Advice on Passing the Bar Exam: Part IV

Hey 3Ls - congrats on graduation!! For advice on what to do with the next three weeks before official bar preparation begins check out the forums. For my advice about what to do once studying begins ...

I took the California Bar Exam in July 2007. I took it on a laptop in Los Angeles, CA. To prepare I took Barbri's live lecture series in Los Angeles. I did not take PMBR.

Barbri Advice

First of all, there’s no advantage to attending a live class as opposed to a taped one – except for that it seems less ludicrous to be paying so much for it. I actually preferred the taped classes. They were less crowded and more relaxed. The key is to figure out a daily schedule that will allow you to be productive. I work best in the mornings and tend to have an afternoon slump. So I worked on my own in the mornings and stared blankly at the Barbri monitors every afternoon.

So the BIG question: do you really have to follow the paced program and do all the homework?? Not necessarily, but you do have to put in some serious work. I never did a single paced program assignment. The first night I sat down to read the first outline. I thought it would be helpful to write down some notes. Well after three hours I was only half way through and thoroughly miserable. There was no way I was doing one of these in addition to 50 question and a couple essays every night.

So here’s what I did: as we went through the lectures I hand wrote outlines of the topics and made flashcards of the basic rules (not the completely nit-picky stuff). I tried to do 15-20 multiple choice questions per day, including reading through the answers. I finished all my subject outlines and flash cards by the end of the in class lectures. Starting the first week of July, when our classes ended I wrote out 1 full essay per day and outlined two more. I kept doing 15-20 multiple choice per day as well. Finally, I went back and hand wrote my outlines again.

I do not recommend this particular plan, but I do recommend this: think about what kind of study skills are effective for you and utilize them. I retain information by writing it down by hand much better than by typing or reading aloud. Not everyone works this way. Since I do, that formed the basis of my study plan.

Other methods I saw among my friends: extremely detailed flashcards; repetition of incorrectly answered multiple choice questions every night before bed; studying from hand-me-down outlines; and reading aloud (over and over and over again…).

Personal Life

I heard a great piece of advice. Before you start studying sit down with your significant other and lay out this rule: NO BREAKING UP UNTIL AFTER THE BAR EXAM. The rule applies to you both.