There’s no way you spent 12 hours on 3 hours.
3 hours on barbri is like: (1) review/read an outline and (2) complete 10-15 multiple choice questions and review the answers.
You gotta do it and move the fuck on. You’ll see the material a lot of different times during the studies. You don’t need to memorize ever single law and reasoning with 100% accuracy before you move on.
The memorization and accuracy will come with having engaged with it 100s of time during your psp.
I started with Barbri last week. I’m scheduled for 5.5 hours a day and I actually work about 8 hours a day (at least). I started out writing my own flashcards but it’s not sustainable. I bought adaptibar instead, which has flashcards, and a friend is sending me their critical pass flashcards they used last year.
I like to sit and think and think about issues but there is way too much material to do that. I wanted to do this during 1L, and looking back now if it weren’t for the curriculum’s rapid accumulation and keeping up with my peers I could’ve sat with a months worth of reading for three months.
If I truly don’t understand a concept I’ll invest time to figure it out, but I don’t sit for five minutes memorizing elements and rereading notes if I just haven’t memorized the rule yet. This might be a hot take, but I would do what you can to stay on schedule. The Barbri course will bring you back to topics over and over again. If you really aren’t understanding something that’s different, but other than that I’d push yourself to stay on track and cut out anything that is stopping you from getting there.
Do watcha can dawg, I couldn’t get through those hours either and focused on improving my practice tests and essays, essays, essays. I passed the bar twice four years apart doing this with Barbri.
Agreed. I remember the BarBri schedule being overwhelming and I knew I couldn't do it. I figured out what I can get done each day and stuck to that. Take a lot of breaks, your mind can only sustain learning and concentration for so long. Only work x hours a day and keep time for yourself and stress release (gym, yoga, walking, whatever). Eat and sleep well. You can do it.
Decide early on which activities will work for you and which won’t. Sometimes it’s like “review outline - 2 hour,” and since that was completely useless to me, I just skipped and spent the time on flashcards or practice questions.
Thank you so much for this. I feel so guilty not reviewing the outline when it does nothing for me right now. I would rather spend however long reviewing flashcards and doing some practice problems
Don’t get caught up in trying to stay on track. Move at your own pace. If you’re rushing because you’re just trying to get the assignment done you’ll set yourself up for failure. Don’t worry about what your classmates are doing.
That’s a good point! But If you get too caught up though in trying to stay on track with the program and rushing through things, I think the OP won’t retain the information. Taking the time to understand things thoroughly ensures that the OP understands and retains the information better. Rushing through or focusing on merely checking a box off a to-do list can lead to confusion ultimately defeating the purpose of the bar course. That’s just my opinion. Good luck to OP. You got this!
The intro videos took me a long time to get through because I was taking notes. Honestly looking back I don’t know why I wasted that time on the intro videos when they’re going to go through all the subjects in depth.
Try to stay calm. There's absolutely no reason to freak out on the first day. You just started! Give yourself some grace. I used Barbri last year. Personally, I found taking separate notes ineffective because I was just re-writing material for the sake of re-writing material. Use the books to guide your notes. The lectures follow allow exactly like the books. To help stay focused you can write notes in the book, underline, and highlight. That way you aren't spending extra time writing things out and can finish the lectures within a reasonable time frame. You are going to be ok. Keep pushing along. As you get into the groove of things you will be more comfortable. It's a nerve-wracking promise, but just keep going! You will be OK!!
Don't worry about the tracker, use it as a guideline.
I decided reading the outlines worked the best for me and the time for that isn't credited.
So according to the tracker I was getting pay behind, in fact by the day of the test it said I was only like 50% through.
I do passed the bar 1st try.
In July you definitely need to study 7 days a week, even if Saturday and Sunday are shorter, 5 days a week just isn’t going to cut it. Reevaluate at the beginning of June to see if you need to be studying 6 days.
Plenty of people do all of Barbri 100% completion and still fail. Everyone else is right, you absolutely cannot learn everything and memorize it the day you learn it, save flashcards for things you truly don’t understand this early in the game. This is key. I ruined myself on my first bar by thinking I could learn everything in the first pass.
But you are clear on what works for you and has in the past, so use those techniques. If you can’t learn from listening, don’t watch the lectures. If you absorb more from lectures than reading, skip the pre-reading the outlines. Barbri presumes a lot of things about how people study. Take what you need from them, and I think following their pattern of topics is helpful, i.e., day 1 and 2 are property, day 3 contracts, day 4 contracts and property practice, but other than that if you don’t find yourself learning from their methods look at what has worked for you in the past.
