Strong Advice Needed For Feb CA Bar Repeater (Long Post) Forum

[rhs67858]

Hey TLS,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post.

I took the bar this July and I know I did not pass. Long story short, my personal life was (still is) a mess and I was not ready. I wasted mucho dinero and the entire summer, effectively. It's alright though, it's life. I do not want to repeat mistakes or waste anymore time. The thing is, while taking it I saw that if I had just done x, or y, or a little more z, I could pass. I felt it. That is why I know that with the right prepping I can pass it February.

Some issues I noticed during the exam:

Concerning Essays:

(1) Fundamentally, I still do not know the law well enough.
(2) I need to practice more essays, i.e., fully writing out my answers. Additionally, just getting through more essays, instead of 1 - 3 per subject.
(3) I need to memorize Barbri's model answers so that I get certain techniques etc. ingrained in my thinking
(4) ?

Concerning MBEs:

(1) I need to build my endurance. I was not able to complete either 100 set. Moreover, during the latter set I ended up having to guess D on the remaining 30 (wtf...).
(2) I want to reach a point where I am feeling more confident with reading the question and answering it quicker (I believe could be combined with (1).

Concerning PTs:

(1) I need to practice them. I did not take them seriously during prep. Frankly, I did not watch any of the videos, and merely skimmed the intro to PT workshop Barbri gave.


I fell behind significantly with my prep re Barbri. I just did. I don't want to make this mistake again. During the exam I was not nervous at all. But sometimes I wonder if this was because I felt deep down I was not going to pass anyway.

My questions:

(1) What advice can you give me regarding how I spend my time wisely from now until the February exam date? I am looking for work because I have to pay bills etc.
(2) If I begin working fulltime, will this interfere with my prep for February? What advice could people give me who were working fulltime while prepping for the exam?

(3) I just wanted people's thought on whether I should concentrate my focus on strictly legal jobs, or perhaps volunteer for a political campaign as well. Reasoning being that I want to run for public office in the near future, so I thought maybe get my feet wet. I could parttime legal part time political? Alternatively, I could just keep in strictly legal and focus on politics and a run when the time is right (kind of a one thing at a time/priorities notion).

(4) For Barbri or other prep repeaters, did you get all new books or keep your originals and why? I am thinking about just keeping mine.

(5) Is using Adaptibar worth it? I am leaning toward yes. In retrospect, when comparing barbri's MBEs to this past exam, I did not feel confident with their material.

I am upset. I was supposed to pass the bar and that did not happen. Moreover, I allowed myself to really fall off my game. I am really smart and pretty aggressive type Aish, so to let myself become this weak bothers me. I need to get my life together, and bar prep is weighing heavily on me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you, TLS.

[LockBox]

Hey TLS,

I took the bar this July and I know I did not pass. Long story short, my personal life was (still is) a mess and I was not ready. I wasted mucho dinero and the entire summer, effectively. It's alright though, it's life. I do not want to repeat mistakes or waste anymore time. The thing is, while taking it I saw that if I had just done x, or y, or a little more z, I could pass. I felt it. That is why I know that with the right prepping I can pass it February.

Some issues I noticed during the exam:

Concerning Essays:

(1) Fundamentally, I still do not know the law well enough.
(2) I need to practice more essays, i.e., fully writing out my answers. Additionally, just getting through more essays, instead of 1 - 3 per subject.
(3) I need to memorize Barbri's model answers so that I get certain techniques etc. ingrained in my thinking
(4) ?

Concerning MBEs:

(1) I need to build my endurance. I was not able to complete either 100 set. Moreover, during the latter set I ended up having to guess D on the remaining 30 (wtf...).
(2) I want to reach a point where I am feeling more confident with reading the question and answering it quicker (I believe could be combined with (1).

Concerning PTs:

(1) I need to practice them. I did not take them seriously during prep. Frankly, I did not watch any of the videos, and merely skimmed the intro to PT workshop Barbri gave.


I fell behind significantly with my prep re Barbri. I just did. I don't want to make this mistake again. During the exam I was not nervous at all. But sometimes I wonder if this was because I felt deep down I was not going to pass anyway.

My questions:

(1) What advice can you give me regarding how I spend my time wisely from now until the February exam date? I am looking for work because I have to pay bills etc.
(2) If I begin working fulltime, will this interfere with my prep for February? What advice could people give me who were working fulltime while prepping for the exam?

