Washington DC (UBE) & Virginia Bar Exam Tutoring & Self-Study

Author: Dwight Zenzano

  • I passed the November 2008 MPRE

    NCBE released the scores from the November 2008 MPRE today and I passed with a solid margin, scoring well into triple digits… I believe the free PMBR/Kaplan lecture + the multiple practice exams from the various sources was the key… Also, knowing and mentally preparing for the fact that the format of the current MPRE is simplified from the existing Barbri/PMBR/Micromash/Whatever practice questions out there now is probably the best advice I can give to anyone taking the exam… (As stated in my previous post https://dcbarexam.com//2008/11/thoughts-on-november-2008-mpre-and.html)

    To those of you that did not pass, or are taking it for the first time in March 2009, I recommend 1 week of study, comprising 8 hours of review of the outlines (1-2 days) and 4 practice exams of 50-60 questions each reviewing all answer explanations thoroughly (4-5 days). It may seem excessive, but the test is not as “easy” as everyone says unless you put in that effort, or have recently taken PR in law school…

  • 79 days till the bar – 4 of 6 subjects preliminarily done

    Finished Real Property/Future Interests yesterday and started Evidence… I spent a long time on Property, as there is a lot there… I spent a good amount of time in the long outline books as well reading about mortgages and Future Interests, and the RAP. So, I probably spent more time than I needed to, but I feel like I have a good grasp of Property now, so I think it was time well spent. Moving onto evidence, I will probably spend a decent amount of time on this subject as well because it’s so rule-based and I think if one can just brute force memorize as much of the FRE as possible, success on the MBE should follow… My goal is still to finish this initial effort of all 6 subjects by this Friday… I’m traveling on business 3 days this week, but I’ll be studying on the plane, etc…

    I’ve been making about 50 flashcards per subject so far… A good start… Once I finish this preliminary effort I think I’ll do the PMBR red book questions, setting a minimum of 50 per day, max of 100 per day. Probably do that for a few weeks, then in early January take a simulated MBE (probably the barbri one), and go back to PMBR red book questions for another few weeks, and repeat…

    I really wish there was a source of sample questions out there that was newer and more reflective of the new styl e of MBE questions… The PMBR and BarBri questions do not appear to have been changed AT ALL in the past 5 years :-\

  • 85 days till the bar – 50% done with preliminary studying

    OK, so I did not hit my goal of finishing the 300 PMBR earlybird questions in all 6 MBE subjects and all 32 PMBR CDs of the 6 MBE subjects. I’ve done Con Law, Crim Law/Crim Pro, and Torts. So, 1/2 the lectures and 1/2 the questions. The reason it has taken me a bit longer, is I’ve been making notecards for almost every PMBR earlybird question. Also, I am reading the Strategies and Tactics book section every day for the subject I am working on that day. My new goal is to have the next 3 subjects done by December 15th. Full-time work and travel also interferes with my study time, as do holidays such as Thanksgiving :)

  • 100 days till the bar

    So with 100 days until the bar exam I think this is a good time to kick into effect my study plan… I am going to start with a sit down and outline of all 32 PMBR audio lecture CDs. These CDs cover all 6 MBE subjects. I am going to do them in alphabetical order, so:

    Constitutional Law
    Contracts
    Criminal Law/Pro
    Evidence
    Property
    Torts

    After this, I’m going to hammer through all of the PMBR Earlybird questions (~50 questions per subject, so ~300 questions total). I think this should be sufficient to get my legal juices flowing, so to speak… I also plan to listen to the PMBR lectures randomly in my car anytime I am in my car (8-10 hours a week), and also anytime I am at the gym (4-5 hours a week)…

    I’ll report back when I’ve finished listening to all the CDs and gotten all the earlybird questions done and reviewed… I hope to have this done by the end of the month, so that will be about 3 months until the bar exam, which is when I hope to have my study schedule 100% finalized.

  • Thoughts on the November 2008 MPRE and recent changes

    I realized there were some distinct changes to the MPRE from all of the sample tests I did… I did some digging around and found this document on the NCBE website:

    Click to access 770308_donahue.pdf

    Apparently, the test writers over at the NCBE are trying to make multiple choices more straightforward and have eliminated “none of the above” or “all of the above” choices! Further, they have eliminated the “K-type” format (using Roman numerals in complex options—e.g., I is true, but II and III are not true). NONE of these are on the MPRE anymore…

    For more details, read the article in the URL I posted above and keep that in mind when doing practice questions as you no longer need to learn strategies for K-type questions and so forth…

    Personally, I liked the new format and thought it was very straightforward, this might explain why I finished it faster than any of the practice exams.