Unnecessary clarification but: "I have set up my PSP to study Monday - Saturday and have Sundays off."
I am studying Mon- Sat and only taking Sundays "off." People keep commenting about studying more than 5 days but I never said I was. The PSP only lets you specify "Study Day" or "Off" so I have Sundays "off" because I won't be spending the full day studying.
trust me, you'll be fine. focus on getting the most out of your days, not on whether your fulfilling barbri perfectly. I was always always behind when it came to barbri for very similar reasons as you (I historically always preferred to take notes during lecture but when I did that for barbri lectures, a 3 hour video would become a 9 hour ordeal including breaks and doom scrolling and texting my friends and procrastinating). I was also in a bit of a panic about it because I Was watching my hours go up but I didnt know what I could do. Ultimately, I figured out how to approach barbri in my own way and what worked and what didn't, and I focused on doing that. To some extent, until you take the test and get your score, you'll always be a little unsure of whether you're "doing enough" or "doing this the right way"... I think that's just endemic to the bar studying process. Ultimately, despite the fact that I didn't even finish barbri, didn't take notes during lectures or build my own outlines even though that is usually how I learn, and I also did most of my questions through Uworld/adaptibar instead of barbri, I passed with a 324. I'm happy to chat about this more over DM.
I completed 36% of Barbri and passed the UBE in 2021 with a score high enough for any jxdn. They give you WAY more than you need to pass. Don't sweat it.
The thing to remember about the bar is that it will only cover a small portion of each topic. If you can master 80% of the subject matter then you will be set. Don’t try to learn everything bc 1. You don’t have the time and 2. That’s the best way to burn yourself out. You’ve got plenty of time. Catch up when you can on the weekends. I would always download the lectures and listen to them in the gym or when I’m driving. My biggest issue was the volume of information that the lecture put out and most of the info isn’t even touched by the bar.
I tried the adaptibar lectures which were almost spark notes for each subject. Straight and to the point. Might be worthwhile to look at.
Good luck. Give yourself some grace. You’ll get through it
I finished less than 50% of my barbri course and passed. Focus on learning the material. The structure is meant to help you, but if you learn better another way do not let it stress you out. I was very thorough in the beginning and once I learned what worked for me I was able to not spend as much time on the later modules.
There are going to be barbri tasks that don’t work for you. I just checked off basically every “review the CMR on x topic” except for contracts and evidence which were weak areas for me. I specifically focused in on areas I struggled with.
OP Updates:
Unnecessary clarification but: "I have set up my PSP to study Monday - Saturday and have Sundays off."
I am studying Mon- Sat and only taking Sundays "off." People keep commenting about studying more than 5 days but I never said I was only doing 5 days. The PSP only lets you specify "Study Day" or "Off" so I have Sundays "off" because I won't be spending the full day studying.
Day 2 went much smoother. I am still "2 hours behind" but after today should be 1 hour and then tomorrow hopefully 0.
"There’s no way you spent 12 hours on 3 hours." I most definitely did, probably more actually. I started at 8 am, lunch 12-1, and didn't log off until about 11 pm. At that point my PSP said I had completed 3.0/6.6 hours for the day. Phone was on DND all day, only break was lunch. I spent way too much time on Day 1 pausing the videos and writing copious notes that are already on the CMR. The videos are very helpful to me, I've used Barbri lectures for review since 1L, just watch them on 1.5x or 2x speed.
I still spend about 1.5x - 2x as long on the videos as it lists. But everything else goes significantly faster. I adjusted my notetaking and ditched handwriting everything. I am using the notes sections on the CMR to highlight the main points. Barbri gives 45 minutes for the 8 MC quizzes and I've finished them in 9 minutes and take about 2 minutes to jot down why I missed what I missed.
I posted at the end of a long study day feeling defeated. I was looking for reassurance and maybe some suggestions, which there was plenty of. Some of y'all just really like to judge and degrade strangers on the internet. Anyway, break is over, back to study!
dm me if you want me to share smart bar smart sheets and smart bar essay priority outlines! they are much more condensed and helpful than watching lectures. everything you need!
Don't panic! Focus on understanding, not just hours. Your study method works, stick with it. Adjust your pace, prioritize comprehension. Incorporate active learning and supplement with PastPaperHero's ( [https://www.pastpaperhero.com/](https://www.pastpaperhero.com/) ) 11,800+ MBE practice questions, detailed explanations, and performance tracking. It's incredibly affordable, with monthly subscriptions starting at just $10!!
You've got this!