(3) I just wanted people's thought on whether I should concentrate my focus on strictly legal jobs, or perhaps volunteer for a political campaign as well. Reasoning being that I want to run for public office in the near future, so I thought maybe get my feet wet. I could parttime legal part time political? Alternatively, I could just keep in striclty legal and focus on politics and a run when the time is right (kind of a one thing at a time/priorities notion).

I am upset. I was supposed to pass the bar and that did not happen. Moreover, I allowed myself to really fall off my game. I am really smart and pretty aggressive type Aish, so to let myself become this weak bothers me. I need to get my life together, and bar prep is weighing heavily on me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you, TLS.

A lot of people here will offer more relevant advice. The only aspect of this post that jumped out at me is how ill prepared you sounded (which is fine, at least you realize/admit it) yet you're simultaneously looking for work. I myself can't afford not to work, but I did just that (i.e., not work) in order to put in the time to tackle this thing. There are plenty of people who can work and fit in various other activities during bar prep - but don't kid yourself if this is a challenge for you. You're sabotaging yourself if you are over-committed. Just my two cents, good luck.

[dood]

i dont think you're ready. why not wait until easier one next year

[rcharter1978]

I was sort of in the same boat.

Re: essays -- I got a tutor because I think Barbri is only good for BLL. You're never going to memorize a bunch of model answers IMO. You may memorize some rule statements, but that's about it. Studying for essays needs to be as much about what you can leave out as much as what you must put in. Barbri doesnt really do that for you.

BLL- - you just have to put in the time, using whatever method works for you. For me, it's harder to just passively study, so outlining worked best for me. But you may have another method that works best for you.

PT -- THIS is where you need to pull it together. People sleep on PTs and it's ridiculous. A PT is worth 2 essays and you don't need to memorize anything. The PT book as well as my tutors lecture helped me. Barbri is absolutely useless when it comes to PTs

I kept the Barbri books for my retake because I don't think anyone does BLL as well as Barbri. But I also got baressays and adaptibar. As well as critical pass and lean sheets (I didn't use those as much)

[squiggle]

Hey TLS,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post.

I took the bar this July and I know I did not pass. Long story short, my personal life was (still is) a mess and I was not ready. I wasted mucho dinero and the entire summer, effectively. It's alright though, it's life. I do not want to repeat mistakes or waste anymore time. The thing is, while taking it I saw that if I had just done x, or y, or a little more z, I could pass. I felt it. That is why I know that with the right prepping I can pass it February.

Some issues I noticed during the exam:

Concerning Essays:

(1) Fundamentally, I still do not know the law well enough.
(2) I need to practice more essays, i.e., fully writing out my answers. Additionally, just getting through more essays, instead of 1 - 3 per subject.
(3) I need to memorize Barbri's model answers so that I get certain techniques etc. ingrained in my thinking
(4) ?

Concerning MBEs:

(1) I need to build my endurance. I was not able to complete either 100 set. Moreover, during the latter set I ended up having to guess D on the remaining 30 (wtf...).
(2) I want to reach a point where I am feeling more confident with reading the question and answering it quicker (I believe could be combined with (1).

Concerning PTs:

(1) I need to practice them. I did not take them seriously during prep. Frankly, I did not watch any of the videos, and merely skimmed the intro to PT workshop Barbri gave.


I fell behind significantly with my prep re Barbri. I just did. I don't want to make this mistake again. During the exam I was not nervous at all. But sometimes I wonder if this was because I felt deep down I was not going to pass anyway.

My questions:

(1) What advice can you give me regarding how I spend my time wisely from now until the February exam date? I am looking for work because I have to pay bills etc.
(2) If I begin working fulltime, will this interfere with my prep for February? What advice could people give me who were working fulltime while prepping for the exam?

(3) I just wanted people's thought on whether I should concentrate my focus on strictly legal jobs, or perhaps volunteer for a political campaign as well. Reasoning being that I want to run for public office in the near future, so I thought maybe get my feet wet. I could parttime legal part time political? Alternatively, I could just keep in strictly legal and focus on politics and a run when the time is right (kind of a one thing at a time/priorities notion).

(4) For Barbri or other prep repeaters, did you get all new books or keep your originals and why? I am thinking about just keeping mine.

(5) Is using Adaptibar worth it? I am leaning toward yes. In retrospect, when comparing barbri's MBEs to this past exam, I did not feel confident with their material.

I am upset. I was supposed to pass the bar and that did not happen. Moreover, I allowed myself to really fall off my game. I am really smart and pretty aggressive type Aish, so to let myself become this weak bothers me. I need to get my life together, and bar prep is weighing heavily on me. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you, TLS.

