Memoirs of a Bar Examinee

[Matthies]

if you write in your barbri books can you get the refund? Dumb question, I know...but i'm curious.

you get a refund? for what? I have not written in the books becuase I can't read my own handwriting I type it up.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

if you write in your barbri books can you get the refund? Dumb question, I know...but i'm curious.

Ehhhhhhhhhhh...I think so.  Don't quote me on that.  Been a few years since I was a BarBri rep.  I imagine you probably wouldn't be the first person to write in a BarBri book and return it.

[A.]

Yup, write in it, rip pages out, highlight, whatever you want to do.  Just throw it all back in when you're done (except lecture notes)...they just want the material back so you can't sell it.

[A.]

Meaning they followed the BarBri schedule religously and hadn't practiced MBE questions all summer long.

They must not have even followed the barbri schedule.  I did so religiously (except that outlining crap) and had MBE questions every single day.

[Matthies]

Yup, write in it, rip pages out, highlight, whatever you want to do.  Just throw it all back in when you're done (except lecture notes)...they just want the material back so you can't sell it.

This must be diffrent in diffrent states, we don't get any refund here and you get to keep everything, I got 3 sets of BarBri books, mine and 2 older sets from freinds who took the bar before me. I plan on keeping everything until I know I passed.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

Meaning they followed the BarBri schedule religously and hadn't practiced MBE questions all summer long.

They must not have even followed the barbri schedule.  I did so religiously (except that outlining crap) and had MBE questions every single day.

Yeah but how many?  I know BarBri had an MBE book but that joker was mad weak when compared to the PMBR books.

Plus those BarBri MBE questions were weird.  They covered the subjects, true, but they just seemed a bit...off from the real thing.  But then again, neither BarBri or PMBR had the questions down exactly right on test day.  However, I do have to say though that the PMBR questions seemed to more closely resemble the actual MBE questions than did the BarBri questions.

I think we had this debate earlier.

[A.]

Meaning they followed the BarBri schedule religously and hadn't practiced MBE questions all summer long.

They must not have even followed the barbri schedule.  I did so religiously (except that outlining crap) and had MBE questions every single day.

Yeah but how many?  I know BarBri had an MBE book but that joker was mad weak when compared to the PMBR books.

Plus those BarBri MBE questions were weird.  They covered the subjects, true, but they just seemed a bit...off from the real thing.  But then again, neither BarBri or PMBR had the questions down exactly right on test day.  However, I do have to say though that the PMBR questions seemed to more closely resemble the actual MBE questions than did the BarBri questions.

I think we had this debate earlier.

Well if you do the online stuff (which is pretty much all I did except for the printed practice tests), there are thousands of questions.  I never ran out (and it was useful to mix in the ones that I'd missed before anyway).

As for BARBRI v. PMBR, I think we did have this debate.  I tried to give PMBR a go, but it just didn't do it for me.  So now I advise people to try out a few dozen questions from both and see which they find more helpful.  After doing a PMBR question set for each section, I ended up more confused than anything.  Then I had to unlearn all of those obscure exceptions and special rules they like to test.  You really can pass the bar exam with a good knowledge of the basics (and basic exceptions).  PMBR just takes it to a whole nother level.  PMBR probably would've been nice if I'd been trying to ace the bar exam...but I wasn't.  I just wanted my 133 so I could waive into the DC Bar (I still don't know my score, since VA doesn't release them, but they will tell you if it was high enough to waive into another jurisdiction, and mine, fortunately, was).

EDIT: It's possible to need higher than 133 in VA...it depends on how well you do on the VA essays.  That said, BARBRI alone was still enough for me to pass and to get at least a 133.

[A.]

Yup, write in it, rip pages out, highlight, whatever you want to do.  Just throw it all back in when you're done (except lecture notes)...they just want the material back so you can't sell it.

This must be diffrent in diffrent states, we don't get any refund here and you get to keep everything, I got 3 sets of BarBri books, mine and 2 older sets from freinds who took the bar before me. I plan on keeping everything until I know I passed.

Well, the refund is just an option.  You can keep the books in VA, but then you don't get your $200 or whatever.  That's a nice little piece of change (e.g., alcohol on your bar trip  ), and you can still keep your lecture notes, so I turned everything else back in.  They also allowed us to wait until after we got our results...so if I'd failed, then I guess I would've kept them.

[Burning Sands, Esq.]

Meaning they followed the BarBri schedule religously and hadn't practiced MBE questions all summer long.

They must not have even followed the barbri schedule.  I did so religiously (except that outlining crap) and had MBE questions every single day.

Yeah but how many?  I know BarBri had an MBE book but that joker was mad weak when compared to the PMBR books.

Plus those BarBri MBE questions were weird.  They covered the subjects, true, but they just seemed a bit...off from the real thing.  But then again, neither BarBri or PMBR had the questions down exactly right on test day.  However, I do have to say though that the PMBR questions seemed to more closely resemble the actual MBE questions than did the BarBri questions.

I think we had this debate earlier.

Well if you do the online stuff (which is pretty much all I did except for the printed practice tests), there are thousands of questions.  I never ran out (and it was useful to mix in the ones that I'd missed before anyway).

As for BARBRI v. PMBR, I think we did have this debate.  I tried to give PMBR a go, but it just didn't do it for me.  So now I advise people to try out a few dozen questions from both and see which they find more helpful.  After doing a PMBR question set for each section, I ended up more confused than anything.  Then I had to unlearn all of those obscure exceptions and special rules they like to test.  You really can pass the bar exam with a good knowledge of the basics (and basic exceptions).  PMBR just takes it to a whole nother level.  PMBR probably would've been nice if I'd been trying to ace the bar exam...but I wasn't.  I just wanted my 133 so I could waive into the DC Bar (I still don't know my score, since VA doesn't release them, but they will tell you if it was high enough to waive into another jurisdiction, and mine, fortunately, was).

EDIT: It's possible to need higher than 133 in VA...it depends on how well you do on the VA essays.  That said, BARBRI alone was still enough for me to pass and to get at least a 133.

I can see that. 

And that makes sense: I would expect a genius such as yourself to be able to pass with BarBri, but as for the mentally challenged like myself, I am about 99.9% certain that I would have failed if I had relied on BarBri alone.

No scores back in VA?  What's that about? 

[A.]

Lol IIRC, you rocked the NY bar exam, so I'm 99.9% confident that you could have easily passed on BARBRI alone.

Yeah VA is wack about the scores...they say that all that matters is whether you passed, not by how much you passed.  BS.  Once I waive into DC (if I do...it's been 7 mos already since I applied...they're mad slow), maybe I'll try to find out.