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.

How I studied for the Colorado bar essays

If you haven’t done so already, get your hands on released Colorado bar essay questions and scoresheets. You can request copies of the essay questions from the Colorado Board of Law Examiners. Here’s how:

“Copies of past essay and performance test questions along with discussions and ungraded scoresheets for these questions are available by written request from the Colorado Board of Law Examiners. Include payment of $15 [per exam requested].”

I obtained copies of the Colorado essay questions dating back to July 2003, and then made a chart of topics to see how often they were tested so that I could guess which essay topics might be on the next bar exam. I’ve already updated the chart with the July 2007 essay topics. You can see the chart on the “Materials” page (see the tab menu above).  Even if you aren’t taking the CO bar, if your state releases bar exam essays it would be a good idea to make a similar chart.

The scoresheets are really important – they tell you exactly what the bar examiners are looking for in your essay answers. The scoresheets are basically checklists, so if you don’t mention a certain point you won’t get it. It’s not about how well you write or analyze a certain issue, it’s about getting as many points on each checklist as you can. It also can’t hurt to try and write your essay in checklist style. I tried this for the July 2007 bar exam – I’d double-space each sentence so that it would be easier for the grader to read without having to extract a specific point from a paragraph cluster of sentences, and thus the grader would be able to spot that point more easily and check it off. I noticed on previous bar exams that graders would miss certain checklist points even though they were in my essays, but they had been lost in big paragraphs.

I made long and short cheat sheets of each essay topic from the scoresheets and memorized them thoroughly. I used the BarBri Colorado Essay book but I felt it was best to use the released CO essays because they are more accurate. It seemed to me that BarBri added a bunch of unnecessary points on the scoresheets.

My “short” cheat sheets had about 3 items per essay topic. I memorized every one of these points and committed them to memory. I didn’t memorize everything on my “long” cheat sheet since they had a lot of points. You definitely need to know how to start off your essays, and the “short” cheat sheet helped me get rolling on each essay topic. Even if the question stumped me, I found that just by typing out those memorized points, everything else would come to me. It was much easier than staring at a blank laptop screen with rising panic. Personally I thought the hardest part of the essay questions was actually starting the essay. I’m happy to forward my cheat sheets to anyone who wants them, so just e-mail me at frustratedbarexaminee@gmail.com.

And last but not least, practice practice practice! I can’t stress enough how important it was for me to practice essays so that I could get used to reading essay questions and writing them out. It’s so easy to blank out and freeze up on the essay portion of the bar exam if you’ve mostly studied outlines and haven’t done very many practice essays.

A couple of tips that stem from my mistakes on the bar exam:

(1) Make sure you can distinguish between partnerships, agency relationships, and promoter relationships! CO had a partnership question on the February 2007 bar, but I stupidly wrote about agency instead of partnership and totally bombed it even
though I should’ve rocked it.

(2) Memorize ALL elements of crimes/torts for Criminal Law and Torts. I got near perfect scores on those topics in February 2007 (all but 2 points on each checklist). This is also helpful for the MBE.

The above strategies worked for me. My July 2006 essay score was 141. My February 2007 essay score was 151. And my July 2007 essay score was 156. I will be using the same essay strategies on the February 2008 bar exam, with one variation. I’m making my own outlines on the non-MBE essay topics such as family law. Making my own MBE outlines helped me so much with the July 2007 bar so I wanted to do the same for the other essay topics.

I think that’s all I can come up with for now. I hope it helps!

My scores

My scores finally arrived in the mail today. Here goes:

MBE – 139
(129 in July 2006, 119 in February 2007)

Essays/PT – 156
(141 in July 2006, 151 in February 2007)

I raised my old score by 25 points for a total score of 295, 19 points above the passing score of 276. I’m glad to learn that I passed by a good margin, and didn’t scrape by with only 1 point above the passing score or something.

Now I can write a post about my MBE study strategy although 139 isn’t exactly earthshattering, especially if one of my readers got a 152 on the MBE and still failed the Colorado Bar Exam (unbelievable, by the way). It’ll be a long post, so it may take me awhile.

