This isn't the bar I'd choose to spend my summer with.

March 22, 2009 6:03 PM

I'd like to find blogs or websites dealing with people's experiences studying for the bar exam. Know of any?

I will begin studying for the NY bar exam in a couple months and will sit for it in July. I will be taking the bar/bri class to prepare.

I'm unfamiliar with what is involved in the summer of studying and would like to read a blog (or, in the alternative, would love recollections/tips from mefi members) that talks about how people studied for this beast of a test. Specifically wondering how people structured their day, which materials they used or focused on and which materials they skipped, and any methods for studying that people found particularly helpful.

Tips for NY specifically would be great, but bar/bri tips of any kind will be helpful. Thanks!

posted by soonertbone to law & government (12 comments total)

If you Google "bar exam study" you'll get more results than you'll know what to do with.
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 6:12 PM on March 22

Maybe that's why soonertbone needs recommendations -- which ones are worth reading?
posted by carnival of animals at 6:23 PM on March 22

Something I did that worked out great:
1. Get some copies of actual multistate exams (you can order them online - I forget how, but you'll figure it out).
2. Get a notebook and on the first page number - 1-10? 1-15? Something like that and -
3. Take the first set of questions. If you don't know the answer for sure (if you're guessing at all, or narrowed it to two or something) - make a mark so you'll know it's a lucky guess.
4. Score yourself!
5. For the answers you got wrong or were unsure about - crack the BarBri book, figure out what you did not know, and make flashcards. You might make one or four or whatever it takes for each question (depending on the number of definitions or distinctions the question reveals your ignorance of).
6. Repeat and repeat - Answer questions, make flashcards, and review them. This keeps it lively because you're doing different activities and switching up - and as you get confident move the flashcards to another set - so you've got a set of Things I Know (to occasionally review) and Things I'll Know Soon (that you're primarily working with).
7. You'll find that between this practice and your BarBri class, your rate of correct answers gets better and better, and you'll have a really clear sense of which subject areas you're strongest and weakest in so you can best plan your time.
8. It's a really effective way to study, and it does wonders for your spirit because you can walk into that exam knowing that you'll kill the multistate - you've been working up to it all summer.

OTHER TIPS:
1. BarBri says to practice essays, but that seems like a waste of time since you've likely been "practicing" organizing and writing in-class essays since middle school... just focus on content.
2. I didn't take PMBR and some people love it - but I bought a book on ebay and the fact patterns were so amazingly convoluted that it'd take ages just to figure out what the question was - so I think that's a waste of time as well. Again, I'm sure you're already aces at reading comprehension - what you need to work on are the legal concepts.
posted by moxiedoll at 6:27 PM on March 22

For the multistate portion, I found that simply knowing the material was not enough. The question drafters try to trick you in a hundred different ways, so it's essential to put in a lot of practice. You don't have to take the PMBR course, but do buy a used PMBR book if possible. PMBR's people seem to sit for the exam every year, memorize the questions, and then reprint them in slightly altered form in their books, so their questions are better than BarBri's.

For the essay portion, I found it useful to simply study the same way I did in law school. I outlined the material based on the BarBri lectures and then studied the outlines thoroughly. I looked at practice exams, but to save time, I just outlined my answers and/or noted the issues I had spotted, instead of writing the answers out.

Overall, as long as you make a routine early on and stick to it, you'll be fine. The standard for passing is minimum competency, and you'll be far ahead of the people who put off studying unitl the last couple weeks.
posted by zerzura at 6:56 PM on March 22

I ignored the state-specific essay prep and focused solely on the multi-state portion and passed (in Michigan, not NY) on my first attempt. I also took the BarBri prep course but found that taking sample/old exams was far more helpful in its own way. I know this doesn't speak directly to your question, but my suspicion is that there's only so many ways they can (re-)word the multi-state multiple-choice questions, so if you've got a handle on the "theoretical" framework underlying said questions, you are likely in a good spot. I'm going to google around and see if I can find a more specific answer to your query, but YMMV. Good luck!
posted by joe lisboa at 7:06 PM on March 22

On review, evidently zerzura disagrees, so grain of salt w/r/t my advice and all that, etc.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:08 PM on March 22

I took the bar in a different state, but here were the most useful tidbits for me:

1. Remember that the bar prep course companies want their students to pass -- it makes them look good. You can think about this in two ways: (a) they've studied every aspect of that exam, pass rates, effective study habits, etc. They're experts. Their advice is well taken. But, (b) they sometimes go a little over the top in trying to make sure you pass. Most people don't (and can't) do 100% of the recommended work, but still pass the exam.

