Tips for repeaters
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:07 pm
I failed the NV bar by 1.6 points in July, but just passed in February 2015. It was a devastating and embarrassing experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. I just wanted to pay it forward by giving some pieces of advice I learned.
1. If you are taking barbri or another course, don't be afraid to modify the schedule. When I took barbri the first time, I followed their schedule to a tee, and I still walked into the exam feeling like I didn't know enough law. The MBE looked like it was written in another language. I found that there just wasn't enough time to really memorize the law by focusing on all of the barbri assignments. For February, I found that I was scoring consistently well enough on the MBE, so I focused more on the essays which was my downfall in July. Every night, I would spend 1 hour reviewing subjects. I would spend roughly 30 mins reviewing an MBE subject already covered, and then 30 minutes reviewing an essay subject in the order of its test frequency.
For the last month I completely abandoned the barbri schedule (I decided to do this because of this link and I assembled something similar for the final month: http://www.betterflashcardblog.com/2011 ... thout.html, near the very bottom of the page). I would work on one MBE subject every morning (doing some MBE question sets, outlining essays, and going through 4 MPT's over the course of the month), and then in the afternoon I would work on a state essay subject (starting with the most frequently tested). Each night, I would go over the MBE subject from the day before using critical pass flashcards. Doing this I was able to go over the MBE subjects at least 5 times in the last month, and go over most essay subjects 3-4 times, whereas in July I think I went over the subjects at most 2 times in the past month. I skipped the simulated MBE for February (In July, I got a 101 on the SMBE, 140 scaled on the actual exam). I got a 144 scaled which isn't amazing but it's enough to pass in NV. I walked into the exam calm, and confident. At the end, I was about 85% sure I would pass, though I felt really crappy about one essay.
2. If you only failed by a small margin the first time, don't completely reinvent the wheel.For the February exam, I didn't completely reinvent the wheel because I failed by a small margin my first time. I still watched the lectures, only this time on normal speed instead of 1.5x. I found the lectures to be very helpful. I basically did what I did for July, but added and changed a few things which I didn't think worked for me in July.
3. Barbri's essay grading is a joke. 2 out of the 3 essays I submitted this time had multiple comments where the graded stated incorrect law and I was docked for it even though I had written the correct law.
4. Don't drink too much coffee. I have always been a coffee drinker but my norm was 1-2 cups per day. For July, I was drinking 6-8, even late at night which was something I never did. I was even taking 200mg caffeine pills. I was living in a foggy haze for pretty much the entire study period. If you feel tired, you need to sleep, you don't need more coffee. Take a 20 minute or 30 minute power nap, it will help you.
5. You don't have to stop your life for the bar exam. The first time I took it I didn't really take my gf out, I skipped workouts, I didn't play videogames, I didn;t watch tv shows I liked. I was miserable. The second time, I only studied until about 9 pm except the last month. I took my gf out, never missed any workouts, took plenty of breaks to watch tv shows and play video games.
6. Adjust your sleep schedule 2 or 3 weeks before the exam, so that you are wide awake and studying at the time the exam starts.
7. Each day after you take the exam, rate how you felt about each essay on a scale of 1-5, and write a few comments on how you felt about each essay, MPT, MBE. Your thoughts are most accurate here, because after 2 months you will completely second guess yourself. When you start to second guess yourself, you can look at your comments. This helped calm me down. Don't look at the lecture handout though as that will make you feel crappy wondering if you missed a bunch of stuff.
8. Avoid TLS until maybe 1 week from results. All it will do is stress you out, and make you second guess yourself.
9. Work. Even if you don't have/get a legal job, work at a crappy job. It will make the time fly, give you something to do during the day, take your mind off results day, and give you a little spending money.
Feel free to add other tips
1. If you are taking barbri or another course, don't be afraid to modify the schedule. When I took barbri the first time, I followed their schedule to a tee, and I still walked into the exam feeling like I didn't know enough law. The MBE looked like it was written in another language. I found that there just wasn't enough time to really memorize the law by focusing on all of the barbri assignments. For February, I found that I was scoring consistently well enough on the MBE, so I focused more on the essays which was my downfall in July. Every night, I would spend 1 hour reviewing subjects. I would spend roughly 30 mins reviewing an MBE subject already covered, and then 30 minutes reviewing an essay subject in the order of its test frequency.
For the last month I completely abandoned the barbri schedule (I decided to do this because of this link and I assembled something similar for the final month: http://www.betterflashcardblog.com/2011 ... thout.html, near the very bottom of the page). I would work on one MBE subject every morning (doing some MBE question sets, outlining essays, and going through 4 MPT's over the course of the month), and then in the afternoon I would work on a state essay subject (starting with the most frequently tested). Each night, I would go over the MBE subject from the day before using critical pass flashcards. Doing this I was able to go over the MBE subjects at least 5 times in the last month, and go over most essay subjects 3-4 times, whereas in July I think I went over the subjects at most 2 times in the past month. I skipped the simulated MBE for February (In July, I got a 101 on the SMBE, 140 scaled on the actual exam). I got a 144 scaled which isn't amazing but it's enough to pass in NV. I walked into the exam calm, and confident. At the end, I was about 85% sure I would pass, though I felt really crappy about one essay.
2. If you only failed by a small margin the first time, don't completely reinvent the wheel.For the February exam, I didn't completely reinvent the wheel because I failed by a small margin my first time. I still watched the lectures, only this time on normal speed instead of 1.5x. I found the lectures to be very helpful. I basically did what I did for July, but added and changed a few things which I didn't think worked for me in July.
3. Barbri's essay grading is a joke. 2 out of the 3 essays I submitted this time had multiple comments where the graded stated incorrect law and I was docked for it even though I had written the correct law.
4. Don't drink too much coffee. I have always been a coffee drinker but my norm was 1-2 cups per day. For July, I was drinking 6-8, even late at night which was something I never did. I was even taking 200mg caffeine pills. I was living in a foggy haze for pretty much the entire study period. If you feel tired, you need to sleep, you don't need more coffee. Take a 20 minute or 30 minute power nap, it will help you.
5. You don't have to stop your life for the bar exam. The first time I took it I didn't really take my gf out, I skipped workouts, I didn't play videogames, I didn;t watch tv shows I liked. I was miserable. The second time, I only studied until about 9 pm except the last month. I took my gf out, never missed any workouts, took plenty of breaks to watch tv shows and play video games.
6. Adjust your sleep schedule 2 or 3 weeks before the exam, so that you are wide awake and studying at the time the exam starts.
7. Each day after you take the exam, rate how you felt about each essay on a scale of 1-5, and write a few comments on how you felt about each essay, MPT, MBE. Your thoughts are most accurate here, because after 2 months you will completely second guess yourself. When you start to second guess yourself, you can look at your comments. This helped calm me down. Don't look at the lecture handout though as that will make you feel crappy wondering if you missed a bunch of stuff.
8. Avoid TLS until maybe 1 week from results. All it will do is stress you out, and make you second guess yourself.
9. Work. Even if you don't have/get a legal job, work at a crappy job. It will make the time fly, give you something to do during the day, take your mind off results day, and give you a little spending money.
Feel free to add other tips