Utilizing your Critical Pass Flashcards Forum

[judysmith]

We are about 8 weeks out from the Feb 2017 exam and I am thinking about getting the critical pass flashcards. For those who have experience studying with these, which ways did you best utilize the cards in your bar prep, and do you have any advice for how to best utilize them 8 weeks out, and if they made an impact on your passing or not? Any additional tips or experiences are welcomed, I have heard great things about these and would like to know how they have best worked for you.

Thanks!

[filibuster]

they were good during downtime to help memorize elements. I'm not sure if they were the reason i passed, but it was helpful in memorizing elements

[cho8583]

Im also curious about it. Do you guys use the card to memorize after you cover materials from the review course, or before to get the big picture?

[ndp1234]

Did not substantively use my Critical Pass card set until a 2-4 weeks before the exam. I used them for memorization drills toward the end during the times I had finished my practice tests during the first half of the day. I also had tried reviewing the CP cards for a specific subject before graded essays / subject specific PQs but that did not last too long after I started spending most of my day doing PQs and then reviewing said PQs.

[zot1]

I didn't use critical pass, but I used a different set of flashcards.

The way I used them, and they were super helpful, was as follows: during the day I'd do whatever Themis told me to do. After whatever practice tests I'd do, I'd see what topic I was having trouble with that day--let's say first amendment. After my day was done, I would eat dinner and watch tv for just a little bit (my break time). Then I would go in my bath tub with the first amendment cards within the con law set and spend 1-1.5 hours reviewing them. Then I would take the rest of the night of.

Highly recommend it if you feel you're having trouble with particular topics.

[Law&coffee]

Im also curious about it. Do you guys use the card to memorize after you cover materials from the review course, or before to get the big picture?

I started using Critical Pass about three weeks before the exam. At that point, you should be transitioning from being familiar with bar topics to knowing the black letter law cold. Critical Pass is good for memorizing the elements and BLL for the MBE portion of the exam. I would review 2-3 sets of card each day, annotate them as needed and create mnemonics, and then do a practice set of simulated MBE questions.

I certainly think you can start utilizing the cards at the beginning of your bar course. CP is a good complement to Barbri - or any other bar prep program. It tracks the CMR.
It's also a huge timer since I tried to make my own flash cards but was so overwhelmed with bar prep, I wasn't able to complete one handwritten set!

http://criticalpass.refr.cc/WXNZSR4 is a link with a discount code for the cards (courtesy of Neve).

[Neve]

Actively review them!!! Going through 6 stacks of card and keeping up with your work from your bar prep class isn't practical, but try to fit in 2-3 stacks of cards a day and incorporate it with your bar lesson. Critical Pass is a great tool to get you to master BLL.

[RedGiant]

I used them in conjunction with BarBri lectures and mini-outlines and made sure to add distinctions, additional info, and things that Critical Pass did not cover (vocab words, doctrines, mnemonics). I took both MA and UBE (NY), but I specifically added MA distinctions. For property in particular, they did not have the level of detail that BarBri expected of us. I did think they were very helpful and well worth the money. I recommend them to all my advisees, who are now 3Ls. Hope this helps.

[Law&coffee]

Thanks, Redgiant. Critical Pass definitely tracks the Barbri course. Like any supplement, it's not a replacement for a full bar course and it's for the MBE, not state distinctions. The cards have blank lines on them so you can add your own state distinctions.

[ProspectiveStudent69]

We are about 8 weeks out from the Feb 2017 exam and I am thinking about getting the critical pass flashcards. For those who have experience studying with these, which ways did you best utilize the cards in your bar prep, and do you have any advice for how to best utilize them 8 weeks out, and if they made an impact on your passing or not? Any additional tips or experiences are welcomed, I have heard great things about these and would like to know how they have best worked for you.

Thanks!

I read through all the flash cards twice. After comparing the accuracy of the flashcards with the Barbri lectures, I completely copied the contents of the note cards and put them into outline format. I then supplemented that outline by reading through Barbri lectures and incorporated the missing items. Surprisingly, the coverage of the flashcards was almost identical to the Barbri lectures. I also supplemented my outlines with troublesome areas that needed further elaboration from the big outlines.

Note: This is only a viable option if you have like three months to prepare. I am a crammer, so this allowed me to cram all the necessary rules for the exam. Did this approach encompass all the rules, no. But, it contained the most highly tested areas. I did lots of practice questions and amp to make up for any holes in my approach.

Also, I purchased the Barbri mini-review lecture, and outlined the 8 hours of lecture. That lecture tells you the most highly tested areas in simplistic terms. I used that outline to cram on the mornings and evenings of the exam. Much better than looking at the larger more in depth outlines.

[JDNE]

For those who have experience studying with these, which ways did you best utilize the cards in your bar prep, and do you have any advice for how to best utilize them 8 weeks out, and if they made an impact on your passing or not? Any additional tips or experiences are welcomed, I have heard great things about these and would like to know how they have best worked for you.

Thanks!