My bar exam reflections

Now that the bar exam is over and now that I’ve finally had a proper night’s sleep, I can reflect on the bar.

Why do some people get all trussed up for the bar?? I saw several women wearing dresses or dressy clothes, full makeup, hair done, and even high heels. Why? I showed up in my comfy sweats and forget about makeup. I showered each morning but that’s about the extent of it. I can’t believe anyone would actually be comfortable taking the bar in full makeup, tight clothes and uncomfortable shoes. The only reason I would have worn heels to the bar would be to have a spiked heel handy to drive into my jugular if something catastrophic happened, such as my laptop crashing during the essay/MPT portion.

The essay topics were totally random. At least my guess that Wills was going to be on the bar turned out to be correct. I was blindsided by the Admin Law topic but it was pretty similar to the February Admin Law question so I was able to answer it. Corporations really confused me. A lot of the essay questions were very open-ended and annoyingly vague. I wanted more details!!! They didn’t have Torts or Criminal Law, so I was disappointed at that considering I was only 2 points away from getting perfect scores on both topics on the last bar. Also, since they tested Criminal Procedure in the morning, I was so sure they would test Secured Transactions in the afternoon, but no such luck. I had sent Cyber Janitor my bar essay topic breakdown of all the topics tested on the CO bar for the last 4-5 years, and he pointed out that Crim Pro and Secured Transactions seemed to always be tested together, so I was looking for Secured Transactions. No dice.

I had a slightly panic-inducing moment after the afternoon essays and MPT on Day 1 when time was called. I glanced over at my seatmate’s laptop screen and noticed he only had three or four sentences on his ExamSoft essay screen. His essay was very brief, while all my essays averaged between 2,000 and 3,000 character (near the limit of 4,000 characters allowed per essay). I too had gone into brain dumping mode, as Cyber Janitor put it. It’s funny, normally if you saw that someone had written a very short essay, you’d probably think he had done badly, but my confidence is at such a low point because of my two bar exam failures that I actually started to panic, wondering if my essays were too long (if there’s such a thing!). Even if he had bubbled in a giant smiley face on his MBE scoresheet, I probably still would’ve freaked out too, wondering if I should have bubbled in a giant smiley face on mine as well.

Speaking of the MBE, I thought that the PM one was more difficult than the AM one. I didn’t fill in all my answers at once. I only answered the questions that I knew and the ones that I had to really think about, I left those for the second run through the MBE booklet. The really difficult questions were saved for last so I could focus on them with the time I had left. I finished the first run-through in about an hour with 53 answers. Then I did two or three more run-throughs until all the questions were answered. I really have no clue how I did on the MBE though.

I can’t even say if I did better than previously. I don’t feel GOOD or BAD about my performance. I just feel indifferent. I have zero confidence in myself at this point. It’s been a difficult year with having my ego stomped flat twice by the Colorado Board of Law Examiners. I’m pretty sure I failed the bar. I don’t want to get my hopes up only to have them crushed yet again when the results are released.

Day One

I can’t decide if I want to vomit uncontrollably or slit my wrists. I honestly have no clue how I did today. I felt numb and disconnected all day, if that makes sense. It’s like having had an arm and leg sawed off, so by the time they get to the third limb, you’re already numb to the pain and trauma.

I can’t believe they tested Admin Law twice in a row, after not having tested it in about three years! They also tested Evidence, Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Agency, CO Family Law, Federal Jurisdiction, Corporations/Contracts (not sure what was going on with that essay question to be honest), and Wills.

The MPTs were kind of difficult for me, so I’m not sure how I did. What did everyone else think of the MPTs? I’m not trying to be one of those jerks who discusses the bar exam with everyone in an attempt to psych them out – it’s just that I’ve never really gotten to discuss the bar exam with anyone before.

I’m just glad today is over with.

I’m finally back online!

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I haven’t had internet access since I left home to drive to my sister’s last week. Sister doesn’t have internet at home, and Mom has the slowest dialup I’ve ever encountered so I haven’t attempted to use the internet because at this point it’s best not to assume the risk of becoming even more aggravated than I already am.