Essays
• Focus on your essays writing skills later in your study schedule.
• Begin my learning the black letter law that you’ll need to know now, and give yourself time to review it over and over in the next few months.

MPTs
• Learn MPTs inside and out. There are MANY free points to be gained by doing well on MPTs.
• Make it look like a finished product and focus on learning proper formatting.
• Consider how you cite, both legal citations and citations of items in the client file. This can take your score from average to high.

Working & Studying
• I worked full-time while studying. It was difficult to do both, but not impossible, especially if you start early. I began studying March 1 on the nights and weekends, and then took a large amount of time off in July.
• Be realistic with how much you can study after working a full day. Neglecting this reality will result in burnout.
• Have an upfront conversation with your boss about what the next few months will look like.
• Don’t sacrifice sleep for studying. Both your studying and work will suffer.

Study Material
• I had previously used Barbri (I took my 3rd state this summer). However, I found that it wasn’t great for me, so I look for other material.
• Do what works for you. I like flashcards, so I bought Critical Pass, but also added many of my own notes and state distinctions on the cards.
• Because I was working full time, I tried to fit any studying when I could. I bought Adaptibar, and I used it when I had a few minutes before a hearing, in line at the grocery store, at night when I didn't want to do full blown studying. Without even focusing on Adaptibar, I ended up doing 800+ question. PM me if you want a $50 Adaptibar discount code. Their civ pro questions are not great, but some of their measurement tools are great (timing per question, how many people chose that particular answer, breakdown per subtopic). There's also a free trial.
• I also bought some Kaplan books, because they seem to have the best civ pro questions. I heard that Emmanuel's update book has good civ pro question too, but I've only seen the older version (sans civ pro).

I hope that helps. Feel free to PM me with questions. Good luck and happy studying!

[LockBox]

i dont think you're ready. why not wait until easier one next year

Shorter = easier?

[rcharter1978]

i dont think you're ready. why not wait until easier one next year

Shorter = easier?

I think it's the 50/50 split that makes the biggest difference. There will still be 5 essays, which is pretty much the same. But making the MBE worth 50% should make it easier to pass IMO

[9xSound]

You had three hours to complete 100 questions on the afternoon MBE and yet you had to guess D on the last 30? That was fatal, IMO. Going that slowly indicates that the MBE was kicking your butt. Even if you got 70% right of the 70 you answered, you would still be looking at a raw score of only about 50%, factoring for a few of the Ds to be right. That's not a good sign. You really have to pay better attention to the clock. Time management is essential to passing to bar. I'm guessing that you went into the test site without a game plan, expecting to just wing it on the various sections of the test. You cannot do that and hope to pass. Next year, the MBE is going to count for 50% of your score, so you will be under an even heavier burden to do well on it. Managing the MBE requires you to pace yourself and stay on pace for the full three hours. There isn't time to get hung up on any one problem. I approached the MBE by mentally dividing up the session into 30-minute blocks. To complete all of the problems in three hours, you need to average 17 problems every 30 minutes, preferably shooting for 18-19 to give you some cushion in the last 30 minutes. As you work the problems, you should have your watch in front of you to monitor where you need to be at every 30-minute milestone:

At 30 minutes, have at least 17-19 problems completed
At 60 minutes, 34 or more
At 90 minutes, 50 or more [the halfway point]
At 2 hours, 67 or more
At 2½ hours, 84 or more,
Last 30 minutes, wrap up your final 16 or fewer problems.

Some students go very fast and can finish all 100 problems with 30 minutes or more on the clock. BFD. I'm a very fast reader, but I don't see the benefit of blowing through the problems any faster than the test requires you to go. At the same time, you can't spend 5 minutes on each problem. You'll end up having to select D on all of the last 30 problems, as you know. Stay on pace to try to finish the last problem with about five minutes to spare. Note that at 90 minutes, an alarm should go off in your head. This is the halfway point. Have you completed at least 50 problems? I was on problem 54, which was just far enough ahead to feel comfortable that I was on track without going too fast. But if you're only on problem 40 after 90 minutes, dude, you're in big trouble. At that pace, the bell will ring and you'll be on problem 80. Actually, you will have abandoned reading the problems around 77 to color in the bubbles on D down to 100. And you'll be too exhausted to bother reading one of the shorter problems in the last 60 seconds and change that D to a B. Screw it, you'll say. It is what it is. Likely raw number correct in the end? 32-35. Ouch.

Keep studying the law and practice your pacing. It's very hard to catch up to the clock when you fall behind.

