It can be very expensive to enroll for a full exam preparation course. Prices for these courses range from $ 1,000 to $ 4,000. If you cannot afford this price, and you do not have a law firm or a generous family member who pays for the course, how can you study at the bar exam?
Acquire educational materials
First, you will need educational materials. If you know someone who has passed the bar exam for the past two or two years, ask them if they have all their books. Perhaps they will give them to you for free or sell them to you cheaply.
If you cannot find someone with books, check Craigslist, E-bay, or Amazon for used bar preparation materials. Since a law verified by a lawyer rarely changes from year to year, you can usually get away with buying books that are over a year old.
If you cannot find anything for sale on the Internet, you can try to get the exam subject area from a friend or search Google for free contours. Many people post contours of their blogs on blogs and places like DocStoc and Scribd, so you can find something to use as a basis for learning.
Get answers to MBE questions
With the exception of several jurisdictions, you will have to prepare for a multiple sample bar exam, known as the multi-stage bar exam or the MBE exam. Here you may have to spend money if you cannot find the materials used to prepare the bars for purchase.
Several companies sell selected materials for MBE preparation. The most famous of these is Kaplan-PMBR, which raises ridiculously difficult questions of practice. But, if you can answer questions in the style of PMBR, you should be able to pass the MBE during a real test.
If you prefer to practice online, there are several companies that provide online MBE courses. This can be useful because you can practice anywhere you have an Internet connection. I used Adaptibar when I was studying in California, and I thought it was a good value.
Find practical essays and performance tests
If you purchased a used integrated bar preparation course, you should already have access to such material. If not, check your state website for a trial essay and performance test questions. If your staff bar does not have questions and answers to questions posted on the Internet, contact your state bar and ask if you can purchase sample questions and answers.
If you literally cannot afford to buy samples of written materials, and free samples are not available at your regular bar, look at the other status indicator to see if it has placed several samples. The California Bar publishes sample essay and performance tests along with exemplary responses over the past few years. It is very useful. Just remember that the Californian bar allows 60 minutes for an essay and 3 hours for a performance test, so if your state has a shorter time frame, adjust your responses to the practice accordingly.
Creating a class schedule
Finally, once you have all your study materials, you need to create a class schedule and stick to it. Write your schedule! You want you to remember to refresh any topics and the best way to do this is to have a schedule to follow. After you have studied for a week or two, review your schedule and make sure that it still looks appropriate and realistic. Do not be afraid to increase or decrease the training time. Know yourself and how you study, and plan your training time accordingly.
Good luck!