I just checked in at the hotel next to the Merchandise Mart, and I’m freaking out. I studied a lot at home and at my sister’s place, as well as on Saturday but yesterday I really slacked off. I did a handful of essays and some MBE practice questions but mostly I slept a lot during the day and also discovered the reality show “Dog the Bounty Hunter”. That show is addictive! I feel guilty for slacking off yesterday and today although I did some studying, but I figure sleep and rest is more important at this point, right?

For the rest of today I’m going to do some more MBE practice questions using my Study Group software (which is GREAT!). I’m also going to do a set of essays that I think will be on the bar tomorrow. I’m going to practice MBE questions tomorrow night after the first day of the bar as well. I’ll also probably do a set of 10 MBE questions on Wednesday morning as a warm-up, a suggestion I’ve encountered on several bar exam advice websites and blogs.

I’m trying to keep things in perspective. I missed passing the bar by only 6 points both times. My downfall was the MBE, more specifically Torts. I bombed it very badly both times. This time around, I’ve been doing a LOT of practice MBE Torts questions as well as studying Torts and I’ve seen quite a bit of improvement. So I’m trying to remind myself that even if I get the same scores in everything else but improve my Torts score, I’ll pass.

I’m so glad to have had the support and advice of fellow bar repeaters. It has meant a lot to me to know that I wasn’t alone in failing the bar exam. When I first started this blog, I was devastated from having failed the bar for a second time and felt like I was the only one in my position. I never expected that so many people would find my blog and post such supportive and helpful comments. I never knew there were so many people out there that could totally relate to how I was feeling. The advice of so many people has proven to be very invaluable in my bar prep. I’m glad I didn’t have to go it alone this time around, so thank you to everyone who reads my blog, whether you’ve commented or not. After this bar is over, not only will I be anxiously awaiting my results, but I’ll be watching out for yours as well. Here’s hoping that all of us pass!

I feel better

Ever since my last day of work, I’ve felt much less anxious than I was all last week. It seems that ever since I stopped working, my stress levels have gone WAY down and I feel much more relaxed.

I took the July 1998 MBE yesterday (and part of this morning) instead of the Strategies & Tactics MBE, which will come later. I was pleased to see that I got 136 questions correct, which translates into a 151-155 scaled score according to the 1998 scale conversion chart. Thank god. Even better, the MBE topic I did best in was… Torts. That’s right, the same Torts on which 98.8% of all February 2007 bar takers scored better than me. I was getting scared as I kept marking my answers wrong. I still suck at Contracts though. And Property as well. I probably will have to hit the outlines again but just to read over them.

This afternoon I’m going to do another set of essays. Yesterday I did the February 2007 essays, and today I’m moving on to July 2006. I’ll keep moving backwards until the 2004 essays or so, and then hit BarBri’s Colorado Essay book.  I may do the Strategies & Tactics simulated MBE on Saturday.

I’m leaving town either next Wednesday or Thursday. I haven’t solidified my plans yet. I have to drive our car to my sister’s since we need to get rid of the car and she’s buying it from us. So I may drive to her house on Wednesday or Thursday, and then study at her house (she and her fiance both work full time and are always gone so I will have the place to myself!). I will then fly to Denver out of my sister’s city early Saturday morning.

I booked a hotel room at the hotel attached to the Denver Merchandise Mart where the July bar is being held. I wish it was being held at the Denver Convention Center like in February because I liked that facility MUCH better than this one. I HATE the Merchandise Mart because it’s an inconvenient location and the area just plain sucks, not to mention the facility. The hotel I booked seems to be the only hotel even remotely close to the Merchandise Mart. At least at the Convention Center they had tons of hotels within walking distance, and in the facility itself there were huge lobby areas with tons of tables and chairs so I didn’t even have to leave the building for lunch, but at the Merchandise Mart they kick you out of the building between sessions so you have to wait outside in the heat along with the hordes of frightened sheep until they open the doors to let you back inside. Forget about trying to find someplace to eat lunch unless you sit in your car or already have a hotel room next door. I know I’m going to experience a huge sense of deja vu, having taking the July 2006 bar exam there. The upside is that I can just walk to the Merchandise Mart from the hotel, so even if I wake up 5 minutes before the start of the exam I won’t be screwed.

