Top Law Schools

Any 3Ls started prepping for the July Bar Exam already? If so, what are you doing? I just got a bunch of books from Barbri and would love to get a head start on prepping since this last semester is a joke.

Not going to start until after graduation/moving across the country, but that stack of BarBri books is fearsome.

I should probably add that I am referring to the CA Bar, hence the anxiety. I can't imagine no one else feeling the need to prepare now or people in the past who haven't done so...

OK, well given the low traction of this post, let me rephrase:

For people who have already taken the CA Bar, what would you have done if you had an extra month of prep?

tagged cause im interested

im just going through their early start paced program...did AMP and it sucks, so I'm just doing the following for each MBE subject:

conviser, lecture and take notes, 50 practice questions

Sounds like a good idea. I've talked to a few friends who graduated and passed last year. They said if they had an extra month to prep, they would have taken more Performance Tests since allocating 3 hours for PTs during Barbri Summer Prep is nearly impossible.

How many PTs are there and where do you get them?

Awesome, thanks! I tried searching for that thread initially, but could not find anything

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:Awesome, thanks! I tried searching for that thread initially, but could not find anything

np np my dude

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:OK, well given the low traction of this post, let me rephrase:

For people who have already taken the CA Bar, what would you have done if you had an extra month of prep?

worked out, eat healthy, mediate, yoga - whatever it is that u do to get into optimum physical and mental shape. then just follow ur course schedule (barbri, etc) and u'll be fine.

I really shouldn't grab some EE's for the classes I never took, i.e. corps or any business class? This is for the period between when my classes end and before the bar course starts (May 1- May 30th)

BCLS wrote:I really shouldn't grab some EE's for the classes I never took, i.e. corps or any business class? This is for the period between when my classes end and before the bar course starts (May 1- May 30th)

E&Es are way more detail than you need/want for the bar exam. Plus, the bar tests you either on state law, or on a made-up amalgam of law. You could start reading your bar materials on those subjects, if you want, but you don't need supplements. (I never took any of the business classes in law school and passed just fine.)

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

BCLS wrote:I really shouldn't grab some EE's for the classes I never took, i.e. corps or any business class? This is for the period between when my classes end and before the bar course starts (May 1- May 30th)

E&Es are way more detail than you need/want for the bar exam. Plus, the bar tests you either on state law, or on a made-up amalgam of law. You could start reading your bar materials on those subjects, if you want, but you don't need supplements. (I never took any of the business classes in law school and passed just fine.)

Thanks. Good idea with reading the bar prep materials on those topics earlier. I may do just that in May. I also think I may check out the BarBri AMP as well. I would feel guilty not doing at least some prep during my lovely month off.

As stated above, I'd prob start doing PTs. No knowledge of law is really needed and I doubt we will have 3 -4 hours of 'free time' to take one of these tests during Barbri. Also, from what I have heard, Barbri re-teaches all that you need to know for each subject.

I think the PT thing varies according to your state, but in mine, they were only 90 minutes each. Barbri goes over them with you, and it's scheduled into the prep. Also, really, they were the part of the exam that required the least preparation - it's just legal writing, with the closed universe of material they gave you. Assuming you had any legal jobs during law school, you don't need to learn much of anything for these. The biggest issue is paying attention to what kind of product they want - client letter, objective memo, persuasive memo, jury instructions - and again, Barbri goes over all that with you. I found them by far the easiest part of the exam, and I don't think practicing them extensively is at all necessary.

I guess it varies. Im taking the CA Bar and although the Performance Test material is pretty easy to understand and get onto paper, I am having time issues (3 hours total) with getting through the 40 pages of crap and outlining my answer in under an 1 hr 15. I figured taking some more Performance Tests will at least speed up my technique/outlining

Does Barbri give you all the pt's for your state? I feel like I can't start pt's before the course/ law right?

DwightSchruteFarms wrote:I guess it varies. Im taking the CA Bar and although the Performance Test material is pretty easy to understand and get onto paper, I am having time issues (3 hours total) with getting through the 40 pages of crap and outlining my answer in under an 1 hr 15. I figured taking some more Performance Tests will at least speed up my technique/outlining

Ah, that makes sense.

BCLS, I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but Barbri gives you practice PTs. You could start them whenever you like because you don't need to learn any law for them - they're based on a closed universe of provided materials (case law, statutes, affidavits, other documents) and they don't test state law. So it doesn't matter whether you've learned Barbri's version of torts or whatever yet, you could still do PTs.

Are they practice MBE's? Thanks for your help. I'm just trying to see if I need to buy outside practice MBE's and whether I can start doing them in may before the course starts.

BCLS wrote:Are they practice MBE's? Thanks for your help. I'm just trying to see if I need to buy outside practice MBE's and whether I can start doing them in may before the course starts.

There are tons and tons of practice MBE questions. I don't know when the online stuff gets loaded related to the start of the course, but they should also be in horrific stack of books Barbri sends you. I would wait to see how many you get through of those before buying outside practice ones - it really shouldn't be necessary.

I'm just going through Barbri's early start paced program. This is pretty much reviewing all the MBE subjects. However, I decided to stop doing AMP completely because its a huge waste of time. For each MBE subject, I spend about a week and just do conviser mini review, watch lectures and take notes, and do 50 practice MBE's. Anyone else have any opinions on this or what else I should do?

AntiHuman wrote:I'm just going through Barbri's early start paced program. This is pretty much reviewing all the MBE subjects. However, I decided to stop doing AMP completely because its a huge waste of time. For each MBE subject, I spend about a week and just do conviser mini review, watch lectures and take notes, and do 50 practice MBE's. Anyone else have any opinions on this or what else I should do?

Why are you doing this in March?!

Where is the early start program? I want to do this in May. Does it take a full month?

BCLS wrote:

AntiHuman wrote:I'm just going through Barbri's early start paced program. This is pretty much reviewing all the MBE subjects. However, I decided to stop doing AMP completely because its a huge waste of time. For each MBE subject, I spend about a week and just do conviser mini review, watch lectures and take notes, and do 50 practice MBE's. Anyone else have any opinions on this or what else I should do?

Why are you doing this in March?!

Where is the early start program? I want to do this in May. Does it take a full month?

You need to pay your full barbri tuition to be able to access their AMP and lectures I believe. AMP sucks though, so I cut that out completely. If you cut it out, each subject takes about a week for a total of 6 weeks. Once you do, click "early start bar review lectures" and the syllabus for their early start paced program will come up. Is it too early to do this stuff? I'm just skipping most of my classes and focusing on BAR EXAM/employment.

Good to know. Maybe ill dabble in this a bit. I don't want to get too crazy.