Posted: 5/3/2017 7:32:11 AM EDT
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About to start prepping for everybody's favorite exam: the Texas bar exam. It's set up to take 2.5 days, the first being Civil/Criminal Procedure and Evidence, as well as the MPT; the second day is the MBE; and the third day consists of the Texas essays portions. 675 is passing.
A little about me: I attended a school that, in Texas, has historically had a decent pass rate (85% last July). I was on Law Review and did decently well in my classes, but was not in the top third of the class overall. I worked at the local DA's office in the Appellate Division for almost two years, so I have more writing experience than most of my classmates. I was a Barbri rep since 1L year, so I get a free Barbri course. I'm married and will not be working during bar prep. Any advice from those who have passed the bar, especially in recent years? Is sticking 100% Barbri's Personal Study Plan really that important, or is it mainly just about finishing most of the course? Did you have to work all day, 7 days a week? I know that statistically speaking (there's always an outlier), everybody who finished 75% or more of the course passed at my school, but I'm still interested in hearing about others' experiences. |
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I took the bar in Ohio twenty years ago, so my advice, FWIW is as follows:
1. If you can avoid staying at the hotel/motel where most of the other test takers are, do so. 2. Bring ear plugs to the exam. You may want to use them. 3. Don't talk to any of the other test takers once the test has started. No, I don't mean during the exam. I mean during breaks in between exam portions. They'll all be doing a postmortem, and second guessing themselves. You don't need that during the exam. Wait until it's all over. 4. Pack your lunch. Sit in your car by yourself and eat it. Listen to the radio or something. Don't go somewhere for lunch, because you'll just stress out about getting back in time. As far as BarBri, and study prep, you know what might appear on the Texas Bar Exam, and what BarBri covers, so I think you likely have a good grasp of that aspect. I did BarBri at night, and studied six to eight hours a day, five or six days a week between graduation and the exam. Half of that study time was group study with two other students/friends. Good luck. 
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Quoted:
About to start prepping for everybody's favorite exam: the Texas bar exam. It's set up to take 2.5 days, the first being Civil/Criminal Procedure and Evidence, as well as the MPT; the second day is the MBE; and the third day consists of the Texas essays portions. 675 is passing. A little about me: I attended a school that, in Texas, has historically had a decent pass rate (85% last July). I was on Law Review and did decently well in my classes, but was not in the top third of the class overall. I worked at the local DA's office in the Appellate Division for almost two years, so I have more writing experience than most of my classmates. I was a Barbri rep since 1L year, so I get a free Barbri course. I'm married and will not be working during bar prep. Any advice from those who have passed the bar, especially in recent years? Is sticking 100% Barbri's Personal Study Plan really that important, or is it mainly just about finishing most of the course? Did you have to work all day, 7 days a week? I know that statistically speaking (there's always an outlier), everybody who finished 75% or more of the course passed at my school, but I'm still interested in hearing about others' experiences. Use Barbri MBE practice test. Take them all at least twice and read all the explanations in the back of the book of the answer doesn't make sense. Read all of the Barbri essay question sample answers and start to notice patterns in how the answers are laid out. Watch or or listen to all the lectures three times each. I wouldnt bother other reading the outlines.  I passed both Texas and New Mexico had exams on the first attempt. |
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study your ass off, 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. I am not joking. Nothing else matters during bar prep except bar prep and meals.
Do the practice exams. During the bar, don't post-mortem during breaks, like the other poster above said. Save it for after. Oh and one more thing: 
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I passed the CA and OR exams. I signed up for BarBri, but could not for the life of me bother to crack the books. Went to the lectures though and took really, really good notes.
My actual studying consisted of spending 7-10 days, 12 hrs a day, memorizing the BarBri lecture notes. Oregon had a few extra subjects not covered in the CA BarBri, so I borrowed a horn book on each subject and learned as much as I could in 6 hours per subject. Tip: write out a detailed calendar for the 10 days prior to the exam, showing what subjects you are studying when, when you're taking breaks, etc. Stick to it religiously. Hammer out each subject in the allotted time. No fucking around. Eat lots of small high protein meals. Get 8 hrs of sleep per night. I set aside 1 hour for lunch and 3 hours every evening to eat and watch a movie. Other than that I was studying. Good luck. |
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The location really makes a difference.
