Reddit mentions: The best bar examination test preparation books

I passed the CA bar awhile ago but ended up writing this mini guide up for friends who took the bar after me who, like myself, were frustrated with the commercial bar prep courses. I ended up studying supplements (while using Kaplan only for its MBE question bank) almost exclusively on my own schedule (and passed - with a lot less stress than a lot of my peers who struggled to complete the commercial bar prep schedule). My friends found this really helpful so I thought I'd share it with you:


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Reviewing the Black Letter Law
I highly recommend lean sheets because they were compact and great for reviewing rule elements.
They also had room in the margins for me to add any other notes I wanted to make.
http://www.leansheets.com/california-bar-exam-outlines-leansheets-com/


I suggest printing the entire pdf in color - double sided - 8.5 x 11 paper
http://documents.staples.com/ASP1/
Binding/Booklet 1
Paper/8.5x11 28lb Premium White / Standard / Standard Print (Precut Size) / Color / Duplex ($23)
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Multiple Choice:
Many people say that kicking ass on the MBE section is essential because it's the one section that is truly in your control to differentiate your score. The essay and performance test grading can be arbitrary - most people will get an average of 60 something on everything if they apply the correct IRAC method to the essays. But a lot of people mess up MBEs, and there's no excuse for that because one can definitely improve this with practice.

1. Critical Pass: http://criticalpass.refr.cc/DHGJQMN (my referral link but you don't have to use it 📷. This was Great to review in the evening when I was too tired to do practice questions. They already added flash cards for the civ pro mbe questions. I was stupidly impressed with how these cards actually covered so much of the questions on actual exam. Definitely essential in my opinion
   
   
   
2. Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, Sixth Edition (Emanuel Bar Review)
   https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
   
   
   I used this book mostly for the general MBE test-taking tips and the tips were so on-point. Because I was using Kaplan and it already had a huge question bank - I practiced with those questions.
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   Essays:
   
   
   Formatting is KEY. Do NOT write big long paragraphs. I underlined, made sure to write a lot of mini-paragraphs (5-6 sentences max), then move on.
   
   
   During the exam, make sure you use every single fact in the fact pattern. Use a highlighter and highlight each fact or mark each fact after you incorporate it in some way into your essay.
   
   
   Don't worry if the question asks you something pretty obscure or you just blank on something. Just put down something reasonable and move on. Use every fact (there are almost never any red herrings - I never saw any).
   
   
   Using the call of the question--- IRAC. But the IRAC's should be really short and concise - (1 sentence for the issue; 1-2 rule statements, 5-6 for application, 1 sentence for conclusion).
   
   
   I didn't have a memorization plan for rule statements, but made sure to know certain rules very well: Community Property opener, Contract (applicable law, offer, acceptance, etc), Evidence (definition of legal and logical relevance, hearsay exceptions), elements of negligence claim for Torts, etc. You'll find good rule statements in the following book:
   
   
   Essay Exam Writing for the CA Bar Exam: http://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writing-California-Bar/dp/073550993X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/176-3124324-1877215
   
   
   I didn't actually practice writing a lot of actual essays. I read this book in its entirely and thought it was amazing. The only essay book you need in my opinion. I found the checklists a little hard to memorize, so I just focused on the approach this book outline for every subject. (And memorizing the rules used in the sample essays).
   
   
   And what I did is, after reading the tips, I practiced writing essays for the practice essays at the end of each chapter - read the sample essay + looked at the issue chart + rewrote it again.
   
   
   I liked this book the best because the sample essays weren't ridiculously long like kaplan and barbri. This book emphasizes what HAS to be in your essay responses, and leaves out the extraneous stuff that will hardly get you any points on the exam itself.
   
   
   My essays were much shorter on the actual exam than in any barbri or kaplan sample essay - and I think it was sufficient.
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   Performance Tests
   http://ipassedmybarexam.com/2011/02/13/the-bar-exam-performance-tests-are-easy/
   
   
   Honestly - that write-up sums up all the tips you need to do well on the performance test. Really thorough and really hits the nail on the head.
   
   
   To be honest, I practiced maybe 2 performance tests in total. The only things I think you need to do is read through all the tips above, and then print out and read all the sample performance test answers for the past 3 years from the CA bar site: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/California-Bar-Examination/Past-Exams
   
   
   Getting a feel for the memo structure that the bar examiners wanted was the most helpful thing.
   