[rcharter1978]

^^ yeah, but its also likely that in guessing (even wild ass guessing) on the final 30 the OP still got some MBE questions right. You have a 25% chance even if you're just wild ass guessing, so lets say out of 70 questions, he got 70% right and therefore 50 questions correct. Now lets just ballpark and say he got 25% of the final 30 questions right -- in fact, lets ballpark it at 10 questions right out of the final 30.

That means OP could have gotten 60 questions out of 100 or 60% of questions right, that isn't great, but its hardly the worst situation to be in.

This just means that while its great to get to every question, I would rather do 85 questions really well and have to wild ass guess on the last 15 instead of doing 100 questions that I couldn't read very closely because I was super concerned about the clock.

[9xSound]

^^ yeah, but its also likely that in guessing (even wild ass guessing) on the final 30 the OP still got some MBE questions right. You have a 25% chance even if you're just wild ass guessing, so lets say out of 70 questions, he got 70% right and therefore 50 questions correct. Now lets just ballpark and say he got 25% of the final 30 questions right -- in fact, lets ballpark it at 10 questions right out of the final 30.

That means OP could have gotten 60 questions out of 100 or 60% of questions right, that isn't great, but its hardly the worst situation to be in.

You have a point, but let's be realistic. We both started with a kind assumption that OP got 70% right of the first 70. The problem is that that assumption is very generous (sorry OP). The reality of the MBE is that candidates who know the law and score high on the MBE don't struggle to get through the test. It feels very manageable. Somebody who leaves 30 problems on the table like that was struggling repeatedly just to pick an answer. That person doesn't get 70% correct. The likelihood is that OP did not get 70% of his considered choices correct, or even 60%. A more realistic percentage might be around 50%. I don't mean to dash cold water on the OP's hopes, and I hope I'm wrong for his or her sake, but he asked for strong advice.

[rcharter1978]

And for OP -- here is what I would suggest

1. Start learning BLL NOW, if you're certain you failed, don't wait, start learning now. From my perspective, the earlier you start studying, the more likely you are to commit some of these things to long term memory. You have three months starting now, and thats not that long a time. Personally, I would try to use more active forms of review (outlining, flash cards, games, whatever).....but it should be whatever works for you.

2. Once you feel comfortable with BLL, start mixing in MBE's with your BLL (you should always be reviewing). Practice MBE's are a great way to cement your BLL knowledge and to learn some of the nuances/exceptions. I found adaptibar very helpful, and the analytics are great....it also helps confidence when you see your score start to improve. You should shoot to do 30-50/day and make it a point to read the explanations, especially for the ones you got wrong. AdaptiBar also gives the options to do timed MBE tests, and will give you your time per question, which might be good for you.

3. Once you feel really comfortable with BLL, you can review it less and start to mix in practice essays with MBE's. Personally, I think Barbri does a terrible job with essays, there are other resources out there that can help. I used a tutor, but there are books dedicated to essay writing for the CBX.

4. You NEED to work on PTs. Get the PT book

[9xSound]

This just means that while its great to get to every question, I would rather do 85 questions really well and have to wild ass guess on the last 15 instead of doing 100 questions that I couldn't read very closely because I was super concerned about the clock.

This is an alternative with which reasonable minds can agree or disagree. It's in keeping with an approach to the essays that advocates sacrificing 10 minutes from one essay to give yourself an extra 5 minutes to beef up the other two. I don't know whether it really works or not. I suspect the extra 5 minutes don't really get that much. But the MBE isn't that hard to complete in 3 hours if you know the outlines cold. There really is no excuse for sitting the by God bar exam and putting oneself in a position of not being able to select a considered answer choice for all 100 problems.

[rcharter1978]

This just means that while its great to get to every question, I would rather do 85 questions really well and have to wild ass guess on the last 15 instead of doing 100 questions that I couldn't read very closely because I was super concerned about the clock.

This is an alternative with which reasonable minds can agree or disagree. It's in keeping with an approach to the essays that advocates sacrificing 10 minutes from one essay to give yourself an extra 5 minutes to beef up the other two. I don't know whether it really works or not. I suspect the extra 5 minutes don't really get that much. But the MBE isn't that hard to complete in 3 hours if you know the outlines cold. There really is no excuse for sitting the by God bar exam and putting oneself in a position of not being able to select a considered answer choice for all 100 problems.

I guessed on the final 10-15 in both sessions and passed. I think the answer choices were such that you could reasonably contemplate between two answer choices for a number of the questions. especially since some of the fact patterns in my test were longer and took a little longer for a careful read through.