FinallyPassedTheBar wrote:
If you absolutely need to cut things out of your review, cut the lectures out first.
This is absolutely true. Listen to the lectures (if at all) to put yourself to sleep, or as background. That's what I did with an MP3 of all the Kaplan lectures. I haphazardly practiced, practiced, practiced on Adaptibar, threw in a Critical Pass subject every night for two weeks, listened to the lectures around this, (slacked a little bit), threw together a practiced plan of action for the Essay portion during my last week before the bar (never practiced PTs), reviewed CA law through Leansheets until I was very comfortable with CA subjects... drank beers every night of the Bar Exam (sometimes with really light study--if you can even call it that), went to sleep at 10:30pm each night... and was done with it all. Averaged about 6 to 9 hours of study per day over three weeks. Some people are probably getting tired of this because I've put it out there so much (hopefully as reassurance that this test can be done if you have fallen behind--a "don't panic" message of sorts). Also, I think that just calming yourself down and reminding yourself that you can only do what you can with your remaining month is important. Don't go ballistic, but do prepare with urgency at this point.
With a final mention that I am as average Joe as it comes (i.e., anyone can pull this off), in order of importance:
1. Practice the MBE through a testing service that makes it ridiculously convenient. Eventually, you will have tested your way to more knowledge than what those waste of testing time lectures can ever give to you. And personal questions about an MBE subject that motivate you to study the topic more inquisitively will also be a part of your study routine. Adaptibar was with me always, and when I would take a break from any of the other studying I was doing, I'd often find myself powering through questions on my phone in a hot tub with some beers for downtime. It became more like trivia night at a pub than study at that point, and I would get hooked on doing massive sets that way.
2. Find a method of digesting outlines that is much better than the big box outlines. I think that the big box outlines are too much. They are so stuck in the trees with the information that they cover that it can be overwhelming. You don't have time to make your own outlines at this point, and the big box outlines in the books are just way more information than you actually need for the Exam... so your mind is constantly overwhelmed with trying to learn pointless shit in those outlines. Critical Pass, for me, was the most helpful thing outside of Adaptibar. You jst grab a color coded subject, lay down next to your box lid at night after a full day of practice (or burnout... one of the two), and flip them into the lid. On the one hand, it reinforced my studies. On the other, it was an easy way to make myself feel like I wasn't a piece of shit for burning out and watching pointless Youtube videos, or spending time with friends or family, all day
Critical Pass is a well thought out system for studying the MBE rules, and will save you so much time.
3. Listen to your lectures whenever you cannot study. Usually I would listen to them as I was dozing off (they are better than the sounds of nature for sleeping). Other times, when I was driving (it was all I played in my car). And often I found myself tuning into something in the lecture because I had questions from my other areas of study. The lectures are helpful for retaining the rules, and for an elementary understanding on how they apply, but entirely incomplete as far as information about the exam goes.
4. In my last week of study, I picked up an essay writing book on Amazon that saved me so much time. It took me less than an hour to figure out their system, and then the CA specific outlines were much more theme based (which got me into thinking about how I should approach the Essays which are also much more theme based). Practice all of their CA specific tests (three for each subject) and reviewed whether I had issues spotted/stated the rule as their model answers had (lets be real, the majority of my Essay practice was trying to issue spot and at least state the rule, but I didn't have time to do much more than think out what my analysis would be... I urgently needed to at least be set with the rules, and spotting issues, as far as practice went, and analysis was something that I am better at bullshitting).
5. Get something like Leansheets to have one concise outline on the CA rules to review over and over again. These are like the broken down version that Themis wants you to spend a lifetime making, and only contain the meat. Use your Themis book outlines as a supplement when you don't quite understand a topic in your Leansheets.
6. Pass the bar. I did exactly this and had less than a month to prep (I'm one of the 27.3 percent winners from Feb. 2018).
Also looking at their study schedule, the last 25% of the course is pretty much just practice exams. So if you complete 75% you've gotten through all the material and everything after that is extra practice.
