Post
by esq » Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:37 pm
I'd say that the most important thing is constant, active, repetition, but mostly through the MBE.
After I went through my course outlines/lectures, testing on MBE questions over and over again (and taking the time to not only read all of the explanations, but to cut and paste [which was the active part of it for me] the explanations onto a word document with general headers [i.e., Substantive DP where P was invalid & +40 yrs old]) helped me to memorize the black letter law and the intricacy of its application. Most of the explanations explain the reason for what was correct, and what was wrong, with a restatement of the rule--many in easier language and terms that that I liked better, for memorization purposes, than what was found in my formal outline materials. When you do practice the MBE over and over, eventually it beats the rule into your head by constantly reminding you of the rule elements that you are accustomed to forget--e.g., if you continually forget the Political Question part of the acronym RAMPS for jurisdiction, you will eventually remember it and how it applies if you do nothing more than repeatedly test the MBE questions. Sometimes I would do just 10 at a time if I was feeling burnout, which the phone app provided by Kaplan for this was really helpful for, though I would mix it up if I was feeling burnout and definitely practiced the full 6 hour test to make sure I was on target with my timing/scores.
Outside of that, I downloaded all the lectures in MP3 format onto a USB (which is provided for all Federal subjects--sadly not CA subjects if you take Kaplan), and plugged it into my car so it was playing whenever I drove somewhere. My mind would mentally tune in whenever they mentioned something I felt a little unclear about, and so I was automatically correcting my understanding of the rules without really focusing on beating myself up to do it at many points in my study. You'd be amazed by how effective that was since there was really nothing else to do while I was driving, and you drive quite a bit even if you are just driving down the street to grab a bite to eat while you are studying. Sometimes I'd listen to lectures while I was going to sleep, but closer to the test I found that this was counter productive--since it would keep me up at night due to me being worried that I didn't know enough instead of putting me out like it did in the beginning.
Outside of (1) MBE practice and MOST IMPORTANTLY review of the answers [getting them right wasn't as important as doing them quickly, and reviewing--they would especially stick out when I got them wrong], and (2) passive listening to lectures [most effective in my car], which happened (3) after going through the video lectures and outlines [as fast as humanly possible at x2 speed, while following and typing into video outline I might add], I (4) downloaded 1 to 3 page quicksheet style outlines, which can literally be Googled, for each of my subjects before I started my Bar studies so I knew I had some kind of quick reference outline with all the most important information for each subject. Sometimes the acronyms, information, isn't exactly what you think it should be. This is good, because it will force you to remember, or look up in your own bar materials, the rules or acronyms and change it to what you prefer--which further impresses the rule into your brain. These quicksheets can be found for both FED and state rules [usually Evidence, P. Conduct, and Rules have FED and state distinctions in the same document--so FED/State quicksheet outlines for these subjects aren't really separate] and I think I finally got around to focusing on them a week before the bar, which meant that I was confident about the changes I was making to them and the mental notes of those changes stuck with me during the bar because it was an active process. That process took me about 6 hours. I then reviewed these outlines, repeating the rules out loud to myself in the hotel room, the day before the exam. At that point, I had done as much as was helpful with the MBE, didn't want to bog my mind down with outlines/long lectures, and found it helpful to refresh and sharpen my understanding of the streamlined rules on through my 1-3 page quicksheet outlines.
TLDR version: Practicing the MBE is the most important way to memorize the rules you will need after your initial review, so cut corners and save time by finding more efficient ways to feed yourself the information in other ways (i.e., MP3 playback, download and customize quicksheet outlines instead of reinventing the wheel--which is time consuming).
