BarBri Bar Review Hangout - February 2016 Exam Forum

[BVest]

Got a 146 /93% percentile ranking. Got sick on Saturday with a high fever and have not been able to study - coming back into it only today. Do you guys recommend watching the MBE explanatory videos we got assigned during the weekend? or is it best to ready the answers myself?

Ordinarily I would say no, but the MBE explanatory videos are 180 for presenter (Guzman) alone. But it's definitely one that requires 1.75-2.0x speed.

[jackbauer10]

Got a 146 /93% percentile ranking. Got sick on Saturday with a high fever and have not been able to study - coming back into it only today. Do you guys recommend watching the MBE explanatory videos we got assigned during the weekend? or is it best to ready the answers myself?

Ordinarily I would say no, but the MBE explanatory videos are 180 for presenter (Guzman) alone. But it's definitely one that requires 1.75-2.0x speed.

+1. I watched them all, mostly at 1.5x speed. Even speeding them up was incredibly time consuming, but there were TONS of little points that both presenters covered that helped clear up mushy topics for me. I marked up my scantron as I took the simulated MBE with notes as to which ones I was unsure about so I could go over those after. However, there were a LOT more that I missed that I thought I for sure got right, and a lot that I got right for the wrong reason. Overall, it was very time consuming, but helpful and gave me a little more confidence, and right now that counts for something.

[BrokenMouse]

.

[Carly12]

Got a 146 /93% percentile ranking. Got sick on Saturday with a high fever and have not been able to study - coming back into it only today. Do you guys recommend watching the MBE explanatory videos we got assigned during the weekend? or is it best to ready the answers myself?

Ordinarily I would say no, but the MBE explanatory videos are 180 for presenter (Guzman) alone. But it's definitely one that requires 1.75-2.0x speed.

Got a 146 /93% percentile ranking. Got sick on Saturday with a high fever and have not been able to study - coming back into it only today. Do you guys recommend watching the MBE explanatory videos we got assigned during the weekend? or is it best to ready the answers myself?

Ordinarily I would say no, but the MBE explanatory videos are 180 for presenter (Guzman) alone. But it's definitely one that requires 1.75-2.0x speed.

+1. I watched them all, mostly at 1.5x speed. Even speeding them up was incredibly time consuming, but there were TONS of little points that both presenters covered that helped clear up mushy topics for me. I marked up my scantron as I took the simulated MBE with notes as to which ones I was unsure about so I could go over those after. However, there were a LOT more that I missed that I thought I for sure got right, and a lot that I got right for the wrong reason. Overall, it was very time consuming, but helpful and gave me a little more confidence, and right now that counts for something.

Thanks guys, will watch them at night after finishing the assignments for the day - starting with property and evidence, my worst subjects!

[NY_Sea]

Got a 146 /93% percentile ranking. Got sick on Saturday with a high fever and have not been able to study - coming back into it only today. Do you guys recommend watching the MBE explanatory videos we got assigned during the weekend? or is it best to ready the answers myself?

Ordinarily I would say no, but the MBE explanatory videos are 180 for presenter (Guzman) alone. But it's definitely one that requires 1.75-2.0x speed.

Guzman is a godsend... I remember particularly that for Con Law he has a list of 12 answers that are always wrong (such as police power under the 10th). Those tidbits are worth their weight in gold.

[THE_U]

Guzman is my favorite Barbri lecturer, hands down.

2 more videos to go, but I do think they are worth watching. Shonholtz is also very good IMO.

[law732]

July retaker here. Missed July by 4 points. Passed State portion but fell short on the MBE. 125 on the Simulated MBE this time around. How is everyone memorizing the black letter law? I feel like a nice amount of it stuck (somewhat) from the summer, but still feel like I should have a better handle on the rules/elements at this point in the process.

Thank you all for sharing your progress.