The dreams have started

As of last Friday night, the nightmares about the upcoming bar exam have started. I dreamed that I was taking the MBE but I was so restless and unfocused that I kept getting up and wandering around the room and then sitting back down at my desk to work on the MBE some more, and then got up again and so forth. Then they announced there was only 5 minutes left and I hadn’t even done half of the MBE questions for that session, so I started guessing wildly, filling in circles at random. I felt so horrible, like I knew I’d just bombed the MBE again.

These dreams always start a couple of weeks before the bar. I’ve had countless nightmares in which every single conceivable thing goes wrong with the bar exam. There was the dream that I woke up 15 minutes before the start of the bar, and the location was at least an hour away. Then there was the dream that my laptop crashed and I lost the entire essay/MPT portion of the bar and received zero credit for it. Shudder.

I’m finishing the 100-question 2006 MBE from NCBE (I had only gotten up to 21 that day I bought the subscription), and then I’m going to review the answers and type out explanations. Tomorrow I want to practice one set (9 questions) of released CO essays using the boilerplates and then take the practice full-length MBE in the MBE Strategies & Tactics book. I think that should take up most of my day.

I think I’ll need to develop a plan the night before for each day so I don’t procrastinate or get off track.

My Study Progress

I’m still working on my condensed outlines. I have a feeling the outlines will be an ongoing process, but at least they look much better, shorter, and more concise than my first attempt at outlining the MBE subjects. Those outlines are too long and I’ve found they are basically useless. What a waste of time.

I’ve also been working on my essay boilerplates but I need to go back over the released CO essays and refine the boilerplates because right now my boilerplates from February are too general, and I want to tailor them to be more situation-specific. I hope to complete those boilerplates by the end of this coming weekend. Then the focus will be on practicing essays like crazy.

I had purchased the 2006 MBE Annotated Preview online exam subscription before the February bar, and I copied the questions and answers to keep after my subscription expired. However, at this point it seems a lot easier to just purchase the subscription again so I can practice MBE questions because it’s too time-consuming to print out the questions, print out the explanations and then try to put everything together to take the practice exam on paper, when it would be instantaneous with the online subscription.

So I’m purchasing the subscription again so I can practice online at work. There goes $26. Not like I’m going to buy anything else anyway, seeing as how we’re in the middle of getting rid of a lot of stuff in anticipation of our impending move, so I’m not allowed to buy anything new. At any rate, I’m going to do all 100 questions this afternoon, as a quasi-simulated MBE. I’m not going to kill myself on 200 questions.

Supervisor is going to be out of the office tomorrow and Friday so I’m hauling my MBE Strategies & Tactics Book into the office and working on MBE questions.

I want to try and finish the bulk of the condensed outlines, as well as the essay boilerplates, before July 1 so all of July will be devoted to practice, practice, practice!

Colorado Essays

Before the February bar, I made a chart of all the essay topics that have appeared on past Colorado bar exams dating back to July 2003. The chart was really helpful to me in trying to guess which 9 essay topics would be on the February bar. Although some of my guesses were off, I also correctly guessed that Administrative Law and Sales of Goods would be on the bar, and sure enough they were.

I’ve since then updated the chart to include the February topics, and now I’m once again trying to figure out which 9 essay topics will be on the next bar exam. For instance, Colorado Family Law and Colorado Civil Procedure/Federal Jurisdiction are supposedly on every single bar, but both completely disappeared from the February bar which really surprised me. It also annoyed me because I had spent countless hours memorizing Colorado family law, all for absolutely nothing! So I’m guessing that both topics will come roaring back with a vengeance come July. I’m also trying to guess what other topics will be on the July bar. So far I can only come up with about 4 or so. That’s not to say I wouldn’t study the topics I don’t expect to be on the July bar, but I’d like to try and study the more likely topics as much as possible.