Themis Bar Review Hangout - Feb. 2016 Exam Forum

[KTnKT]

As a sequel to the Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam discussion, I wanted to get one going (a little early!) for the Feb. 2016 exam.

I'll be a Texas, first time bar taker using Themis. And I'm going to be working full time during the preparation process. Really worried about getting in enough study time.

PSA: Texas books are enroute as of 10-15-15, we get access online Nov. 4, and then the Handouts Binder (if you purchased) will ship in the first two weeks of November. I'm telling myself that I'll get started early, but with finals looming, it seems laughable.

[bartaker15]

Used Themis for the July 2015 bar exam. In my opinion, it was a very good experience. They provide you with daily checklists of assignments which make it seem much more manageable. I have a few suggestions, but do what's right for you, which you can only figure out once you actually start prepping.

In the beginning, I was making notecards for every MBE subject after I finished the day's lecture videos. It was taking up a huge chunk of my day, and when I should have been getting done my day in about 4-6 hours, it ended up going closer to 8-10. Never looked at the cards once. I mean literally not once. I stopped after civil procedure, I believe, and realized the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze for me. I had done notecards all throughout law school, so it was risky, but I realized I couldn't maintain that speed without sacrificing my sanity. Spoke with a lot of people who made their own outlines and did notecards and continued all throughout prep. They were much more stressed out and pressed for time then I was. When I ditched the notecards, I was able to spend more time doing practice questions and essays.

As for practice multiple choice questions, unless it was just the adrenaline of the day or the chaos generally, I thought there were very few questions on the actual test that looked like the questions I had been taking throughout the summer. The real benefit of the questions, now looking in hindsight, is the explanations that accompanied them. If I were doing it again, I'd spend 60-70% of my time in the last few weeks just focused on multiple choice questions and their explanations. While the questions weren't particularly similar, there were certain patterns which I picked up over the course of doing the MC questions which I think helped me the day of when I was stuck between 2 choices.

Take at least one full day off a week. I didn't do it in the beginning, but I should have and was going crazy by the second week of June. If you're working full time, start earlier on with the lectures, see if you can grab 3-4 hours of studying/questions/essays a day after graduation during the workweek, but take a break. Seriously, don't let this thing take over your life entirely, as it can easily do. If you begin watching the lectures and filling out lecture outlines on weekends in November with the goal of completing the lectures by Christmas, that gives you roughly two months to focus on the subject matter and practice. You'll be good. OH, and definitely watch the lectures at at least 1.5 speed. It's really the only way they sound normal.

Finally, and this was key for me, don't listen to anybody who wants to tell you how much they're studying. They may be putting in incredible hours, they may be lying. Either way, it's useless for you. You probably won't listen to me, as the temptation to compare is always going to be there, but I did the best I could to never listen to people in law school and it helped keep me sane. Remember, the people telling you how much they're doing or that bar prep is dominating their lives are doing it to make themselves feel better and feel you out to see if they're doing enough. I literally talked to only one person from law school during bar prep, everyone else I had to ice out.

Best of luck! You're in good hands with Themis.

[KTnKT]

Thank you bartaker15. I really appreciate the time and thought you put into your reply. I will take your advice to heart.

Planning on listening to lectures in my car going to work, then to class and then to home. Roughly about 3-4 hours per day. That should help some. I've been reviewing critical pass flashcards already, but other than refreshing my memory on older subjects, it isn't really helping much thus far.

When you say take a full day off, do you mean from everything, or just studying? I might give myself Friday nights off from studying, but I'm not sure I can take off a full weekend day when that is where the bulk of my study time will come from.

Also, when you did essays, did you write them all out fully, or did you adopt the issue spotting/outline/reading perfect essays method and mostly save writing them out fully for the graded essays?

[bartaker15]

Sounds like you have a good plan in place. I meant one full day off per week from studying. With a full time job, I think planning on having Friday nights as your day off from studying makes sense. However, if can grab a weekend day off to yourself as well, maybe once every two weeks until beginning of February, I'd highly recommend it. But you have to do what you feel is right and will make you comfortable with your effort. I did all the graded essays (I think), and did most of the assigned ones in the beginning, but I definitely spent more time doing multiple choice then essays. I never did practice essays in law school, just studied from outlines, so I honestly didn't feel the pressure to do practice essays on a regular basis. But other people told me that was the majority of their time, so they'd do maybe 30 or so multiple choice questions a day and the other time on essays. If I did all the graded essays, which I'm not positive I did, and a few ungraded ones in the beginning, I'd say I looked at or completed 15 essays total. To be honest, the model answers provided by the state for some kind of freaked me out, so I bailed out on even looking at the essays unless they were graded.

[Onetimebaby]

I will be taking the bar exam in February 2016. This will be my second time taking it (UBE) despite the aspirations of my username. I used Themis for the July 2015 UBE, and I think I will be using Themis again. I really liked the program. I BARELY passed the UBE for the state I was taking it in, but did not score high enough to transfer into the state I am shooting for now (Colorado - need a 276).