[crumpetsandtea]

July retaker here. Missed July by 4 points. Passed State portion but fell short on the MBE. 125 on the Simulated MBE this time around. How is everyone memorizing the black letter law? I feel like a nice amount of it stuck (somewhat) from the summer, but still feel like I should have a better handle on the rules/elements at this point in the process.

Thank you all for sharing your progress.

IMO what helped the most was repetition. I typed notes to all the lectures instead of writing by hand into the lecture handouts. Then, I turned my lecture notes into shorter, rule-based checklists/outlines. Then, I did literally every essay in the BarBri essay booklet. When I reviewed the essay answers, I turned on "track changes" and typed out the rules/issues/analysis that I missed in my actual answer.

The more you type it out or say it out loud, the more comfortable you'll become with the material. I found doing essays to help a LOT with general understanding/memorization of the BLL because it helped me understand the law in the context of real life, instead of just trying to force myself to memorize rule statements on their own. YMMV, though.

[bluesplitter]

July retaker here. Missed July by 4 points. Passed State portion but fell short on the MBE. 125 on the Simulated MBE this time around. How is everyone memorizing the black letter law? I feel like a nice amount of it stuck (somewhat) from the summer, but still feel like I should have a better handle on the rules/elements at this point in the process.

Thank you all for sharing your progress.

IMO what helped the most was repetition. I typed notes to all the lectures instead of writing by hand into the lecture handouts. Then, I turned my lecture notes into shorter, rule-based checklists/outlines. Then, I did literally every essay in the BarBri essay booklet. When I reviewed the essay answers, I turned on "track changes" and typed out the rules/issues/analysis that I missed in my actual answer.

The more you type it out or say it out loud, the more comfortable you'll become with the material. I found doing essays to help a LOT with general understanding/memorization of the BLL because it helped me understand the law in the context of real life, instead of just trying to force myself to memorize rule statements on their own. YMMV, though.

Crumpets and Tea.....now there's a name i havent seen in a long time. I remember your screen name from way back when i was on this forum in the fall of 2012 trying to get into law school. lol


I hope it all worked out well for you.

[crumpetsandtea]

Crumpets and Tea.....now there's a name i havent seen in a long time. I remember your screen name from way back when i was on this forum in the fall of 2012 trying to get into law school. lol


I hope it all worked out well for you.

Hahahahhaha hey there!!!! I have indeed been on TLS for an embarrassingly long period of time, lol. I think it's all turned out pretty well for me, actually - I'm very happy with where I am in life right now. How about you? (:

[captainplanet]

Alright, ya'll, set me straight. I am retaking the exam (failed in July) and unfortunately have not been able to study a bunch until now. So far I've read the entire CMR book once over (and a couple topics twice). I've barely done any practice questions, I seem to bomb whenever I try just a few. I couldn't follow the traditional plan because I've been working 40+ hours a week and trying to study at night. However, I've got a full month now with no work and I'm looking to kill it. At this point, do I have a reasonable chance at passing and what do you all recommend I should be doing?

I too work 40+ hours a week and am trying to study at night (with not much success). I do put in a decent amount of hours, about 6-8 per day on the weekends. There's no way I'm going to get through all the Barbri stuff. I've barely got through 3 subjects so far with less than a month to go. I'm taking off starting the 8th and going to try to cram and focus hard on MBE in hopes it will help me know rules for the essays. I've always been able to cram law school exams in 1-3 days and pass. Anyone have any idea if anyone has crammed for the bar exam in two weeks and passed or is this wishful thinking?

