My February 2008 bar prep strategy

For the February 2008 bar exam, I used most of the same strategies I used for the July 2007 CO bar exam that I ended up passing. I posted my study strategies last fall after CO bar results came out – the links are below:

How I studied for the MBE

How I studied for the MPT

How I studied for the Colorado bar essays

This time around, I kept my MBE strategy more simple. I religiously used my Strategies and Tactics for the MBE book by Kimm Walton and Steve Emanuel (as in the Emanuel outlines from law school). I CANNOT say enough about how wonderful and invaluable this book is. I ordered it before the July 2007 CO bar exam and I honestly and sincerely believe this book played a large part on my ability to pass that bar exam as well as the February 2008 bar exam. If you only buy one bar prep book, buy this one. I’m not kidding. Screw the BarBri, MicroMash, and PMBR books. I had all those books, but I ignored them and exclusively used the S&T book. I stuck Post-It notes in the practice question sections with the question numbers written on the Post-its so I could just write my answers on them without having to drag out a notebook (and going back and forth between the S&T book and a notebook). I need to take a picture of my S&T book sometime to illustrate my point.

I also used my Study Group MBE software and BarBri StudySmart MBE software. I also have MicroMash, but I did maybe a total of five questions on that software before abandoning it in favor of BarBri and Study Group. My favorite MBE software is Study Group, hands down. It’s much easier to use, and even better it does not require any installation so you can put the software on a flash USB drive and plug it into your work computer, then run the software off there. There are also internet-based MBE software such as AdaptiBar but I can’t vouch for how effective they are. AdaptiBar uses actual, released MBE questions but so does the S&T book, so if you’re buying that book I probably wouldn’t get AdaptiBar. I used NCBE’s MBE Annotated Preview 2006 and I would recommend it – it’s only $26.00.

I also used Google Documents (through my gmail.com account) to type out the answer explanations to each MBE questions as I discussed in my “How I studied for the MBE” post above. This has proved to be VERY helpful and I strongly recommend that you either write or type out the answer explanations to your practice MBE questions. I saw a huge difference the next time I took the MBE after doing this. I would not even have finished reading the MBE question before law points and elements and such were already popping into my head, and I already knew the answer before I even read the answer choices. The first two times I took the MBE I was absolutely lost and clueless. I did not feel that way on the last two MBEs. Yes, they were still hard and difficult, but I think the difficulty for me was trying to remember exactly what the law was, or what the elements were.

I aimed for at least 25 practice MBE questions a day but didn’t always succeed. However I always focused on the answer explanations. I found that those were the most important part of each practice MBE question. You definitely have to understand WHY a specific answer is the correct (or wrong) answer. Don’t make the same mistake I did before my second bar exam failure of focusing on quantity over quality – I had aimed for 100 questions per day or around that, mindlessly answering questions thinking that practice made perfect, even though I was not focusing on the law or the answer explanations behind the question. BIG mistake. My MBE went down TEN points from my first attempt. If I hadn’t made that mistake, I believe I could have passed on my second attempt.

I focused on my MBE outlines as well. I ignored the Convisers this time around because I’d already incorporated most of the Convisers into my MBE outlines. They are not overly long or complicated. To me, they were short, to the point, and easy to understand and follow. I would refer to those outlines if I was stumped on a practice MBE question. I received these outlines from a friend, and I liked the format and layout of the outlines so much I made my own, using those outlines and verifying them with Convisers, as well as plugging in new stuff. I was going to post them on here, but Google Documents kept screwing up the format, so you can e-mail me at frustratedbarexaminee@gmail.com to get the outlines. You can use the same format of these outlines to make your own state-specific outlines like I did for the essay portion of the last bar exam.

As for the MPT, despite my vowing to pay more attention to the MPT this time around, I still didn’t spend much time on it. I didn’t review past MPTs and scoresheets like I’d planned. I like to think that I’m a pretty good writer, and it doesn’t hurt that I write memos and draft orders in my job almost every single day, so I felt I had a good handle on the MPT. I re-read my favorite MPT link, How to Format Legal Memos on the MPT by Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher of BarWrite Blog. I also read BarBri’s MPT Workbook but it didn’t really seem all that helpful to me. Too many complicated formats such as wills, et cetera. It seems that most of my MPTs except one were in memo format, and I think that the one non-memo MPT was a brief? My personal MPT motto was when in doubt, IRAC.

As for the essays – if you’re taking CO, refer to my “How I studied for the Colorado bar essays” post above. I don’t think my study strategy for the essay portion of the February bar exam here was that great. I just obtained released bar essays from the bar association and practiced over and over. It was hard to put together boilerplates or cheat sheets because the essays here are analytical rather than checklist-style like Colorado. I also made my own state-specific outlines using the same format as the MBE outlines, and that helped me learn the state material. I guess I didn’t exactly bomb the essays if I passed, but I also don’t feel that I should offer advice on this front. I truly got lucky on this part. I can only tell you what I did.

In short, here is my MBE strategy:
1) Use the ENTIRE S&T book. Use Post-It notes throughout the practice question and simulated MBE sections of the S&T book.

2) Use MBE software.

3) Use NCBE’s MBE Annotated Preview 2006.

4) Use Google Documents to type out answer explanations to practice MBE questions.

5) Shoot for 25 practice MBE questions a day. Focus on QUALITY over quantity (i.e. don’t just mindlessly answer 100 MBE questions a day). Do a couple of full-length (or even half-length) practice MBEs in the last couple of weeks before the bar exam.

