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So.....I'm in my first day of Bar Review, and I'm looking at the "recommended" study program (what I should be studying, how long, etc), and it is CRAZY.

It recommends summarizing my notes, which I support in general. It's a good way to condense/distill the info. BUT 1) it recommends taking as much time on that as the lecture on the topic (3+ hours per day), and 2) it looks like there's going to be a handed out pre-made outline every day, so am I supposed to re-write the outline the law professor guy gives out, or what?

Also, it recommends SIX to NINE hours of studying per day IN ADDITION to the four hours a day I spend at these lectures/classes. That's 10-13 hours of studying. EVERY DAY. I know this is a big deal, but to get in 9 hours after my class I would have to study nonstop from 1pm-10pm. That's just not possible.

Any suggestions/advice on how I should approach these review courses? Should I really be rewriting these outlines they give out? Anybody else going through this/have been through it? I know there are some lawyers here on GRB. I'm not looking for "it's going to be easy" but I'd like some realistic assessments of the time you put in on these types of things. Thanks!

Lecture starting again: he's singing a song and playing a guitar. Anybody else have that in their Bar Review classes?

BenNX74205 wrote:So.....I'm in my first day of Bar Review, and I'm looking at the "recommended" study program (what I should be studying, how long, etc), and it is CRAZY.

It recommends summarizing my notes, which I support in general. It's a good way to condense/distill the info. BUT 1) it recommends taking as much time on that as the lecture on the topic (3+ hours per day), and 2) it looks like there's going to be a handed out pre-made outline every day, so am I supposed to re-write the outline the law professor guy gives out, or what?

Also, it recommends SIX to NINE hours of studying per day IN ADDITION to the four hours a day I spend at these lectures/classes. That's 10-13 hours of studying. EVERY DAY. I know this is a big deal, but to get in 9 hours after my class I would have to study nonstop from 1pm-10pm. That's just not possible.

Any suggestions/advice on how I should approach these review courses? Should I really be rewriting these outlines they give out? Anybody else going through this/have been through it? I know there are some lawyers here on GRB. I'm not looking for "it's going to be easy" but I'd like some realistic assessments of the time you put in on these types of things. Thanks!

Lecture starting again: he's singing a song and playing a guitar. Anybody else have that in their Bar Review classes?

Hey Ben, here's my best advice on Bar Bri and all of their materials and crap:

I never, not for a single day, followed their "suggested study plan" or whatever they call it. And I passed on my first go-around by a big margin. Also, I'm not a genius or law reviewer, so it's not like I'm The Natural or anything.

Here's what you need to do:
1. Remain barely conscious during Barbri "class." Fill in the blanks in the outlines.
2. Study the hell out of those outlines. That is basically all you need to know to pass the bar. I made flashcards out of them, which basically accomplished the same thing as outlining.
3. Do as many sample MBE questions as you can. Especially sample questions that explain the right answers.
4. Do as many of the sample essay questions as you can. (i guess this varies by state; Texas has 1.5 days of essay questions.) Then review the suggested answers and make note of what you missed.

That's it. Don't worry about studying a ton while class is still in session; in fact, take it fairly easy until towards maybe mid or late june. By then, though, you will be studying 10+ hours every day. Remain calm. Take breaks - go to the pool, go work out, whatever you have to do. Don't ever be studying for more than like 3 hours at a time because after that, your mind turns into cabbage and you don't absorb much. Also, change up your scenery from day to day. Study at a coffee shop one day, library the next, at home the next. It helps.

Good luck dude. Honestly, the #1 way to pass the bar is by being in the right mental state. Be as calm as possible, sleep as much as you can before it starts. The majority of the people I know that didn't pass, didn't pass for a reason: one didn't take Barbri, one was working a 50 hour a week job and thought she could just study in the evening, one started popping multiple ritalin and atevan "to help him study" and sorta became a speed addict, and one was bad at test taking (panic) and missed passing by 2 points. So again, just be methodical and calm and you'll do great.

Thanks for the tips! A couple questions, though:

1. You say by "mid-June" I'll be studying 10 hrs/day. Does that include the 4 hours spent in class? Or did you mean "mid-July" because that is when my class sessions end...
2. Does the study time also include reading the provided outlines the day before each lecture so you know what is going on, or is that something they recommend that wastes time as well?
3. Would you recommend reading the condensed mini outline or the expanded outlines on each topic (not the one provided by the speaker)?
4. When should I "start" doing practice MBE and essay questions? Like now (first day) or after a few weeks? The BarBri program gave out some big books with sample questions, but those also have "assigned days" for doing them. I assume there are a bunch of Bar Review Question books that I can find on Amazon, and I probably will, but are sample questions going to be helpful already?

