My B(w)ar Story Forum

[zot1]

I’ve decided that I should memorialize this while it is fresh in my memory. This is, of course, ONE success bar story, not the ONLY one.

As a 1L, I signed up for BarBri because it was clear at that time (with very little knowledge, of course) that BarBri would be the best way to go because that was the program everyone used. I was then planning to take the CA bar and BarBri had a great success rate for my school in that jurisdiction.

As a 3L and hoping to snag a government job, BarBri no longer seemed ideal. Even with the discount they offered, I was still looking to pay over $2,500. I was footing the bill, and that just didn’t seem right. I spoke to several bar takers (successful and unsuccessful) who had taken BarBri as well as other bar prep courses. After much deliberation and after BarBri called my bluff (“I have $1,800 and that’s it. If you say no, I’ll go with another program”), I decided to go with Themis.

I picked Themis for a variety of reasons. I liked that it was all online. I liked the directed course aspect of it. And yes, it was a lot cheaper for my budget. I signed up with Themis and didn’t look back.

Right before bar prep started, I got an Honors Attorney position with the Federal Government in a different state. I was able to switch jurisdictions for bar taking purposes with no problem. I went from planning to take the CA bar to definitely taking the UBE in another state.

I started bar prep a few days before my recommended schedule. I was possibly moving during the middle of bar prep, so I wanted to have the additional days—just in case. I asked around a lot for how people did bar prep and as you may imagine, I got very different answers. Some people studied all day until 8 or 9pm. Some people took a whole day off every week. Some people took two days off. I had decided that taking a day off every week seemed right and that was going to be my original plan.

My schedule was simple. I got up around 7-8am and went to the gym. After I came back and had a quick breakfast, I would sit on my desk and study away. I watched all the videos on the fastest speed I could. I eventually stopped watching the Themis videos that were not substantive (stuff like, how do you take a torts exam…). My lunches were quick, maybe 15-30 minutes long. I didn’t take long breaks during the day and I did not fool around online. My day was usually over between 4-5pm. I spent my evenings/nights with my wife doing as much fun stuff as I could. We would cook together, watch TV, or go to movies, or go to bowling.

Once the first weekend came, I realized that I wasn’t comfortable taking a whole day off. It just didn’t feel right. I sort of had learned to enjoy the routine and I didn’t want to break it by taking a day off, so I didn’t. And honestly, it didn’t matter because usually, the Saturday and Sunday schedule was a little lighter so I would finish earlier anyway.

This was life until the end of June, when I made the decision to move during the middle of bar prep. Of course I asked TLSers whether this was a dumb idea or not, and of course TLSers came through with providing different opinions on the matter. I decided to move.

My reasons to move, I thought, were solid. My old place was noisy during the days and didn’t have A/C. My new place would have zero noise, A/C, AND a bathtub (the importance of this will become more evident later). The new place was also a steal and we didn’t want to risk not getting as nice of a place if we waited to move later.

Thanks to the ordeal of moving, I took five whole days off. This was partially because of packing, the actual moving to another state part, and because my Internet did not get connected right away. I was feeling really terrible about taking this much time off and I had reason to be concerned.

My first MBE practice set after my break was a meager 50ish%. Yep, taking time off set me back a bit. But I was not going to let that nag at me. I simply kept going. My schedule, however, had changed slightly with the move. I would get up at 7am, go for a ride bike, then come back and start studying. Lunch was still 15-30 minutes. Then I would break at 4pm for dinner. At around 6pm, I would take a bath while reviewing flashcards. This was instrumental in my ability to fix the set back from moving. An hour or so later, I would stop studying and would just watch TV before I went to bed.

I’d like to make a note here. Themis started with the goal score for the MBEs at 40% (I think). When the goal changed to 60 or 65%, I didn’t get there right away. I noticed that I was spending too little time through the questions, so I forced myself to take more time, read the questions/answers more carefully. Also, I looked at what topics I was doing poorly on and tackled those for review. For example, at one point I failed all the answers re Con Law: First Amendment issues. So I spent the next entire bathtub session just reviewing First Amendment until I knew the issues cold.