I thought "bartaker15" provided an excellent summary of the Themis program. I would agree with basically everything "bartaker 15" said, especially about the lack of similarity between Themis practice MBE problems and the test day MBE. But overall, I think Themis is an excellent program, which is why I will likely use it again.

QUESTION for anybody (especially when this blog starts to populate more) - Where can you find (good) practice MBE problems? Has anyone found MBE for free or somewhat inexpensive?

[dh2010]

Hi all, I took Themis for the July 2015 bar exam and passed in PA. If my memory serves me right, I completed around 90% of the course work. I thought I'd reach out to some of you on this thread to share my experience. I want to preface my comments by saying that I wholeheartedly recommend Themis and am confident all of you are in good hands by selecting their program.

As far as study strategy goes, I used mostly direct study mode. I found this to be most useful in having a structured day, which was a plus for me as I studied alone either in my apartment or at a nearby library. I did get behind towards the end, but Themis' system merely restructures your daily tasks automatically if you do not complete them by the day's end. As for the material, you will hear a lot of people tell you that the lectures are a "waste of time". I disagree. I recommend watching each and every substantive lecture at 1.5 speed and filling in a printed out worksheet as you listen. I think Themis' design of watching 15-25 minute videos while filling out the worksheet and taking the short quizzes is the very reason why Themis' pass rates are so high. Some of the MBE workshops aren't necessarily the best, but my advice is not to slack on the substantive lectures. Sometimes they do drag on and sometimes you won't want to do them, but it was time well spent in my experience. The worksheets are even helpful later for reviewing purposes.

On top of the lectures, remind yourself to practice, review, practice, review. Be prepared to get many MBE questions wrong, but don't get discouraged. Read the explanation as to why you got it wrong and that will help you in the long run. Just learn and move on to the next one. This is a marathon, so do not dwell on a stretch of wrong MBE answers or a poorly crafted essay. It happens to everyone (including me), but I kept moving forward, learned from the mistakes, and passed the exam with some points to spare. I am confident the same will happen to you.

As far as work/life balance, I worked my tail off for 5-6 days per week, but always had a day to try to relax, see family, girlfriend, etc. I was able to complete 90% of the course work with this regiment and even lost 4 or 5 days in a row at the end of June due to my grandfather's hospitalization and passing. It was tough to deal with emotionally and it was hard to lose that time, but passing can be done if you put in the time in the beginning and have a positive mindset. Just work hard, remind yourself it can be done, and trust in Themis. Do that and you WILL pass.

I'll be happy to take any questions any of you have. If not, good luck!

[goden]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

[sdphill]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Themis uses real MBE questions. Some questions (primarily Civil Procedure) will be written by Themis, but they will tell you that they wrote it in the answer explanation.

Honestly, I wouldn't buy AdaptiBar. Themis has thousands of real MBE questions. I bought and used it, and I can honestly tell you that I repeated A LOT of questions. (It's nice to see two different explanations though.)

[dh2010]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

[mike.alexander23]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

Do you remember your MBE % for the course? And what your raw score was for your Simulated MBE?

[dh2010]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

Do you remember your MBE % for the course? And what your raw score was for your Simulated MBE?

I think I ended up getting to around 70% correct in total. But that number rose as the summer went, so don't get too upset if you don't well in the beginning. Themis will give you a target percentage for each MBE set and that's helpful. My raw simulated MBE score was 120, which was just above the average of those in the course.

[mike.alexander23]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

Do you remember your MBE % for the course? And what your raw score was for your Simulated MBE?

I think I ended up getting to around 70% correct in total. But that number rose as the summer went, so don't get too upset if you don't well in the beginning. Themis will give you a target percentage for each MBE set and that's helpful. My raw simulated MBE score was 120, which was just above the average of those in the course.

Sweet. I actually just took the July CA bar using themis. Just trying to gauge the correlation between Themis MBE prep and the actual MBE from July. From what I've gathered, even tough the real MBE was different than Themis MBE questions, Themis takes still did pretty well. I was averaging 75-80% towards the end of the course and I believe that I was near 140 for the simulated MBE. But I still felt horrible after MBE day. Oh well, my spirits are up and we'll see.

[dh2010]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

Do you remember your MBE % for the course? And what your raw score was for your Simulated MBE?

I think I ended up getting to around 70% correct in total. But that number rose as the summer went, so don't get too upset if you don't well in the beginning. Themis will give you a target percentage for each MBE set and that's helpful. My raw simulated MBE score was 120, which was just above the average of those in the course.

Sweet. I actually just took the July CA bar using themis. Just trying to gauge the correlation between Themis MBE prep and the actual MBE from July. From what I've gathered, even tough the real MBE was different than Themis MBE questions, Themis takes still did pretty well. I was averaging 75-80% towards the end of the course and I believe that I was near 140 for the simulated MBE. But I still felt horrible after MBE day. Oh well, my spirits are up and we'll see.

