So you are taking the bar exam for the first time (or repeating it) and have decided to go it alone. Your next question will be, “What materials should I use?” Here’s what I suggest to students trying to etch out their own plan of attack with minimum investment.
The first thing you’ll need is a set of outlines. Used outlines from traditional Bar Prep Courses can be found courtesy of friends or on sites like CraigsList and Ebay. Even Amazon is carryingBarbri outlines now. If you prefer to buy new materials, I think that Rigos does an excellent job on its Primer Series. For the MBE you’ll need the Rigos Primer Series UBE MBE Volume 1 containing Torts, Contracts, and Real Property and Volume 2 containing Evidence, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Federal Civil Procedure. The Rigos outlines are more succinct than those in traditional Bar Prep Courses, but that can be a good thing. Many, if not most, examinees who fail the bar exam spent too much time studying and not enough time practicing. You are less likely to do that with more concise outlines.
So what about practice? Remember when you are considering MBE practice sources, there are two types of MBE practice questions – actual MBE questions that the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) has released from previously administered exams and “copycat” questions developed by the source provider.
My suggestion is that you work a combination of actual questions and copycat questions. The actual questions are old so they won’t pick up the new areas being tested. The practice questions can be more timely but aren’t from the proverbial “horse’s mouth.” You want to be sure when looking at an “actual question” source that they are licensed by the NCBE. Likewise, when looking at a “copycat question” source, you want to be sure they are good at writing NCBE-like questions.
I recommend working your daily practice from Strategies and Tactics for the Finz Multistate Method – 4th Edition and “testing” practice from The Multistate Goat. I’ve worked with the Finz 3rd Edition for years and have found it to be excellent preparation for my students. They came out with the 4th Edition in 2016 to incorporate Civil Procedure, and I expect it will prove as successful as the 3rd Edition, if not more so. Finz has over 1,000 questions, which is more than most practice sources and about how many you need to work in daily practice to ensure success. Their explanations are well done, the distribution of subtopics parallels the exam distribution, and their introduction section offers some great insight. Most importantly, unlike bar prep course questions, I have found the average performance percentage to be a reliable indicator of success on the exam.
The Goat is one of dozens of sources for actual questions released by the NCBE. All the sources are pulling from the same bank so be careful not to spend your money on more than one NCBE-released questions source – you will just be paying for the same thing twice. If you prefer to work electronically, Adaptibar has a great online program using NCBE released questions. It is a pricier option, but you definitely get your money’s worth in the additional features their site offers. When retakers have a particularly low score, I recommend they sign up for Adaptibar. Remember that working questions electronically and working them with pencil and paper takes place in different parts of your brain. I strongly recommend you do paper printed practice tests if you choose an electronic source like Adaptibar.
You can also access many of the older released questions for free on the NCBE site (note that the NCBE does not recommend using these to due to changes in the law and in question styles) and you can purchase more recent questions directly from the NCBE for $50 per 100 question exam. I recommend The Goat because it offers the NCBE Online Practice Exams (OPE) in print for simulated testing purposes and costs less than the NCBE or any other licensed sources I’ve seen.
If you are looking for more subject practice rather than a simulated testing source, consider Emanuel’s Strategies and Tactics for the MBE – 6th Edition instead. Their Strategies and Tactics sections for each subject can be very helpful. Again, I would use both Finz and this book so you have enough practice and get a mix of the older released questions and the more relevant copycat questions.
What about those course program MBE practice books you got from a friend? Personally, I would shy away from Bar Exam Prep Course questions because they tend to scale difficulty depending on where you are in the course. Also, though this is my own unsubstantiated personal theory, I believe they have to avoid writing questions too similar to the bar exam to avoid being challenged as infringing on the NCBE copyright. Again, that is my own personal theory but for these reasons, I don’t recommend Bar Exam Prep Course practice questions if you are working outside that prep course.
Essay exams are a bit more straightforward. For essay exams, I would lean toward the Bar Prep Course materials for your state (or the MEE) if you can find them through a reseller. Here, the verbosity can serve you better than on the MBE. The Rigos Primer Series UBE Review Multistate Essay Exam is also good for the MEE. Don’t be scared of statutes. Statutes can be the best resource if you are trying to understand an essay topic and they are free! Your essay prep should be done almost entirely in the process of writing practice essays (or at least issue outlining) so the process lends itself better to finding free online sources. There are some great online sources out there like Open Law Lab and The Contracts Guy. Stay away from most law firm sites! They are generally paying low dollar for content to attract clients and it is often unreliable, at least for bar exam purposes.
The MPT doesn’t usually require the purchase of practice materials. You want to do 3-4 practice MPTs which you can generally find either from your state exam postings or a good internet search. Again, you kind find older MPT’s and Point Sheets for free and you can purchase or download more recent MPTs and Point Sheets for $30/$25 respectively on the NCBE site. If you scored below 125 on a previously administered MPT, I suggest you work the Rigos Multistate Performance Test Review book in its entirety. I find the 2010 2nd Edition perfectly acceptable for this purpose though Rigos has released a more recent source (and more expensive) in its Primer Series which I have not yet worked with.
For Texas Civil and Criminal Procedure and Evidence, I suggest you analyze 10 years worth of old exams to find the questions that are asked repeatedly, then use the internet to find correct answers in the various codes. The course materials provide far more information in more detail than you actually need to know to pass this portion of the Texas Bar Exam and you can get lost studying the minutia. Remember the BLE also publishes answers to the P&E portion of the exam. The answers will not suffice for your study purposes, but they can point you in the right direction.
If you order books from Amazon through the links above, I receive a 4% commission from the Amazon Associates program. It does help pay my internet bill to post these helpful articles so I would appreciate it if you consider using them. The other links are for your convenience. These are all materials I have used personally with my students and found to be good sources. I’m not in contact with any of these publishers and do not receive any kind of kickback. If you have a bar prep product you would like me to consider, please contact me. I will be happy to try it and include it in this article if I feel it is worthwhile.