Advice: The Summer

Mindset.

One of biggest reasons people do not pass is not taking Barbri seriously. Taking Barbri seriously means you need to go to every substantive lecture, and keep up with the Barbri's Paced Program as much as possible.

On other hand, don't take it *too* seriously. This was an issue for me, especially after Barbri ended mid-July. I was worried a lot and found it hard to fall asleep at times. The way I dealt with this was to stop studying a half an hour before bedtime. I forced myself to take the break by eating or blogging before bed.

Books.

Before Barbri begins, you will pick up a lot of books from Barbri, around 10 volumes. Don't be scared. I never read the two big outlines of law. For just about everything, the Conviser Mini Review (CMR) will be sufficient. If you knew everything in the CMR, you know more than enough for the bar. If you're really curious about something, you can do some "research" in the big volumes. But if you're in the big volumes a lot, you're going way overboard. The other important book is the In-Class Workbook. You will take this book (or portions thereof) to class every day and fill in the blanks as the lecturer talks. The rest of the stuff are practice materials for the MBE, essays, and PTs.

Two phases.

Your approach to each subject can be separated roughly into two phases: learning and doing. Learning means understanding the material, or deciding that something is not worth understanding. Doing is practicing. After you learn a subject, you should be able to explain most ideas without looking it up. But don't worry if you have to look up some stuff, as long as you have a general idea. Don't try to commit things to memory until you start practicing. The bulk of memorizing will take place in the finals weeks before the exam.

For the six MBE subjects, you try to wrap up your learning phase by mid to late June. For the rest of the essay subjects, wrap up as soon as possible after the Barbri lecture. Ideally, you want to finish learning everything by the time formal Barbri lectures end, probably one week after July 4. I wasn't able to do this. I was still trying to learn in the final week before the exam. So if you fall behind, it's not the end of the world. But try not to.

Learning the law.

Some people outline in order to understand. I tried unsuccessfully to do this for every subject. But what I realized is that you don't really need to write out an outline to understand. This is especially true for subjects where the in-class notes are short. For example, last summer, the Business Associations and Remedies in-class notes were super-short. Outlining those subject would have been a waste of time. However, the Evidence, Civil Procedure, and Corporation notes were long. Outlining those made sense for me.

Remember, also, that you'll be doing this along with the Paced Program, which can be a real challenge. When Barbri begins, you will be advised to do the following daily: attend class (usually half a day), do the assigned homework (usually some MBEs or two essays), and reading the CMR to prepare for the lecture next day. It's very difficult to do all of this, and learn, every day. The trick to this part of the race is just to keep up as much as possible. Feel free to cut some corners with the Barbri homeworks. I skipped some essays and came back to them later. I don't recommend skipping class though, because going to class is probably the most efficient way to take a first pass at the materials. Also, some of the lecturers (e.g., Whitebread and Schecter) are extremely funny and worth seeing for pure entertainment value.

MBEs.

After you've learned MBE law, you should start doing MBE's regularly.

When you're doing MBEs to practice (as opposed to learn), you should go fast. Otherwise doing and reviewing 50 MBEs will take forever. I was really slow at first, but I find it's b/c I read too carefully. Sometimes there is no need to understand a question fully to be able to answer it. Often, you can eliminate two choices without having to read the question at all!

When you start doing mixed-subject sets, it really helped me to read the call first. I do this to quickly place the question into one of the six MBE subjects. E.g., if I see "admissible" in the call, I put on my Evidence hat and begin skimming the question. Sometimes I glance at the choices too.

I didn't have a set number of MBEs that I did everyday. I think I didn't an average of 33 per day. I would take a set MBEs to me to lunch or dinner, and just do them while I eat.

After I did them, I only reviewed the ones I got wrong. Sure I probably got some right for the wrong reasons, but it was just too inefficient to check every answer for new knowledge. I got comfortable with the idea that I'm not going to be able to know every little bit of MBE law.

If I got something wrong b/c of my lack of knowledge (as opposed to a misread or just a silly question), I write it down on a flash card. On the front I'll write some facts and a call, and on the back an explanation. Usually by the time I wrote the point down I've already memorized it. But I would sometimes flip through the cards and if I see one I know, I remove it from my review set. This is basically how you practice MBE.

