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Passed July 2015 Bar using BarBri and just wanted to throw this out there:



I used this book to supplement my prep and found it to be EXTREMELY HELPFUL: http://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactic ... 1454809922

I did not supplement my prep in any other way.

Also, and take my word for this, there will be times when you curse BarBri and feel as if you aren't learning anything. But you likely are learning more than you know. And you'll be fine.

best of luck

Took Themis and failed. Decided to shell out for BarBri for February because all of my friends who took BarBri passed.

Will supplement BarBri lectures with MBE questions from Themis (my free retake), and BarEssays subscription.

Finished BarBri's Dec. 26th stuff today and already feel like I understand property better than I ever did with Themis. Definitely looking forward to other subjects.


Those of you who are retaking BarBri, where did you fall short on the July bar? And what do you plan to do differently this time around?

MrMustache wrote:Took Themis and failed. Decided to shell out for BarBri for February because all of my friends who took BarBri passed.

Will supplement BarBri lectures with MBE questions from Themis (my free retake), and BarEssays subscription.

Finished BarBri's Dec. 26th stuff today and already feel like I understand property better than I ever did with Themis. Definitely looking forward to other subjects.


Those of you who are retaking BarBri, where did you fall short on the July bar? And what do you plan to do differently this time around?

I am retaking BarBri and I can tell you that I wasted too much time on those lectures! I used to attend the physical classes and stopped doing that midway but continued to watch them online. I was worried I would miss something important if I didn't watch them but I can honestly say they added NO value. This time, I will focus on practice questions and substantive review. I will basically be using barbri for practice qs but that's about it.

Checking in. First time taker, my last final is tomorrow, will probably take a day or two off and begin on Monday.

I'm just looking around the PSP and barbri.com and have a quick question. In the "Enrolled Student Center" there's a section with Practice Questions. When am I supposed to do them? As I go along with the study plan? Or are they implemented into the plan? Thanks

A majority of them will be assigned as part of your personal study plan, but some will not.

texasbar wrote:

MrMustache wrote:Took Themis and failed. Decided to shell out for BarBri for February because all of my friends who took BarBri passed.

Will supplement BarBri lectures with MBE questions from Themis (my free retake), and BarEssays subscription.

Finished BarBri's Dec. 26th stuff today and already feel like I understand property better than I ever did with Themis. Definitely looking forward to other subjects.


Those of you who are retaking BarBri, where did you fall short on the July bar? And what do you plan to do differently this time around?

I am retaking BarBri and I can tell you that I wasted too much time on those lectures! I used to attend the physical classes and stopped doing that midway but continued to watch them online. I was worried I would miss something important if I didn't watch them but I can honestly say they added NO value. This time, I will focus on practice questions and substantive review. I will basically be using barbri for practice qs but that's about it.

I had a guy that worked for Barbri pretty much tell me to ignore lecture notes and focus on the CMR. I stupidly decided to listen to the people at my school and focus on the lecture notes. I don't think the lectures are a waste of time if you really don't know a subject. But I feel like the CMR is probably the better bet.

I am re-taking for NY (health issues). The resources I have available (from my attempt in July) are barbri and the critical pass flashcards. I purchased seperac for July 15 and thought of adaptibar. I never felt like I utilized seperac properly. I agree that the barbri lecture videos took so long to go through.

I have not started to really do anything yet. So it starts

I'm on Torts now, and so far I'm loving BarBri lectures. I think I may be the mediocre bar taker that they are geared towards, something about them clicks with me.

I just did the Partnership questions and I feel like the lectures did not prepare me at all for the questions. Anyone else feel that way?

I'm retaking the MBE and the extent that I am using my Barbri stuff from the summer is pretty limited to the CMR.

For my own learning style, I found most of the lectures to be pretty worthless and the lecture notes to be similarly bad. While the lecture notes have some good hypos, they were poorly organized (at least for me personally), making it difficult to get a framework of that subject in my head. I mean my property lecture outline was like 120+ pages alone.

Rather than doing the lectures this time around, I have started off by reading through the CMR for each subject before getting to the questions. For my weaker subjects, I have really taken my time, sometimes spending 3 days just going through that outline and hand-writing out my own "outline" for that subject. Doing that makes these rules and fact patterns stick in my head much better than furiously filling in blanks for 4 hour blocks.