6) Use my own MBE outlines. You can either just use them or type them out yourself. I found that typing out my outlines again really helped me to remember the material better than if I’d just skimmed them.

MBE score

Thank you to my readers who posted comments to congratulate me on passing the bar!! Hopefully I can return the favor when the remaining states release their results!! Especially California.

I finally received my scaled MBE score. I scored a 144 in February 2008 – 5 points above my last (and previous best) score of 139. Not bad! At least I know my MBE strategy wasn’t a one-time fluke; it really does work.

I know I mentioned taking the Texas bar exam, but I think I’m going to retire from taking any bar exams ever again. I would rather just take a federal attorney job in Texas and then waive into the Texas bar when I become eligible for reciprocity. I used to live in Texas and I have family still living there, so that was my reason for considering the Texas bar. However, after the stress and agony of taking four bar exams in a row and waiting several months at a time for results to be released, fully convinced I’d failed, I’ve definitely had enough.

There are lots of things I want to do with my life now. I want to travel and I want to snowboard (almost) every weekend this coming winter. I want to go fishing, hiking, backpacking, and camping in the summers. I want to swim in long-distance open-water races again. I want to participate in my favorite activities and hobbies, pursue new interests, and try new things. I feel like I’ve given up so much and put so many things on hold the last two years as I took bar exam after bar exam, and I’m tired of that. It’s not worth taking yet another bar exam. It was SUCH a relief to find out that I passed this bar exam, because if I hadn’t, I’d probably have to take it again next February if I couldn’t find a federal attorney job or move back to Colorado. Plus, my sister and I are planning a backpacking trip to Europe next year and that would have been completely wrecked if I hadn’t passed. I feel like I haven’t seen as much of my family and close friends in the last two years because I was always busy studying for the bar. I miss them and I plan to see them much more often now. In fact I am planning to take at least one week off between my jobs to go visit my family. It’s things like that which I don’t want to give up for the bar exam. There is more to life than the stupid bar exam, and I feel that I lost sight of that along the way.

For those of you who must continue this cruel dance, you have my complete sympathy. I have been in your same exact shoes, but there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. You will be on the “other side” someday. Just don’t give up. Change your strategy, even change states. All you need is your license in ONE state. Then you can become a federal attorney and practice in your home state. There are tons of federal attorney jobs out there. Check out http://www.usajobs.opm.gov. Sign up for the e-mail job alerts to learn about federal attorney opportunities. Consider becoming a Paralegal Specialist for the federal government – I understand it is just like being an attorney, but without the license.

As for this blog, I’m still going to leave it up, and I’m sure I’ll post on here every now and then. My next step for now is to go through my entire blog and clean it up, reorganizing some parts. Then I will try to post most if not all of my bar prep materials on here. Some materials will be MBE-related, but others will be CO-specific. I don’t think I have much to offer for this state’s essay portion because I totally winged that. I don’t really know how I passed that portion, so I’m definitely not in a position to offer advice.

I’ll try to do all the above within the next couple of weeks, just in time for the next round. In the meanwhile, please always feel free to e-mail me at frustratedbarexaminee@gmail.com!

2 in a row!

Surgery’s over, it went very well, and I’ve been drugged up and sleeping 20 hours a day ever since.

Bar results also finally came out, but of course they didn’t get released until after I was already in surgery. Sarge says that the first thing out of my mouth when I woke up in the recovery room was to ask about bar results. And, well…

I PASSED!!!!!!

What did I do to celebrate this joyous news? I immediately vomited, then fell back asleep into my anesthesia-induced haze. And apparently the next time I woke up, I asked Sarge again about the results, and he had to keep telling me I passed until it finally sank in.

I’m still amazed I passed, because I was seriously concerned about the essay portion. Although I felt all right about the MBE and the MPT, the essays were extremely hard for me and I felt horrible about my performance on them; I honestly thought I had bombed them. I was really worried because I had always done well on the Colorado essays and I felt that portion had been my saving grace on the CO bar. This essay portion was completely different from Colorado’s in that the essay grading is analysis-based instead of with checklists/scoresheets, something I’ve never had to encounter on past bar exams. And to think that my ability to pass this bar exam might have to be dependent on how well I did on the MBE, my eternal nemesis… that was even scarier.

It feels really good to finally have passed a bar exam on the FIRST try! Yay! I just wish I didn’t feel so crappy from the surgery. I’m definitely in a lot of pain right now but it really helps having received such great news! I’m really looking forward to receiving my scores in the mail – I’m so curious to see how I did, especially on the MBE.

Surprise

So Colorado posted its results today instead of tomorrow, what a surprise. Hell, I’m amazed they posted their results in April instead of May. Congratulations to those of you who passed!!!! For those of you who may not have received good news today, don’t give up hope yet. Your scores have yet to arrive in the mail, and there’s still the chance that your score could have been close enough for you to appeal it (it seems like the majority of people who appeal their scores eventually pass, at least from what I’ve heard), or your MBE score could be high enough to be able to transfer it to another jurisdiction such as DC (if you attain a MBE score above a specific number, you can transfer your MBE score to DC and only have to take the essay exam).

I’ll post some of my bar materials on here sometime soon. It seems they were helpful to at least a couple of people, so hopefully they will prove just as helpful to those of you gearing up for July.