sharif

This is from someone who has failed the bar exam, learned from his mistakes, and passed the bar exam on the second try.

I enrolled in Bar/Bri my first attempt, and for my second I just studied on my own using the Bar/Bri books and some outlines I had made. One of the main problems with any bar exam is that there is too much information to distill down to a reasonable level. Bar/Bri claims that they do this for you, but they don't. That is why they tell you to prepare short outlines for each subject during the last two weeks of study. I followed this advice, unfortunately all I had time for was creating my outlines and not really learning (read: memorizing) the law. I think you are right on track if you are using the Bar/Bri conviser book/baroutlines.com to study. You want to try to focus your learning down to as little material as possible. On my second attempt main strategic difference was that I used the outlines that I had made the previous summer (along with some info from some of my friend's outlines, due to my paranoia), and the last three weeks or so before the bar I would sit down with those outlines ( 13 or so subjects; 9 pages singled spaced was the longest for contracts; the shortest, community property, was 2 and half pages) and I would just try to memorize them. I would read one outline over and over again for an entire day, and at the end of the day I would have someone ask me questions from the outlines. If you can say the answers out loud, then you have memorized it. I really think this was the difference in my passing the second time. Because I certainly did not put in much more time, possibly less, because I was working full-time during the second attempt (took the last two and a half weeks before the bar off).

There are a million different ways to study for this thing. After I found out I failed I was frantically trying to find a way to study differently (if not better) than I did the first time. Some of my friends did it this way and I liked the way it sounded. It gives your studying a focal point and a finish line. I felt like the reading would never end and I was never going to retain anything, but by doing it this way you can spend the first month or couple of months, making sure you have good outlines, practicing as many essays as you can, doing MBE questions and writing out the answers, and then the last 2 to 3 weeks before the exam you focus solely on your outlines (with a sprinkling of essays and MBE questions thrown in) and the studying will have some kind of structure, something I was never able to do on my own.

Now, I know many people who would never do it this way and feel that outlines are a waste of time, and they are probably right. But this did help me a great deal, so I thought it couldn't hurt to throw it out there. No matter how you study as long as you stay focused (the hardest part) you will kick ass.

Source: J.T.