WABWAB

I have been permitted to take the New York State Bar next year.without getting an LLM.My problem is I am a resident of Alexandria,Virginia.Though I will be glad to attend all the lectures,workshops etc in New York,it would be impossible to travel to N.Y. for the review courses.Please advice me as to what to do.
I am a lawyer from Ghana AND INTERESTED IN IMMIGRATION LAW PRACTICE.

Category: NY - New York BaR

Category: NY - New York Bar Exam

NYNJBarTutor

I would suggest you obtain study materials to prepare you for the New York exam. My prepference is the Bar Bri books, but you can obtain another source as well. Bar Bri offers lectures on tape or ipod that you can use. However, the truth is, that if you are disciplined, there is no reason you can't study for and digest the materials on your own. You can buy these materials directly from the company, and there are often students selling used materials on ebay or craigslist.

The most important thing to remember in preparing for the NY exam is that, inaddition to learning the substantive law, you must practice, practice, practice. No matter how much law you know, you will not be able to pass unless you become adept at answering mc questions and writing essays in the format the examiners are looking for. If you are having difficulty answering mc or writing essays, you may want to seek out individual help.

newyorkbarexamtutor.com

Good Luck

Nadrah

Sorry for the length!!

I know someone who traveled to NY for the courses, but they also have barbri courses in D.C. If you can afford it, get a tutor since you have no background in the American law and just get the self-study materials from barbri. But people have passed it without tutor using only the self-study.

One thing I would suggest is to not get distracted by all the materials out there. What I did was, I used BarBri as my main NY essay and multiple choice/MPT section guide; then I used PMBR as my MBE main study guide. I then added one more guide for each section. I signed up with adaptibar (MBE) which guarantees you pass or get your money back and I also used baroutlines which really really really shortens the NY subjects. The funny thing I did was, I actually ended up reading the baroutlines first and then barbri, kind of backwards. But it helped me speed read through Barbri only rereading if I didn't really understand. Bar outlines also helped me during the exam days because I could speeed read through them. I will be damned if I didn't find essay questions that reminded me of what I had read. Important!! Read the popular essay subjects at least twice. For instance NY Practice, I read that like 4 times, but different versions (barbri, baroutline, flashcards I found online, other sites I saw online). I then read through bar study sites such as this one to find strategies, and then came up with my own strategy.

For MBE, I hit that part really hard because I knew it would come in handy if I needed a few points to pass. So, in setting my schedule I came up with about 600 questions per week. Of course I didn't do all 600 questions some weeks, but worse scenario, I did at least 400. I also made sure I read every answer that I got wrong or did not understand even if I got it right. For essay, I worked on outlining. Barbri gives you tips on outlining, I did my best to use their tips. I made sure I outlined each time, so during the exam, it kept me from blabbing or going off on a tangent. Even when they said 15mins left, I got all flustered and almost starting putting in everything on earth in the last essay, but my outline was my anchor, forcing me to stick with it's program, lol.

Always stick to your own strategy. Figure out what works for you. A study group is not for me, so I didn't do it. I prefer stuyding by myself, that's something I had to learn. So, it's good to see what has worked for people, but don't get distracted and don't do what everyone has done. The only thing that everyone who has passed it has done is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!! Regardless of how much they studied, they practicied MBE/MPT/Essay/Mutliple choice. Barbri's multichoice section was helpful and I made sure I did all of it. I made sure I did at least 1200 MBE questions; I made sure I did at least 2 MPT essays; and made sure I did at least 30 essays (even if it's just outlining it). Another thing I did was rewrite their answers.

ipnoland

Hi Nadrah,

Some excellent tips there. Thanks for your post.

Regards,
David

regular

New York Bar Exam Feb 2008 pass list is up: http://www.nybarexam.org/feb2008.htm

congrats everyone.

rakhi

64% pass rate for first timers versus 49.5% for repeat takers