BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[AReasonableMan]

Has anyone watched the MBE review videos? I have been just checking the back of the book for the workshops. Trying to determine if that's what I should do for the simulated MBE or give these videos a second shot.

The answer explanations are the most time efficient, because there are a finite number of fact patterns. They're not great at explaining why a choice is wrong or what the right answer or which facts are necessary versus which are sufficient, but it's 20 seconds to get "this is what to do next time".

[goaheadualright]

Has anyone watched the MBE review videos? I have been just checking the back of the book for the workshops. Trying to determine if that's what I should do for the simulated MBE or give these videos a second shot.

Watch the ones by Guzman. Skip the others.

For some reason NY puts several days of actual work in between the midterm and the review lectures. By the time I went back to the test I'd forgotten why I picked what I picked, so they were useless. If I knew about that ahead of time I would have done the review lectures the day after the exam.

because people watch the lectures live or in classrooms (as opposed to at home) M-F

[diowad]

Another day of Emmanuel questions and another huge leap

Yesterday I got 19/24 on Con Law (79%) compared to my 55% with Barbri.
Today I got 18/21 on Contracts (85%) which has been a brutal 50% in Barbri.

I'd say the 20% jump Barbri claims is fairly accurate. Kind of amazing. Now if I can just figure out Property...

[Devlin]

Will say that I have watched two of the Guzman videos and have found them helpful.

Tried watching the Property guy and will probably end up consulting the answer key alone.

[charlesxavier]

Will say that I have watched two of the Guzman videos and have found them helpful.

Tried watching the Property guy and will probably end up consulting the answer key alone.

Exactly. I had it playing in the background and listened for the questions I missed. He basically says three answers are wrong and one is right then gives a broad statement about equity.

[3|ink]

The contracts guy was pretty good.

[3|ink]

The contracts guy was pretty good.

oh shit. turns out the property guy = contracts guy.

Well, I liked his contracts lecture.

[dwyf]

Do we get to submit three essays and one MPT to barbri? I just got that note about the deadline.

[Good Guy Gaud]

The contracts guy was pretty good.

oh shit. turns out the property guy = contracts guy.

Well, I liked his contracts lecture.

I've found him to be entertaining.

[Good Guy Gaud]

Do we get to submit three essays and one MPT to barbri? I just got that note about the deadline.

Yea. Have you not? The essays/MPT for submission were part of our assignments...

[dwyf]

Do we get to submit three essays and one MPT to barbri? I just got that note about the deadline.

Yea. Have you not? The essays/MPT for submission were part of our assignments...

I have done none of my assignments. I have been watching the videos and doing MPTs. I did the MPT workshop a while back.

Also - I took the simulated MBE, but not the NY state test - how does that one work? do we self grade? or submit that one.

[3|ink]

Do we get to submit three essays and one MPT to barbri? I just got that note about the deadline.

Yea. Have you not? The essays/MPT for submission were part of our assignments...

[RaleighStClair]

Do we get to submit three essays and one MPT to barbri? I just got that note about the deadline.

Yea. Have you not? The essays/MPT for submission were part of our assignments...

Submitting them is less important than doing them and learning from the model answers.

[mushybrain]

I submitted one for grading and then stopped bothering. I don't find it useful compared to just reviewing the model answers and based on what people have shared about their graded feedback I'm not missing much.

[rinkrat19]

Emanuel just managed to utterly confuse me.

Verbatim from the Evidence Study Strategies section:

...although you should be fully prepared on every topic, pay particular attention to the following:
1. Study only the Federal Rules of Evidence
The Multistate exam follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, not the common law. You absolutely must keep the differences between the two straight in your mind because this is a very easy area for the Bar Examiners to test. Look out for situations where the result under the FRE and the common law will be different. Here's an example...

(bold emphasis in the original, underlining mine)

So, study just the FRE like it explicitly states, or make sure to know where it differs from CL? Way to be ambiguous and contradictory, Emanuel.

[EvelynS]

I am so bummed. Not my day. I can't even get a single question right on Adaptibar. God help me on the actual exam.

[mushybrain]

Emanuel just managed to utterly confuse me.

Verbatim from the Evidence Study Strategies section:

...although you should be fully prepared on every topic, pay particular attention to the following:
1. Study only the Federal Rules of Evidence
The Multistate exam follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, not the common law. You absolutely must keep the differences between the two straight in your mind because this is a very easy area for the Bar Examiners to test. Look out for situations where the result under the FRE and the common law will be different. Here's an example...

(bold emphasis in the original, underlining mine)

So, study just the FRE like it explicitly states, or make sure to know where it differs from CL? Way to be ambiguous and contradictory, Emanuel.

I did a double take when I read that too, but if I remember correctly I think they just meant that you need to keep them straight if you already know the common law from having taken a class, so that you make sure you only apply FRE. If you happen to know the common law, there will be answers that throw you off because they're correct under common law and wrong under FRE. If you already don't know the common law, you can ignore that part and just study what BarBri told you to because those common law choices won't catch your eye.

[Neff]

Emanuel just managed to utterly confuse me.

Verbatim from the Evidence Study Strategies section:

...although you should be fully prepared on every topic, pay particular attention to the following:
1. Study only the Federal Rules of Evidence
The Multistate exam follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, not the common law. You absolutely must keep the differences between the two straight in your mind because this is a very easy area for the Bar Examiners to test. Look out for situations where the result under the FRE and the common law will be different. Here's an example...

(bold emphasis in the original, underlining mine)

So, study just the FRE like it explicitly states, or make sure to know where it differs from CL? Way to be ambiguous and contradictory, Emanuel.