I love them! I actually typed them into tables in Word (one row per card, with headings to denote the topic within the subject) because loose cards and I don't get along; I'm too clumsy, I drop them, and the tables were easy to print and read. I also added to those Word tables, building on those documents as I studied the explanations to all the MBE questions in the Barbri material. The CPFs are very, very good -- they explain the MBE law in an organized fashion. But they are not as complete as the Barbri explanations. So I used the CPFs as my foundation, and then added new things to the CPF Tables (as I call them) that I culled from the very detailed Barbri explanations.

I don't know if I passed yet, but I felt happy leaving the test. I think the only reason I was calm is that I devoured all the Barbri explanations. That's where the real guts of their test prep material lies (for both the MBE and the Essays).

[Neve]

Very fortunately, I learned that I master the law best by flash card. I got my best grades in law school by making flash cards out of outlines. I always recommend adapting the bar course to your learning style; for instance, if you learn best by flash cards, get Critical Pass as a supplement or make flash cards out of the outlines, but if like learning by a long outline, stick with the CMR. JDNE gave a great example of how they stuck with a learning style that worked for that individual (and hopefully it will pay off!)

[JDNE]

JDNE gave a great example of how they stuck with a learning style that worked for that individual (and hopefully it will pay off!)

Thank you, Neve. Are you a Bar Prep tutor? Sounds like you know what you're talking about. I think studying for the Bar was all about finding a way to assimilate the important material. "WHAT IS THE IMPORTANT MATERIAL?" I figured that the important material is whatever is discussed in all the model questions (both multiple choice and essay) that Barbri had. So I mainly studied all the (1) Multiple Choice Questions-And-Explanations and the (2) Essay Questions-And-Model-Answers. To keep things organized I used the Critical Flash MBE flashcards for the MBE topics, and for the state topics I just studied the heck out of the essays. I'll let y'all know. If all went well I'll be moving up there for a job that is contingent on passing.

[Neve]

JDNE gave a great example of how they stuck with a learning style that worked for that individual (and hopefully it will pay off!)

Thank you, Neve. Are you a Bar Prep tutor? Sounds like you know what you're talking about. I think studying for the Bar was all about finding a way to assimilate the important material. "WHAT IS THE IMPORTANT MATERIAL?" I figured that the important material is whatever is discussed in all the model questions (both multiple choice and essay) that Barbri had. So I mainly studied all the (1) Multiple Choice Questions-And-Explanations and the (2) Essay Questions-And-Model-Answers. To keep things organized I used the Critical Flash MBE flashcards for the MBE topics, and for the state topics I just studied the heck out of the essays. I'll let y'all know. If all went well I'll be moving up there for a job that is contingent on passing.

Thanks, JDNE. I'm not a bar prep tutor, but I will be grading essays for one of the major bar prep companies this summer.

[lawst_]

We are about 8 weeks out from the Feb 2017 exam and I am thinking about getting the critical pass flashcards. For those who have experience studying with these, which ways did you best utilize the cards in your bar prep, and do you have any advice for how to best utilize them 8 weeks out, and if they made an impact on your passing or not? Any additional tips or experiences are welcomed, I have heard great things about these and would like to know how they have best worked for you.

Thanks!

Passed IL on my 4th try. Used my cards fairly extensively. Started by reviewing CMR outline, but memorized elements from Critical Pass cards. I honestly took them everywhere with me (work, gym, lunch, restaurants, etc.). Also, I would pick 5 or so cards that I was struggling with and review them 3-5 times in bed at night before I fell asleep.

If you end up deciding to get them, I have a discount code.

[JDNE]

JDNE gave a great example of how they stuck with a learning style that worked for that individual (and hopefully it will pay off!)

Thank you, Neve. Are you a Bar Prep tutor? Sounds like you know what you're talking about. I think studying for the Bar was all about finding a way to assimilate the important material. "WHAT IS THE IMPORTANT MATERIAL?" I figured that the important material is whatever is discussed in all the model questions (both multiple choice and essay) that Barbri had. So I mainly studied all the (1) Multiple Choice Questions-And-Explanations and the (2) Essay Questions-And-Model-Answers. To keep things organized I used the Critical Flash MBE flashcards for the MBE topics, and for the state topics I just studied the heck out of the essays. I'll let y'all know. If all went well I'll be moving up there for a job that is contingent on passing.

Thanks, JDNE. I'm not a bar prep tutor, but I will be grading essays for one of the major bar prep companies this summer.

Oh, that's very cool! I'm not surprised to learn you're a grader, given your perception into study habits, etc. I'm sure you'll do a great job and be fair. In college I was a Teaching Assistant, so for Bar Prep I intentionally decided to "study like I was a grader." I decided to try to learn as much as possible to make the graders' jobs easier. That led me to studying straight out of the model essay answers I had. I organized the essays by topic and focused on the rules of law tested when a given fact pattern is presented. Therefore, I also studied the rules from not only the Critical Pass Flashcards but also from the "Rules of Law" found in the model answers, themselves. I dissected the model answers so I could study the rules of law in the language that the graders want to see.

For me that was the most helpful way to study: memorize the rules in the model answer language that the graders will have in their "Answer Key." At first I felt like I was just reading a script. But