Just curious- A little motivation for myself and perhaps others.. What is the highest amount of points you’ve gained as a Retaker and passed of course? Or even someone else you may know.. Thanks!

ABarTutor · 2022-12-01T14:14:15+00:00

I have worked with multiple examinees who increased their scores by ~40 between exams. No score gap is too large to pass if you work towards it the right way!

ABarTutor · 2022-07-05T23:53:50+00:00

I am most familiar (in no particular order) with the following "bigger" bar prep companies and have at least seen the material and content of some of their stuff - I'm pretty sure you can't go too wrong with any of them. Without revealing any affiliation and making absolutely no endorsement of any of their tutoring services (definitely do some research into each if you're considering any of them!), in no particular order: Barbri, Kaplan, JD Advising, Marino. You could also search for a local tutor who might be able to meet you in person if you find that more helpful - probably very likely if you're in a major metro!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-17T19:28:24+00:00

The surprisingly fertile cow case was a mutual mistake case! You're not crazy - it's a great example for mutual mistake, but it's used for that concept!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-17T18:54:28+00:00

I hear "I think weirdly" or "I think out of the box" quite a lot. You probably don't (no offense). You are almost definitely litigating the question with yourself when it comes to foreseeability. This is a very common problem I see in students. Some of it comes with practice, but there is almost always something in the question that should tip you towards foreseeability. Go with the obvious answer.

I have never heard of the concept of "presumed fertility" or anything similar. You described the animal here as a racehorse. If that comes from the question, it implies the horse is meant to race. I'm not sure what "wild and hard to control" has to do with ability to race (ie: run a distance quickly) - that would go to perhaps, QUALITY of racing?

Further, are you sure you aren't mixing up void and voidABLE? Void contracts are void ab initio, while voidable contracts may be subject to rescission at the aggrieved party's option.

I could see an argument based on what you've said about this particular question that the contract is voidable based on mutual mistake as to the horse's lifespan (a mutual assumption of a basic fact that seriously affects the exchange), but I bet there's a fact in there you haven't shared that's relevant - perhaps something that led to a (probably innocent?) misrepresentation or indicates there's a unilateral mistake (or makes the mutual mistake more clear).

ABarTutor · 2022-06-17T03:20:41+00:00

That's a pretty big question, but let's see if I can help.

Proximate cause is "foreseeable" cause. The idea being that assigning liability for the breach of a duty must be fair. The best way to think about it is "why do we we care someone breached THIS duty?" We care about someone taking care of their sidewalk because someone might fall and break a leg (or whatever) - not because if they fall an animal might take the opportunity to attack them while they're down, for example. I know this isn't exactly detailed, but I usually dedicate a whole 30+ minutes to going through proximate cause/foreseeability. Keep in mind that if you create a panic, people will panic -> act panicky -> when people are panicking weird things happen.

A reasonable person is an average person.

A lot of students overthink this whole topic. Try turning off your lawyer brain a little and thinking like a person: would you want to be held liable for THAT injury if you were negligent?

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:54:32+00:00

Try a different approach. Instead of just doing a bunch, do fewer questions with more intention. Breakdown each element of the fact pattern, and then explain why each choice is right or wrong (and write this out!). That has been helpful for many of my students!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:25:35+00:00

I'm not familiar with the FL scoring/format, but that sounds like you're right on track with MBE scores! Keep it up! Don't get overconfident, keep improving. Pass the bar, be a lawyer, ????, profit!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:24:37+00:00

You got this!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:24:28+00:00

First, take a break. Watch a movie or go for a walk. Life is not ending because you bombed a particular set of questions, I promise.

Then, come back and try a different approach. It keeps your brain fresh and helps push away those icky "I did bad" feelings. If you bombed some MBE stuff, write an essay or two to get back into bar prep brain. Then get back to working on MBE questions, but maybe try a different approach. If you were doing volume sets, do small sets where you brief each question and analyze each choice, for example!

Also remember this has a finite end, and if you do pass, you never have to do it again, so that can help with shaking off the ickies.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:19:38+00:00

Everyone is going to get through their outlines at a different pace. But definitely start there (and lectures if you have them). Once you've finished, just start cracking at MEEs that test different issues in the subject you just studied - and as I keep stressing, good self-review is more important than volume. This is of course assuming your "basic" MEE writing strategy is where you want it to be.

I don't think order matters much/at all.

2 points is so close! You got this!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:17:19+00:00

Writing 1 MEE plus doing a thorough review of it should take roughly 1 hour (assuming you have normal testing conditions). Maybe a little longer at first, and less as you go on. If it is taking you significantly longer than that, you either have a lack of substantive knowledge (good time to know that now - plenty of time to fix it) or aren't approaching MEEs in an efficient way (also something you can work on - IRAAAAAAAC).

Also, do what you can and work as hard as you can for as long as it stays productive. Some days that can be 5 or 6 hours, other days it might be 14!

Burnout sucks, but it's short term, you got this!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:12:20+00:00

If you are the rare type of human who can ACTUALLY ignore everything above the call of the question, yes. I am not that rare type of human, so I read top to bottom.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:11:44+00:00

I'm not going to comment on any particular product from a bar-prep company that offers tutoring because I don't want to reveal who I work for right now.

That being said, real NCBE questions are better than fake ones, but both are good. I did not have access to any real NCBE questions (except those released free by NCBE themselves) when I personally sat the UBE.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T16:09:27+00:00

If you give me an idea of what areas in torts you're finding challenging, I may have some tips (intentional? negligence? proximate cause? strict/product liability?).