I did a double take when I read that too, but if I remember correctly I think they just meant that you need to keep them straight if you already know the common law from having taken a class, so that you make sure you only apply FRE. If you happen to know the common law, there will be answers that throw you off because they're correct under common law and wrong under FRE. If you already don't know the common law, you can ignore that part and just study what BarBri told you to because those common law choices won't catch your eye.

Yep. Pretty sure this is what they mean too. I just finished all the evidence Qs in Emanuel and none of them referenced common law, and obviously no Barbri Q did either.

[Neff]

Can anyone who's done both comment on the difference between Qs in Adaptibar and Emanuel? I know both claim to have real Qs but was wondering if there are differences in terms of feel or difficulty between them.

[Kage3212]

Can anyone who's done both comment on the difference between Qs in Adaptibar and Emanuel? I know both claim to have real Qs but was wondering if there are differences in terms of feel or difficulty between them.

There is overlap between them. I have both sources and have def. noticed that some questions completed in Adaptibar, I previously completed in the Emmanuel book.

[nucky thompson]

Anyone know of a good source for MEE flash cards (specifically trusts, wills, corps, secured transactions, familiy law)? I got the Critical Pass for MBE and they're great. But idk about MEE. The Law in a Flash cards are like 30-35 bucks PER SUBJECT. That's robbery (taking away of personal property from the person of another by use of force or intimidation with the intent to deprive the person of the property permanently). Fuck me.

well played

Larceny + 2 (from the person of another; by use of force or intimidation ) for short

[myrtlewinston]

Emanuel just managed to utterly confuse me.

Verbatim from the Evidence Study Strategies section:

...although you should be fully prepared on every topic, pay particular attention to the following:
1. Study only the Federal Rules of Evidence
The Multistate exam follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, not the common law. You absolutely must keep the differences between the two straight in your mind because this is a very easy area for the Bar Examiners to test. Look out for situations where the result under the FRE and the common law will be different. Here's an example...

(bold emphasis in the original, underlining mine)

So, study just the FRE like it explicitly states, or make sure to know where it differs from CL? Way to be ambiguous and contradictory, Emanuel.

I did a double take when I read that too, but if I remember correctly I think they just meant that you need to keep them straight if you already know the common law from having taken a class, so that you make sure you only apply FRE. If you happen to know the common law, there will be answers that throw you off because they're correct under common law and wrong under FRE. If you already don't know the common law, you can ignore that part and just study what BarBri told you to because those common law choices won't catch your eye.

Yep. Pretty sure this is what they mean too. I just finished all the evidence Qs in Emanuel and none of them referenced common law, and obviously no Barbri Q did either.

Aside from this, are the Emmanuel Study Strategies helpful? Do they identify the important rules?

[rinkrat19]

Aside from this, are the Emmanuel Study Strategies helpful? Do they identify the important rules?

Somewhat helpful. They aren't a comprehensive review of the law. There are tips more like "look for answer choices which inaccurately restate the facts" (with an example question and discussion) or "an answer choice in the form [blah blah] is always incorrect because [X], so don't be fooled." Some of it's really obvious (really, I shouldn't pick the answer that applies the wrong law? thanks!) but some of it is stuff I wouldn't have necessarily thought about, at least not in such a clearly-stated way.
(I've read ConLaw, Contracts, Crim/CrimPro, and Evidence so far and done 10 questions from each subject.)

One thing I don't like is that within a subject, the questions are sometimes separated out into groups. Like in the Contracts section, all the questions dealing with Art. 2 are towards the end of the ~50 questions, so you don't have to think about whether Art 2 applies or not; it's obvious from where you are in the ~50 questions.

(Obviously in the mixed exam sets, the questions will be mixed.)

[941law]

Are the online assessments completely different from any workshop or MPQ?

[Neff]

Emanuel just managed to utterly confuse me.

Verbatim from the Evidence Study Strategies section:

...although you should be fully prepared on every topic, pay particular attention to the following:
1. Study only the Federal Rules of Evidence
The Multistate exam follows the Federal Rules of Evidence, not the common law. You absolutely must keep the differences between the two straight in your mind because this is a very easy area for the Bar Examiners to test. Look out for situations where the result under the FRE and the common law will be different. Here's an example...

(bold emphasis in the original, underlining mine)

So, study just the FRE like it explicitly states, or make sure to know where it differs from CL? Way to be ambiguous and contradictory, Emanuel.

I did a double take when I read that too, but if I remember correctly I think they just meant that you need to keep them straight if you already know the common law from having taken a class, so that you make sure you only apply FRE. If you happen to know the common law, there will be answers that throw you off because they're correct under common law and wrong under FRE. If you already don't know the common law, you can ignore that part and just study what BarBri told you to because those common law choices won't catch your eye.

Yep. Pretty sure this is what they mean too. I just finished all the evidence Qs in Emanuel and none of them referenced common law, and obviously no Barbri Q did either.

Aside from this, are the Emmanuel Study Strategies helpful? Do they identify the important rules?

I think they're worth reading. They obviously aren't intended to be a comprehensive overview of all the rules, but they do convey a surprising amount of information in a few short pages. They focus on frequently tested issues or issues likely to trip people up -- stuff that Barbri does cover but does not necessarily highlight. I highly recommend doing Emanuel crim law and torts Qs because there are pretty different from Barbri's. On those two subjects, Emanuel seems to require you to know the mechanical elements of crimes/torts very thoroughly, whereas Barbri tends to test more of the peripheral rules.

I feel like the real questions, as presented by Emanuel, can totally be "gamed." There's a set pattern to the answer choices and over time you can learn to pick out the right answer even if you don't know much law.