I watched all of the substantive law videos from my program. I also did all of the MBE practice sets, plus the milestone exams (one was 45 questions and the other 55), and the simulated MBE (yep, 200 questions). On the MBE sets, I averaged 71%. On the first milestone I got a 60% and on the second one, I got a 70%. On the simulated MBE, I got a 135/200.

I did almost all of the essays. I think I missed 10 practice essays and 3 practice PTs. Themis did graded essays through the summer. I did not do all that great on those. In fact, I remember I even got a 22% on one of them. I wasn’t sure if my grader was harsh or if she in fact felt I only deserve that little, but going into the exam, I was EXTREMELY concerned that I was going to fail given how bad my scores were on the essays.

As an important note here, except for the PTs, I always finished my practice exams early. For the essays, I usually finished with 1/3 or 1/4 of the time left. For the MBEs, it was roughly about the same as well (even after I started taking more time with the MBEs… this should tell you how quickly I was going through them before the adjustment).

Three weeks before the exam, I was starting to feel burned out. I took an entire day off because I couldn’t look at my computer anymore. This was a fun day. I went to the movie, had a BBQ, and drank quite a bit. Didn’t regret it and still don’t today. For the record, this burned out feeling kept coming back, I just didn't take more time off.

Finally, maybe one week and a half before the actual exam, my course advisor told me to randomize my essays. This is when I abandoned my directed study program. I wrote down all the essays I had left in little papers, and then put them in a hat. In the morning, I would do an MBE practice set. In the afternoon, I would draw from the hat and do whatever essay I'd pick up. This was a good way to just get used to the randomness of the actual exam. After I did two or three essays, I would spend the rest of the afternoon reviewing. Then dinner, then reviewing cards in the bathtub.

The day before the exam I didn’t study. I went to a mountain and spent the day hiking. It was glorious. It cleared my head a lot and I just felt happy. I was ready for the damn thing to be over with.

The first day of the exam started rough in the morning. I had been happy I had gone hiking, but I felt so freaking sore. I was hoping this wouldn’t get in my way. I had essays in the morning—I got SO FREAKING LUCKY. Every single subject I got in the exam I knew cold. There were some topics I was super shaky on, but I didn’t get any of those. I finished early. Like 45 minutes early. Even the bar examiner asked me if I was absolutely sure I wanted to be done. I was. I felt good about the essays.

I went outside to meet my wife who was bringing me lunch. She was surprised that I was smiling and that I was out so early. I told her how easy I thought the essays had been. I was ready for round two. I took my lunch inside, which was perhaps a big mistake. Almost everyone I overheard near the testing room kept talking about how they didn’t finish their essays. Self doubt kicked in. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Maybe I missed all the issues. Maybe [insert any sentence...].

The PT afternoon section started. This was hard for me. I took all the time allotted, but I did finish. I felt good about them, but not great. I finish the day feeling just okay about how the bar went.

I went home and did not study more. Honestly I just felt it would be pointless. I just chilled and spent time with my wife. Tried not to get stressed.

The next morning I felt incredibly tired. But I was also excited about the prospect of being done soon with the nightmare . . . at least for the time being. The morning session of the MBE was harsh. I couldn’t tell for a fact if I had gotten answers correctly or how many. I didn’t guess on any and finished early, but I certainly made A LOT of educated guesses. Note that I had time to go back and review the answers I had marked for review. I only changed a few of the answers and only when I was 100% sure that the new answer was in fact the correct answer.

This time, there were no smiles during lunch. It was more like, “holy shit, I’m not sure what happened in there.”

The afternoon session was my biggest hurdle. I was tired. But what’s worse, I got sick. After maybe 20 questions, I felt dizzy and my stomach felt all wrong. I went to the restroom and washed my face. I walked around outside the testing room for a little bit just so my stomach would settle. I considered just leaving for about one second, but then realized quickly that was a stupid thought. I was not about to waste an entire summer of hard work because I felt sick. I came back into the room and powered through. I even reviewed my answers after I was done even though the temptation to skip that part was high. Again, I finished before time was called.