If it's Redd's I just walk over there with no prep. If it's Madigan's, which is a little further, and not only pricier but with strict pouring rules, I check the air on my bike tires then have a couple bourbons at the house before biking over. |
| I took the Texas Bar 22 years ago, so not much help with the Recent part of your question. Having said that, I also took Barbri and I felt that it prepared me pretty well for the test. They have a lot invested in your success and are constantly tweaking their materials in my experience. If you get some folks to study with and study hard, I think you'll be fine. |
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Do the work.
Take some time every day to do something for yourself that's not bar related, even if it's mundane. For me it was going to the gym 3-4 days a week and going to the grocery store every day around 7:00 p.m. to get something to eat for dinner. Â I only bought for that night and the next morning so that I'd HAVE to leave my apartment to get food the next day. I ended up looking forward to going to the grocery store and relishing every minute I spent there. Â I think that that 45 minutes to an hour every day may have kept me sane. |
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Can you explain the law of perpetuity to me? An interest in property must vest, if it vests at all, in a period of time defined by lives in being plus 21 years. I'll leave it to someone who took the bar more recently to explain what that means. Â In my 11 years of practice, it has come up precisely once. Â And every lawyer involved had to go look it up. |
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Quoted:
The location really makes a difference. If it's Redd's I just walk over there with no prep. If it's Madigan's, which is a little further, and not only pricier but with strict pouring rules, I check the air on my bike tires then have a couple bourbons at the house before biking over.  
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The Rule Against Perpetuities? An interest in property must vest, if it vests at all, in a period of time defined by lives in being plus 21 years. I'll leave it to someone who took the bar more recently to explain what that means. Â In my 11 years of practice, it has come up precisely once. Â And every lawyer involved had to go look it up. OP, as others have already answered your question, I will beat a dead horse. You've got one job between now and the exam, which for me was in July. Study like you've never studied before. Take the bar review course and then go to the library and study. If you exercise, keep on it. It will be a good stress reliever. Take the practice exams. Outline subjects. I think that I understood the law better after the bar review and exam than I did after 3 years of school. |
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Thanks for the replies. Like most people on this forum, shooting is a stress reliever for me, so I have been slowly stockpiling ammo over the past few months so that I have enough to shoot on a weekly or semi-weekly basis. That will likely be my primary de-stressing activity. Any my wife, sweetheart that she is, bought me a Dillon 550 as a graduation present to keep me occupied at home.
Most people I've talked to said to treat it like a full-time job: go in at 8AM, leave at 5 or 6PM, and go home and chill for the evening. Study a bit lighter on weekends. I might take more time off on Sundays because I've heard of horror stories about people who try to complete the entire course and end up burning out and failing the bar. At my school over the past few July administrations, 75% completion of the course is the magic number to be virtually guaranteed to pass (there's always an outlier or two, usually people who played with their phones or whatever while the videos played. Being a Barbri rep, I also have access to more detailed statistics than most). I also have a couple of prosecutors I work with who really care about me and who will be helping me keep sane during the studying process. Overall, I'm nervous and already a bit stressed, but I would probably be more worried if I wasn't at this point. Some people who failed just didn't seem to grasp that you needed to do the work if you wanted to pass. I don't want to be that guy. |
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I've taken two in the last three years with Kaplan. Watch the lectures and take notes (or however you study). Don't watch them while doing something else and don't watch them at 1.5 speed. Get into a routine. Wake up. Make Breakfast, watch 3 hours, take a break, finish out the day.
