Spring 2015 Course Selection - 3L (NY Bar Exam) Forum

[GodFavor2010]

Any recent NY Bar Exam takers can offer advice as to which essential bar courses one should to take? Registering for last semester of law school. Therefore, I wanted to gauge which subjects were great to take. Unsure how this would change if NY transition to the uniform bar exam. But, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[bklynattorney]

Honestly, I'd approach the situation by trying to take classes that will benefit my job search and or career in genral. If you take a bar course, you'll learn all you need to know for the bar. Additionally, your foundational courses from the first half of law school will give you a solid base from which to build off of during prep.

[encore1101]

I took NY Practice my spring semester, which was a great idea. Barbri tends to gloss over the NY portion, but I felt fine after the NY multiple choice because of taking NYP very recently.

[northwood]

New York Civil Procedure, Estates, Wills and Trusts Law, and Administrative Law.

[5ky]

I took NY Practice my spring semester, which was a great idea. Barbri tends to gloss over the NY portion, but I felt fine after the NY multiple choice because of taking NYP very recently.

Barbri has like 12 hours of lecture on NY Practice, which is the same as the major MBE subjects and more than just about everything else.

[kingofcream]

I imagine Evidence would be pretty rough if you never took it in law school. Ditto for Crim Pro. Everything else is learnable. Never took NY Practice but the CPLR isn't that bad. Taking Corps wasn't all that helpful to me. Take whatever, just study.

[encore1101]

I took NY Practice my spring semester, which was a great idea. Barbri tends to gloss over the NY portion, but I felt fine after the NY multiple choice because of taking NYP very recently.

Barbri has like 12 hours of lecture on NY Practice, which is the same as the major MBE subjects and more than just about everything else.

Yes, but by taking NYP in school, you won't have to spend as much time studying for NYP for the Bar, thus freeing up more time to study for other subjects which are on the MBE. The New York portion of the bar is not insignificant, but neither is it worth spending a whole lot of time on.

If you're looking for classes to take anyway, and you've taken classes that cover the MBE, then there's:

Business Corporations
Family Law
NY Practice
Admin Law
Professional Responsibility
Trusts and Estates


Maybe one or two more. Out of those listed, I found that New York Practice was the most extensively tested on the NY multiple choice, and one of the longest lectures on BarBri. I'm glad that I took NYP during school, when I needed credits to graduate anyway, rather than trying to learn NY Practice for the first time during the summer.


ETA: Meh, to each their own; I found it helpful and glad I took it.

[dogfan14]

Evidence (if you haven't taken it)--not the easiest MBE subject if you've never encountered the material.

For NY specific:

Wills/Trusts/Estates -- however your school breaks it up. The bar prep programs will teach you the material, however there is a LOT of NY law on point, so in the interest of time savings, better to just be familiar with the subject.

NY CivPro -- Especially since Fed Civ Pro will now be tested on the MBE, spend your time on NY Procedure to understand the distinctions and to--if time allows--add potential extra points to essays that ask minutiae questions re: NY CivPro on the exam, or to score some extra points on the NY multiple choice. No one seems to care about the multiple choice, but meh, if you can, might as well try to add points wherever.

Otherwise, just enjoy the spring. Take classes you'll likely never have the chance to take again. Bar prep does cover mostly everything you'll *need* to know.