I think the craziest thing I would do would be typing out the provided outlines in a better order without the filler language, but that's pretty mindless/boring. I'm not SUPER stressed out about passing (don't like 85% of people pass, and I went to a pretty good law school, so....) but it's a big enough deal that I'm taking it seriously. I just don't want to follow a crazy program that recommends an impossible amount of studying and I end up burned out and huddled in a corner rocking myself back and forth rambling on about curtilage. Thanks for the help!

Also, my outline today doesn't even have blanks to fill it. There's NOTHING to condense--the guy condensed the info in making the outline in the first place. Argy belargy!

BenNX74205 wrote:Thanks for the tips! A couple questions, though:

1. You say by "mid-June" I'll be studying 10 hrs/day. Does that include the 4 hours spent in class? Or did you mean "mid-July" because that is when my class sessions end...
2. Does the study time also include reading the provided outlines the day before each lecture so you know what is going on, or is that something they recommend that wastes time as well?
3. Would you recommend reading the condensed mini outline or the expanded outlines on each topic (not the one provided by the speaker)?
4. When should I "start" doing practice MBE and essay questions? Like now (first day) or after a few weeks? The BarBri program gave out some big books with sample questions, but those also have "assigned days" for doing them. I assume there are a bunch of Bar Review Question books that I can find on Amazon, and I probably will, but are sample questions going to be helpful already?

I think the craziest thing I would do would be typing out the provided outlines in a better order without the filler language, but that's pretty mindless/boring. I'm not SUPER stressed out about passing (don't like 85% of people pass, and I went to a pretty good law school, so....) but it's a big enough deal that I'm taking it seriously. I just don't want to follow a crazy program that recommends an impossible amount of studying and I end up burned out and huddled in a corner rocking myself back and forth rambling on about curtilage. Thanks for the help!

1. I'm assuming your bar exam is at the end of July like most states? I didn't start studying at night until mid June. At that point, I was probably studying less than 10 hours a day, including class. I think I took the afternoons off then studied at night, mainly doing practice multistate questions and reviewing outlines. I don't think I ever opened any of the subject-matter books.
2. I don't think I ever read the outlines in advance. Ever. However, for subjects that I never took a course in (like commercial paper or secured transactions or income tax), I did a little extra reading, and drilled myself on the provided outlines and essay questions a bit harder.
3. I only read the mini-outlines, and not all of them. Again, I probably read the mini outlines for the subjects I didn't take in law school, and maybe looked at the extended outlines if there was something major that I didn't understand. But I for sure didn't spend 3 hours a night reading them like Bar/Bri recommends.
4. I'd recommend starting on the sample questions ASAP, but not overdoing it. Start doing like 50 sample Q's a day on the MBE. Even though you haven't covered a lot of the material yet. There's three reasons why: First, you'll get a good sense of the format that the bar examiners like to use for the questions and how they like to word things. Second, if the sample questions have sample answers, read those answers and you'll learn the material very efficiently. Third, and most importantly, the bar examiners are not that creative. There were a good number of MBE questions and even essays that were exactly or nearly exactly the same as ones I'd seen in the Bar/Bri practice books. So those questions, on the exam, were practically gimmes.

So, you're absolutely right - in most states, the pass rate is 80% or higher. I'm not gonna lie, this is going to be one of the worst, most nausea-inducing experiences of your life. Even though the following is true: If you take it seriously, study really hard, and don't have a freakout, you will pass. You're going to work harder than you ever did even in law school, but you'll pass. The key is just doing what you have to do but take time out for yourself, relax a bit, and don't get too worked up.

