Getting through the Bar: Paul's Advice
I asked every person that I knew that had taken the bar for advice. This is what I got, and what I actually did:
Advice: Don't study at all until Bar/Bri begins.
I didn't even glance at a book until Bar/Bri. I did take the 6 day PMBR, but I only went to 3 days of it because I was just coming off my panic attack, and I didn't find it helpful to sit in a class all day and listen to a guy rush through a huge subject that I didn't remember anything about. I did do about 100 PMBR questions over the 6 days of the course, although I should have done 300 (according to PMBR).
Advice: Even after Bar/Bri begins, don't start pulling 10-12 hour days until 4 weeks before the bar, at earliest.
I didn't study like that until three weeks before the exam. Even then, I wasn't too hardcore. After weeks of being pretty lazy, I really kicked it up a notch the last two weeks. I tried to do 50 PMBR questions a day, but that didn't always happen. I didn't usually do the scheduled Bar/Bri reading or questions. I would usually be in the library by 8:30/9 a.m., read through the previous day's class notes. Read through the previous day's Conviser mini review, go to the 1 p.m. class, then try to do 50 question.
Advice: Go to the afternoon Bar/Bri class.
At first, I thought it would be better to wake-up early, get class out of the way, and spend the rest of the day studying. I quickly changed my mind. I realized that I retain more information in the morning, and am more motivated to get stuff done. Morning classes wasted this time for me. I began studying on my own in the morning, during my peak study time, then going to lunch and then to class at 1 p.m. I liked this arrangement because I am usually tired after lunch, and the class forced me to at least feel like I'm getting something done during the food coma hours of the day. Other than a few tips that stuck in my head from the lectures, the lectures mostly serve to refresh your memory on a subject or to introduce you if you never learned it before; you still have to do a substantial amount of learning on your own.
Advice: Read through at least 2 essays a day.
This didn't happen until the last week of June. Essays was the part I was most concerned about because the model answers in the Bar/Bri book were so detailed. To study for essays, I would read the question, read the answer, then retype the law in each answer, until I had a master outline with all the law in the essays by the time the exam came around. I also only concentrated on essays from the last 10 years. (INCLUDE MASTER ESSAY OUTLINE)
Advice: Make your own schedule.
I didn't really have a schedule in the beginning. This may have been a mistake because with three weeks left I realized I hadn't covered everything, and I ended up gambling on what to study and what to ignore; I think that everyone ends up having to make such a decision. I didn't like the Bar/Bri schedule because it required too much reading in advance. I decided to concentrate on subjects I had lectures for that day or recently. I did make a schedule for the final 2 weeks (ATTACHED), but I wasn't able to keep it too strictly.
Advice: Don't do Bar/Bri MBE questions, only use the PMBR questions for MBE and Bar/Bri for Florida.
I followed this advice at first out of laziness to do both Bar/Bri and PMBR. It turned out to be very good advice. About 4 weeks into studying, I looked at about 10 Bar/Bri MBE questions and thought that they were too easy. I never looked at them again. I only used Bar/Bri multiple choice for Florida subjects. On the actual July 2007 bar exam, the Florida multiple choice portion was very similar to the to the Florida Bar/Bri questions, but there was a very heavy emphasis on not-for-profit corporations which was barely covered in Bar/Bri. The MBE was exactly like PMBR.
Advice: Take bar subject courses in law school, except for Family Law and Florida Constitutional Law
I followed this advice and I didn't regret it. I have no interest in either of these two subjects and really didn't want to suffer through these classes in law school. Also, I hadn't heard anything good about the Florida Constitutional Law professors at my school-they were rumored to be boring and to give low grades. In Florida, family law and Florida Con Law are essay subject, and I felt decently prepared after studying the Bar/Bri materials. Both subjects were on my actual bar exam. FL Con Law I was prepared for, but Family Law was one of the subjects I decided to sacrifice towards the end of studying. I did end up having an essay on it on the actual bar exam, but it was luckily on a topic I remembered fairly well. You have to take some gambles, its impossible to know everything.
