California Repeaters, What Did You Do Different the 2nd Tim Forum

[Nightcrawler]

....I highly doubt any of you are scoring extremely well (+75%) on adaptibar then bomb the MBE

Sorry, but my experience tells a different story. I had Adaptibar wired when I used it as my primary source for MBE practice. I was in the low to mid 80% by the time the MBE rolled around, and I didn't just bomb the MBE, I fucking bombed the MBE.

I will grant that I'm not the sharpest bulb in the shithouse, so I needed more than what in retrospect amounted to lightweight practice.

Barbri's MBE questions do a poor job of imitating the style of the current MBE, but the breadth and depth of the questions along with S&T and NCBEX questions provided much more varied and comprehensive practice and answer explanations than Adaptibar.

I absolutely do not doubt that some people find Adaptibar an excellent preparation tool, and good for them. But if one has used it, and come away with a horrible score, then using it again doesn't seem very wise.

The first time I used it I got a horrible score on the MBE too, but that score was still better than what I got before that. I don’t know if we just used it differently but I can’t see it not helping in improving your score.

I have a couple of questions for you:
1. How much was your score before using adaptibar?
2. How much was your score after using it?
3. How many questions did you practice?
4. What was your overall average and your average in the last 350 questions (or the last couple of weeks)?

Read what I wrote. The only question you asked that I didn't already write about was the number of questions. I did 2000+ on Adaptibar. IOW, all of them, and many two or more times over. That reminds me, Adaptibar's program coughs up a lot of repeat questions. I didn't like that about it either.

You seem to not believe that something that worked for you didn't work for somebody else. I don't know what to tell you.

Not that I do not believe it, I just don’t understand how. Honestly, I don’t want to go in your post history to find the answers that I need to give you advice. If you are willing to write them here to question yourself, great. Otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you. The only thing, maybe, would be to question something that you are doing. Even one single wrong assumption may be an obstacle between you and passing the bar.

[justanotheruser]

Multi-time repeater here who finally passed on the Feb 2018 exam.

For me, I used BOTH Emanuel S&T + Adaptibar. I went through S&T first, because it spends a lot of time going through fundamental strategies. In a way, I think that allowed me to overcome many of Adaptibar's relatively weak answer explanations. Whenever I felt dissatisfied with an Adaptibar explanation, I would use what I learned from S&T plus my own substantive knowledge and pick at things until I reached a satisfactory answer in my own words for why the answer choice was what it was. I will also agree that on the actual MBEs, almost every question felt like a 50/50 question whereas during practice, such questions felt like it made up 10% at most.

I also used a google doc to compile answer explanations that I wanted to keep reviewing/chewing on for the foreseeable future. I would write it out verbatim and edit it into my own words. I would also go through this document before every MBE practice run.

I did about 2000 practice questions in total through S&T + Adaptibar. There were definitely repeat questions. But my overall average was 83% and closer to 88-90% for the last 1000 questions. I also know, based on the NCBE score report, that I got over 1500 on the MBEs when I passed the Feb 2018 bar exam. It might be the case that MBEs always clicked for me, but I felt that S&T + Adaptibar were more than enough for my studies.

[lexingtonhr]

I'm at a loss. Do you have a different approach to MBE's now?

Barbri, S&T's, and NCBEX questions. Lots of them. That's what I did, and I passed. I made tons of flashcards too, but eventually whittled those down to what I always struggled with so that I got my stacks down to 25 or less per subject. For example, in Civ Pro, I knew PJ, DJ, supplemental jurisdiction and venue questions so well that I didn't need cards for that, but I did for stuff like impleader, interpleader, and intervener (and appeals too).

I also did something that can be time consuming at first, but after awhile, I got much faster at it. I'd study e.g. appeals, and then I'd handwrite out everything I knew about it. If I got something wrong, I'd write out the part(s) I got wrong again. Then I'd write the whole thing again. If that sounds like a massive pain in the ass, well, it is. However, the far bigger pain in the ass was failing, and starting all over again.

