BarBri Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[greenchair]

Kaufman's voice.

[greenchair]

Michael Kaufman's voice is UNBEARABLE.

I want to rip my ears off.

Holy shit, did no one at Barbri listen to him before they recorded this?

This.

[3|ink]

Did you guys listen to him at 2x speed? His voice was hilarious.

I honestly enjoyed his lecture, but the content differs significantly from the barbri outline in some respects.

[michael2015]

Did you guys listen to him at 2x speed? His voice was hilarious.

I honestly enjoyed his lecture, but the content differs significantly from the barbri outline in some respects.

I tried him at: .5, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.

It sucked and his content was fine minus the repetition and sounding like an 8 year old.

[Blue Ivy]

How are you reviewing MBE questions? I've been re-reading them and reading the explanations for the correct and incorrect answer choices, but that doesn't seem to be the best way to internalize the material.

[greenchair]

I can't stand listening to him.

[History_Buff]

Was really worried for crim law and crim pro when the 50 year old prof started talking in Dr. Evil and Austin Powers voices. Crushed the MBE problems despite not knowing any answers.

At least his voices are over quick, unlike Franceze's 10-minute elocution safaris in Property.

She needs to stop singing. Forever.

She's delightfully zany. Effective though even though this was more of a refresher for me since I still remember a lot of Property law because my Property professor was excellent.

[Danger Zone]

Fuck you Barbri

Also GAIA*

[3|ink]

I think that may be copyrighted material. Might want to take that down. Unless you want to be the next GIA

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Is there any reason to watch the MPT lecture? I don't see how it can take 4 hrs to say follow the rules, be organized, answer the questions they pose, practice doing MPTs.

[BVest]

Yeah I was dumbfounded that they thought that pic was inspirational/motivational.

No kidding.. The way that horse's ears are pinned, there's nothing silly going on.

[kmp127]

I don't understand wills at all, the lecturer and his handout were awful. Trying to do the graded essay now and even open book have no idea what I'm doing. Is anyone else in TX having problems with it? Any suggestions? Reading through the big reference book and CMR and still just not getting it.

OMG I felt the SAME WAY!!! I cannot believe how awful those lecture handouts were --- no rules anywhere! Just a bunch of hypos mostly for exceptions to the exceptions -- when the basic rule is nowhere to be found (who takes under Intestacy Succession?? Beats me!!!) I'm bitter, can you tell? I was so frustrated doing that essay.

Do you have a game plan on learning Wills? I just want a breakdown of the basic rules and definitions....

Exactly! And that's what I want, too. I have no idea what I'm going to do, maybe try to read through the sample answers in the TXT book and try to pick them from there? ugh. Its the same way for trusts and estate & guardianship, I feel screwed for all of them

I'm so wiped from going back to each and every section for Wills and Estate Admin that I don't think I'm going to be able to do it for Guardianship/Trusts as well. My game plan is to focus on Bad trustees and Creation of Guardianships... and pray.

[kmp127]

Does anyone have a good guideline on how to self grade the essays most accurately?

[941law]

Part of me thinks I'm just studying to give myself an edge for when I inevitably retake in February

It's almost as if I need the hindsight of a failure to properly study. Guess I'll just put my trust in Barbri. I'm also really considering just guessing the multiple choice subjects and essay subjects (Florida) and focusing on those, then obviously MBE. Which in all reality doesn't shave off that much work.

[Kage3212]

How are you reviewing MBE questions? I've been re-reading them and reading the explanations for the correct and incorrect answer choices, but that doesn't seem to be the best way to internalize the material.

Unfortunately, this is the only way to "review" missed questions. Alternatively, you can splurge on more supplements that contain additional MBE questions. This is what I inevitably ended doing because I know practicing these things incessantly is how you really begin to know the material/the tricks bar examiners use.

