Top Law Schools

I am using Barbri to study for the July 2015 Bar and am trying to determine the best way to use the materials they provide. It seems to me that the full outlines are way too long and detailed to be useful (correct me if I am wrong), so I am trying to determine if my time would be better spent studying the mini review outlines or listening to the lectures and then studying the lecture handouts. I am leaning towards just studying the mini review materials based on my prep for the MPRE. I also used Barbri to study for the MPRE and felt like sitting through the lecture was a waste of time (I don't get much from filling in blanks on handouts) and that the lecture handout was not sufficiently comprehensive. I focused on studying the mini review outline (I thought it was excellent) and passed by a large margin. Does anyone have a recommendation on which materials are best to study? Will I miss out on anything important by skipping the lectures/handouts and just studying the mini review outlines? Thanks for your help!

I skimmed the CMR for each subject and found that most if not all of the stuff tested was in the lecture handout.

I'm using Barbri for this summer as well. I'm working my way through the first part (Con Law) right now and haven't touched the huge Multistate book. Barbri tells you to really only use it for subjects you don't know at all or specific topics you really don't understand. Instead, I'm reading through the CMR before and then watching the lecture. The Con Law lecture notes seem pretty pointless, and at least for that subject, I feel like the CMR is teaching it better and in a more comprehensive, understandable way than the lecture notes are. My plan after finishing both Con Law lectures is just to review the CMR again for the "Review" assignment. I also have the Critical Pass flashcards, so I may just add notes from the CMR and lecture to those and count that for review too.

I took Barbri for my July 14 bar attempt.

My advice: ignore the handouts. We spent so, so, so many hours on the lectures and handouts, neither of which really helped a good portion of us in class. I understand that many people need a source for black letter law and may gain knowledge from their videos, but it was a huge waste of time for me. I had to sit down the last 2-3 weeks and re-learn all of the law.

If you can stomach that, I'd ditch the handouts and lectures and spend your time learning the law from CMR and from practice tests. The more practice essays you do, the more you'll commit key areas of the law to memory by actually typing out the answers and spotting issues.

Has anyone compiled a comprehensive approach to how to actually use this material? I know general consensus is to do what works for you but at this point I don't even know how to best spend my time. Any suggestions would be great on where to even start with all this shit.

So far for pre-prep I've mostly bullshitted my way through all of the AMP modules and I'm wondering where to go from there. Honestly AMP helped me with a sort of orientation back into 1L law stuff I forgot but I don't think it's going to help me beyond that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Learned Throw Hands wrote:Has anyone compiled a comprehensive approach to how to actually use this material? I know general consensus is to do what works for you but at this point I don't even know how to best spend my time. Any suggestions would be great on where to even start with all this shit.

+1 to this.

I also would like to know what is the best use of materials and time. Not sure if I should spend time in the lecture handouts, the CMR, the multi state, or even when to use them.

Our Evidence professor today stated that the only information we needed to know for doing well on Evidence comes from the lecture handout. Thus, he insinuated against studying from the CMR and to only review the lecture handout.

I found the CMR helpful - Why not do both? One review session study from CMR, the next from lecture, with more emphasis on lecture as you are closer to exam.

I scored well on the mbe and I only ever used the lecture notes, but I knew those notes COLD by the time I took the bar. The only time I ever opened any other book was when I was really confused and needed clarification. IMO the priority is knowing the lecture notes absolutely cold and not getting bogged down in details in the other books.

I should also mention I did a shitload of mbe questions through adaptibar and thats what really solidified my knowledge

Hi, can anyone shed some light as to which sets of lecture notes are sufficient and which are not? Thanks!

MoneyMay wrote:I should also mention I did a shitload of mbe questions through adaptibar and thats what really solidified my knowledge

did you do it in conjunction with barbri? wondering if it's worth shelling out the money for adaptibar.

goldeneye wrote:

MoneyMay wrote:I should also mention I did a shitload of mbe questions through adaptibar and thats what really solidified my knowledge

did you do it in conjunction with barbri? wondering if it's worth shelling out the money for adaptibar.

I started adaptibar about a third of the way through barbri but I wish I had started it even earlier than I did. Towards the end I stopped doing the barbri questions completely and would just watch the lectures then do adaptibar (they got really, really ridiculous towards the end--- part of their strategy of freaking you out to get you to study I think). Looking back on it, I scored way higher than I needed to on the MBE and really probably could have passed without paying for adaptibar but if you are like me and want to overkill it to be safe then I recommend adaptibar. The way I look at it is that I had just spent 3 years in school and an extra $1000 or so was nothing to help me pass the bar but plenty of people pass without it.

MoneyMay wrote:

goldeneye wrote:

MoneyMay wrote:I should also mention I did a shitload of mbe questions through adaptibar and thats what really solidified my knowledge

did you do it in conjunction with barbri? wondering if it's worth shelling out the money for adaptibar.

I started adaptibar about a third of the way through barbri but I wish I had started it even earlier than I did. Towards the end I stopped doing the barbri questions completely and would just watch the lectures then do adaptibar (they got really, really ridiculous towards the end--- part of their strategy of freaking you out to get you to study I think). Looking back on it, I scored way higher than I needed to on the MBE and really probably could have passed without paying for adaptibar but if you are like me and want to overkill it to be safe then I recommend adaptibar. The way I look at it is that I had just spent 3 years in school and an extra $1000 or so was nothing to help me pass the bar but plenty of people pass without it.

I'm taking CA so the MBE is only 35% but I'm just wondering at what point I do problems from Barbri -- in videos they keep saying to do problems but then I haven't been assigned more than 30 so far.

goldeneye wrote:

MoneyMay wrote:

goldeneye wrote:

MoneyMay wrote:I should also mention I did a shitload of mbe questions through adaptibar and thats what really solidified my knowledge

did you do it in conjunction with barbri? wondering if it's worth shelling out the money for adaptibar.

I started adaptibar about a third of the way through barbri but I wish I had started it even earlier than I did. Towards the end I stopped doing the barbri questions completely and would just watch the lectures then do adaptibar (they got really, really ridiculous towards the end--- part of their strategy of freaking you out to get you to study I think). Looking back on it, I scored way higher than I needed to on the MBE and really probably could have passed without paying for adaptibar but if you are like me and want to overkill it to be safe then I recommend adaptibar. The way I look at it is that I had just spent 3 years in school and an extra $1000 or so was nothing to help me pass the bar but plenty of people pass without it.

I'm taking CA so the MBE is only 35% but I'm just wondering at what point I do problems from Barbri -- in videos they keep saying to do problems but then I haven't been assigned more than 30 so far.

Ah well I took in FL which is 50% MBE so I basically saw the autopass MBE thread and went with that strategy. Also I wouldn't worry too much about practice questions at this point, how far in are you, like a week or so?

Just started studying this weekend and I already hate it. Here's to a long next two months.