Thread: Those who have just passed or failed the bar (July 2007), please share your secrets or regrets

I know many states have already released the bar exam results. For those of you who have received your result, please share what did right or wrong. What bar review course you have used and if you recommend it. Most importantly, please state which bar exam you took. Thank you.
Category: Bar Exam - General

Not from July, but still relevent..

To put it all in a nutshell here it is -- for the essays:

1. UNDERSTAND the basics of the law (You can't use it otherwise)
2. MEMORIZE the outlines for each subject so you can list all the possible issues in your head when faced with a question. (I got this from Fleming.) Learn about one subject a week but review each one every day after you learn them (I used it to put me to sleep...sigh...)
3. MEMORIZE rules of law in FULL SENTENCES. Start with the basic ones and then add more as you have more time.
4. This is the hardest part -- DO sample essays. Outlining is good, but you're going to have to bite the bullet and write some out or you won't have any clue on TIMING (and timing is really important). When you're too tired to do anything else, review essay answers.
5. Figure out the best way that YOU learn and use that. Do the hardest stuff when you're learning best, do the easiest stuff when you can't bear to do anything else.
6. Find DIFFERENT ways to study -- sometimes listening, sometimes reading, sometimes writing.
7. Do NOT lose perspective. KEEP living, loving, exercising, and enjoying life. This really does help (really).

For the MBE there's no way out except constant practice (BUT see numbers 1-3 above!)

One persons personal saga:

I went hog-wild on prep materials. By which I mean that I started with Flemings (long term, including tapes) and Barbri Conviser and then got other materials whenever I didn't understand something. For Con Law I bought the PMBR tape -- the only PMBR tape that I thought was worth it... and listened to that seven thousand times (ok, several times)

For crim law and procedure I got the Whitebread tapes and then did a LOT of time updating the info, including reading the latest cases!!. I know a lot of people don't like him, but his stories are memorable and work for me. Ironically, I thought I WOULDN'T pass because the one area of
crim law that I didn't get was the accessory before and after the fact But what I DID do, and that REALLY HELPED was Flemings' thing about memorizing the outlines. That let me calmly (ok, sorta calmly) go through the whole list of possible crimes and know that I wasn't missing anything. I used his technique that includes stating the facts first then the relevant rule of law. (I REALLY LOVED his how to
write an essay tape, others hate it, but it really clarified things for me, and gave me a formula. OTOH I HATED his PT class UGH so confusing...!!) I used the outlines for the whole exam and it really helped. As did memorizing and regurgitating the precise rule of law.

For the PT I went insane and actually flew into LA to take Tina Post (???) BARBRI PT class, IMHO she's not a nice person, full of herself, witchy and worse -- but by gosh, I could do those PTs in my sleep by the time I finished her course, doing NOTHING else on the PTs except her assignments. As I was staying at a hotel for the few days between the classes, I was able to get a LOT of studying done --
spent mornings doing PTs and afternoons doing essays (ugh) When I left the exam, I KNEW that if I passed it would be on the PTs.

For MBE IMHO Barbri is the only way to go... just doing every practice question there is -- two ways -- timed sometimes and then going through one-by-one and checking each answer as you go.