Florida Bar Exam - Official Thread

[941law]

Welcome to the Florida Bar Exam TLS Thread

See FloridaBarExam.org for more info


*Test Takers: Please keep adding content to this thread over time so we can consolidate all our Florida info and not have to go searching through TLS. Do it for future test takers. Reading all the pages in this thread and other Barbri/Themis threads can only help increase your knowledge.

**You can still search through this thread via TLS as well, but also jump through the thread by page if you're looking for certain dates, i.e. reactions to the July 15' bar exam would be in August 15'.

***If you have taken the Bar Exam, please return to this thread to help others.

[Geaux12]

Aw cmon. Barbri only?

[941law]

any prep course.

[MoneyMay]

Passed July 2014 with flying colors and this forum was a huge resource so I will be checking in to see if I can help out at all. I did barbri and adaptibar and finished like 60% of barbri. I scored 99th percentile on the mbe and about 95th percentile for FL.

[InRemington]

I'm using Kaplan....I'm working full time but will take a few weeks off mid July. I also started early......so far so good but the Family law professor from FIU sucks; Civ Pro dude from FSU was ok. So far so good.

[Geaux12]

Kaplan, these "Foundation" lectures are incredibly lame. Kaplan already threw me to the wolves with that MBE Diagnostic, why spend all these hours embarrassing me on a subject-by-subject basis? I bought the CriticalPass flashcards. We'll see how tomorrow goes with CivPro...

[FloRida15]

went with Themis... work full time, didn't go to law school in FL (not sure it makes a difference), but totally overwhelmed. Lectures are pretty decent for the most part, but struggling with MBE questions. Thoughts on if these are a good depiction of a real exam?

[Geaux12]

What is the goddamn difference between QBank & Flex MCQs?

[ash0117]

I'm in... started a few days late with Barbri because I was moving back home from law school 1000 miles away. But so far so good. Other than the lectures are so boring I want to die sometimes...

[LAW813FL]

I'm using Kaplan....I'm working full time but will take a few weeks off mid July. I also started early......so far so good but the Family law professor from FIU sucks; Civ Pro dude from FSU was ok. So far so good.

Ya she was absolutely awful. I am thinking about grabbing adaptibar along with Kaplan because I am worried Kaplans MBE questions aren't that great. Thoughts?

[lolaq]

Ya she was absolutely awful. I am thinking about grabbing adaptibar along with Kaplan because I am worried Kaplans MBE questions aren't that great. Thoughts?[/quote]


I took FL this past February, used Themis and supplemented with Kaplan red book, it was my saving grace. I went through more than half the questions in the book. Get adaptibar if you really feel like you need the extra cushion, but if you are a somewhat ok at multiple choice, the Kaplan ones should be sufficient to prepare you.

[LAW813FL]

Sweet thanks for the heads up...How do you feel the Kaplan MBE's compared with the actual bar MBE's? Same with Florida MCQ's if you did those too..

[lolaq]

Sweet thanks for the heads up...How do you feel the Kaplan MBE's compared with the actual bar MBE's? Same with Florida MCQ's if you did those too..

The actual MBE questions were generally much shorter in length than the Kaplan ones, especially property. As far as difficulty is concerned, it's really hard for me to say with certainty that either was more difficult than the other, the anxiety associated with the actual test day can really skew one's perception. That being said, I found that the more I practiced, the better I got at spotting the right the answer and/or eliminating the incorrect choices, so over the 2 and 1/2 mo.'s I studied, I got better at making informed "guesses" to questions I didn't know the answer to, so if the actual MBE's were more difficult than practice, it was not glaringly obvious to me because I had done so many practice questions and just got better at answering them. I also made it a point to read the explanations to the answers to all the questions, whether or not I got it wrong, and the explanations in the Kaplan red book were extremely helpful to me.

For FL MC, I did all of the Themis provided questions and all of the ones in the Kaplan book (did not have access to the online ones). FL MC was a total crap shoot either way though. The questions were very detailed and I did not feel at all prepared for it, despite doing a lot of practice. I know that the bar prep companies do not place a lot of emphasis on the state MC's, but don't under estimate its importance. Do all the questions you can get your hands on if time permits. Focus a lot on FL procedure (FL Civ and Crim pro) since you know it will be on the MC part.

For the essays, which were my bread and butter, I read (and sometimes re-read) every question and model answer for the past 10 years, and pretty much memorized the rules from the model answers. I outlined most of them, and wrote out about 10 or 12 just to get the timing part down.

[Geaux12]

Kaplan's Family Law prof from FIU was probably the worst lecture I've had to sit through in law school. Even at 1.5x speed, I took about 6 hours to un-fuck the bar notes/her lecture. I really feel for her students.

On a more positive note, CriticalPass flashcards are proving their worth already. Highly recommend.

ETA: & Chris Fromm is the jam.

[LAW813FL]

It was like a bad combination of her not being able to read and that being the first time she had ever looked at that outline before.

Just awful.

[aladdinismyprince]

.

[aladdinismyprince]

Could someone who completed the lecture handout for "Introduction to the Florida Bar" outline PM me? I must have saved it wrong, because only about half of the blanks are filled in for me. I would be eternally grateful!

[Geaux12]

Let's talk essay topics. Adjusting Kaplan's tool to look at the past ten examinations, it looks like we're more or less guaranteed a PR question, while "FL Distinctions" as an independent category is becoming less frequent relative to the individual substantive topics. Do we know what the Feb. 15' essays were?

ETA: Found the Feb 15' essays: https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 0c00756f05

I'll probably break it down at some point.

[LAW813FL]

Let's talk essay topics. Adjusting Kaplan's tool to look at the past ten examinations, it looks like we're more or less guaranteed a PR question, while "FL Distinctions" as an independent category is becoming less frequent relative to the individual substantive topics. Do we know what the Feb. 15' essays were?

ETA: Found the Feb 15' essays: https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 0c00756f05

I'll probably break it down at some point.

From looking at past essays, ethics is never its own essay, just a minor subtopic like an attorneys fee issue or one rep. issue weaved into a more substantial topic. Any guess will be as good as the next one as to what will be on July. What I am hoping for is just your basic torts and contracts questions. I hope there is not anything involving florida Con. Law or commercial paper.

[941law]

Areas that I think will be hit on for the July 15':

Trust
Contracts
Ethics
UCC
Fl Con Law
Torts

I think we avoid:

Property and Family

[941law]

Multiple Choice:

Fl Crim Pro
Fl Civ Pro
Business Entities
Evidence

[LAW813FL]

Id rather have wills over business entities but I I'd be happy with your essay topics.

[seizmaar]

we had wills in feb on the MC

[LAW813FL]

Ya but that doesn't mean it won't be on there for July, right? I mean isn't just a random pick of 2 between Evidence, wills and trusts, and Business entities/partnerships with a slight favor of choosing evidence?

[seizmaar]

i have no idea if its random or takes past test areas into consideration