I have recently passed the Bar Exam for PA but I have experience with both the home
study Micro Mash Program for CA and the PA and NJ Barbri classes & materials.
If money is not an issue just do the BarBri. It has better books and the community
aspect of the live class helps keep you focussed on the task at hand.
When I took Micro-Mash for CA the materials were a lot harder to follow and they seemed
to be of cheaper construction. There would be paragraphs that seemed ambiguous. When I
got the books it came with a floppy disk. Even though it was a few years ago(2005) it
was all very outdated for the time. Maybe they have improved since then.
The problem with Ber-bri and micromash is they are unrealistic. Especially Micromash,
their guarantee is just a farce because they give you more things to do than a regular
person can get through in the time they have to prepare.
I have been tutoring people for a while to pass the bar, mostly former classmates and
friends. The real trick and the smartest thing to do is buy the used books off of a
friend, ebay, or craig's list.
The material really does not change and there are books sitting in peoples closets all
over town. Anything over the past year or two should do.
Why not save thousands of dollars?
Also pick up the PMBR audio lectures or a different audio lecture through the same
resources.
Regardless of the publisher, all of the books are essentially the same with respect to
volumes and layouts. The below study formula works way better than the plan from Barbri
or micromash. Additionally you can use it in conjunction with it if you are enrolled in
the class and realize its flaw.
First divide your total number of weeks to study into approximately half.
How many weeks?
As many as you have.
During the first half you concentrate on study and review and during the second half you
concentrate on practice MBE questions and practice essays.
Obviously, the halves are not mutually exclusive. The golden standard is 8 hours a day
of combined study.
The most important book is the mini mutli-state review. The fact that you get so many
crossover questions on those subjects makes knowing the MBE subjects a must. Getting
these down cold is a huge part of the battle. The sooner you start digesting the
material the better.
Use the large multi-state book and large state book are used when you need to look a
particular subject area up in more detail.
Most publishers give you significant state exceptions to the standard MBE rule as part
of the mini review book.
Most importantly, you need to listen to Audio lectures.
Parallel the topics of the lectures to the same material you are reviewing in the study
process.
You are going to need some type of portable listening device and some head phones.
Listen to the lectures while you are doing other things you do not always have to be
paying full attention. It is about repetition and reinforcement.
If you are cleaning the house, making dinner, driving the car, going to the grocery
store, before bead, or whatever, thats when you need to listen to those lectures.
If you are not required to speak you should be listening. I cannot emphasize the
importance of this enough. Not only does it really work to enforce the material but it
also cuts down on the amount of time you have spend studying total so just do it!
I suggest starting with torts & constitutional law because they are naturally intuitive
subjects and they will get the legal juices flowing again.
Before the test you can get your MBE question time down to just under 34 per hour but I
always found it more helpful to always read the answer after each answered question so
one can still remember the facts and can learn something.
Definitely make sure you see exactly how time you have exactly on each essay question
and per sub question. In PA it was about ten minutes per essay sub question, which is
not really a lot of time.
You have to get into the habit of answering the essays that you could expand
indefinitely upon in at that amount of time.
Use, study, and make mnemonic devices. They will help you rock essays and recall
distinctions on the MBE. You can just identify the issue, relate a fact to each
element, and then get the heck out of there and move onto the next question.
Additionally, if you get a question you do not know the answer to you can simply answer
it using a slightly off topic mnemonic device and still pick up a lot of points.
Finally, the test will mess with your brain at times, especially as the test date gets
closer and if you are studying on your own. You will just have to shake that off and
move forward anyway.
Just formulate a plan and stick to it and do not stress yourself out.
Good luck!
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