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I am currently enrolled in BarBri and am registered to take the July 2015 Bar exam in California.

I have registered for adaptibar and am looking for advice on other useful supplements.

I have heard in the past that critical pass flashcards are useful. Any opinions on these would be greatly appreciated.

Barbri also offers a mini review course that goes over MBE subjects. Looking for feedback from those who chose to purchase this and whether or not they felt it was worth it.

Pros and cons for either supplement, or additional recommendations would be great.


Thank you in advance.

I wouldn't sink any more money into Barbri - skip their Mini Review Course and focus on supplementing with Adaptibar and Critical Pass. I used Critical Pass (referral link - http://criticalpass.refr.cc/3W6LZL6) during my bar study and I found it very helpful for memorizing the black letter law since I've always learned best by flashcard.

Emanuel's Strategies and Tactics for the MBE is also very good; it contains tips on the the MBE subjects and older practice questions. It's available on Amazon. Don't forget to spend adequate time on the essays. Every point counts.

BarBri and Adaptibar should be more than enough, don't waste your money

Adaptibar

I also used Critical Pass for memorizing the black letter law. It's basically the CMR in flashcard format and saved me tons of time since I didn't have to make my own MBE flashcards.

Thank you for all the input!

LoCali wrote:Thank you for all the input!

You're welcome and good luck!

Kaplan's MBE QBank and Audio Lecture and the PMBR has also been recommended for supplemental MBE prep in addition to the highly recommended Adaptibar and Critical Pass

Hey, if anybody is interested in Adaptibar, I have a $50 off code. Code: KTJY

Another vote for Critical Pass. Making all those flashcards would have taken way too long, and they leave you room to add stuff if you need to.

And honestly it's easier to take on the go. My roommate had a medical emergency and wound up in the ER and I accompanied her along with the K and Property sets and got some studying down in the bizarrest of circumstances. Very handy. I have the crim/crimpro/con and most of the evidence black letter down so taking the whole Conviser seems unnecessary.

Critical Pass sent me a 10% off code to share: FRIENDS10

shn823 wrote:Hey, if anybody is interested in Adaptibar, I have a $50 off code. Code: KTJY

Barmax is a fraction of Adaptibar's price and has the same practice sets (but without the tracking/progress ability and it requires an iOS device for use).

You don't need critical pass. It is nearly verbatim from the CMR. If you really feel the need to waste money, opt for the Android/iOS version instead.

I don't think anything additional to BarBri is needed. The only other thing I used was Emmanuel's book and took the 200 question practice exam. Those questions look much different than BarBri's. And on the real MBE, I noticed a few questions did look like Emmanuel's. It helps having had experience answering some of those stranger looking questions because it doesn't surprise you/throw you off your game during the real test when you see them.

One thing I would recommend that BarBri isn't very good at: Towards the final few weeks, take longer MBE practice sessions. BarBri always gives you either 18 or 25 MBE's at a time. That's good in the beginning. But you really need to build up endurance when taking the MBE. Towards the end, I was practicing 50 questions during a session. Sitting for 18 questions vs. 50 questions is a huge difference.

does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

goden wrote:does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

I do not. The lectures were essential to me, and I relied heavily on them. Of course, I did the practice quizzes and so on. However, I turned all the lectures into flashcards (resulting in about 1,000 self-made flashcards). The exercise of doing them was extraordinary. However, in the last two weeks, when Barbri says "review lecture notes / review mini outline," is when they were the most helpful. I just went over my flashcards for every subject, about twice for every subject, until I had committed the lectures to memory (it is easier to do that when you quiz yourself, as opposed to when you just read your notes). The lecturers will tell you "study from the lectures," and I think they are correct about that.

Finally, I will say that I passed, but I took this advice from someone who took a previous bar exam. He told me "do 100% of Barbri and turn the lectures into flashcards." The reason I listened is because he scored the highest grade in the state. I only completed 80% of Barbri and, towards the end, I was incredibly happy I'd made my own flashcards.

I guess the answer to your question is, at the very least, do not skip or completely ignore the lectures. For some of us, they were the key to passing (in addition to the practice MBEs).

Critical pass was helpful. Also www.cram.com was a great place not only to make your own notecards but to use notecards from other people taking the test in the same state.

I made my own flashcards using studyblue, I felt it added a lot especially with the iPhone app.

goden wrote:does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

Absolutely not.

goden wrote:does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

Watch the lectures at 1.25 or 1.5 speed. Don't skip them, especially the MBE lectures. I skipped the meaningless topics, like equity and conflicts though. Every point matters on the exam, and you're going to pick up at least a few points on something funny/stupid the lecturer said.

goden wrote:does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

I skipped two Barbri lectures (tax and something else that is rarely tested on the Texas bar), but it's not a good idea. Barbri is designed to make you learn by repetition (watch lecture, review CMR, rinse, repeat) so you are probably getting more out of the lecture than you realize. I watched most of the lectures at home in 1.25 or 1.5 speed.

goden wrote:does anyone recommend skipping the barbri lectures entirely and just studying off the critical pass cards and barbri outlines instead?

I personally think it depends on how you learn... If you don't learn by straight lecture, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad since you'd be wasting study time. I'm retaking (10 points away... Thanks MBE), so I already have the lectures filled in and I think I'm going to skip the lectures for Feb because I never really got much out of it other than waiting for them to give me the one word to fill into my outline.

Again... Depends how you learn.

I found the lectures helpful, but I'd skip Schechter's.

I listened to all the lectures at home at 2x the speed with random pauses and repeating the last 30 seconds. There were a few things I had to go over multiple times because I wasn't familiar with the subject since I didn't take it in LS. (I'm looking at your Mr. Corporate veil).