I walked out of the exam sure that afternoon would be my Achilles heel.

The feeling of being done with the bar was indescribable. It was nice to know that race was over with, but it was depressing to know I could have to go through all of it again.

I started working fairly soon after the bar. This was nice for my budget, but it made the stress of waiting greater. My boss had the habit of asking quite frequently if I had gotten my results yet. What’s worse, she never left any room for the idea that I could have to retake. The expectations in my office were high—they needed me to pass. I wasn’t sure I had.

Thankfully, my jurisdiction had results fairly early. I passed with a 148 in the MBE. I didn't have access to my essay/PT scores, but I presume I did better on the essays given the fact I got sick during the MBE afternoon session.

So that's my b(w)ar story. A few more things before I stop this way too long post: I do not regret not studying all the time like some people did. The burnout effect is serious, and if I had it even though I didn't study all the time, imagine how much worse it could have been if I did. Also, I don't regret spending nights/weekends with my wife doing fun stuff. It helped me be refreshed the following day. And finally, I made a conscious effort to not let myself get stressed. Even when I'd get a bad score on something, I would just move on to the next thing without thinking about it. I cannot stress how important I think it is for a person to stay leveled. The people I know who failed the exam were always the ones who seemed over-the-top stressed during bar prep.

Cheers and good luck with your own bar story.

[071816]

tl;dr

[BCgirl]

I got Kaplan for $1000 at the end of my 3L year for a UBE/MBE state doing exactly what you did -

"Bar prep course for $1,700?"
"I have $1,000 and that's it"
"Have any other bar prep courses offered you a course at 1000?"
"No. But I was kind of planning to self-study, so I guess it doesn't matter much either way."
"Well, if you get a written price quote for $1000 from any other bar course, we can match it."
"Yeah, I don't know, I really wasn't planning to do a bar prep program."

2 weeks later...

[zot1]

I got Kaplan for $1000 at the end of my 3L year for a UBE/MBE state doing exactly what you did -

"Bar prep course for $1,700?"
"I have $1,000 and that's it"
"Have any other bar prep courses offered you a course at 1000?"
"No. But I was kind of planning to self-study, so I guess it doesn't matter much either way."
"Well, if you get a written price quote for $1000 from any other bar course, we can match it."
"Yeah, I don't know, I really wasn't planning to do a bar prep program."

2 weeks later...

Haha that worked out! Are you happy you did Kaplan?

[robinhoodOO]

I got Kaplan for $1000 at the end of my 3L year for a UBE/MBE state doing exactly what you did -

"Bar prep course for $1,700?"
"I have $1,000 and that's it"
"Have any other bar prep courses offered you a course at 1000?"
"No. But I was kind of planning to self-study, so I guess it doesn't matter much either way."
"Well, if you get a written price quote for $1000 from any other bar course, we can match it."
"Yeah, I don't know, I really wasn't planning to do a bar prep program."

2 weeks later...

Haha that worked out! Are you happy you did Kaplan?

While not directed at me, I'll answer anyway

I'll be happy if I pass, but my biggest problem was that their state lectures, lecturers and bar notes were garbage. That, and their graders for essays and PT's were also terrible. I felt like I had to supplement like crazy to prepare for the essays and PT's.

[zot1]

I got Kaplan for $1000 at the end of my 3L year for a UBE/MBE state doing exactly what you did -

"Bar prep course for $1,700?"
"I have $1,000 and that's it"
"Have any other bar prep courses offered you a course at 1000?"
"No. But I was kind of planning to self-study, so I guess it doesn't matter much either way."
"Well, if you get a written price quote for $1000 from any other bar course, we can match it."
"Yeah, I don't know, I really wasn't planning to do a bar prep program."

2 weeks later...

Haha that worked out! Are you happy you did Kaplan?