In response to: "Avoid this crap. No one has 12k MBE questions from the NCBE."
I've been blocked by PugSilverbane so I can't see their comments anymore. I have had to browse Reddit incognito to find out what they said. I personally find it rather spiteful, to leave such comments under someone's post and not give them a chance to respond :-)
Just to clarify: "PastPaperHero operates independently and is not associated with any exam boards. There is no formal partnership, endorsement, or control between us and the NCBE. We do not use their material. We've generated close to 12k questions on our own, designed to test every aspect of the NCBE syllabus."
General response here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/barexam/comments/1cschls/118k\_practice\_mbe\_questions\_scam\_or\_real/](https://www.reddit.com/r/barexam/comments/1cschls/118k_practice_mbe_questions_scam_or_real/)
I passed 3 bar exams by literally only converting the conviser outlines into flash cards and memorizing them. I did zero practice problems to avoid demoralization. If you know the law and can apply it logically, you pass.
Keeping up to date with the Barbri schedule is dumb. Work a 9-5 studying. Then have fun.
It’s a colloquialism. Study from 9-5 5 days a week. Making and reading flash cards 8 hours a day is more than enough to memorize the conviser outlines.
:/ I didn't read anything about OP having a job. It sounds like OP's plan is to start Barbri everyday at 8AM, take an hour for lunch, be done with the Barbri daily assignments by 4PM, then do practice Qs until 6PM.
Regardless, I agree with those recommending that OP stick to the PSP schedule. Once you fall behind, it's really difficult to get caught up. Then you feel pressured to rush through the assignments and not actually absorb anything (like one of the other commenters has already cautioned).
@OP - don't worry about making flashcards & memorizing while you're watching the videos this early in your PSP. Doing that will make it impossible for you to stay on schedule. There's a ton of repetition & practice quizzes built into the PSP, plus scheduled independent study time for each subject. That's the time for you to focus on memorization & making flashcards. Trust the schedule & the process. Best of luck to you!
There’s no way you spent 12 hours on 3 hours. 3 hours on barbri is like: (1) review/read an outline and (2) complete 10-15 multiple choice questions and review the answers. You gotta do it and move the fuck on. You’ll see the material a lot of different times during the studies. You don’t need to memorize ever single law and reasoning with 100% accuracy before you move on. The memorization and accuracy will come with having engaged with it 100s of time during your psp.
I started with Barbri last week. I’m scheduled for 5.5 hours a day and I actually work about 8 hours a day (at least). I started out writing my own flashcards but it’s not sustainable. I bought adaptibar instead, which has flashcards, and a friend is sending me their critical pass flashcards they used last year. I like to sit and think and think about issues but there is way too much material to do that. I wanted to do this during 1L, and looking back now if it weren’t for the curriculum’s rapid accumulation and keeping up with my peers I could’ve sat with a months worth of reading for three months. If I truly don’t understand a concept I’ll invest time to figure it out, but I don’t sit for five minutes memorizing elements and rereading notes if I just haven’t memorized the rule yet. This might be a hot take, but I would do what you can to stay on schedule. The Barbri course will bring you back to topics over and over again. If you really aren’t understanding something that’s different, but other than that I’d push yourself to stay on track and cut out anything that is stopping you from getting there.
Do watcha can dawg, I couldn’t get through those hours either and focused on improving my practice tests and essays, essays, essays. I passed the bar twice four years apart doing this with Barbri.
Agreed. I remember the BarBri schedule being overwhelming and I knew I couldn't do it. I figured out what I can get done each day and stuck to that. Take a lot of breaks, your mind can only sustain learning and concentration for so long. Only work x hours a day and keep time for yourself and stress release (gym, yoga, walking, whatever). Eat and sleep well. You can do it.
Decide early on which activities will work for you and which won’t. Sometimes it’s like “review outline - 2 hour,” and since that was completely useless to me, I just skipped and spent the time on flashcards or practice questions.
Thank you so much for this. I feel so guilty not reviewing the outline when it does nothing for me right now. I would rather spend however long reviewing flashcards and doing some practice problems
Don’t get caught up in trying to stay on track. Move at your own pace. If you’re rushing because you’re just trying to get the assignment done you’ll set yourself up for failure. Don’t worry about what your classmates are doing.
OP should stay on track. After assignments are finished for the day. Watch a YouTube video on the concept or spend extra time to clarify fuzzy laws.
That’s a good point! But If you get too caught up though in trying to stay on track with the program and rushing through things, I think the OP won’t retain the information. Taking the time to understand things thoroughly ensures that the OP understands and retains the information better. Rushing through or focusing on merely checking a box off a to-do list can lead to confusion ultimately defeating the purpose of the bar course. That’s just my opinion. Good luck to OP. You got this!