Also, don't follow BarBri's timeline of what to study and do each night . I looked at that thing on the first day and just kinda laughed.

heyzeus wrote:1. I'm assuming your bar exam is at the end of July like most states? I didn't start studying at night until mid June. At that point, I was probably studying less than 10 hours a day, including class. I think I took the afternoons off then studied at night, mainly doing practice multistate questions and reviewing outlines. I don't think I ever opened any of the subject-matter books.
2. I don't think I ever read the outlines in advance. Ever. However, for subjects that I never took a course in (like commercial paper or secured transactions or income tax), I did a little extra reading, and drilled myself on the provided outlines and essay questions a bit harder.
3. I only read the mini-outlines, and not all of them. Again, I probably read the mini outlines for the subjects I didn't take in law school, and maybe looked at the extended outlines if there was something major that I didn't understand. But I for sure didn't spend 3 hours a night reading them like Bar/Bri recommends.
4. I'd recommend starting on the sample questions ASAP, but not overdoing it. Start doing like 50 sample Q's a day on the MBE. Even though you haven't covered a lot of the material yet. There's three reasons why: First, you'll get a good sense of the format that the bar examiners like to use for the questions and how they like to word things. Second, if the sample questions have sample answers, read those answers and you'll learn the material very efficiently. Third, and most importantly, the bar examiners are not that creative. There were a good number of MBE questions and even essays that were exactly or nearly exactly the same as ones I'd seen in the Bar/Bri practice books. So those questions, on the exam, were practically gimmes.

So, you're absolutely right - in most states, the pass rate is 80% or higher. I'm not gonna lie, this is going to be one of the worst, most nausea-inducing experiences of your life. Even though the following is true: If you take it seriously, study really hard, and don't have a freakout, you will pass. You're going to work harder than you ever did even in law school, but you'll pass. The key is just doing what you have to do but take time out for yourself, relax a bit, and don't get too worked up.

Also, don't follow BarBri's timeline of what to study and do each night . I looked at that thing on the first day and just kinda laughed.

Yeah my exam is at the end of July, but I wasn't sure if you really meant to say June because it was really close to your talking about class being in session (which for me it goes until July, and I know we had ours pushed back over a week from when it was supposed to start). I think I'll stick to the provided lecture outlines, but do you think it's at all worthwhile to basically transcribe them into a word document? I was always told that writing stuff out helps you learn it better than just reading it, but who knows.

So you didn't follow the "this topic this day" and just studied a bunch of different things each day, or did you still focus on that day's topic and just forget the extra stuff they were telling you to do?

I'm really trying not to let this overwhelm me, but I want to stay ahead of the wave. I really appreciate the advice and help. I'm sure I'll be posting in this thread often as the day draws near.

I'm taking the VA Bar and we only have 1 day of essays and the 1 day of MBE. So I guess that's a good thing--only two full days of exams! The downside is that everyone in the state takes it in the same place, and that place is out in Roakone, VA (3.5 hours from where I am staying for the summer), so I get to spend the night in a strange hotel the night before and the night during the exam. I don't get travel anxiety or anything like that, but I do enjoy the comfort of my own home.

Everyone learns in a different way. Everyone takes tests in a different way. If you're a good test taker, I'd follow Heyzeus' advice. If you studied your ass off for the LSATs and were still sweating it when you sat for them, study your ass off for the Bar. I'd rather overstudy for two months than fail the Bar.

Apparently putting the exam in a weird place is a Bar Examiner tradition. I had to take the exam in Pasadena, Texas, a stinky industrial 'burb about 25 miles east of Houston. I had to spend 3 nights in a holiday inn there (Texas' bar is a painful, unnecessary 3 days long). In Missouri, the only bar exam site is Jefferson City, and I don't believe there are even enough hotel rooms there for all of the people taking the test.

S'more answers:

- I made my own study schedule. I tried to review a few subjects per night, spending more time on things that I knew I was weaker on. And I assigned myself a number of MBE questions per night (say, 50).
- I think it does help you learn the material if you force yourself to write it out by hand and summarize things in your own words. You're forced to understand it that way. I also cut some material out of the outlines, if it's something that rarely shows up on the exam. There's only so much room in your head.
- The real hard-core studying doesn't have to start until the class ends. But beware, that's also when the panic will set in for a lot of your classmates. If you want to study with other people (I think it's of some value, some times) make sure they're on your level of calmness.

Good luck man! Definitely check in as you go along, so we can keep you cool.

Thought I'd post a quick check-in before my third day starts. Yesterday we covered "federal jurisdiction and civil procedure" in a single 33-page, 3.5 hour lecture.

That summarized everything I learned in my entire first year of civil procedure.

Condensed into 3 hours.

It's a pretty weird feeling realizing all the time we spent in class on it, and all the studying I did for BOTH exams (it was two separate semester long classes for me), can so easily be condensed into 3.5 hours of a crazy man talking to me.

Weird.

Good luck Ben! Remember to take some breaks like zeus said and call JC here and there. (not when he's at work)