Read about Jason
Advice: Don't study at all until Bar/Bri begins.
I didn't even glance at a book until Bar/Bri. I did take the 6 day PMBR, but I only went to 3 days of it because I was just coming off my panic attack, and I didn't find it helpful to sit in a class all day and listen to a guy rush through a huge subject that I didn't remember anything about. I did do about 100 PMBR questions over the 6 days of the course, although I should have done 300 (according to PMBR).
Advice: Even after Bar/Bri begins, don't start pulling 10-12 hour days until 4 weeks before the bar, at earliest.
I didn't study like that until three weeks before the exam. Even then, I wasn't too hardcore. After weeks of being pretty lazy, I really kicked it up a notch the last two weeks. I tried to do 50 PMBR questions a day, but that didn't always happen. I didn't usually do the scheduled Bar/Bri reading or questions. I would usually be in the library by 8:30/9 a.m., read through the previous day's class notes. Read through the previous day's Conviser mini review, go to the 1 p.m. class, then try to do 50 question.
Advice: Go to the afternoon Bar/Bri class.
At first, I thought it would be better to wake-up early, get class out of the way, and spend the rest of the day studying. I quickly changed my mind. I realized that I retain more information in the morning, and am more motivated to get stuff done. Morning classes wasted this time for me. I began studying on my own in the morning, during my peak study time, then going to lunch and then to class at 1 p.m. I liked this arrangement because I am usually tired after lunch, and the class forced me to at least feel like I'm getting something done during the food coma hours of the day. Other than a few tips that stuck in my head from the lectures, the lectures mostly serve to refresh your memory on a subject or to introduce you if you never learned it before; you still have to do a substantial amount of learning on your own.
Advice: Read through at least 2 essays a day.
This didn't happen until the last week of June. Essays was the part I was most concerned about because the model answers in the Bar/Bri book were so detailed. To study for essays, I would read the question, read the answer, then retype the law in each answer, until I had a master outline with all the law in the essays by the time the exam came around. I also only concentrated on essays from the last 10 years. (INCLUDE MASTER ESSAY OUTLINE)
Advice: Make your own schedule.
I didn't really have a schedule in the beginning. This may have been a mistake because with three weeks left I realized I hadn't covered everything, and I ended up gambling on what to study and what to ignore; I think that everyone ends up having to make such a decision. I didn't like the Bar/Bri schedule because it required too much reading in advance. I decided to concentrate on subjects I had lectures for that day or recently. I did make a schedule for the final 2 weeks (ATTACHED), but I wasn't able to keep it too strictly.
Advice: Don't do Bar/Bri MBE questions, only use the PMBR questions for MBE and Bar/Bri for Florida.
I followed this advice at first out of laziness to do both Bar/Bri and PMBR. It turned out to be very good advice. About 4 weeks into studying, I looked at about 10 Bar/Bri MBE questions and thought that they were too easy. I never looked at them again. I only used Bar/Bri multiple choice for Florida subjects. On the actual July 2007 bar exam, the Florida multiple choice portion was very similar to the to the Florida Bar/Bri questions, but there was a very heavy emphasis on not-for-profit corporations which was barely covered in Bar/Bri. The MBE was exactly like PMBR.
Advice: Take bar subject courses in law school, except for Family Law and Florida Constitutional Law
I followed this advice and I didn't regret it. I have no interest in either of these two subjects and really didn't want to suffer through these classes in law school. Also, I hadn't heard anything good about the Florida Constitutional Law professors at my school-they were rumored to be boring and to give low grades. In Florida, family law and Florida Con Law are essay subject, and I felt decently prepared after studying the Bar/Bri materials. Both subjects were on my actual bar exam. FL Con Law I was prepared for, but Family Law was one of the subjects I decided to sacrifice towards the end of studying. I did end up having an essay on it on the actual bar exam, but it was luckily on a topic I remembered fairly well. You have to take some gambles, its impossible to know everything.
Read about Jason