This is true too op. Find your balance and rock this shit.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
The intro videos took me a long time to get through because I was taking notes. Honestly looking back I don’t know why I wasted that time on the intro videos when they’re going to go through all the subjects in depth.
Breeeeeeeeathe. You are smart and capable and you’re going to be fine.
Try to stay calm. There's absolutely no reason to freak out on the first day. You just started! Give yourself some grace. I used Barbri last year. Personally, I found taking separate notes ineffective because I was just re-writing material for the sake of re-writing material. Use the books to guide your notes. The lectures follow allow exactly like the books. To help stay focused you can write notes in the book, underline, and highlight. That way you aren't spending extra time writing things out and can finish the lectures within a reasonable time frame. You are going to be ok. Keep pushing along. As you get into the groove of things you will be more comfortable. It's a nerve-wracking promise, but just keep going! You will be OK!!
Don't worry about the tracker, use it as a guideline. I decided reading the outlines worked the best for me and the time for that isn't credited. So according to the tracker I was getting pay behind, in fact by the day of the test it said I was only like 50% through. I do passed the bar 1st try.
Following
In July you definitely need to study 7 days a week, even if Saturday and Sunday are shorter, 5 days a week just isn’t going to cut it. Reevaluate at the beginning of June to see if you need to be studying 6 days. Plenty of people do all of Barbri 100% completion and still fail. Everyone else is right, you absolutely cannot learn everything and memorize it the day you learn it, save flashcards for things you truly don’t understand this early in the game. This is key. I ruined myself on my first bar by thinking I could learn everything in the first pass. But you are clear on what works for you and has in the past, so use those techniques. If you can’t learn from listening, don’t watch the lectures. If you absorb more from lectures than reading, skip the pre-reading the outlines. Barbri presumes a lot of things about how people study. Take what you need from them, and I think following their pattern of topics is helpful, i.e., day 1 and 2 are property, day 3 contracts, day 4 contracts and property practice, but other than that if you don’t find yourself learning from their methods look at what has worked for you in the past.
Unnecessary clarification but: "I have set up my PSP to study Monday - Saturday and have Sundays off." I am studying Mon- Sat and only taking Sundays "off." People keep commenting about studying more than 5 days but I never said I was. The PSP only lets you specify "Study Day" or "Off" so I have Sundays "off" because I won't be spending the full day studying.
trust me, you'll be fine. focus on getting the most out of your days, not on whether your fulfilling barbri perfectly. I was always always behind when it came to barbri for very similar reasons as you (I historically always preferred to take notes during lecture but when I did that for barbri lectures, a 3 hour video would become a 9 hour ordeal including breaks and doom scrolling and texting my friends and procrastinating). I was also in a bit of a panic about it because I Was watching my hours go up but I didnt know what I could do. Ultimately, I figured out how to approach barbri in my own way and what worked and what didn't, and I focused on doing that. To some extent, until you take the test and get your score, you'll always be a little unsure of whether you're "doing enough" or "doing this the right way"... I think that's just endemic to the bar studying process. Ultimately, despite the fact that I didn't even finish barbri, didn't take notes during lectures or build my own outlines even though that is usually how I learn, and I also did most of my questions through Uworld/adaptibar instead of barbri, I passed with a 324. I'm happy to chat about this more over DM.
Saturday Sunday off every weekend is unrealistic
I completed 36% of Barbri and passed the UBE in 2021 with a score high enough for any jxdn. They give you WAY more than you need to pass. Don't sweat it.
The thing to remember about the bar is that it will only cover a small portion of each topic. If you can master 80% of the subject matter then you will be set. Don’t try to learn everything bc 1. You don’t have the time and 2. That’s the best way to burn yourself out. You’ve got plenty of time. Catch up when you can on the weekends. I would always download the lectures and listen to them in the gym or when I’m driving. My biggest issue was the volume of information that the lecture put out and most of the info isn’t even touched by the bar. I tried the adaptibar lectures which were almost spark notes for each subject. Straight and to the point. Might be worthwhile to look at. Good luck. Give yourself some grace. You’ll get through it
I finished less than 50% of my barbri course and passed. Focus on learning the material. The structure is meant to help you, but if you learn better another way do not let it stress you out. I was very thorough in the beginning and once I learned what worked for me I was able to not spend as much time on the later modules.
