Hows the prep going so far? Forum

[anshulkalra]

Hi all

I am taking NY Feb 2016 (repeater here).

Hows the prep going? How many hours a day are you guys studying? I am studying between 5-6 hours during weekday and around 4 hours during weekends. Will start 8 hour schedule from 3rd week of January.

[iwantmybar]

NY bar repeater as well but LLM.

Currently 5/6 hours per day but it is not enough for me in my opinion, I need more time to learn.

Will do 9am to 7PM (+evening ) from now.

I reviewed all the MBE topics and have done over 550 Mbe questions. I'm going to move up on the NY topics (wills, Domestic relations, trust, corporations/agency ) and starting to practice essays questions.

I bought the Emmanuel book but i'm a bit disappointed, I find it a little too easy and the questions are on the same page than the answers which is just not very convenient.

Best of luck to you

[NY_Sea]

NY Retaker. Have a full time job, so I started literally the day after results came out. Got adaptibar and have done ~1400 questions so far. Started averaging 55%, but in the last month that has shot up to 70% and in the past couple weeks has shot up to almost 80%.

Schedule before BARBRI (10/28-12/21): I was able to get through all of the testable topics at least once with this method, which I think helped really refresh my memory of the material and lay a really good foundation
Weekdays: Work and then study for 2-3 hours after work... Study consisted of reading an outline and doing Adaptibar questions (around 20-30 a night).
Weekends: Wake up at 7 and study from 8-12... Study consisted of the same thing, really. I tried to get two outlines in and do adaptibar questions.

Schedule since 12/21 is really just whatever BARBRI assigns, within reason... I am not watching the lectures again because I really thought they took time away from practical studying.

On weekends, I'm probably going to push this to ~6 hours a day... Try to get some practice BOLE essays in. The way I see it this time around, is that practice is key. Obviously you need to know the law, but the nuanced stuff that some of the MBE questions and essays ask is better suited to be learned through practice.

Good luck everyone... We've got this!!

[starryski]

work got really crazy, so I was lightly studying from nov-dec. Late december i wrote out a whole schedule. aiming for 3k MBE. i'm doing 33 a night, AT LEAST. And 100 either on a Saturday and Sunday from now on. I also work full-time so I read my Pieper outline in the morning and in the evening on my commute. After work I study 2-4 hours. This weekend i'm doing full days. I can't sit still for too long so Ill set time to study for like 12 hours, but with 15 min breaks every hour. And then an hour or two hour break some where in there.

I'm taking 3 weeks off in Feb, 1 of which is exam week. So i will have 2 weeks to do any cramming.

I feel like I know so much more this time as far as the material, and I don't feel as overwhelmed. But seeing as I work in a law firm I feel much more anxiety and pressure. The Feb scale really worries me. I failed by 5 points, it's not like I have to improve 5 points. I have to improve by so much more to beat the scale.

[NY_Sea]

work got really crazy, so I was lightly studying from nov-dec. Late december i wrote out a whole schedule. aiming for 3k MBE. i'm doing 33 a night, AT LEAST. And 100 either on a Saturday and Sunday from now on. I also work full-time so I read my Pieper outline in the morning and in the evening on my commute. After work I study 2-4 hours. This weekend i'm doing full days. I can't sit still for too long so Ill set time to study for like 12 hours, but with 15 min breaks every hour. And then an hour or two hour break some where in there.

I'm taking 3 weeks off in Feb, 1 of which is exam week. So i will have 2 weeks to do any cramming.

I feel like I know so much more this time as far as the material, and I don't feel as overwhelmed. But seeing as I work in a law firm I feel much more anxiety and pressure. The Feb scale really worries me. I failed by 5 points, it's not like I have to improve 5 points. I have to improve by so much more to beat the scale.

Don't overwhelm yourself... The Feb scale is a worry for most, but if you're prepared, it won't matter what type of scale there is.

Keep doing what you're doing, as it seems to be working if you say you feel like you know the material better. Commuting is kind of a lucky break, as you get that extra time to flip through an outline or some CP cards if you want. You were 5 points away in July, which means you knew the stuff but got a little unlucky, and you feel better this go around. Take that at face value and keep plugging along.

[gtg]

What's the "february scale"? Could someone explain?

[NY_Sea]

What's the "february scale"? Could someone explain?

Basically, they say that the MBE scales the tests based on the difficulty of the test, so that all of the administrations of the exams are techincally "equal". So if the Feb MBE is "easier" than July, they will scale accordingly. Although, in my mind, it really boils down to less people taking the test than July= Tighter Curve.

I've never been able to understand the alchemy they do with the numbers and scaling when it comes to the bar, but I feel the same principles apply... Know the law and you'll be good. Practice MBE Qs and you'll be good.

[myrtlewinston]

NY bar repeater as well but LLM.

Currently 5/6 hours per day but it is not enough for me in my opinion, I need more time to learn.

Will do 9am to 7PM (+evening ) from now.

I reviewed all the MBE topics and have done over 550 Mbe questions. I'm going to move up on the NY topics (wills, Domestic relations, trust, corporations/agency ) and starting to practice essays questions.