Oh yeah, you were definitely doing better than me then and I passed PA with points to spare. 140 raw on the simulated MBE is awesome and I'm sure it translated well on actual test. Good luck!

[mike.alexander23]

Thanks dh2010 and congrats on passing. I know this has been addressed before by I'm still hearing some disagreement: Are the Themis questions real MBE questions? If not, would you recommend getting Adaptibar, or would that just be redundant?

My understanding was that the Themis questions are real MBE questions although from this past administration people have been saying that the real MBE felt really different from Themis ones

Thank you and no problem. I agree that the actual MBE did have seem to ask different questions compared to the almost 2,000 I did with Themis. It wasn't so much the actual material that was different, but it was the way the questions were phrased. That aside, I've spoken with a number of people who used both Barbri and Kaplan and we all felt the same way at the end of the MBE - it just felt different. That admittedly made me nervous as I left the exam and waited for the results, but I ended up scoring above the national average.

As far as supplements go, Themis really gives you most, if not all, of what you need. I did not use Adaptibar but I did purchase Critical Pass flashcards. They were helpful, but I'm not sure how much of a difference they made in hindsight.

Do you remember your MBE % for the course? And what your raw score was for your Simulated MBE?

I think I ended up getting to around 70% correct in total. But that number rose as the summer went, so don't get too upset if you don't well in the beginning. Themis will give you a target percentage for each MBE set and that's helpful. My raw simulated MBE score was 120, which was just above the average of those in the course.

Sweet. I actually just took the July CA bar using themis. Just trying to gauge the correlation between Themis MBE prep and the actual MBE from July. From what I've gathered, even tough the real MBE was different than Themis MBE questions, Themis takes still did pretty well. I was averaging 75-80% towards the end of the course and I believe that I was near 140 for the simulated MBE. But I still felt horrible after MBE day. Oh well, my spirits are up and we'll see.

Oh yeah, you were definitely doing better than me then and I passed PA with points to spare. 140 raw on the simulated MBE is awesome and I'm sure it translated well on actual test. Good luck!

Thanks! Congrats on your pass.

Best of luck to all future Themis takers. You'll be in good hands.

[sd5289]

I used Themis for July 2015, and theoretically will find out any day now whether it worked (NY here).

I completed about 80-81% of the course, and from what I can tell from my friends who did Barbri and Kaplan, our experiences were pretty much the same. Everyone had a "midterm" MBE and a "final" MBE. There were plenty of long outlines and lectures, and, of course, incredibly frustrating MBE practice sets.

The one suggestion I'd have is to not be afraid of collaborating on TLS with other Themis takers. I still credit the July 2015 Themis thread for saving my ass on the NY essays. Long story short we discussed a topic that was very likely to come up due to a number of circumstances (I'm being intentionally vague here so as not to run afoul of the rules on not discussing questions). It was a more obscure topic then not, but lo and behold, it was a major focal point of 1 of the 5 NY essays, and had it not been for that discussion, I would've simply glanced over it rather than reviewing it a little more in-depth. I seriously felt like I'd dodged a bullet when I walked out of the NY essay day.

[KTnKT]

Well, early access is supposed to start tomorrow. Best of luck to everybody!!

[houstonlawyer1987]

deleted

[KTnKT]

Question to repeaters or those starting early.... what's with the advanced sales lectures? On the second one and so far it's just a rehash of contracts. I feel like I'm wasting time.

Have y'all discovered a purpose or does it deviate soon?

[sdphill]

Question to repeaters or those starting early.... what's with the advanced sales lectures? On the second one and so far it's just a rehash of contracts. I feel like I'm wasting time.

Have y'all discovered a purpose or does it deviate soon?

It is a rehash. Don't watch. Just skip and answer the questions at the end of each video.

[Nj2Ma]

Anyone having technical difficulties with Themis? Taking Nj/NY in February... Failed NJ this July.

[KTnKT]

Anyone having technical difficulties with Themis? Taking Nj/NY in February... Failed NJ this July.

What type? I was missing a video but they resolved it quickly. Have you tried emailing them?

[Raiden]

Checking in after failing July bar in California. What is the process for repeaters to sign up for themis again? Though I think I may be focusing on Adatibar and a tutor this time.

[ihatethetexasbar]

Checking in after failing July bar in California. What is the process for repeaters to sign up for themis again? Though I think I may be focusing on Adatibar and a tutor this time.

Just email info@themisbar.com and tell them you failed and would like to retake the course. That's all I had to do.

[MrMustache]

Checking in after failing July bar in California also. Anxiously waiting to receive the score report to find out how far off I was and what my weakest section was.

[MrMustache]

Checking in after failing July bar in California. What is the process for repeaters to sign up for themis again? Though I think I may be focusing on Adatibar and a tutor this time.

Just email info@themisbar.com and tell them you failed and would like to retake the course. That's all I had to do.

Thanks. Just did this and hope to hear back from them soon. The sooner I start prepping for February, the sooner I can put this bitter taste of failure behind me.