In terms of questions, I would do the Barbri assigned MBEs first, the Barbri released questions second, and then PMBR red book, and then PMBR blue book. Hopefully you'll never get to the PMBR blue book, b/c I hear they are unreasonably difficult with bad explanations.

After a week of doing mixed MBEs, you should be averaging about 65% correct.

Essays.

If you're in CA, Prof. Sakai will give you a lecture on each essay subject. During the lecture he will give you a checklist of things to talk about. For most subjects, this list is pretty short. You should memorize this list, from the top down (ie, big bullets, then small bullets). Find some funny acronyms; they make things easier.

The first thing to practice is spotting the issues. This is a skill that requires the greatest amount of practice on the bar exam. In fact it is probably the most sophisticated form of "thinking" (if you can call it that) on the bar exam. Generally, every sentence in a question is there for a reason and you should aim to use them all in your answer. But don't worry if you see every issue. Usually there are only three or four "big" issues that you should hit if you want to pass that essay. On the other hand, if you are given multiple calls to a question (as opposed to just "discuss"), you don't have to spot anything. Just make sure you answer the calls exactly. All in all, I would spend about 15 minutes spotting, and outlining an answer before you start writing. If you finish early, take a deep breath, and spot some more. Remember, if you're going to screw up an essay, it will probably be something you do in those first 15 minutes.

After you have something of an outline, you should start writing. This is the brain-dead part of the exercise. You are basically regurgitating (or making up) a rule of law, and then listing some relevant facts after it. Then you come up with some sort of a conclusion; it really doesn't matter how you say here. You have 45 minutes to do this.

The most important thing about the writing process is to use lots of short headings. You'll hear this again and again, but the grader only spends about 2-3 minutes reading each essay. If you have more or less the right headings on there, chances are nothing else will get read. Try to use short headings of law or fact. E.g., "battery," "constructive trust," "damage to Mary's car." Don't get creative lest the grader actually reads what you write. I'd say if you can help it, make every fourth or fifth sentence a heading.

I didn't memorize exact statements of law, but I had a general idea of the elements. Again, flashcards are useful here. Analysis is the least likely thing to get read by the grader. Just start with "Here," signifying you're analyzing, and then stick in a "because" and copy in the facts from the question verbatim. E.g., "Here, M and N formed a contract because on January 1 M sent N a letter and then blah blah." Do do a better job on the first issue though, because things that come first are more likely to get read.

Over the summer, you should write out about 5-10 essays fully, to get an idea of the timing. You will submit a few of them to Barbri for grading, but they don't do a very good job of it. I would recommend you get together with some friends and just look at each other's answers. Don't worry if you didn't spot everything. Just look at each other's style. Conform to each other's style. There is no "right" style. But the best style is the one that most people are using.

Toward the end the summer, you don't need to write out the essays. Just go through the 15 minute outlining exercise. You'll see that writing is just a matter of copying facts over, and a big waste of time. The essential steps that should be practiced are reading, spotting, and organizing headings. And don't worry about hitting all the issues the Barbri model answers do. If you hit a majority of those in 15 minutes, you're doing great.

Last word about predicting essay subjects. I tried to do it last summer with a poll, but it was completely off on many counts. People had predicted that First Amendment, Landlord-Tenant, and Criminal Law were unlikely. But they all appeared. On the other hand people did correctly predict Community Property. There's nothing wrong in predicting but do not completely neglect a subject in reliance--you never know. Remember that PR will absolutely be tested every year, and the essays will usually be half MBE subjects and half non.

Performance tests.

There is nothing to learn for the performance test. Everything should be in the file and library they give you. Also, you get a full three hours to do one, so you're not really rushed. You should aim to do perhaps 3 full practice PTs during the summer. Basically, do the ones that Barbri forces you to do. Use the same writing technique that you use for the essays.

In terms of time management, you should spend about an hour reading the file and library, and the rest writing. Barbri suggests that you take a break in between reading and writing to clear you head. I didn't find it all that helpful. But it is a good time to drink some water or go to the bathroom if you need to.

The most important thing to remember about PTs is to, again, not deviate from the crowd. This means following the directions exactly. Answer every part the way it is asked. When you're asked to "come up" with a solution, don't get too creative.