While not directed at me, I'll answer anyway

I'll be happy if I pass, but my biggest problem was that their state lectures, lecturers and bar notes were garbage. That, and their graders for essays and PT's were also terrible. I felt like I had to supplement like crazy to prepare for the essays and PT's.

So I debated as to whether I should even bother with this long post, but when I went through the process, I had many questions that weren't answered. I think the more we vent and explain frustrations, the more future bar takers can better assess their options. Choosing a company is one of the biggest issues.

I liked Themis. Despite problems here and there, I thought it was a good investment based on the money. Sure, some lecturers irritated me (I posted in the Themis hangout about this extensively), but overall, I felt like I definitely learned a lot. I also didn't necessarily supplement. I had flashcards that I inherited, and I reviewed those at night, but I didn't pay for adaptibar or similar resources. Still happy I didn't.

[kaiser]

My b(w)ar story is that I fell asleep at one point during the MBE while taking the actual bar exam and still passed easily. Moral of the story: don't overstress from the bar.

[robinhoodOO]

My b(w)ar story is that I fell asleep at one point during the MBE while taking the actual bar exam and still passed easily. Moral of the story: don't overstress from the bar.

My takeaway from your story was to take/consume more stimulants...

[kaiser]

My b(w)ar story is that I fell asleep at one point during the MBE while taking the actual bar exam and still passed easily. Moral of the story: don't overstress from the bar.

My takeaway from your story was to take/consume more stimulants...

That a fine takeaway as well. From what I can remember, I didn't sleep well the night in between day 1 and day 2. Had a small cup of coffee in the morning, but that doesn't cut it for the MBE marathon.

[robinhoodOO]

My b(w)ar story is that I fell asleep at one point during the MBE while taking the actual bar exam and still passed easily. Moral of the story: don't overstress from the bar.

My takeaway from your story was to take/consume more stimulants...

That a fine takeaway as well. From what I can remember, I didn't sleep well the night in between day 1 and day 2. Had a small cup of coffee in the morning, but that doesn't cut it for the MBE marathon.

I had a terrible nights sleep every night

Also, I didn't drink coffee because it tends to...Err...Run straight through me. I did, however, have a shit ton of adrenaline and the room was so cold, it kept me mostly alert

[Akriant]

I literally started falling asleep during the AM MBE part. And slept 3h at most prior to both days of the BAR.

Also, I can concur with OP regarding burning out and days off. I had each Sunday completely off, and still got burned out by second week of July.
I also know a lot of people who claimed to study (an perhaps did) 8-10h a day without major breaks or days off. All I can say, is that if you never did study that much on regular basis in law school - don't even attempt on doing it.

[BCgirl]

Haha that worked out! Are you happy you did Kaplan?

No. I wasn't happy with Kaplan (although I am grateful I did a professional bar prep program rather than self-studying). All my friends did Barbri, and the disparity became obvious very quickly. Sure, both programs cover the same information, but it seemed like my Barbri friends always knew "what was likely to be on the exam" and could focus their studying efforts, while I was always busy memorizing extraneous and, as I later discovered, apparently never/rarely-tested information. BarBri's essay grading breakdowns also seemed fair superior than Kaplan's arbitrary ones.

My advice to future students:If you have a great grasp of the fundamental rules in every subject, you will pass the bar with plenty of points to spare. The danger is knowing a little bit about everything but nothing well enough.

Edit: Also, I'd like to second robinhood's post about having to supplement like crazy to feel prepared for the Kaplan practice essays. The realization a part of my essay turned on something the lecturer mentioned only briefly in passing, and which never appeared in bar-outlines left me in a constant state of anxiety.

[nyny]

My B(w)ar Story: Thoughts of a Predicate NY failure

I figured to contribute this to the site, because sites like TLS was a good tool for me while I was preparing to Study for the bar and waiting for my results. I am a July 2015 NY Bar Passer, and I can not believe it. These are my thoughts on the process, recommendations, and things I did to pass the NY Bar on my third attempt.

I am a 2014 graduate of a decent NY law school, graduated just on the outside of the top 50%. Truth be told don't let the stats determine your fate. Everyone is different... Some people literally coasted through law school, ended up on the bottom 30% of the class and passed the bar easily. While others in my school had good grades and credentials but failed. That's that.