When I have gotten to the questions after reviewing a particular subject in the CMR, the amount of times that I am thinking "wtf is this? I don't remember this in the lecture" has been greatly reduced. I'm now scoring practically the same % in my "weak" subjects as I am in my "strong" subjects. I'm sure that a lot of this is due to simply being exposed to this material already, but I do think that the CMR-only method might work better for some people.

if anyone wants my barbri outlines in exchange for kaplan bar outlines (condensed), please pm me.

THE_U wrote:I'm retaking the MBE and the extent that I am using my Barbri stuff from the summer is pretty limited to the CMR.

For my own learning style, I found most of the lectures to be pretty worthless and the lecture notes to be similarly bad. While the lecture notes have some good hypos, they were poorly organized (at least for me personally), making it difficult to get a framework of that subject in my head. I mean my property lecture outline was like 120+ pages alone.

Rather than doing the lectures this time around, I have started off by reading through the CMR for each subject before getting to the questions. For my weaker subjects, I have really taken my time, sometimes spending 3 days just going through that outline and hand-writing out my own "outline" for that subject. Doing that makes these rules and fact patterns stick in my head much better than furiously filling in blanks for 4 hour blocks.

When I have gotten to the questions after reviewing a particular subject in the CMR, the amount of times that I am thinking "wtf is this? I don't remember this in the lecture" has been greatly reduced. I'm now scoring practically the same % in my "weak" subjects as I am in my "strong" subjects. I'm sure that a lot of this is due to simply being exposed to this material already, but I do think that the CMR-only method might work better for some people.

I'm sure she meant well, but I thought the property lecturer for Barbri was by far the worst lecturer on their lineup. By far.

I am using my outlines from the summer, reading them over, going over critical flash cards for that subject then trying to answer about 50 questions in adaptibar. And I will try to follow Barbri but the time spent on the diagnostic questions and the hw that is sure to follow seems such a waste. The week started out with Con Law then to a local NY subject.

Just needed to write that because I am feeling lost and hope that I am not wasting time.

Finally starting to get Con Law lol

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

From Chemerinsky? (sp) I think that guy is amazing, but he wasn't the best lecturer. I wonder who Kaplan/Themis have?

rcharter1978 wrote:

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

From Chemerinsky? (sp) I think that guy is amazing, but he wasn't the best lecturer. I wonder who Kaplan/Themis have?

Themis has professor John C. Jeffries, Jr. for Con Law.

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

Did you skip ahead? My Con Law lecture is scheduled for January 22nd.

MrMustache wrote:

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

Did you skip ahead? My Con Law lecture is scheduled for January 22nd.

No, I used Barbri last time. I assumed they always used Chemirensky (sp). I mean, he did, literally write the book on Con Law

Checking in.

Should I be scared if my first assessment is complete shite? I know we've got 8 weeks, but if I'm only getting 1/4 on 3 or 4 of the 8/9 sections should I be concerned? HALP.

jackbauer10 wrote:Checking in.

Should I be scared if my first assessment is complete shite? I know we've got 8 weeks, but if I'm only getting 1/4 on 3 or 4 of the 8/9 sections should I be concerned? HALP.

If you're just starting and this is your first time taking it I've been told thats pretty normal for Barbri. The mission is to make you feel like an idiot so you'll be motivated to try harder

rcharter1978 wrote: If you're just starting and this is your first time taking it I've been told thats pretty normal for Barbri. The mission is to make you feel like an idiot so you'll be motivated to try harder

it's working....

MrMustache wrote:

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

Did you skip ahead? My Con Law lecture is scheduled for January 22nd.

Really?? I did not skip ahead. Con Law was my first subject.
Edit: And yeah Chemirensky all the way!

gtg wrote:

MrMustache wrote:

gtg wrote:Finally starting to get Con Law lol

Did you skip ahead? My Con Law lecture is scheduled for January 22nd.

Really?? I did not skip ahead. Con Law was my first subject.
Edit: And yeah Chemirensky all the way!

Maybe it's different based on state or something. My first subject was property, followed by torts.