jea93550

I graduated California Law school in 1997. I took the bar right after Law school but missed it. I started teaching for about 5 years then became a stay home mom till this day. I have a 5 year old and a 4 years old. I am now looking to attempt the California bar again.

Please advice. Where do I start? I am thinking of taking the Bar/Bri home study program since the course location is very far from my residence.

Is it necessary to take PMBR in addition to Bar/Bri?

Category: CA - California Bar Exam

suz-dz

bar/bri home study program is really good but really expensive. If money is not an issue, then it is not a bad option. If money does make a difference, then you can consider buying commercial outlines/used materials and hire a tutor an hour a week to go over your weakness. Then go to Essay Advantage hosted by Barbri right before the exam.

Hope it works

cabartutor

Hi Jea,

What type of learner are you? do you learn better by seeing or hearing? I am someone who studied for the CA bar on her own (no barbri course, etc.) and I passed on my first attempt. Now, I am a tutor helping (mostly repeat) bar takers with study plans and execution. As I would tell them, what you need is a good MBE program (PMBR Red Book or MicroMash PC program), a good essay program (BarBreakers by Jeff Adachi-- the book coupled with old essays which you can get on the calbar.gov site), and perhaps some reference materials for when you are having trouble with a concept/specific area of law-- so either used BarBri convisor/CA subject books (see craigslist or ebay after March 1 and i bet you will find TONS of them for sale).

If you learn well by hearing, I suggest PMBR's MBE subject CDs. They can be expensive, but you should be able to find a used set. I put them on my ipod and went walking, or when i was in the car-- keeps your time efficient and makes gives your prep. extra "umph."

Best of prep-- as luck is something that only helps a bit in this case-- and please do not hesitate to contact me at cabartutor@gmail.com or via studyfor if you have more questions or anything else.

:)

__________________
CABarTutor
~recent grad ('06), admittee MA/CA, and Tutor in the Los Angeles area.

Lee

Hello:

I, too, graduated from law school 4 years ago, and will be taking the CA bar in July '08. I do not know where to start! I would be interested in talking with you via e-mail about a game plan for studying. I have taken PMBR and still have the books to study from. Hope to hear from you soon.


Lee

jea93550

Hello Lee,

I am hoping to get the current BarBri books- only because those are the books I'm used to. I do hope to supplement them with some form of bar review course or a private tutor. I am not sure which. I'm still shopping around. I"ll have to make a decision soon- for I know I don't want to do it alone.
What's your plan?
Jea

Lee

Hi Jea

Did you receive my message I sent yesterday, 2-26?

Lee

cabartutor

Hi Lee,

You can reach me anytime during your prep. at cabartutor@gmail.com

Generally, I would reccommend a practice based approach, using the Red PMBR book both as actual practice and to learn black letter law. You should do short bunches of questions at a time, so that you actually remember each question when you are correcting them. I would advise making notecards (just index cards are fine) for each statement of black letter law laid out in the answers, with notes to yourself to help you recall (i.e. eggroll on floor hypo).

As for the PT, you should get a used barbri book, or download many old PTs from the calbar.gov website. For the essays i suggest BarBreakers by Jeff Adachi. Follow the book, do the samples, do times 1 hour exams, etc. -as he advises.

Set a schedule. Give yourself a day every few weeks for "catch up" but try to stay on schedule as much as possible otherwise. Give yourself time to live--- workout, eat, sleep, do normal things. Once late June rolls around you will want to be more strict with your time, but you don't want to burn out so schedule smart!

Should you decide you want to consult a tutor, please feel free to contact me. Or if you have any quick questions i would be happy to give you my opinions.

It is very "early" in the game, so start getting your materials together, scope out a good study place-- cafe, library, whatever is NOT at home and is somewhere you feel comfortable, start working out an overall prep. plan and a schedule for the next month or so and get into those MBE's!

Good luck!

__________________
CABarTutor
~recent grad ('06), admittee MA/CA, and Tutor in the Los Angeles area.