Round 1

So leading up to the July 2014 bar I had to take 16 credits and 5 finals to graduate... that was my first mistake. I knew during my 2L summer that one of my semester would have to be the dreaded 16 credit semester, and should have penciled myself for a summer course but decided to just work and enjoy my summer, bad move... I took 5 finals going in the spring prior to graduation and i was exhausted. I literally took my last final 7 days prior to graduation, and 2 days after graduation, Barbri prep stated.

Yes, I took babri... I will be honest I did not do research on the company, I just took it because it was the popular choice. I begin bar prep mentally and physically drained. The course was at my school, and I lived a 5 minute drive away. I attended the first 3 classes, and determined that actually waking up after a long night of studying to go to class was a waste of time... By the second week, class attended was cut in half, i guess others where aligned with my train of thought. I listened to the teachers over and over preach this great passage rate for people that finish a certain percentage of the course... So I actually stuck to the schedule and finished about 95% of the course. I did every amp problem (I will get to this soon), submitted the 4 or 5 essays, received very good scores, and submitted the MPT.

Though I was on course, I was struggling... I was literally spending 5 hours of my day listening to lectures and doing the tedious amps... After a while I was not learning crap with the amps, but continued to do them... I found my self just memorizing the patterns... A friend of mine who had similar grades and study habits as me, told me to scrap the entire pace program, and just read the essays on the Board of examiners website, or in the Barbri essay book. I did not listen to him, that was another mistake... This guy passed the NY Bar with a 126 MBE, because he mastered the essays.

With the NY essays, some of their issues are vague, but if you read enough of the model answers you will notice similar patterns, and realized if the facts are saying this, that means they want you to issue spot that.

So I go into the July 2014 bar and was blitzed... Right off the back they asked a professional responsibilities question, that I did not know cold... and I was screwed... I literally got 2 questions wrong on each essay and a 126.7 (not sure exactly) MBE, and failed by 50 points. What did me in was the amount of time the pace program's lectures and amps consumed. That was 5 hours right there per day that I would have loved to devote to something else, but I wanted to finish the course and fit into Barbri's assurance of passing... I wish barbri would just give you the information already filled in, and make the lectures optional.

Round 2

Preparing for the Feb 2015 bar exam, I decided to not re up on the Barbri course... the $300 cost to purchase new books were off putting... So I said F em. I decided to use my July 2014 books, even though they added Admin Law and Civ pro. I took the $300 that I saved and decided to go with Adaptibar. So this time around I literally reviewed my notes and did adaptibar. Adaptibar is nice because you can work on your phone. Thats all I did when I had downtime at work. Finally I took my friends advice and reviewed all of the essays on the NY BOLE website and all 100 or so essays in the Barbri essay book.

I mastered the essays. Fact patterns started to repeat, just with different names, and circumstances... I did not practice MPT's this time around, and as in July I decided to not start the Afternoon essay day with the MPT, that was also a mistake. You must take the entire 90 mins recommended for the MPT... That thing is hard to do in an hour or less, trust me... The library is extensive, then they have very particular instructions. I scored very decent on my essays and scored a 136.8 on the MBE, but scored an abysmal 29 on the MPT and failed by 12... Man that was heart breaking... I never scored that low on any essay in my life... It was not that I did not know what I was doing, but it was because I ran out of time, and wrote 2 and a half paragraphs.

Round 3

Going into the July 2015 bar, I told myself this was it for the NY bar... I had to move on with my life. By now I had lost my job, and my savings was running out... The stress was taking a toll on my mind and body, and my family.

I re-uped on Adaptibar, used my July 2014 barbri materials, and I went to Church more... I know this sounds cheesy, but I needed to get my mind right, the stress of failing the bar was brutal. I prayed hard. My Adaptibar percentages raised from the low 60s to the mid 70s now, and i found a few hundred more questions online somewhere...