Obviously, I couldn't do this for every topic in every subject, so I only did it for the things that were repeatedly killing me.

Oh, and in Real Property, I quit doing future interests. The amount of detail and memorization that shit takes to be prepared for one or two MBE questions is counterproductive.

Thanks for the response. I do have the S&T book and I used it during bar prep, but still got a poor MBE score. I guess I have to focus more on the subjects and their nuances.

[bacillusanthracis]

....I highly doubt any of you are scoring extremely well (+75%) on adaptibar then bomb the MBE

Sorry, but my experience tells a different story. I had Adaptibar wired when I used it as my primary source for MBE practice. I was in the low to mid 80% by the time the MBE rolled around, and I didn't just bomb the MBE, I fucking bombed the MBE.

I will grant that I'm not the sharpest bulb in the shithouse, so I needed more than what in retrospect amounted to lightweight practice.

Barbri's MBE questions do a poor job of imitating the style of the current MBE, but the breadth and depth of the questions along with S&T and NCBEX questions provided much more varied and comprehensive practice and answer explanations than Adaptibar.

I absolutely do not doubt that some people find Adaptibar an excellent preparation tool, and good for them. But if one has used it, and come away with a horrible score, then using it again doesn't seem very wise.

The first time I used it I got a horrible score on the MBE too, but that score was still better than what I got before that. I don’t know if we just used it differently but I can’t see it not helping in improving your score.

I have a couple of questions for you:
1. How much was your score before using adaptibar?
2. How much was your score after using it?
3. How many questions did you practice?
4. What was your overall average and your average in the last 350 questions (or the last couple of weeks)?

Read what I wrote. The only question you asked that I didn't already write about was the number of questions. I did 2000+ on Adaptibar. IOW, all of them, and many two or more times over. That reminds me, Adaptibar's program coughs up a lot of repeat questions. I didn't like that about it either.

You seem to not believe that something that worked for you didn't work for somebody else. I don't know what to tell you.

Not that I do not believe it, I just don’t understand how. Honestly, I don’t want to go in your post history to find the answers that I need to give you advice. If you are willing to write them here to question yourself, great. Otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you. The only thing, maybe, would be to question something that you are doing. Even one single wrong assumption may be an obstacle between you and passing the bar.

Where on earth did you get the idea that I was asking you for advice? I already passed the bar exam.

Adaptibar doesn't work for many people because of reasons I've written multiple times in this thread. Others have said the same thing. Get over it. Jesus.

[bacillusanthracis]

I'm at a loss. Do you have a different approach to MBE's now?

Barbri, S&T's, and NCBEX questions. Lots of them. That's what I did, and I passed. I made tons of flashcards too, but eventually whittled those down to what I always struggled with so that I got my stacks down to 25 or less per subject. For example, in Civ Pro, I knew PJ, DJ, supplemental jurisdiction and venue questions so well that I didn't need cards for that, but I did for stuff like impleader, interpleader, and intervener (and appeals too).

I also did something that can be time consuming at first, but after awhile, I got much faster at it. I'd study e.g. appeals, and then I'd handwrite out everything I knew about it. If I got something wrong, I'd write out the part(s) I got wrong again. Then I'd write the whole thing again. If that sounds like a massive pain in the ass, well, it is. However, the far bigger pain in the ass was failing, and starting all over again.

Obviously, I couldn't do this for every topic in every subject, so I only did it for the things that were repeatedly killing me.

Oh, and in Real Property, I quit doing future interests. The amount of detail and memorization that shit takes to be prepared for one or two MBE questions is counterproductive.

Thanks for the response. I do have the S&T book and I used it during bar prep, but still got a poor MBE score. I guess I have to focus more on the subjects and their nuances.

The S&T book is good, and provides great answer explanations, but it's not enough by itself (as I'm sure you know). Again, check out the NCBEX questions. You have to pay $50 per set, but when you see/do them, you'll instantly recognize them as the style you saw on the MBE. The only problem with them is that there are no Civ Pro questions, so you'll need other sources for that. I don't recall if you did Barbri/Themis/Whatever, but if you did, re-use those questions too. If not, you can probably find a used one for sale somewhere.