[Backpacker]

I'm assuming that the MPQ/Study Smart problem sets get progressively harder/target different material within the same subject - and that is why the "average score" quoted for each set (in the front of the book) doesn't get progressively better? Or am I misunderstanding that? I would have liked to be getting better and better, but instead it is just randomly fluctuating...

[mr.hands]

I'm assuming that the MPQ/Study Smart problem sets get progressively harder/target different material within the same subject - and that is why the "average score" quoted for each set (in the front of the book) doesn't get progressively better? Or am I misunderstanding that? I would have liked to be getting better and better, but instead it is just randomly fluctuating...

Yep, that's my understanding too. The questions increasingly test more nuanced exceptions the further you get along. I also dropped precipitously from question set 1 to 2 and 3 (plummeting from almost 80% to less than 60%).

[mushybrain]

If that's true I feel better because I was pretty sure I was getting dumber.

[mr.hands]

If that's true I feel better because I was pretty sure I was getting dumber.

If their goal is to inspire us to work hard to get our percentages up, it's not working. It just makes me mad.

[Kage3212]

I'm assuming that the MPQ/Study Smart problem sets get progressively harder/target different material within the same subject - and that is why the "average score" quoted for each set (in the front of the book) doesn't get progressively better? Or am I misunderstanding that? I would have liked to be getting better and better, but instead it is just randomly fluctuating...

Yep, that's my understanding too. The questions increasingly test more nuanced exceptions the further you get along. I also dropped precipitously from question set 1 to 2 and 3 (plummeting from almost 80% to less than 60%).

Same. Plummet from property went from 80% to 60%, former being set 1 and later being sets 2 and 3. Better to miss them now!

[k5220]

How are you reviewing MBE questions? I've been re-reading them and reading the explanations for the correct and incorrect answer choices, but that doesn't seem to be the best way to internalize the material.

In addition to paying attention to the explanations for the questions I missed or only guessed at, I take notes and keep a running mistake log organized by subtopic (e.g. In a separate document I have for civ pro, under the heading subject matter jurisdiction, i have saved notes about the timing requirements for remand). So far I've found taking notes on my mistakes pretty helpful for internalizing the information.

[BVest]

I'm assuming that the MPQ/Study Smart problem sets get progressively harder/target different material within the same subject - and that is why the "average score" quoted for each set (in the front of the book) doesn't get progressively better? Or am I misunderstanding that? I would have liked to be getting better and better, but instead it is just randomly fluctuating...

Yep, that's my understanding too. The questions increasingly test more nuanced exceptions the further you get along. I also dropped precipitously from question set 1 to 2 and 3 (plummeting from almost 80% to less than 60%).

Same. Plummet from property went from 80% to 60%, former being set 1 and later being sets 2 and 3. Better to miss them now!

I'm glad it's not just me. On the third property set I missed the first four in a row (despite getting 80% on the first two) with each one having an explanation along the lines of "B is incorrect. While the statute of frauds would ordinarily void the future interest in this situation, this obscure exception that has never been mentioned anywhere applies."

[myrtlewinston]

Watching C h e m e r i n s k y now.

[kmp127]

Watching C h e m e r i n s k y now.

Call me crazy, but I like him muchhhh more than Thai (who I had). You just need to use 1.5 on him Him, Franceze and Whitebread are the only three I remember from taking Barbri 8 years ago for PA/NJ -- and I passed then with flying colors - albeit it was righttt after law school when things were fresh. Chemerinsky's handout I think lends better to making flash cards too - if you're going that route

[rinkrat19]

My Crim/CrimPro assessment was still not totally stellar, but leaps and bounds above my abysmal Property scores. Good thing I want to be a prosecutor.

I didn't mind the Crim guy (Noreuil). He moved along pretty quickly and didn't digress beyond the actual material much. Plus Crim just sucks less than Property.

jfc, I'm doing a personal assignment, AMP for Transfer of Title by Deed and Notice and I've gotten the first 68!! questions wrong. I CANNOT do Property.