This time I had a different game plan for attacking NY day. I had strict parameters for each essay, MPT, and NYMC. For the Am, I decided to start with the essays and devoted 50 mins per essay, this left me with 45 mins for the NYMC... My mental time clock per essay was on the money... I literally answered each question with IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) and moved on once I answered each question to what I felt fit, or how I seen it answered in a previous essay... If the answer called for a one sentence rule, one sentence analysis, one sentence conclusion, I did not bat an eye, I moved on.

The graders don't care much about the bulk of the essays or how much you wrote, trust me... When I failed in Feb, one of my shortest essays scored one of my highest... Just give them what they want.

So thats what I did in the AM session on NY day. In the PM session I began with the MPT, and devoted the entire 90 mins to it. I read the instructions, (this is important) when you get the task telling you the format the partner wants, begin formatting the MPT... This is very important, because format is the most important part of the MPT. If the partner asks for a letter in the task letter, I begin to format the letter, before I add the substantive writing... If he wants the letter addressed to someone, I do it, if he wants it signed as him, I do it... etc. Then I read the entire library one time... Gather my thoughts, and begin to write.

Finishing the MPT is also very important. The graders hammer you if you don't. Same with the essays...

All in all studying how the bar examiners want you to write their essays is as important as knowing the substance... Knowing the material is one thing, knowing how to construct your thoughts is another... Reading through all of the model essays online or in your prep books is very important and is up there with doing several thousand practice MBE's. I recommend at least 2000... Answer the question and then read why you got the question right or wrong.

Thanks for reading this long jibber jabber, I hope this helps... The NY bar exam is passable... Trust me

(Its late, I'm sure their are grammatical errors, but Im writing on a high right now... just excuse me)

[zot1]

My B(w)ar Story: Thoughts of a Predicate NY failure

I figured to contribute this to the site, because sites like TLS was a good tool for me while I was preparing to Study for the bar and waiting for my results. I am a July 2015 NY Bar Passer, and I can not believe it. These are my thoughts on the process, recommendations, and things I did to pass the NY Bar on my third attempt.

I am a 2014 graduate of a decent NY law school, graduated just on the outside of the top 50%. Truth be told don't let the stats determine your fate. Everyone is different... Some people literally coasted through law school, ended up on the bottom 30% of the class and passed the bar easily. While others in my school had good grades and credentials but failed. That's that.

Round 1

So leading up to the July 2014 bar I had to take 16 credits and 5 finals to graduate... that was my first mistake. I knew during my 2L summer that one of my semester would have to be the dreaded 16 credit semester, and should have penciled myself for a summer course but decided to just work and enjoy my summer, bad move... I took 5 finals going in the spring prior to graduation and i was exhausted. I literally took my last final 7 days prior to graduation, and 2 days after graduation, Barbri prep stated.

Yes, I took babri... I will be honest I did not do research on the company, I just took it because it was the popular choice. I begin bar prep mentally and physically drained. The course was at my school, and I lived a 5 minute drive away. I attended the first 3 classes, and determined that actually waking up after a long night of studying to go to class was a waste of time... By the second week, class attended was cut in half, i guess others where aligned with my train of thought. I listened to the teachers over and over preach this great passage rate for people that finish a certain percentage of the course... So I actually stuck to the schedule and finished about 95% of the course. I did every amp problem (I will get to this soon), submitted the 4 or 5 essays, received very good scores, and submitted the MPT.

Though I was on course, I was struggling... I was literally spending 5 hours of my day listening to lectures and doing the tedious amps... After a while I was not learning crap with the amps, but continued to do them... I found my self just memorizing the patterns... A friend of mine who had similar grades and study habits as me, told me to scrap the entire pace program, and just read the essays on the Board of examiners website, or in the Barbri essay book. I did not listen to him, that was another mistake... This guy passed the NY Bar with a 126 MBE, because he mastered the essays.

With the NY essays, some of their issues are vague, but if you read enough of the model answers you will notice similar patterns, and realized if the facts are saying this, that means they want you to issue spot that.

