SoScrewed6 wrote:I was about to buy Adaptibar (already have Themis) and saw that the NCBE was about to come out with their own platform-thing. I kind of had my mind obsessed with Adaptibar (read way too much about it and am freaking out about the MBE) so I did an online chat with them and asked them about the new NCBE platform. The person said this:
"Thank you for asking. If the NCBE releases new questions on or after March 25th, we will get rights and implement them in Adaptibar's program almost immediately. If they release those questions at the end of March, they should easily be integrated before July."
So take that for what it's worth. I'd imagine Barmax and any other program that has licensing rights to the NCBE questions would be similar to Adaptibar in having access to the questions pretty quickly.
I couldn't really figure out if the NCBE actually released any "new" questions or if this is just their way to make more money off us. I also bought the Strategies and Tactics book (used on Amazon) so I can start reading over it - but plan on buying the 7th Edition that they're releasing in late May that will cover some of the new Civ Pro questions.
I think the issue of the NCBE releasing new questions in their online learning platform is off the mark. I never considered the existing four OPE Exams or the Study Aids as representative of the actual questions on the test. Some people found them more difficult, I thought they were a lot easier than the test. The real take-away here is I think the four OPE Exams are offered are representative of the RULES that are being tested, not the question form. Know those rules inside out and you have a much better chance of survival on those tricky equator questions. I haven't had the time to compare the subject matter outlines with past revisions of the OPE Exams, but my guess is they revise the practice tests as the subject matter outline drifts. What is tested slowly changes over time.
As for Adaptibar, they offer the OPE Exams, the Study Aids, and the old questions that are representative of the easy level and mid level questions on the MBE. You'll have to go to Barbri or Kaplan for the really hard stuff, and that's 60 questions, which is a tad over a third of the test. You have to also understand that it takes many attempts to write and validate an equator, so it's likely well over a half of the pretest questions are going to be frigging outrageously difficult too. This is why perfectly competent examinees walk out of the test feeling like they were gang raped. It's normal, 72.5 or more questions out of 200 are designed that way. I felt that way too, I figured this out after the test.
Provided you have the money, Adaptibar offers several intangibles that are definitely helpful. Once you get over 2000 questions, you become very competent, at least at the easy and middle level questions. That's when you start working on time management. I was somewhere at 2600 and 80% success rate. That's when I took a hard look at time management. I was finishing the test in two hours and made myself slow down. I also made myself read all the answers, even when I thought I knew the answer. BOOM, I finished my prep with a solid 91%-94%. You can do this stuff yourself with a spread sheet, but it takes time and let's face it, time management during prep is equally critical as time management during the test. It also keeps stats for how you are doing in each subject and sub-topic. Believe me, you will back slide as you progress. Watching Torts go from the low 90s down into a 68% success rate can be terrifying, but after a few thousand questions you take it for normal.
Another issue is anxiety. I can't tell you how helpful it was to see other examinees struggle.
It helps to go to sleep at night when you are stuck at 68% but everyone else in your state or nationwide is stuck in the high 50s. Confidence is extremely important on this test. For example, my computer melted down because of a short in my touchpad, I could barely cut and paste and my cursor jumped to random points without warning. It was like a nightmare during law school. If it wasn't for Adaptibar, I might have just walked out of the room, however I was scoring so high on practice MBEs, I figured I still had a chance. April 11th will tell.
Anyway, I'm sure BarMax does the same thing. However I get upset when people who don't know any better bad mouth the Barbri questions as too hard, or the released questions as too easy. You need both, they are perfect for the parts of the test they address. Yes, the law changes, and the format of the questions change, but the examiners are using the same tricks they've used for 40 years, and they are contained in the old released questions.