My musings really have nothing to do with Memorial Day. It did qualify as the first holiday weekend in well over a decade where I have not been working and thus needed to think of why people were telling me to enjoy the long weekend. It also seemed to be the starting point for the truly serious bar study. The last of my friends who are paying BarBri for the privilege of sitting in a hotel watching videos started class today. I woke up this morning ready to go - surprisingly so since I've still been struggling in to the motivation department. Torts, Evidence, and Criminal Law are now completely reviewed and I'll finish Criminal Procedure this afternoon. I'm doing MBE questions on the covered subjects in the evenings but am planning to hold off on practice essay and performance test writing until I've finished reviewing the remaining MBE subjects. I've got a good review pattern going on now so that will probably be the middle of next week.
I generally spend the morning hours going through the BarBri in-class workbook for the subject of the day and filling in from my sets of outlines/notes or making flashcards of the causes of action/big stuff for the subjects not covered in the in-class workbook. I then listen to my audio lectures (and take notes) in the afternoon. I wanted to make flash cards for all of the subjects, but they take far too long to write or type out and I have a couple of sets of commercial flashcards that I can use for on the go review. I think Criminal Procedure is the last subject without an in-class outline and so will be the last of my homemade flashcards. Unfortunately that means there will not be a procrastination trip to by more index cards. =( Evenings are reserved for MBE questions. I'll revise the schedule a bit next week to add the essay practice, but this schedule is working for me for now.
Product Reviews:
Kimm Walton - Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
This book is fabulous. It starts with an overview of the MBE and provides general preparation strategies. There is also a section for each subject with specific tips, strategies, tricks, and 50-70 questions. It wraps up with a full practice MBE. The strategies are helpful, but it is the explanatory answers that really make the book. They are very detailed and explain why each answer choice is either (1) right or (2) not the best choice.
AdaptiBar
AdaptiBar is an online MBE preparation service. It has all previously released MBE questions and relatively brief explanatory answers for each. You can answer questions in practice mode with full statistics on both accuracy and timing or take practice tests. It is OK. The explanatory answers are not that in-depth but are usually sufficient to explain what you did right and what you did wrong. The statistics are fun. I really like just having the answer appear on the screen and not having to flip back and forth between the question section and the explanatory answer section while also making sure not to look at the answer for the next question. It is also generally easier in my house to find my computer than it is to find a pen that works (thousands of pens live here but almost all of them are dead). I do find that I recognize questions that appear in both Strategies & Tactice and on AdaptiBar and I can't decide whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. In sum, I'm very neutral on AdaptiBar. I like it but I don't support their claims you could learn everything you need for the MBE from it.
Audio Lectures
The person giving the lecture makes or breaks it. I take issue with Bob Feinberg and is constant harping on why you need PMBR, but he is a good lecturer and I got through the Torts and Criminal Law lectures easily. His colleague Steven Palmer, on the other hand, did the Evidence lecture and it made me want to gouge out my eyes. Unfortunately I have him to look forward to for Con Law as well. My MBE subjects are all PMBR audio and are well done, over all. The individual subjects and points are broken up and titles appear through GraceNotes when you play them through iTunes. My only complaint beyond the sales pitch and Steven Palmer is that the Criminal Law CD contains no Criminal Procedure. For Crim Pro I have a Sum & Subtance by Joshua Dressler that is very extensive on investigation and pre-trial procedure, but stops cold once the defendant is charged. Sum & Substance also does a good job of breaking up the topics into tracks. But still needing more information, I turned to my old friend from my first year of law school, Charles Whitebread and Law School Legends audio. Professor Whitebread cracks me up and I generally remember what he says. Unfortunately the makers of Law School Legends are TERRIBLE at tracks. For example, search and seizure is considered to be one topic and is a singe hour-long track. This makes it very difficult if you lose your place or just want to break.
BarBri Conviser Mini Review
What is there to say? It's unbelievably expensive unless you can find a used copy on eBay but is probably indispensable. Reading it is the first thing I do when taking on a new subject.
BarBri In Class Workbook
Probably fairly useless unless you either are going to the class or have notes from someone. I have a few sets of notes and outlines and I like to go through it and fill in from the notes. I'm always amazed and how different people pick up different things from the same lecture. Between them all I'm thinking I might just be getting the whole package.
PMBR Red Book
I like the outlines. I like the MBE questions and especially the fact that they are different than the official released question. The explanatory answers don't always go far enough.
PMBR Blue Book
The flow charts annoy me and I can't follow them. The questions are HARD. I decided to stay with the red book for a while as I'm just not ready for blue.
I'm going to wait on expressing my opinion on the Adachi books and my performance test workbook until I've actually used them as my thoughts from just skimming and reading the introductory chapters are not sufficient.
That's all for now! Study hard!!!