So I go into the July 2014 bar and was blitzed... Right off the back they asked a professional responsibilities question, that I did not know cold... and I was screwed... I literally got 2 questions wrong on each essay and a 126.7 (not sure exactly) MBE, and failed by 50 points. What did me in was the amount of time the pace program's lectures and amps consumed. That was 5 hours right there per day that I would have loved to devote to something else, but I wanted to finish the course and fit into Barbri's assurance of passing... I wish barbri would just give you the information already filled in, and make the lectures optional.

Round 2

Preparing for the Feb 2015 bar exam, I decided to not re up on the Barbri course... the $300 cost to purchase new books were off putting... So I said F em. I decided to use my July 2014 books, even though they added Admin Law and Civ pro. I took the $300 that I saved and decided to go with Adaptibar. So this time around I literally reviewed my notes and did adaptibar. Adaptibar is nice because you can work on your phone. Thats all I did when I had downtime at work. Finally I took my friends advice and reviewed all of the essays on the NY BOLE website and all 100 or so essays in the Barbri essay book.

I mastered the essays. Fact patterns started to repeat, just with different names, and circumstances... I did not practice MPT's this time around, and as in July I decided to not start the Afternoon essay day with the MPT, that was also a mistake. You must take the entire 90 mins recommended for the MPT... That thing is hard to do in an hour or less, trust me... The library is extensive, then they have very particular instructions. I scored very decent on my essays and scored a 136.8 on the MBE, but scored an abysmal 29 on the MPT and failed by 12... Man that was heart breaking... I never scored that low on any essay in my life... It was not that I did not know what I was doing, but it was because I ran out of time, and wrote 2 and a half paragraphs.

Round 3

Going into the July 2015 bar, I told myself this was it for the NY bar... I had to move on with my life. By now I had lost my job, and my savings was running out... The stress was taking a toll on my mind and body, and my family.

I re-uped on Adaptibar, used my July 2014 barbri materials, and I went to Church more... I know this sounds cheesy, but I needed to get my mind right, the stress of failing the bar was brutal. I prayed hard. My Adaptibar percentages raised from the low 60s to the mid 70s now, and i found a few hundred more questions online somewhere...

This time I had a different game plan for attacking NY day. I had strict parameters for each essay, MPT, and NYMC. For the Am, I decided to start with the essays and devoted 50 mins per essay, this left me with 45 mins for the NYMC... My mental time clock per essay was on the money... I literally answered each question with IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) and moved on once I answered each question to what I felt fit, or how I seen it answered in a previous essay... If the answer called for a one sentence rule, one sentence analysis, one sentence conclusion, I did not bat an eye, I moved on.

The graders don't care much about the bulk of the essays or how much you wrote, trust me... When I failed in Feb, one of my shortest essays scored one of my highest... Just give them what they want.

So thats what I did in the AM session on NY day. In the PM session I began with the MPT, and devoted the entire 90 mins to it. I read the instructions, (this is important) when you get the task telling you the format the partner wants, begin formatting the MPT... This is very important, because format is the most important part of the MPT. If the partner asks for a letter in the task letter, I begin to format the letter, before I add the substantive writing... If he wants the letter addressed to someone, I do it, if he wants it signed as him, I do it... etc. Then I read the entire library one time... Gather my thoughts, and begin to write.

Finishing the MPT is also very important. The graders hammer you if you don't. Same with the essays...

All in all studying how the bar examiners want you to write their essays is as important as knowing the substance... Knowing the material is one thing, knowing how to construct your thoughts is another... Reading through all of the model essays online or in your prep books is very important and is up there with doing several thousand practice MBE's. I recommend at least 2000... Answer the question and then read why you got the question right or wrong.

Thanks for reading this long jibber jabber, I hope this helps... The NY bar exam is passable... Trust me

(Its late, I'm sure their are grammatical errors, but Im writing on a high right now... just excuse me)

This is great! Thanks for sharing. I think it can be useful to have detailed stories for those willing to read since they can provide more insight then "I studied everyday."

Congrats on passing!!