I crammed for the CA bar for 2-3 weeks and passed, but it was awful (I developed an ulcer from all the stress and my mom moved in for two weeks to help get me through it). I was probably where you're at now, only having done a few subjects and watched half the videos with a month left. I had no chance of passing at that point. So basically, I threw the Barbri schedule out the window and concentrated on my weaknesses and doing the tasks that were the most helpful given the amount of time they took. I finished watching the videos at x1.75 because they were pretty helpful for me. Then, I tried a couple of essays and found that my weakness was that I didn't know the rules, so doing more essays without learning the rules was pointless. So I reviewed 5 essay answers per topic in the Barbri essay book and memorized all the rule statements (the same topics kept coming up). I felt that my IRAC was fine so I only outlined a couple more essays and didn't write them out. I reviewed the filled-in handouts from the lectures and tried to memorize and write out as many rule statements as I could (I looked at the CMR a little but it wasn't as helpful for me). I felt that my MBE score wasn't improving with practice so I basically gave up on those (in hindsight, I should have used real MBE questions to practice instead of Barbri's). I went from about 11% of Barbri completed with 3-4 weeks to go to 22% on exam day. During the exam, I felt decent about all of the essays, awful about the MBE, but I passed. Memorizing the essay rule statements and writing rules out again and again is what got me through it, 100%. Do note that CA bar weight is 65% essays / 35% MBE so this strategy may not be as good for other states. So don't give up! But focus on addressing your weaknesses, not the Barbri schedule.

[jackbauer10]

I crammed for the CA bar for 2-3 weeks and passed, but it was awful (I developed an ulcer from all the stress and my mom moved in for two weeks to help get me through it). I was probably where you're at now, only having done a few subjects and watched half the videos with a month left. I had no chance of passing at that point. So basically, I threw the Barbri schedule out the window and concentrated on my weaknesses and doing the tasks that were the most helpful given the amount of time they took. I finished watching the videos at x1.75 because they were pretty helpful for me. Then, I tried a couple of essays and found that my weakness was that I didn't know the rules, so doing more essays without learning the rules was pointless. So I reviewed 5 essay answers per topic in the Barbri essay book and memorized all the rule statements (the same topics kept coming up). I felt that my IRAC was fine so I only outlined a couple more essays and didn't write them out. I reviewed the filled-in handouts from the lectures and tried to memorize and write out as many rule statements as I could (I looked at the CMR a little but it wasn't as helpful for me). I felt that my MBE score wasn't improving with practice so I basically gave up on those (in hindsight, I should have used real MBE questions to practice instead of Barbri's). I went from about 11% of Barbri completed with 3-4 weeks to go to 22% on exam day. During the exam, I felt decent about all of the essays, awful about the MBE, but I passed. Memorizing the essay rule statements and writing rules out again and again is what got me through it, 100%. Do note that CA bar weight is 65% essays / 35% MBE so this strategy may not be as good for other states. So don't give up! But focus on addressing your weaknesses, not the Barbri schedule.

Speaking of the Barbri schedule, we just started the CA subjects this week. Starting to have a panic attack that I still need to learn new substantive material for the next 4.5 days in addition to upping my MBE score and continuing to practice essays. As a first-timer, I approach each day with a good attitude, but by nighttime I'm overwhelmed and not sure how I'm going to be able to make this happen. How should I be approaching the CA subjects? Also I might have asked this before, so sorry for any repetitive posting. Just not sure how to keep morals up with so much still to learn and less than 3 weeks now.

[captainplanet]

I crammed for the CA bar for 2-3 weeks and passed, but it was awful (I developed an ulcer from all the stress and my mom moved in for two weeks to help get me through it). I was probably where you're at now, only having done a few subjects and watched half the videos with a month left. I had no chance of passing at that point. So basically, I threw the Barbri schedule out the window and concentrated on my weaknesses and doing the tasks that were the most helpful given the amount of time they took. I finished watching the videos at x1.75 because they were pretty helpful for me. Then, I tried a couple of essays and found that my weakness was that I didn't know the rules, so doing more essays without learning the rules was pointless. So I reviewed 5 essay answers per topic in the Barbri essay book and memorized all the rule statements (the same topics kept coming up). I felt that my IRAC was fine so I only outlined a couple more essays and didn't write them out. I reviewed the filled-in handouts from the lectures and tried to memorize and write out as many rule statements as I could (I looked at the CMR a little but it wasn't as helpful for me). I felt that my MBE score wasn't improving with practice so I basically gave up on those (in hindsight, I should have used real MBE questions to practice instead of Barbri's). I went from about 11% of Barbri completed with 3-4 weeks to go to 22% on exam day. During the exam, I felt decent about all of the essays, awful about the MBE, but I passed. Memorizing the essay rule statements and writing rules out again and again is what got me through it, 100%. Do note that CA bar weight is 65% essays / 35% MBE so this strategy may not be as good for other states. So don't give up! But focus on addressing your weaknesses, not the Barbri schedule.

