CA Bar MBE vs. State portion question Forum

[hlss09]

Hey guys,

I'm using Barbri for the CA Bar exam. So far, they have us reviewing MBE stuff. They provide an MBE outline book, as well as a CA outline book.

I have a couple questions:

(1) Is the MBE portion different from the CA portion? I.e., will CA property law differ from MBE property law?

(2) After you watch the lecture for the day, there are various assignments, but the schedule never says to outline, etc. Do you do this every day? Or what is typical?

(3) Is it useful to get more practice problems? I recall hearing that Barbri doesn't have great multiple choice questions. I'm not sure if that's pertaining to the MBE or also the CA part.

Thanks guys. I know I'm clueless

[rcharter1978]

1) CA Property is no different from MBE Property for the purposes of the Bar Exam. The only state specific subjects they are open to testing you on are the ones included in the Barbri materials (if you purchased Barbri for California)....those should include CA Evidence, CA Civil Procedure, Wills/Trusts, CA Professional Responsibility, Community Property....and a few others I'm forgetting.

2) There was so much work that I didn't outline...but I did towards the end because it helped me. I don't know whats typical, but someone else probably has a better answer

3) I think Barbri's MBE questions are meant to test concepts, but I don't particularly think they are written like the MBE questions on the bar. AdaptiBar is a web based program that has past actual MBE questions. I found it helpful, but you may want to hold off a week or two to see if you feel like you even have time for additional MBE questions. A lot of people also have great discount codes if you decide to use Adaptibar.

[thegrayman]

2) My personal opinion is that outlining is a waste of time. You have all the material you need in the CMR, and you don't get to take anything with you into the exam room. Plus, with outlining you tend to cut down on words, and the more MBE questions you knock out, the more you realize that for a lot of the law you really do need all of those words in the sentence for the entire concept to make sense.

3) I would recommend Adaptibar, great resource for the MBE. The barbri questions are good because they are almost all tougher than the actual MBE questions, but the downside is you will be tanking certain sections leading right up to the exam which can be pretty stressful. I thought Adaptibar did a much better job of giving you a realistic view of where you are at. Barbri is good because it over prepares you for the MBE, but I found that putting adaptibar on my phone and knocking out 20-30 questions in bed before I called it a night was a nice way to keep preparing with minimal effort.

I took both NY and CA. Don't neglect the CA specific subjects, especially if you didn't take the classes in law school. Barbri saves the state stuff for last, but you should frontload on the stuff that you don't know.