When you review, read the explanation, then go to your outline and see not only where it fits within your outline, but also to see if the answer explanation is consistent with your outline. Then write it down. At the end of the day, review it again. That seems to have worked for me. I made it more manageable by doing sets of no more than 20-25 questions at a time. For me doing 50 MBE questions every day wasn't manageable because there are days when you miss a lot of questions. Having e.g. 22 questions to review simply isn't doable. It's too much to review when the day of doing MBE questions and essay writing is done.

You need to have a schedule that allows you to have quality review time at the end of each study day or at least within a couple of days of covering a subject.

[Nightcrawler]

....I highly doubt any of you are scoring extremely well (+75%) on adaptibar then bomb the MBE

Sorry, but my experience tells a different story. I had Adaptibar wired when I used it as my primary source for MBE practice. I was in the low to mid 80% by the time the MBE rolled around, and I didn't just bomb the MBE, I fucking bombed the MBE.

I will grant that I'm not the sharpest bulb in the shithouse, so I needed more than what in retrospect amounted to lightweight practice.

Barbri's MBE questions do a poor job of imitating the style of the current MBE, but the breadth and depth of the questions along with S&T and NCBEX questions provided much more varied and comprehensive practice and answer explanations than Adaptibar.

I absolutely do not doubt that some people find Adaptibar an excellent preparation tool, and good for them. But if one has used it, and come away with a horrible score, then using it again doesn't seem very wise.

The first time I used it I got a horrible score on the MBE too, but that score was still better than what I got before that. I don’t know if we just used it differently but I can’t see it not helping in improving your score.

I have a couple of questions for you:
1. How much was your score before using adaptibar?
2. How much was your score after using it?
3. How many questions did you practice?
4. What was your overall average and your average in the last 350 questions (or the last couple of weeks)?

Read what I wrote. The only question you asked that I didn't already write about was the number of questions. I did 2000+ on Adaptibar. IOW, all of them, and many two or more times over. That reminds me, Adaptibar's program coughs up a lot of repeat questions. I didn't like that about it either.

You seem to not believe that something that worked for you didn't work for somebody else. I don't know what to tell you.

Not that I do not believe it, I just don’t understand how. Honestly, I don’t want to go in your post history to find the answers that I need to give you advice. If you are willing to write them here to question yourself, great. Otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you. The only thing, maybe, would be to question something that you are doing. Even one single wrong assumption may be an obstacle between you and passing the bar.

Where on earth did you get the idea that I was asking you for advice? I already passed the bar exam.

Adaptibar doesn't work for many people because of reasons I've written multiple times in this thread. Others have said the same thing. Get over it. Jesus.

1. From the title of the post;
2. From your comment “I fucking bombed the MBE”
3. You added that you aren’t “the brightest bulb in the lighthouse”

All this circumstantial evidence led me to assume that you were asking for advice on how to pass the bar. You passed, great for you. Congrats. Now let’s keep this thread useful for who needs to pass the bar.

I’m sure they will recognize that you are saying that adaptibar didn’t work for you, but then you suggest to use the OPE 1-4 questions and S&T. Just to clarify for who has no idea: they have the same exact questions as adaptibar. Adaptibar has just a few extra “easy”, older questions which I’m sure won’t hurt anyone’s performance. Adaptibar includes also the civ pro released questions and the last 210 ncbe’s. If you use adaptibar the right way, it will work. Agree that their explanations. S&T’s Explanations are way better. Adaptibar is for practicality. Agree that their product could be way better but so far they are the best out there to prepare for the MBE. No need to be pretentious.

[rcharter1978]

I'm at a loss. Do you have a different approach to MBE's now?

Oh, and in Real Property, I quit doing future interests. The amount of detail and memorization that shit takes to be prepared for one or two MBE questions is counterproductive.