2. Don't waste time making flashcards for things you already know. While it makes you feel good to answer questions correctly, it's a waste of your very precious time. Do practice questions and then write out flashcards for the points you missed in those questions. At the end of each day, make yourself learn a certain number of your cards. Throw them out when you can do them 3 times successfully.

3. IMO, most of the people I know who failed, failed because they didn't respect the amount of time and information involved. They thought they didn't need to study areas like contracts because DUH, they're contracts! Easy! Or they ran out of time writing essays because they hadn't practiced enough in advance. These essays are not like law school exam essays. You don't have the time or space to ramble (at least in my state). It took quite a bit of practice for me to be able to write quickly and succinctly, while still covering the huge range of issues in each question.
posted by pril at 7:27 PM on March 22

Searching for "bar exam study" just results in a bunch of websites advertising their services to help you pass the bar. What I'm looking for is personal anecdotes, like the above responses, with experiences or tips. I already have bar/bri to help with the actual content.
posted by soonertbone at 7:40 PM on March 22

BarBri will actually give you a very nice schedule which will tell you exactly how much of what you should be studying on any given day. I didn't manage to stick to it 100%, but it was definitely a help.

For me, the crucial technique was use of flash cards. Flash cards, flash cards, flash cards! I had somewhere between fifteen and twenty little binders of them. Both the act of making them and the act of reviewing them were very useful.

The most important pieces of advice, for me, were these:

(1) Don't study what you know. Study what you don't know. If you watch yourself, you'll likely notice a tendency to review the material that you already grasp again and again and again. Bar exam study is hellaciously stressful: quizzing yourself on topics you already know tends to damp the stress down. It's unbelievably easy to fall into to doing that. Be conscious of the tendency, and do your best to avoid it.

(2) It's a maration, not a sprint. Resist the urge to pull all-nighters. Don't stop exercising, or ruck up your sleep schedule. Take lots of breaks. You'll retain stuff better if you study at a reasonable pace on a full night's sleep.

Best of luck! The Bar Exam's a bitch, but remember this: You know those lawyers you meet at work, or at the courthouse, or in the law library who just seem-- broken somehow? The ones who are disorganized, or unreliable, or who always spell "Judgment" with at least one extraneous "e?" You know-- the really, really, bottomlessly stupid ones? Those folks passed the bar. And as long as you take it seriously and study, so will you.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 8:02 PM on March 22

I have to disagree with Pril's #3. In my experience, those who failed were those who freaked out the most about the Bar. Granted, I know of at least one woman who took the Jersey bar five times and failed all five times - she was a dunce and didn't deserve a license (seriously, I worked with her and she was ...well, often I wondered how she got through law school; she couldn't apply simple legal theories to fact patterns).

My law school roommate failed the bar the first time she took it; she got herself so nervous and wracked out about it, she couldn't think straight during the exam. She studied everyday, did all the BarBri stuff, etc.

Meanwhile, I played golf every day till two weeks before the exam. Then I started "studying" by taking practice exams - just the MBE questions. I did roughly 3000 of them and passed two states' bars.

YMMV. Good luck.
posted by LOLAttorney2009 at 8:25 PM on March 22

My experience with the bar exam (CA):

1. Flashcards - I second palmcorder. Do them early - do them in tempo with the Barbri lectures or earlier. Be disciplined about finishing them on time. Otherwise, you will spend precious time later writing them out instead of revising the material. A couple of my classmates did the flashcards during some classes - one by writing and the other had the templates in her computer. I tried but couldn't do that - it seems like a great time-saver!

2. Essays - I did as many essays as I could but not as much as Barbri wanted me to because I did not have time. I was busy being fluent with the material. I did look through all the previous years questions. Where I didn't have time or was too tired to write answers, I did them mentally and read the provided answers. And master that technique - IRAC.

3. MBE - I also bought the PMBR books to practice on. I did not do all of them, but I think it was useful being familiar with the different ways the MBE questions were written. I did all of Barbri's MBE questions as per schedule and then the PMBR. Some days, I did 10 questions of each of the 6 topics.

At this level (of education) you know how much studying you need to do to be fluent in the material. So don't be influenced by people who say they barely studied, yet passed or they slept 2 hours a day to get enough studying done. I came from a different jurisdiction (as in foreign country) and almost everything was new to me so I knew I had to put in extra effort. When you are very familiar with the material, even if you don't think you know the answer, you will be able to answer intelligently and argue your way out rationally. Keep the stress level low - do something relaxing/fun often and exercise. Good Luck!
posted by serunding at 12:06 AM on March 23

Honestly, it's best to skip the blogs and simply follow Barbri's schedule. With the blogs, you freak out when they freak out ... or you freak out because that person's a gunner and you're not. Just focus on Barbri and supplement wherever you feel weak. Don't worry about the blogs.
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 2:52 PM on March 23