    Finally, keep in mind these changes appear to apply to the MBE, so the Feb 2009 MBE should be along the same lines…

  • Took the MPRE today

    Think I did pretty well… The test started at 9:50AM… I got there at 8:50AM… It was supposed to start at 9AM. Waited about 15 minutes in line to get my seat assignment.

    Test was straightforward, many of the questions were very similar to the practice exams I did… I like PMBR/Kaplan the best, then Bar/Bri, followed by NCBE’s free sample questions, then Baroutlines last… Baroutlines was decent, but the sample tests in Baroutlines were terrible and many questions copied directly from the sample questions on the NCBE website, plus there were a bunch of typos, and some questions/answers were incomprehensible with terrible typos.

    Anyway, I did about 5 practice exams total, only 1 did I time in a simulated 125 minute fashion and do straight through… The rest I did in blocks of 30 questions at a time… I tended to take about 70 seconds per question, so the exams took me about 1 hour 15 minutes to about 1.5 hours total… The actual MPRE today only took me about an hour (I really cruised through it) but I slowed down a bit at the end, and reviewed 4 questions I couldn’t decide on during the exam. In total I spent 1 hour 20 minutes, including the questions about the testing center facilities.

    There were about 10 questions on the exam that were VERY tricky, I am not confident in those answers, and I am really hoping they were the 10 experimental questions! :-)

  • MPRE or bust

    This Saturday at 9AM is the MPRE. I know people say it’s a joke, but I am taking it seriously… I finished up the Kaplan/PMBR MPRE self-study materials, and also the baroutlines.com materials. I am going to take the sample tests today for both of those, then finish off with the Bar/Bri course book Thursday and Friday in final preparation. On the 25 question quizzes that PMBR has, I have been scoring a little above 70% consistently, which is what they say you should aim for, but I’d like to get in the 80-90% range to really feel comfortable… I will probably also review the MRPC and CJC one more time, especially the 2007 changes to the CJC…

  • Started studying for the 08-NOV-2008 MPRE today

    OK, so it’s a bit early, but I never took Professional Responsibility (PR), and I have a busy week the week before and week of the November MPRE, so I figured I’d start perusing the MPRE materials now and officially begin my studying for the MPRE. It’s just under 3 weeks till the test…

    Here are the materials I plan to use studying for the 8-NOV-2008 MPRE:
    1) Kaplan/PMBR MPRE (2008) (Free with online code available to almost anyone, $199 otherwise)
    2) BarBri MPRE Green Book (2008) (Free if you sign up for BarBri Bar Review, I got mine used for a few dollars)
    3) Baroutlines.com MPRE ($25)
    4) NCBEX Sample MPRE Questions (Free to everyone)
    5) Ameribar MPRE (Free to everyone)

    I spent 4 hours today listening to the Kaplan/PMBR MPRE Online Lecture given by Steven Bracci and at the same time reading the printed Kaplan/PMBR MPRE Outline I received in the mail from Kaplan/PMBR. I also had a copy of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) and the Model Code of Judicial Conduct (CJC) open in my web browser to refer to. The MRPC are available online at: http://www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc_toc.html and the CJC is available online at: http://www.abanet.org/judicialethics/ABA_MCJC_approved.pdf

    The lecture is good, and a great way to get familiar with the Model Rules. Steven Bracci is a good lecturer in that he does not put you to sleep. I think it was a good first step in studying for the MPRE…

  • Washington DC February 2009 Bar Exam – 100% Self Study – Welcome Post

    Welcome… The purpose of this blog is to share tips, strategies, tactics, and information about the upcoming Washington D.C. February 2009 bar exam. Anyone who has taken, or is planning to take the DC bar exam will hopefully find contribute in the comments and find value in this blog.

    Quick background on myself, I graduated law school about 8 years ago, and am taking the bar exam simply to be bar certified. I embarked on a different career during my last year of law school and have not looked back, so I am not planning to switch careers now (I currently work in negotiations, not in a legal capacity) but want to take the DC Bar exam now while my workload is not too heavy. I work full-time and will not be taking any time off to study. Only 2-days to actually take the exam.

    Now, on to the materials I will be using. Most of these I purchased used locally… I am going to use only self-study means, so no in-class lectures. I have purchased the following materials:
    (more…)