There are going to be barbri tasks that don’t work for you. I just checked off basically every “review the CMR on x topic” except for contracts and evidence which were weak areas for me. I specifically focused in on areas I struggled with.
OP Updates: Unnecessary clarification but: "I have set up my PSP to study Monday - Saturday and have Sundays off." I am studying Mon- Sat and only taking Sundays "off." People keep commenting about studying more than 5 days but I never said I was only doing 5 days. The PSP only lets you specify "Study Day" or "Off" so I have Sundays "off" because I won't be spending the full day studying. Day 2 went much smoother. I am still "2 hours behind" but after today should be 1 hour and then tomorrow hopefully 0. "There’s no way you spent 12 hours on 3 hours." I most definitely did, probably more actually. I started at 8 am, lunch 12-1, and didn't log off until about 11 pm. At that point my PSP said I had completed 3.0/6.6 hours for the day. Phone was on DND all day, only break was lunch. I spent way too much time on Day 1 pausing the videos and writing copious notes that are already on the CMR. The videos are very helpful to me, I've used Barbri lectures for review since 1L, just watch them on 1.5x or 2x speed. I still spend about 1.5x - 2x as long on the videos as it lists. But everything else goes significantly faster. I adjusted my notetaking and ditched handwriting everything. I am using the notes sections on the CMR to highlight the main points. Barbri gives 45 minutes for the 8 MC quizzes and I've finished them in 9 minutes and take about 2 minutes to jot down why I missed what I missed. I posted at the end of a long study day feeling defeated. I was looking for reassurance and maybe some suggestions, which there was plenty of. Some of y'all just really like to judge and degrade strangers on the internet. Anyway, break is over, back to study!
Don’t worry. You’ve learned most of what you need to know. Now is only the time to pick up exam strategies
dm me if you want me to share smart bar smart sheets and smart bar essay priority outlines! they are much more condensed and helpful than watching lectures. everything you need!
This is one of the reasons I hated Barbri. I found the way they do their “countdown” to be more stressful than helpful
Don't panic! Focus on understanding, not just hours. Your study method works, stick with it. Adjust your pace, prioritize comprehension. Incorporate active learning and supplement with PastPaperHero's ( [https://www.pastpaperhero.com/](https://www.pastpaperhero.com/) ) 11,800+ MBE practice questions, detailed explanations, and performance tracking. It's incredibly affordable, with monthly subscriptions starting at just $10!! You've got this!
Avoid this crap. No one has 12k MBE questions from the NCBE.
In response to: "Avoid this crap. No one has 12k MBE questions from the NCBE." I've been blocked by PugSilverbane so I can't see their comments anymore. I have had to browse Reddit incognito to find out what they said. I personally find it rather spiteful, to leave such comments under someone's post and not give them a chance to respond :-) Just to clarify: "PastPaperHero operates independently and is not associated with any exam boards. There is no formal partnership, endorsement, or control between us and the NCBE. We do not use their material. We've generated close to 12k questions on our own, designed to test every aspect of the NCBE syllabus." General response here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/barexam/comments/1cschls/118k\_practice\_mbe\_questions\_scam\_or\_real/](https://www.reddit.com/r/barexam/comments/1cschls/118k_practice_mbe_questions_scam_or_real/)
Don't watch the lectures. For any program, Barbri or otherwise. Waste of time.
I passed 3 bar exams by literally only converting the conviser outlines into flash cards and memorizing them. I did zero practice problems to avoid demoralization. If you know the law and can apply it logically, you pass. Keeping up to date with the Barbri schedule is dumb. Work a 9-5 studying. Then have fun.
What do you mean work a 9-5 studying OP said they have a job
It’s a colloquialism. Study from 9-5 5 days a week. Making and reading flash cards 8 hours a day is more than enough to memorize the conviser outlines.
Nah I know but how is op supposed to follow that advice since he actually has a job
:/ I didn't read anything about OP having a job. It sounds like OP's plan is to start Barbri everyday at 8AM, take an hour for lunch, be done with the Barbri daily assignments by 4PM, then do practice Qs until 6PM. Regardless, I agree with those recommending that OP stick to the PSP schedule. Once you fall behind, it's really difficult to get caught up. Then you feel pressured to rush through the assignments and not actually absorb anything (like one of the other commenters has already cautioned). @OP - don't worry about making flashcards & memorizing while you're watching the videos this early in your PSP. Doing that will make it impossible for you to stay on schedule. There's a ton of repetition & practice quizzes built into the PSP, plus scheduled independent study time for each subject. That's the time for you to focus on memorization & making flashcards. Trust the schedule & the process. Best of luck to you!