Toward the end of the summer, you'll be advised to do a few more PTs on your own time. You probably won't have time. Instead, just do the one-hour excercise of reading the file and library and outline an answer, or better yet, just read the instructions and look at the model answer. Usually, the answers are lists of facts (fact gathering), which are quite easy to grade.

Feedback.

In my opinion, Barbri does not do a good job of grading your essays and PTs. The grades take weeks to get back to you and when you read it, you wonder if the grader actually read what you wrote at all. Once I got the law completely wrong and they gave me passes. As I said above, the best way to gauge yourself with essays and PTs is to look at a few friends' answers.

Also, don't worry about regurgitating the law correctly on the graded essays. You'll know you missed an issue immediately after you write an essay; you don't need a grader to tell you "need to talk about vicarious liability." Instead, cheat: take your time to find all the issues, look up the law, and outline. Then, limiting yourself to 45 minutes, write out an answer to be graded. This way, all the feedback will be on your writing style, which is what you need.

Finally, don't worry too much about Barbri failing you. Very few people pass the first essay. Lots of people fail all the essays. I do believe though, that the graders lighten up toward the end, so if you're still failing toward end, look at their comments carefully. There is probably something you're obviously doing wrong.

As for the MBEs, you should average about 60-65% correct with the Barbri questions after a few weeks of doing them, and maybe slightly lower on the PMBR book questions. You should also be averaging less than 1.8 minutes per question, or 1 minute 48 seconds. Toward the end, you should be closer to 70%, especially with the Barbri released questions, which are somewhat easier.

Barbri will give you a 200-question simulated exam after the lectures on the 6 MBE subjects. At that point in time scores will vary widely depending on your level of preparedness. I scored 131, which was high, since I'd prepared a little before Barbri began. If you're between 110-120, you're about average nationally. If you're under 100, you need to work on your MBEs, and I know people who passed with low simulated MBE scores in June.

Some people do the PMBR 3-day simulated exam. This exam is very hard. About a week before the actual exam, if you score 100, you're above average.

Memorizing.

Barbri will formally end about a week after July 4. At that point, you will be let loose to study on your own. Hopefully by this time, you're done (or close to) learning everything, and can concentrate on memorizing and practicing. Don't feel bad though if you still need to learn things (as I had to). Don't freak out if you're behind. There is actually a lot of time b/c you can learn by practicing. The key is to take responsibility for what you need to cover and what you need to cut.

In the last week or two, you will spend some time commiting things to your short term memory. The way I did this was to run everything I needed to memorize over my mind, wait 10 minutes, and then spitting it back out in my mind. I'd then go to bed, and when I wake up the next morning, spit it back out again. If I forget something, I'll quickly go over it again. Also, by now I'm constantly doing practice essays and MBEs, so the heavily tested materials are repeatedly getting exercised in my brain.

There are three things you should memorize. First, you need to memorize MBE law. You probably made flashcards for those, and they should be cycling in and out of your review stack. These are easy b/c they usually very fact-rich and there is a lot for your mind to hold on to. Second, you should memorize the essay checklists. These are provided to you by Barbri in the In-Class Workbook. Stick to these, b/c everyone will be using these lists, in the order it's printed. These should be at your fingertips if you've been practicing a lot of essays. Finally, you will need to memorize the statements of blackletter law. This is very hard b/c the volume of stuff here is huge, and they don't get exercised by just outlining the essays. If there is something you cannot recall on the bar, it'll probably be one of these rules (eg, elements for malicious prosecution). The only thing I can tell you is, most people cannot remember all the rules. Try to remember as much as you can; try not to be too precise; and learn to make up rules.

As you're memorizing, be confident that things are sticking--they are. Be confident that if they don't, you can guess, and make stuff up on the exam. On the MBEs, you can usually eliminate wrong answers down to two, and on the essays, made-up law is just as good as correct law.

Okay. So that's the summer. Sounds grueling heh? To deal with it, I inserted a lot of little breaks that were not too time-consuming. I tried a lot of restaurants in the area and went to Safeway a lot. I even took a day off to visit the test site at Oakland. All in all, it wasn't too bad.

To be continued...