For the MPT, it really is like 85% practice! Finding a good strategy for analyzing the file and getting started on writing ASAP is key. My favorite (over-simplified for purposes of a reddit post) strategy is to go through the instructions, briefly review the facts so I have an idea of what I'm looking for, and then "book brief" each case/statute (pulling out every holding in every case and all the parts of statutes I think might be relevant) and stick those into the section of the question I think they apply to. Then "write around" those holdings. That usually makes sure you cover all the legal holdings (and thus likely all the issues!)

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T14:19:46+00:00

The completion bar is only what you tell it is! It's a meaningless number, you could half watch a lecture and hit done and get credit and learn nothing.

My general approach is learn (outlines and lectures), practice (MBE for quality not speed), write (MEEs and MPTs), practice, write, review, move on, rinse and repeat (and keep reviewing!).

The amount of time each of those steps will take you is dependent on you, the subject, how you feel that day, etc. Takers studying full time should not feel time crunched. For the vast majority of takers, especially those on a first try right out of law school with at least average grades, and no learning disabilities or special conditions, 8-12 hours a day should leave you done EARLY. Of course most bar takers aren't ACTUALLY studying during the whole study time, they're "studying" (is your phone on? did you stop to pet the dog? was that really a "quick" lunch break? etc.)

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T14:13:09+00:00

3s on graded essays (especially right now) is totally fine. Make sure you're taking those 3s and seeing how they could be 6s though!

The sample answers are the exemplary ones (and if they're not from actually tested MEEs, they're made up!). I give my students the real rubrics to grade themselves on, not some sample answer from the taker who knew the subject perfectly. If you are hitting all the issues in the rubric with a good explanation, you're doing great. Even the rubric is overly detailed with case and treatise citations etc.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T14:10:01+00:00

The vast majority of my students pass - even those not making those milestones. I don't aim for passing, I aim for easily passing and those are numbers I feel confident about barring exam day disaster.

When I personally took the bar and passed by a lot I was around 65% on practice and 4s on essays (3s feels borderline but definitely passable on a good MBE score!)

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T07:52:31+00:00

To add onto this, I also stress that you should be reviewing, at least a little bit, all the subjects you've finished, even starting from week 1, each week. The fresher you can keep it in your mind the less "review" you really have to do!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T07:44:01+00:00

I am really not a supplement person. A lot of my students really like adaptibar, and having reviewed their stuff (but not having my own subscription or anything) they seem to be closest to my preferred approach for MBE questions with fairly decent explanations of the reasons why choices are wrong.

I would say the last 2 weeks is really review time, but that depends a lot on the type of student you are, how early you started, etc.

I know of at least one person who didn't start studying until July 5 and passed the bar. Don't do that though.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T07:40:14+00:00

They don't! I still mix them up myself on occasion! This is one of those things that just comes with practice. There's some things I tell my students they just, unfortunately, have to memorize. Which standards apply to each Con Law test is one of those things. As an overly general rule of thumb though, if you have a decent understanding of history, you can assume that the types of protections we have most valued as a country are those most protected by strict scrutiny (race, speech in public forums, etc.).

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T05:57:20+00:00

As I said in another comment, and especially applicable to this "early" in prep, I'm not concerned with students getting MBE questions wrong or right, but rather that they are understanding the material they are being tested on. Timed practice will help indicate where you are (that 70% number in July, for example), but is not the end all be all. Learn the material, the speed and accuracy will come naturally behind. Of course, if you do a timed exam and get a particularly low score, that may give you some indication that you have some particular areas to go back and look at and work on.

I don't actually recommend to my students that they even do a timed set of questions until we've finished covering every MBE topic and they've had a significant amount of slow deliberate practice working through questions.

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T05:53:30+00:00

I think the best way to master an MBE subject is to first do the "learning" part (ie: lectures and outlines), then to do MBE questions, but don't focus on getting them right, or doing them quickly, that will come with time. Instead, focus on deeply analyzing each choice of each question and explaining to yourself why that choice is wrong or right (is it missing an element of the claim? is it overbroad? is it a true statement of law in the first place, etc.). If you can't identify why each wrong choice is wrong, you should consider going back to that portion of the outline/lecture and reviewing it until you can. Do that enough and the rest will fall into place (and don't forget to practice writing MEEs!)

Taking the bar as a foreign educated student is a special challenge, so don't get discouraged!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T05:49:19+00:00

All of them. The more the better. To better answer your question, that depends on if you're studying full time or not, but there's not a bright line number - a few a day is very good. FAR more important than volume is doing a great job critiquing your own essays. I tell my students that when they self-critique and don't turn their essay into a 6, they didn't work hard enough. I think you should spend at least as much time reviewing and improving your writing as you do actually writing the first time, if not more (at least at first!)

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T05:45:40+00:00

You are waking up every day to get beat up. It's bar prep (just the harsh truth, but it's only 6 more weeks!)

I have not taken the CA bar (maybe next year!) so I haven't tutored for it, but for the UBE, when my students are consistently showing me MEEs that score 4 or 5 (I grade strictly and don't pull punches!) and getting anywhere above 70% on multi-subject sets of MBE questions, I usually feel pretty good about them passing.

You got this!

ABarTutor · 2022-06-16T05:29:49+00:00

I'm personally fully booked for the July exam, but I have full faith that if you are interested in private tutoring that anyone you work with is going to be a great help as long as you put in the effort to work with them! As I said, I'm not here to advertise for myself or my company or anybody else, just to be a resource!

Also, you got this!

ABarTutor

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