Speaking of the Barbri schedule, we just started the CA subjects this week. Starting to have a panic attack that I still need to learn new substantive material for the next 4.5 days in addition to upping my MBE score and continuing to practice essays. As a first-timer, I approach each day with a good attitude, but by nighttime I'm overwhelmed and not sure how I'm going to be able to make this happen. How should I be approaching the CA subjects? Also I might have asked this before, so sorry for any repetitive posting. Just not sure how to keep morals up with so much still to learn and less than 3 weeks now.

If you're keeping up with the Barbri schedule, you're already doing great. Remember that Barbri assigns way too much and really only expects people to do about 75%. Forgive yourself for the 25% or 35% you're not doing, and remember they assign too much work on purpose. So figure out what your weaknesses are, and focus on those. I wasted way too much time doing tasks that weren't going to help me pass just to check the stupid box on the Barbri schedule. If you study smart, there should come a point a week or two before the exam when you go from feeling like you don't know anything and there's too much for any human being to learn and memorize, to starting to feel like you're retaining some of this information and getting a grip on the material. If your weakness is not knowing the rules, don't just keep writing essays but go through the lecture outline for a subject and write out the rule statements (by hand, a couple of times) and then outline or write out 2 essays. If your weakness is IRAC, practice writing essays out again and again and study the answer samples.

It sounds easy for me to say to not stress out from this side of the bar exam, because I was such a mess when I was in your shoes. But allowing myself to stress out as much as I did was the worst thing I did and destroyed my ability to study. And when I actually took the test I realized that I had built it up to be much worse than it was (thanks, Barbri). So try to remind yourself that the stress is only making it harder to study, if you study smart it's not going to be as bad as it feels now come test day, and that the worst thing that can happen is that you have to retake in July when it's a 2-day exam. And that a complete slacker was able to pass with just a few weeks of cramming, so you're already ahead.

[MrMustache]

Looking at BarBri lecture notes for Wills, and there are 74 pages of hideous formatting. So far I've watched all of the lectures because I felt most of them did a good job condensing the material into a learnable amount, but what the hell is going on with Wills?

Edit: I'll just read and outline CMR for Wills and Trusts. Very disappointed by BarBri's quality control on this.
Edit2: I'll watch it anyway...

[jackbauer10]

Looking at BarBri lecture notes for Wills, and there are 74 pages of hideous formatting. So far I've watched all of the lectures because I felt most of them did a good job condensing the material into a learnable amount, but what the hell is going on with Wills?

Edit: I'll just read and outline CMR for Wills and Trusts. Very disappointed by BarBri's quality control on this.

Agree that the formatting looks hideous, but the font is at least 14pt. The lecture itself is 3.5 hours, which turns out to be less than the disaster that was Corporations today at just under 4 hours. Not arguing with you about the need for quality control, but I'm going to watch it anyway and pray some of it sinks in.

[Carly12]

Looking at BarBri lecture notes for Wills, and there are 74 pages of hideous formatting. So far I've watched all of the lectures because I felt most of them did a good job condensing the material into a learnable amount, but what the hell is going on with Wills?

Edit: I'll just read and outline CMR for Wills and Trusts. Very disappointed by BarBri's quality control on this.

While we are on the topic of Barbri's lack of quality control, I was assigned the second round of 50 mix MBE questions and I can recognize at least 20 of them from previous MBE sets

[MrMustache]

Looking at BarBri lecture notes for Wills, and there are 74 pages of hideous formatting. So far I've watched all of the lectures because I felt most of them did a good job condensing the material into a learnable amount, but what the hell is going on with Wills?