I bought the Emmanuel book but i'm a bit disappointed, I find it a little too easy and the questions are on the same page than the answers which is just not very convenient.

Best of luck to you

Hi,
Aren't the questions old MBE ones? Did you find the strategies useful?

[anshulkalra]

Good going. Seems like you have everything under control.

I am yet to finish Evidence outline and lecture. I took bar in Feb 2015, and now as a retaker I am doing everything again - reading outline, watching lectures and taking practice questions. It feels like that I am learning more and have somewhat deeper understanding of the law.

My Adaptibar score averages around 58% and on Themis practice questions my average is around 60-65%.

I am studying 5-6 hours a day during weekdays and 4 hours during weekends.

Good luck

NY Retaker. Have a full time job, so I started literally the day after results came out. Got adaptibar and have done ~1400 questions so far. Started averaging 55%, but in the last month that has shot up to 70% and in the past couple weeks has shot up to almost 80%.

Schedule before BARBRI (10/28-12/21): I was able to get through all of the testable topics at least once with this method, which I think helped really refresh my memory of the material and lay a really good foundation
Weekdays: Work and then study for 2-3 hours after work... Study consisted of reading an outline and doing Adaptibar questions (around 20-30 a night).
Weekends: Wake up at 7 and study from 8-12... Study consisted of the same thing, really. I tried to get two outlines in and do adaptibar questions.

Schedule since 12/21 is really just whatever BARBRI assigns, within reason... I am not watching the lectures again because I really thought they took time away from practical studying.

On weekends, I'm probably going to push this to ~6 hours a day... Try to get some practice BOLE essays in. The way I see it this time around, is that practice is key. Obviously you need to know the law, but the nuanced stuff that some of the MBE questions and essays ask is better suited to be learned through practice.

Good luck everyone... We've got this!!

[iwantmybar]

NY bar repeater as well but LLM.

Currently 5/6 hours per day but it is not enough for me in my opinion, I need more time to learn.

Will do 9am to 7PM (+evening ) from now.

I reviewed all the MBE topics and have done over 550 Mbe questions. I'm going to move up on the NY topics (wills, Domestic relations, trust, corporations/agency ) and starting to practice essays questions.

I bought the Emmanuel book but i'm a bit disappointed, I find it a little too easy and the questions are on the same page than the answers which is just not very convenient.

Best of luck to you

Hi,
Aren't the questions old MBE ones? Did you find the strategies useful?

Yes, the ones from the emmanuel book are reals for most of them. Concerning the strategies, there is no real strategy, it just a book containing maybe 300/400 questions. I like the fact that for every questions there is a good explanation but to be fair, i don't think this book is really a must have if you already have an account on adaptibar (which i recommend strongly because the explanations are quite good for 90% of the questions). Nevertheless, the book gives some civ pro questions which is good considering that this topic is new and hard to practice because of the lack of questions (i don't even understand the ones from adaptibar). Anyway, my point is, it's always useful to do a ton of mbe questions if you are bad at it.

[fadedsunrise]

CA Repeater, off by 17 points in July. Did Kaplan then, studying 35-45 hours a week.

Original plan was to study in December but work got really crazy for a while (9-11 hours working, 2 hours commuting) and it didn't happen. Stopped working after 12/30 and am doing Barbri full time, with some deviations to do Adaptibar.

Last week was my first full week, and I studied between 7 and 8 hours per weekday with 4.5 hours on a weekend. Going to try to maintain that since I started quite late. My MBE scores are swinging a bit- I get only 40% on some rogue Barbri MPQ sets but some days it will be at least 70% on everything, even 80%. Really debating how much of Barbri I actually need to do since some of it feels better for me than others, but also second guessing myself on deviating from the program since I did fail a bar for a reason.

[flashforward2]

I'm studying After work for 3 hours and on the weekends. Im seriously struggling with contracts and property MBEs. I would appreciate any advice other than doing a ton of problems. I'm reviewing my outlines and doing the Finz Strategies and Tactics book.

[myrtlewinston]

Are you reviewing all the answers?

[rcharter1978]

I'm studying After work for 3 hours and on the weekends. Im seriously struggling with contracts and property MBEs. I would appreciate any advice other than doing a ton of problems. I'm reviewing my outlines and doing the Finz Strategies and Tactics book.

Are you doing a program for BLL? I always review a subject area before doing any problems. I think some people just jump right in and they can learn from reading the explanations of the problems they got wrong. Property is the worst subject ever in the history of the world, and so I think it takes extra time to understand it all. I think reading through the CMR before you sit down to do any MBE's and perhaps even reviewing the Barbri big book might be helpful. For a subject as terrible as property, perhaps reviewing sources besides your outline may help. But I don't think I will ever not have a problem with recording statutes and conveyancing and RAP.

[myrtlewinston]

questions are on the same page than the answers which is just not very convenient.

Best of luck to you

What edition do you have? Mine has the questions first.

[rcharter1978]

I just did a practice PT and I feel like shooting myself in the face

I'm hoping that feeling will pass.