Make sure you are taking the practice and eval tests after the lectures (if Barbri does it that way). Take the practice tests. Do enough full essays and MPTs that you are confident you can finish them in the time allotted, then start doing outlines of your answer to save time and get more practice. If you don't know the answer on the MBE mark it, soft answer, and move on. Come back if you have time, but only change your answer if you are sure. Go through tons of practice questions. Always time yourself whether it's ten questions or 100. Figure out how much time per question you will have on the exam and use that. Work hard and don't stop even when you burn out. Take breaks if you can't concentrate, but never let those become days of inactivity. Try to get a hotel within easy walking distance of the test center with breakfast. It will cost more, but not needing to hunt for parking will be worth it the day of. Don't talk to people. They will psych you out with their fear and insecurities. Most people pass. Let your fear motivate you to study, but not to paralysis. |
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Try to get a hotel within easy walking distance of the test center with breakfast. It will cost more, but not needing to hunt for parking will be worth it the day of. Don't talk to people. They will psych you out with their fear and insecurities. Most people pass. Let your fear motivate you to study, but not to paralysis. |
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Do the work. Take some time every day to do something for yourself that's not bar related, even if it's mundane. For me it was going to the gym 3-4 days a week and going to the grocery store every day around 7:00 p.m. to get something to eat for dinner. Â I only bought for that night and the next morning so that I'd HAVE to leave my apartment to get food the next day. I ended up looking forward to going to the grocery store and relishing every minute I spent there. Â I think that that 45 minutes to an hour every day may have kept me sane. We had a great .22 silhouette range about a half hour from where I went to Law School. I would study all week and then Saturday morning I would take a half a dozen .22's to the range and a brick of ammo. Shoot the whole damn carton ringing steel out to 125 yards. It was very therapeutic. |
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Quoted:
The Rule Against Perpetuities? An interest in property must vest, if it vests at all, in a period of time defined by lives in being plus 21 years. I'll leave it to someone who took the bar more recently to explain what that means. Â In my 11 years of practice, it has come up precisely once. Â And every lawyer involved had to go look it up. Quoted:
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Can you explain the law of perpetuity to me? An interest in property must vest, if it vests at all, in a period of time defined by lives in being plus 21 years. I'll leave it to someone who took the bar more recently to explain what that means. Â In my 11 years of practice, it has come up precisely once. Â And every lawyer involved had to go look it up. Study in a quiet place. Ignore the (sometimes hysterical) outbursts of others about how they got that question right making you second guess yourself. Take breaks during the study process. Healthy breaks like a hike, bike ride, walk. Resist the urge to take breaks involving Guinness pints and shots of Jamesons no matter how right that might feel in your head at the time. But most of all, drive yourself on with the thought that you NEVER want to have to take it again. If that doesn't motivate you, nothing will. Best of luck. |
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Like the others said, study. Treat it like a job.
But, when it comes time for the test, don't stress. If you've never had test anxiety, you can cause it. Relax. Trust your knowledge. You spent the last three years learning this shit. You know it. Barbri is a refresher. That's it. The week before the test should be merely going over outlines and relaxing. Don't do a cram session that week. It won't work and you'll be stressed the fuck out. |
I don't have much to add to what others have said. I took the CA bar in the last 10 years (passed the first time). What worked for me was:
Managing stress. Continue your workout routine (or acquire one) and take some time to go to the shooting range. After about 6 or 7 in the evening I was usually done for the day with studying. Isolation. I studied in the undergrad library or at home rather than the law library. I didn't socialize much during this time period. I broke up with my girlfriend before I started bar prep. Doing all the practice exams. You don't necessarily have to write out the whole exam (though you should do some of that as well), but at least do an outline answer for every practice exam. Memorization. Acronyms helped me to memorize much of the legal rules. YMMV. Treat this like the one and only shot you have to pass the bar. ONE AND DONE. |
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This is very good advice too. Quoted:
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Try to get a hotel within easy walking distance of the test center with breakfast. It will cost more, but not needing to hunt for parking will be worth it the day of. Don't talk to people. They will psych you out with their fear and insecurities. Most people pass. Let your fear motivate you to study, but not to paralysis. |
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Hope you fail. Country doesn't need any more lawyers  |
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I passed two bars in the last 6 years. They're not hard if you study. And by study, I mean memorize every piece of information in every outline and book... then you will know that you know the answers to whatever questions will come your way. I didn't bother with the lectures, as they appeared to be a giant waste of time.
ETA: where do I send my bill? :) |
| I took the bar long ago, but I left my apartment and moved back in with my parents. It required me to drive two hours a day to go to the bar prep exam but I cut myself off from my buddies and just studied and went to class. I came home after the morning bar prep class and studied the afternoon, worked out and studied most evenings. I stayed out of the bars and away from women. |