too many bar prep materials? Forum

[ellewoods123]

hey all - my incredibly neurotic, overly anxious self has been diligently reading all of these threads to determine my best plan of attack for the UBE. I'm taking barbri - will finish the early start program in the next few days (not really sure if it helped, but mentally it made me feel better so whatever). I also purchased Adaptibar based on everything I've read. I have a few Kaplan books because my school offered one of those pre bar prep classes this semester so I had to buy them. BUT, I'm thinking I may really like the critical pass flash cards as well because that's how I studied in law school.

Barbri + Adaptibar + Kaplan + critical pass = too overwhelming? Am I getting carried away?

[BVest]

Yes. You are getting carried away. IMO, beyond BarBri or Kaplan, you don't need anything else unless, during your prep, you find a gap.

[seasidemama]

hey all - my incredibly neurotic, overly anxious self has been diligently reading all of these threads to determine my best plan of attack for the UBE. I'm taking barbri - will finish the early start program in the next few days (not really sure if it helped, but mentally it made me feel better so whatever). I also purchased Adaptibar based on everything I've read. I have a few Kaplan books because my school offered one of those pre bar prep classes this semester so I had to buy them. BUT, I'm thinking I may really like the critical pass flash cards as well because that's how I studied in law school.

Barbri + Adaptibar + Kaplan + critical pass = too overwhelming? Am I getting carried away?

You should probably choose Barbri or Kaplan for outlines & rules + use the adaptibar Qbank to supplement especially the past exam bank. Anything beyond that - you can refer to if you find a gap or need to understand something you are not quite grasping the concept of. Otherwise - way too much overlap and probably not efficient use of your time. If you do best with flash cards, consider making your own.

[myrtlewinston]

Barbri will keep you occupied.

[myrtlewinston]

Critical Pass is a re-worded version of Barbri's Conviser.

[SilvermanBarPrep]

Barbri Conviser is an excellent book. I don't think the flashcards will detract from your studying at all but I'd put most of my focus into that book. When you come across a concept in the Conviser that isn't entirely making sense try to find a card on the concept to see if perhaps the card comes about the concept in a way that helps it to "click."

[SunDevilSparky]

hey all - my incredibly neurotic, overly anxious self has been diligently reading all of these threads to determine my best plan of attack for the UBE. I'm taking barbri - will finish the early start program in the next few days (not really sure if it helped, but mentally it made me feel better so whatever). I also purchased Adaptibar based on everything I've read. I have a few Kaplan books because my school offered one of those pre bar prep classes this semester so I had to buy them. BUT, I'm thinking I may really like the critical pass flash cards as well because that's how I studied in law school.

Barbri + Adaptibar + Kaplan + critical pass = too overwhelming? Am I getting carried away?

I think the Barbri materials are plenty. I also built off of their materials and made flash cards. The Barbri MEE Book has really good model essays with bulleted rule statements. Awesome for flash cards. The CMR book is also money.

As for the early start, I did about half of it. It helped, but I wouldn't sweat it if you don't complete all of the subjects. You will get assigned those modules for homework if you struggle in a particular area!

Good luck!

[ellewoods123]

thanks all! It sounds like once you start the actual
Barbri program it tells you where you should be in terms of answering questions correctly. I'm only hitting about 50-65% correct right now in the practice questions following the AMPs. Does anyone remember how you were scoring when you first started? It just seems so daunting in the beginning..

[SunDevilSparky]

thanks all! It sounds like once you start the actual
Barbri program it tells you where you should be in terms of answering questions correctly. I'm only hitting about 50-65% correct right now in the practice questions following the AMPs. Does anyone remember how you were scoring when you first started? It just seems so daunting in the beginning..

Don't worry about the % on the AMPs. They are not MBE questions. Soon, you will be working practice sets. Almost daily, you will get a block of approx. 18 MBE questions. With each set, they will state a goal (for example 11 out of 18). Often, these are more difficult than regular MBE questions. Here's how I like to think of it:

Online Practice Sets (most difficult)
Subject Workshops & Practice MBEs (less difficult than online sets)
Real MBE Questions (easier than Barbri materials)

This is an oversimplification, but it's usually true. Some of those super complicated questions (line in Contracts) felt like they were designed by the Devil. Don't sweat it. You will have good sets and bad sets. Try to not get too high or too low emotionally. It may feel daunting now, but you will eventually get into a nice groove.

[myrtlewinston]

thanks all! It sounds like once you start the actual
Barbri program it tells you where you should be in terms of answering questions correctly. I'm only hitting about 50-65% correct right now in the practice questions following the AMPs. Does anyone remember how you were scoring when you first started? It just seems so daunting in the beginning..

You're fine. Don't psych yourself out, especially this early.

[BrokenMouse]

See my BM guide post. Keeping it simple and bare minimum is key. You will not use more than 1 book. You dont have the time or energy.

[soj]

.

[thegrayman]

Think of it like 1st semester 1L. I know that at least for me, I loaded up on tons of materials because I was scared to death. In retrospect, it's much better to go with a few materials and study them hard.

The bar is like 1L all over again, you're terrified of what lies ahead so you load up on as many materials as you can. I took both NY and CA, passed both first time. For NY I did Barbri and critical pass flashcards. For CA I did Barbri, critical pass, and adaptibar. I would ditch the Kaplan stuff, it's hard for me to imagine what information they would contain that isn't covered in one of the others.

I would put most of my chips in the Barbri/adaptibar bucket. The criticalpass flashcards I thought were very useful for the final 2 weeks when you just need to get as much BLL into your head as possible. By that time, the condensed nature of the flashcards is great because the one sentence they give you to memorize brings up all sorts of other connotations that you have learned via the other materials over the weeks.

Best of luck