Wednesday, March 05, 2008

The Need To Terrorize Others with Your Bar Story and Barbri vs. PMBR deathmatch

What is with people who try to tell you that the sky actually fell while they were taking the bar exam? Roughly 1.5 hours of the time I spent at court earlier this week was me listening to the psychotic clerk and his experience taking my state's bar (since he took a different one last summer--sucks to be him). Now, I don't live anywhere high-falutin'. But that doesn't mean that his little East Coast self should presume that our bar is provincial and a piece of cake.

I so totally know his type too: the guy in law school who came out of the exam and whined and bitched about all of the things that they know they got wrong... two days later when you see him, he tells you that he figured out what he didn't get right on the 4th question (dummy, always start with whether the transaction is even governed by Article 9!). And then he gets and A in the class. You know the type.

So, in addition to feeling my stomach drop at the very thought of disgustingly difficult bar in store for me this summer, I also got a lecture on the finer points of how to study for the bar. Now, don't get me wrong, I am all about advice from those who have gone before. But. There's just something less palatable about being lectured to about how to do it all by someone who just told me that is NOT what they did.

Incidently, evidently he was a Barbri rep at his school, and even he says the PMBR questions are much, much more like the real MBE than Barbri ever gets. I've heard this from many folks. Enough to make me wonder if it's true. He said that what he and his friends did was substitute PMBR questions into his study plan wherever the Barbri study plan said do x number of our lame questions.

And, something beyond irritating, evidently, you have to shell out an extra $200-300 to take the Barbri intensive "essay" course. You don't just learn how to nail the essays from the other $2100-$3000 they gouge out of you for the damn course. WTF?

Even so, I've already paid for Barbri. Sigh. I'm afraid to go it alone. And I bought the complete PMBR stuff from last summer on ebay for $150. If it helps me sleep at night, I guess it's worth it.

2 comments:

Zuska said...

I don't think you need the essay course. There are a few sessions built in to regular BarBri. Friends of mine and I signed up for the essay course in the beginning, when we felt like we were going to fail if BarBri didn't hold our hands the whole time ... by the time the course was about to happen, we all canceled our reservations, feeling that a) we didn't have time, and b) there really wasn't anything MORE for BarBri to tell us.

I think we all made the right choice, and we all passed.

You will pass, too. You just need to spend the time. I don't think which questions from which book really matter. Just spend the time immersed in the material, and work your ass off, and you'll pass the exam.

Elle Woods said...

You do not need the essay course.