   
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   Rule Statements
   I did not use this site when I studied for the bar, but someone posted this in another thread and it looks pretty good if you're looking for black letter law outlines and rule statements: By the way, I was briefly looking at this thread for the July 2018 Bar exam and someone posted this link as a good place to get solid rule statements for some of the major subjects:
   
   
   https://law.stanford.edu/office-of-student-affairs/bar-exam-information
   
   
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   Best of luck!!!

For MBE: Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Emanuel Bar Review) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454873124/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Ah0XDb3NXPZHR

For essays: https://www.gabaradmissions.org/essay-and-mpt-questions-and-selected-answers

Lots of practice! The way I approached it was to answer an essay question as best I could from memory (usually just writing a quick outline of issues + facts), then go look up the rules for any issue I noticed, but didn't know the rule for, and amend/correct my outline with that, then go to the model answers and amend/correct my outline with anything else I missed. I should try to get a picture of one of these, they are all 3 colors and covered in checks and scratch outs and :| faces. Anyway, I think this multi-step approach really helps to solidify both rules and issue spotting skills. It requires a lot of active thinking about the rules and how they apply, vs just ticking off a list of what you got right or missed. I'm not sure if it will help or hurt you that you get 3 sample answers instead if a single "model" answer written by the NCBE that covers every issue, but make sure you look at all the sample answers, unless you grow confident that every one addresses every possible issue (most passing, and even "good" answers miss an issue or two). Also, I don't think it's worth writing out full essay answers until you've gotten decent at issue spotting, and read a fair number of sample answers. Use the sample answers as models for your own. No need to figure it out from scratch!

The bar prep materials I used had two indexes for the essays and answers, one organized by year, and the other by topic. I found this extremely useful, and I suggest you make yourself a topic index. I would study my con law outline, do con law flash cards, do con law MBE questions, and then do con law essays. Everything reinforces each other.

You'll also obviously want to do some mixed sets -- I would probably do the essays, writing out full answers, not just outlines, from 4 or 5 exams under timed conditions.

You want to do IRAC (issue, rule, analysis, conclusion) for every issue. Even better, imo, is CIRAC--use topic/sub-topic headings that include your conclusion. You should be citing at least one fact from the problem in your analysis for every issue, and you should be citing every major fact in the question at some point in the answer (if not, you are probably missing an issue -- at least that's the case with the MEE).

I am really big on practice questions, and I would do, at a minimum, every essay given since 2012. Because hey, once you've done 60 essays, what's another 4, right?

Did you get back your essays with any comments? If so, I would pay special attention to the weakness they identified and figure out how to improve in those areas. If you aren't clear on what the comments are getting at / how to fix them, I think it's ok to show them to other people and ask for help with that??

I made a huge post during July study time about essay strategies that I'll C/P below, too. It's specifically for MEE, but lots of it should still apply.

They aren’t and Barbri’s excuse is unconvincing. It’s absolutely an economically-driven decision. There is a book called “Strategies and Tactics for the MBE” that I used in law school. It’s rather informative and all the questions are NCBE-licensed. Search for an older edition on amazon and you can get over 500 questions, explanations, and strategies for ~ $30.

Here’s an amazon link for a used 5th edition that you can have delivered to you free by Friday if you have an amazon prime account and buy today: Link. Good luck and hope this helps!

Barbri here. It's hard to really know because stress level in the actual exam was so much higher, but I felt like they were easier.

I got a book called The Multistate Goat which has several hundred actual licensed MBE questions from NCBE. I did these as a supplement to Barbri and it was big confidence booster because they felt easier than a lot of Barbri questions.

I only used book 1. Can’t speak for book 2 but I’m sure it’s a great help too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1454873124/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Really appreciate the thorough response, and thanks for the encouragement. I really think I'll end up incorporating a lot of this.

If I can ask a couple questions about your resources: Were your custom LeanSheets just two/three-pagers you boiled down from bigger resources?

Also I'm the same way when it comes to learning from getting questions wrong and just continuing to drill. I've considered investing in the Emanuel MBE alongside having some old BarBri resources from a friend, but wasn't sure if there were some MBE resources you liked beyond BarBri's.

Again, thanks a lot for the response.