Edit: I'll just read and outline CMR for Wills and Trusts. Very disappointed by BarBri's quality control on this.

Agree that the formatting looks hideous, but the font is at least 14pt. The lecture itself is 3.5 hours, which turns out to be less than the disaster that was Corporations today at just under 4 hours. Not arguing with you about the need for quality control, but I'm going to watch it anyway and pray some of it sinks in.

The first hour of Trusts will also be Wills, so it's a total of 4.5 hours Now that I've slept on it, I figured I might as well watch the thing. Can't risk cutting corners this late in the game.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Looking at BarBri lecture notes for Wills, and there are 74 pages of hideous formatting. So far I've watched all of the lectures because I felt most of them did a good job condensing the material into a learnable amount, but what the hell is going on with Wills?

Edit: I'll just read and outline CMR for Wills and Trusts. Very disappointed by BarBri's quality control on this.

Agree that the formatting looks hideous, but the font is at least 14pt. The lecture itself is 3.5 hours, which turns out to be less than the disaster that was Corporations today at just under 4 hours. Not arguing with you about the need for quality control, but I'm going to watch it anyway and pray some of it sinks in.

The first hour of Trusts will also be Wills, so it's a total of 4.5 hours Now that I've slept on it, I figured I might as well watch the thing. Can't risk cutting corners this late in the game.

I agree the lecture handouts for Wills and Trusts are terrible. But, Professor Johanson is awesome.

Edit: Nevermind I forgot he does the Texas lectures for that. Not sure who does it for MEE.

[crumpetsandtea]

Speaking of the Barbri schedule, we just started the CA subjects this week. Starting to have a panic attack that I still need to learn new substantive material for the next 4.5 days in addition to upping my MBE score and continuing to practice essays. As a first-timer, I approach each day with a good attitude, but by nighttime I'm overwhelmed and not sure how I'm going to be able to make this happen. How should I be approaching the CA subjects? Also I might have asked this before, so sorry for any repetitive posting. Just not sure how to keep morals up with so much still to learn and less than 3 weeks now.

I took CA this July and passed and I just want to say - EVERYONE FEELS LIKE THIS. I was literally 100% convinced that I was going to fail and had multiple nights where I woke up in a cold sweat and felt like freaking out and I had to go take 20 minutes to read over rule statements to convince myself I was doing everything I could be doing.

My best advice is to do as many essays as possible and create short outlines out of the lecture handouts that you can quickly read over to familiarize yourself with the rules. Cut out the hypos and stuff and just condense it into short rule statements + exceptions.

I had a cheat sheet set (1 page on each topic) from someone who had passed the year before me that I found REALLY useful for quick review/reminders to myself once I got all the rule statements down and felt familiar with the topics. If you PM me your email I will happily forward it to you. I can also send you some of my outlines (I called them "boilerplates") but I honestly think it's more useful to make your own.

[BrokenMouse]

.

[MrMustache]

WTH did Barbri get rid of speed through video lecture? That option is not available for me.

Is it lecture specific? I'm currently watching Wills, using google Chrome browser, and can speed it up as usual.

[Sue]

Does anyone besides me find Barbri Sim.Exam questions extremely long? I am a repeater here, kind of remember that the questions were shorter in the actual thing, but not quite sure.

[jdmar]

on the UBE, what's the probably that the essay topics will repeat from last exam (July)? does anyone know?

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Does anyone besides me find Barbri Sim.Exam questions extremely long? I am a repeater here, kind of remember that the questions were shorter in the actual thing, but not quite sure.

I think barbri does that on purpose to help you with timing

[Sue]

on the UBE, what's the probably that the essay topics will repeat from last exam (July)? does anyone know?

CivPro is almost always there. It was there before CivPro was one of the MBE subjects, and even after that, there was a CivPro question both in Feb2015 and July 2015 exams. Also, they test Conlaw in every other exam.

See the topic for MEE predictions here, there is an awesome chart for that.