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

Category: Study Materials

  • Strategies and Tactics for the MBE Sixth (6th) Edition Review

    The newest edition of the Strategies and Tactics for the MBE book by Steven Emanuel was released a few weeks ago. I have looked over the book and compared it with the 5th edition and there are several major changes, most of them for the better. This is, in my opinion, the best MBE study guide there is, and my primary book when preparing for the MBE. It is great to see it continuously updated and the roughly $80 price is really a steal for such a good resource that contains around 600 practice questions with excellent explanations of the answer choices.

    The major change to the book is the addition of Civil Procedure, both (more…)

  • Public Service Announcement – Strategies and Tactics 6th edition now available – Tips of the day on twitter

    PSA – The new edition of Emmanuel’s Strategies and Tactics for the MBE is now shipping. Expect a full review from me shortly. The main change is the addition of a Civil Procedure section (both questions and a substantive review) plus an additional 100 or so questions from the NCBE OPE-4. If you have the 5th edition, email the publisher as they can give you online access to the Civil Procedure questions.

    Also, I have started posting my daily Tips of the Day (#totd) on twitter. Check for the #totd hashtag to get MBE and Virginia bar exam tips each day.

  • 1 week until the July 2013 bar exam

    With one week until exam day, the July 2013 bar exam is just around the corner.  I like to make this week all about review: practicing MBE questions, reading over past essays, perusing flash cards and skimming notes.  I’ve also like going over the Strategies and Tactics for the MBE book every day for the rest of this week leading up to the next week.  It’s a great book for nailing down the trickiest and most tested distinctions on the MBE, and unlike essay questions, the MBE requires highly detailed knowledge of distinctions.  For those of you taking Virginia, don’t be fooled into thinking (more…)

  • Strategies and Tactics for the MBE – 5th Edition Review

    The fifth edition of Emanuel’s Strategies and Tactics for the MBE was published this past October (2012) and, as many of you know, is my favorite book for MBE prep.  A new edition is usually published every 3 years or so, with only minor changes.  The biggest change was in the last edition, the questions were re-written and updated to reflect the new style of MBE questions in 2009, while the content of the subject matter outlines (Study strategies and exam tactics) was left unchanged.  This newest edition with the purplish cover actually does have some new content in the subject matter outlines, although mostly the book is unchanged.  If you already own an earlier edition (more…)

  • 3L Spring prep classes – Mistake or wise investment?

    3Ls are already starting to think about the bar exam. One of the first things I usually get asked about are spring bar exam prep classes. In fact, I was just having a twitter conversation with Stephanie (a 3L who writes the Apparent Authority blog) and another 3L about this same subject. My general advice on these additional classes is (more…)

  • Analysis of Barbri’s Virginia bar exam materials for self-study

    Those of you that have taken Barbri or are taking it know that when you receive your materials (usually in 2 or even 3 shipments), you get about 40-50 pounds of books. This is quite absurd and one of the reasons I developed my own methodology for studying for the bar exam. Nevertheless, I thought I’d go through and briefly discuss all the individual books you get with the Barbri Virginia package, especially for those of you who will be buying these materials used from a previous test taker as many times some materials are missing. This will hopefully assist in your hunt for used study materials.

    Multistate (MBE):

    First a quick word on the multistate stuff Barbri gives you. I’ll be honest, I think barbri’s MBE prep is one of the worst out there. Basically, anything else is better (kaplan/pmbr, etc.). They give you a bunch of books, I wouldn’t use any of them.

    Virginia:

    Now to the good stuff, the Virginia specific materials. (more…)

  • Book Review – 2010 Edition of Strategies and Tactics for the MBE

    With just over 1 week until the February 2010 bar exam, I felt it was a good time to do a book review of one of the best and well-known study guides out there:

    Strategies and Tactics for the MBE

    Most bar examinees know the 2006 edition with its olive color, but finally a new edition is out, the 2010 edition, and the book is now in two volumes.

    Volume 1 is the same format as the old one: 6 chapters (1 for each MBE subject) with practice questions, and a 200-question practice MBE exam in the back.

    Volume 2 is approx 300 additional MBE questions.

    I was excited to receive the new edition as I believe that the old (2006) edition is still the BEST study guide for the multistate bar exam. However, upon receiving the new edition, I realized that it was very similar to the old 2006 edition. In fact, it was so similar that I felt compelled to get my 2006 copy and compare. Here is what I discovered: (more…)

  • Final thoughts on self-study materials for the DC Bar and MBE/MEE/MPT

    Now that the Feb 2009 bar is behind us, I wanted to discuss the materials I used… I must be honest, 90-95% of my study was on the MBE. I put in less than 1 week of study on the MEE subjects (much less than 40 hours), and about 20 hours of study for the MPT. So the other 300-400 hours I spent studying were MBE focused… I did this because the MBE is 50% of the exam, and the MBE subjects are usually 2-3 of the 6 essay questions on the MEE. The MPT does not require more than 20-40 hours of study, so I decided to roll the dice and focus heavily on the MBE subjects and MBE test-taking strategies and tactics. I feel that the gamble paid off well, as I was quite comfortable with the MBE material, MBE essay topics on the MEE, and the 3 MEE questions that I did have that were non-MBE subjects, I felt that I did about the same as everyone else I talked to after the exam… So I don’t think I would have gained much by having spent more time studying on the MEE subjects, but I definitely think I would have done worse on the MBE had I studied less for it…

    Anyway, on to my ratings of the materials:

    Here is my analysis of all the materials on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest)
    (more…)

  • 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…)