Also CA here. For myself, I try to figure out in each practice essay what triggered that particular issue and make a note of it in my running outlines. Eventually, you should notice a pattern of some sort. I also use this book, which I think does a good job with giving you some issue triggers in the outline, as well as with good essay examples (from real past exams) and sample answers.

I am not sure about the tutor thing -- but one resource I do recommend is Emmanuel's strategy and tactics for the MBE: https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124

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It wont substitute a substantive study or bar prep, but it is really helpful to understand how the MBE questions are designed to give you some test taking strategy.

I agree that you should just pony up the cash and pay for the bar review course. Put it on a credit card.

Having said that, it looks like studying for the bar is possible without laying out the cash for a bar review course. You can buy this study guide on Amazon for less than $85.

And it looks like UCLA has a number of free study materials online.

There are also a number of resources online that are much less expensive than the standard courses

I think you can probably find someone's materials from last year online - go to Craigslist. I still have my Barbri materials from years and years ago. If you were sitting for the GA bar, I'd gladly give them to you.

But at the end of the day, the thing that I paid for was the structure -- going to study with fifty other people five days a week. The books and flashcards were cool, but having the schedule forced you to go and focus.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1490943498/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_RMRzzbA5C0GP7
Get this book. Its cheaper and has the opes that the NCBEX sells. You're saving yourself 100 dollars by doing this as well. The explanations are hit or miss sometimes, but they are good enough for you to get a general understanding. Also, these are the types of questions you will see on the exam. EDIT: The caveat is some of the questions will look familiar if you have done Emmanuel and bar prep questions.

This is a good one for essays. For PTs I’m not sure. Let me know if someone recommends one.

Instead of spending $50 for 100 official MBE questions with the NBCE, you should consider just paying ~$75 for over 500 official MBE questions with Emmanuel's Strategies & Tactics. I'm a Barbri student who was wondering the exact same thing as you a few weeks ago before just buying Emmanuel's, and I'm very glad I did. The exposure to the extra MBE questions is obviously beneficial but my raw scores on Barbri's practice question sets have been going up, too.

For anyone taking the bar exam in Arizona, Chad Noreuil - ASU Law and BarBri instructor - wrote book called The Arizona Bar Exam: Pass It Now. It was really helpful in preparing for the test, especially the essays.

I bought https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Patent-Bar-Study-Guide/dp/1481146475 and read most of it. Didn't take a course, but had several months' experience as a summer associate writing office action responses.

https://www.amazon.com/Multistate-Goat-Essential-Practice-Questions/dp/1490943498
This one. Anybody have any info on this book???

... Did you even look?

Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Emanuel Bar Review)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454873124/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8jc7BbQX419TF

Strategies & Tactics for the MBE When I bought it, it was down to $41 or $42. The price fluctuates greatly throughout the two Bar Exam seasons. My recommendation is to do practice questions from your bar prep course and then, 3 weeks before the exam, do the questions in the book, chapter by chapter. These are actual MBE questions which I found helped me immensely as the made up questions from barprep companies got a little outrageous near the end of the course.

First off, if you have the resources/time, try taking the bar next July instead of Feb. You'll thank yourself for having more time to spread out and study. I didn't do that (I took all 3 of my exams back-to-back-to-back), but had I failed a third time--which was possible--I would have moved back to my parent's place and taken the test a 4th time in July instead of Feb.


I started studying a week after my results both times. I got a local CA bar exam tutor the 2nd and 3rd time (fuck barbri) that assigned us essays that we later discussed together in small groups. Each day was about 10-15 hours of studying, which consisted of doing and reviewing about 3-4 essays that were assigned by my tutor and 50 MBE's. But make no mistake, I took at least a day off a week. Otherwise, I would have gone insane.


As far as essays go, barbri's aren't that bad, but, at least for CA, they're WAY too in-depth given the time constraints. I used this book for the CA bar exam essays: https://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writing-California-Bar/dp/073550993X If you can find a NY one similar to the one I linked, then you're golden.

As far as MBE's go, again, get a hold of the Kaplan/PMBR ones, and do these Civ Pro ones from Emanuel: https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1/164-3132343-7414359?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YN7A1AYTGD6BXWMQA79

Finally, I'd review the black letter stuff--which, frankly, is the entire bar exam, as it's almost impossible to grade policy answers--while practicing/reviewing. You also memorize better by practicing. I'd dedicate barely any separate time solely to black letter stuff.

Again, YOU CAN FUCKING DO THIS