucinating, but according to Kaplan, flat-out, all 911 calls are non-testimonial, don't ya know.

I've written 2 MPTs...was gonna do another one with the practice test and I actually read through it and outlined it, but then I was like...I just do not feel like writing this. I read through their answer and I got most of the issues, so I feel like I'm okay on that.

I hate "studying" essays, because I'll just look at the sample ones and be like holy shit, I'm gonna fail, there is no way I can remember all this, literally every single thing about a subject. Like if we could bring in a sheet just listing TOPICS in every subject, not even rules, I would be fine. Would know enough about a topic to feel like I could "make up" a rule. But I can't possibly remember every topic in a subject.

So Idk, it's prob bad but I prefer studying MBEs because at least I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

[Tanicius]

I was reading through an evidence essay and the sample Kaplan one was like "all 911 calls are non-testimonial." I messaged my friend and I'm like...erm...I'm not hallucinating that my evidence professor specifically went through a 911 call with us pointing out that some of the statements within it were to assist an ongoing emergency/non testimonial, whereas others were for the purpose of future litigation/testimonial, right? She assured me I was not hallucinating, but according to Kaplan, flat-out, all 911 calls are non-testimonial, don't ya know.

Themis pulls this too. I'll do an essay, and I'll be like, "Hm, this is a very complex question with lots of room for leeway. I can see it going either way." NOPE! Model answer says, "Generally this would be true, but in this very specific case, the rule is that it's never allowed." And almost every time it says this, I swear it's just making shit up about the law.

[Pokemon]

Damn... 3/11 in a mixed MBE Qbank. Confidence shot...

[objctnyrhnr]

what kinds of %'s "overall" do people have in their Qbank and how does it compare to their score on the final exam? i got a 59% on my final exam, but have a 64% on my qbank. The thing is though that my qbank % has been steadily rising because I am now regularly around 70%...maybe a tad lower, but not much.

Does this mean that the final exam q's were considerably harder than the real thing will be (remember--15 points is a standard scale, not an indication by kaplan to us that the final was harder), or that mbe qbank is easier? both? neither?

[Lawst]

My NY and NJ practice test essays are coming back 3 or 4 out of 10. I know they're supposedly tough graders, but this doesn't bode well at all. My MBE final was only a 121, which also isn't going to help. Are they just grading these very harshly for the state practice exams, or am I screwed?

[LeDique]

what kinds of %'s "overall" do people have in their Qbank and how does it compare to their score on the final exam? i got a 59% on my final exam, but have a 64% on my qbank. The thing is though that my qbank % has been steadily rising because I am now regularly around 70%...maybe a tad lower, but not much.

Does this mean that the final exam q's were considerably harder than the real thing will be (remember--15 points is a standard scale, not an indication by kaplan to us that the final was harder), or that mbe qbank is easier? both? neither?

I am sitting at 66% on qbank, and got a substantially higher score on the final. I still thought the final was a lot harder.

[sidhesadie]

what kinds of %'s "overall" do people have in their Qbank and how does it compare to their score on the final exam? i got a 59% on my final exam, but have a 64% on my qbank. The thing is though that my qbank % has been steadily rising because I am now regularly around 70%...maybe a tad lower, but not much.

Does this mean that the final exam q's were considerably harder than the real thing will be (remember--15 points is a standard scale, not an indication by kaplan to us that the final was harder), or that mbe qbank is easier? both? neither?

I am sitting at 66% on qbank, and got a substantially higher score on the final. I still thought the final was a lot harder.

Same here. A little below the magical 68% overall on Qbank, but well above on the final, even before scaling. I think it's because I do better with paper/pencil than on the computer. Which is fine, since that's how the actual exam is.

[shock259]

what kinds of %'s "overall" do people have in their Qbank and how does it compare to their score on the final exam? i got a 59% on my final exam, but have a 64% on my qbank. The thing is though that my qbank % has been steadily rising because I am now regularly around 70%...maybe a tad lower, but not much.

Does this mean that the final exam q's were considerably harder than the real thing will be (remember--15 points is a standard scale, not an indication by kaplan to us that the final was harder), or that mbe qbank is easier? both? neither?

I've been doing about 70% consistently on the QBank for a few weeks now. I got 65% on the final MBE, though. Not sure what that means (Qbank easier? Final harder?).

I'm gonna do the additional MBE tomorrow, I think.

[JenDarby]

what kinds of %'s "overall" do people have in their Qbank and how does it compare to their score on the final exam? i got a 59% on my final exam, but have a 64% on my qbank. The thing is though that my qbank % has been steadily rising because I am now regularly around 70%...maybe a tad lower, but not much.

Does this mean that the final exam q's were considerably harder than the real thing will be (remember--15 points is a standard scale, not an indication by kaplan to us that the final was harder), or that mbe qbank is easier? both? neither?

I've been doing about 70% consistently on the QBank for a few weeks now. I got 65% on the final MBE, though. Not sure what that means (Qbank easier? Final harder?).

I'm gonna do the additional MBE tomorrow, I think.

I'm going to do the additional tomorrow as well.

I'm making flash cards right now, because I don't really know what else to do lol. Then I am going to do 100 MBE questions (probably not all at once).

[LeDique]

Does anyone else feel like the qbank questions they're getting have changed? At around 1200 done, I felt like my questions started getting a lot shorter.