So much this. It's ridiculous how much time is devoted to future interests, both in bar prep and in the standard property class. There weren't even 5 mbe questions on this topic and zero essay questions. The risk/reward is just not worth breaking your back over it.

[lexingtonhr]

....I highly doubt any of you are scoring extremely well (+75%) on adaptibar then bomb the MBE

Sorry, but my experience tells a different story. I had Adaptibar wired when I used it as my primary source for MBE practice. I was in the low to mid 80% by the time the MBE rolled around, and I didn't just bomb the MBE, I fucking bombed the MBE.

I will grant that I'm not the sharpest bulb in the shithouse, so I needed more than what in retrospect amounted to lightweight practice.

Barbri's MBE questions do a poor job of imitating the style of the current MBE, but the breadth and depth of the questions along with S&T and NCBEX questions provided much more varied and comprehensive practice and answer explanations than Adaptibar.

I absolutely do not doubt that some people find Adaptibar an excellent preparation tool, and good for them. But if one has used it, and come away with a horrible score, then using it again doesn't seem very wise.

The first time I used it I got a horrible score on the MBE too, but that score was still better than what I got before that. I don’t know if we just used it differently but I can’t see it not helping in improving your score.

I have a couple of questions for you:
1. How much was your score before using adaptibar?
2. How much was your score after using it?
3. How many questions did you practice?
4. What was your overall average and your average in the last 350 questions (or the last couple of weeks)?

Read what I wrote. The only question you asked that I didn't already write about was the number of questions. I did 2000+ on Adaptibar. IOW, all of them, and many two or more times over. That reminds me, Adaptibar's program coughs up a lot of repeat questions. I didn't like that about it either.

You seem to not believe that something that worked for you didn't work for somebody else. I don't know what to tell you.

Not that I do not believe it, I just don’t understand how. Honestly, I don’t want to go in your post history to find the answers that I need to give you advice. If you are willing to write them here to question yourself, great. Otherwise, I don’t know what to tell you. The only thing, maybe, would be to question something that you are doing. Even one single wrong assumption may be an obstacle between you and passing the bar.

Where on earth did you get the idea that I was asking you for advice? I already passed the bar exam.

Adaptibar doesn't work for many people because of reasons I've written multiple times in this thread. Others have said the same thing. Get over it. Jesus.

1. From the title of the post;
2. From your comment “I fucking bombed the MBE”
3. You added that you aren’t “the brightest bulb in the lighthouse”

All this circumstantial evidence led me to assume that you were asking for advice on how to pass the bar. You passed, great for you. Congrats. Now let’s keep this thread useful for who needs to pass the bar.

I’m sure they will recognize that you are saying that adaptibar didn’t work for you, but then you suggest to use the OPE 1-4 questions and S&T. Just to clarify for who has no idea: they have the same exact questions as adaptibar. Adaptibar has just a few extra “easy”, older questions which I’m sure won’t hurt anyone’s performance. Adaptibar includes also the civ pro released questions and the last 210 ncbe’s. If you use adaptibar the right way, it will work. Agree that their explanations. S&T’s Explanations are way better. Adaptibar is for practicality. Agree that their product could be way better but so far they are the best out there to prepare for the MBE. No need to be pretentious.

You're right. I don't think I was using Adaptibar the right way. I don't think I was absorbing the information correctly or getting to the root of the issue. I knew all the answers due to repetitive memorization. I also journaled my wrong answers. I don't think I delved deep though and I know that S &T's explanations are better than Adaptibar. I guess I will use Adaptibar again this time around, but with more focus and attention. True, the NCBE has their released questions on Adaptibar. We did them in class for a mock bar review and I was the top 3 scorers in the class. Again, I am so surprised by my MBE score. I thought I would crush the MBE's during the bar exam. I was wrong. I wasn't studying right. It makes me sad when I think about it. But, I guess these mistakes lead us to studying smarter this time around.

Thank you all for the help and guidance. I truly appreciate it.

[narfkarta]

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