Alt123 wrote:Finding myself pushing ahead with Barbri because there is so little material per day right now. Is this a bad idea? Should I just be reviewing other subjects instead of progressing my PSP?
I don't think there's any harm in working ahead, but I have no idea where Barbri is at in the process (e.g., still doing the intro lectures or already starting content). Barbri throws an ONSLAUGHT of crap about a month into the course, and there will come a point in the coming weeks where you can barely keep your head above water and several weeks where you feel you're drowning. I worked ahead a couple of days at a time (at most 1 week)--I had to take the bar while working full time, so I knew I needed to get ahead when I had the opportunity.
With that said, I have a few caveats.
1. Don't burn yourself out. The aphorism "it's a marathon, not a sprint" has never been more apt than with the bar. The last month is very important, especially the last 2 weeks before the bar, so you want to make sure you time when you're going to peak correctly. If you're twiddling your thumbs, keep going, but don't think you need to do all the things right now--there will be a time for that shortly.
2. Don't just go through the motions to try to get through the course as soon as possible. Obtaining mastery of the bar is a painful but necessary process and it is going to require you to put in a lot of really hard work. Make sure you're mindful about learning and internalizing the material and not just trying to get through it all as quickly as possible. There are many people in this forum who will end up completing 95% of Barbri and wonder why they failed--and it almost always had to do with someone who half-assed the content instead of wrestling with concepts and the material.
3. Consider previewing the state subjects, especially if you're from out of state. Don't worry about memorizing anything at this point, but as an out-of-state attorney, I had zero exposure to community property and CA civ pro and evidence (which are very different than NY law). Someone gave me the advice to read through an outline of each state subject early on in the bar course and it was useful to understand the layout of the land. Barbri first put CA subjects in front of us 2-3 weeks before the bar exam, which can be really emotionally stressful if you're learning a ton of subjects from scratch.