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Was poor awhile ago, took the bar in a different jurisdiction, MBE was like 150-something. Good enough. Lived by the 80/20 rule. Learn 80% of the law pat, and ignore/skim the other 20% because 80% of the MBE, and all of your MBE-topic essays will test on the 80%. Sure, 13th amendment or larceny by trick may come up occasionally. By and large though, the MBE is beatible by learning the 80% at recitation level.

Now, studying for a new jurisdiction, employer pays for it Barbri. Really liked the outlines, decently substantive and well organized lectures. Then, I take their MBE question sets. These things are garbage. I mean, they test the 20% of obscure stuff like 40% of the time. Another 20% are reading tests that turn on random issue spotting--problem is that almost never is an MBE question as long and detailed as these questions. So, 60% of the MBE questions that Barbri give you test stuff (long passages and obscure legal topics) that will be on 20-30% of your exam. This is super counterproductive and is setting people up to either at worst miss studying the most important stuff so as to focus on minutia, or at best, waste time. What gives? Also, why freak people out with these types of minutia questions then advise them to focus on your lectures and maybe the CMR outline on this side? Why hide the ball? If the Barbri wrote the bar, many many that pass would fail, and some that fail would pass.

I agree. They also do not update these questions and offer less services than their less expensive competitors.

Moreover, they do not teach large areas of mbe rules.

I have problems with Barbri's approach, but I found their MBE questions/prep to be perfectly fine.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:I have problems with Barbri's approach, but I found their MBE questions/prep to be perfectly fine.

Agreed, particularly if you take the time to review the explanations. Reading them reinforces the black letter law because you keep rereading the same stuff. This has helped me remember a LOT of law. Reading the explanations is well worth the time it takes.