r/GoatBarPrep

I wanted to make a post explaining how I studied because I know there are other people out there who feel burnt out, overwhelmed, lazy, behind, depressed, and unmotivated.

On my first attempt I completed about 50% of Barbri and around 1,000 Adaptibar questions. I hated Barbri and honestly had no idea how to organize myself or structure my days. I was SOOO burnt out from law school. I had done 6 internships, also finished an MBA, and had a ton of emotional stuff going on. Some days I genuinely could not wake up before noon and constantly needed naps. Looking back, I think my body was just exhausted.

I mostly just winged it on my first attempt.

My Adaptibar average was around a 62%. I felt okay about essays, but I did not deeply know Con Law, Civ Pro, or Evidence. Truthfully, I was kind of bad at studying for all the MBE subjects. I was able to get a second wind toward the end for the MEE subjects. I had taken all the bar classes besides Family Law, but honestly I learned that one pretty quickly too.

I did not take a full-length practice exam.

I ended up with a 262. My MBE was a 122.

On exam day, I ran out of time on BOTH MBE sections and randomly bubbled in around 20–30 questions total. I also got hit with a Con Law essay I genuinely could not do. For essays, I wrote “25 minute” increments on my scratch paper so I could keep moving and come back later to build answers out more. That actually kept me surprisingly on track even without full essay practice.

I was honestly devastated when I found out I failed because I really just wanted to put law school behind me and finally live a chill life.

On my second attempt, I never took a full-length practice exam and never wrote a full essay.

The main resources I used were:
(1) Goat Bar Prep
(2) UWorld
(3) Jon Grossman / Adaptibar attack outlines

I also used JD Advising One Sheets and my old Barbri books during the final couple days just to read essays.

From October through December, I honestly barely studied some weeks. I was working full time and trying to mentally recover from failing. Some weeks I probably only studied like 5–10 hours total. Other weeks maybe 15. There were definitely days where I did absolutely nothing.

A lot of my “studying” was honestly:

• doing questions in bed
• listening to Grossman while driving
• reviewing Quizlets half asleep
• redoing old UWorld questions at work
• screenshotting rules I missed

I did NOT have some insane disciplined schedule.

January was when I started taking things more seriously, but even then I still was probably averaging around 15–20 hours a week. Some weeks more. Some less depending on motivation and work.

I think people massively overestimate how much consistent studying is actually required to pass if you study strategically.

I focused way more on:

• high-frequency subtopics
• repeated exposure
• recognizing patterns
• and maximizing easy points

instead of trying to perfectly memorize every rule in existence.

FOR THE MBE:
I mostly studied subtopic by subtopic instead of trying to “master” entire subjects. That mindset change helped me SO much. PRINT OUT A FREQUENCY CHART!!! Topic 2: MBE Frequency Chart: Highly Tested MBE Topics

A huge mistake people make is trying to know EVERY rule in subjects like Property or Civ Pro when some subtopics have a million confusing exceptions and barely show up.

Instead, I started asking:
“How many rules do I actually need to memorize to consistently get points here?”

For example:

• Homicide is heavily tested but the core rules are actually manageable.
• Accomplice liability has pretty few rules and shows up often.
• Negligence repeats itself constantly.
• Mortgages are one of the easier/high-return Property topics.
• Equal Protection becomes easier once you memorize scrutiny levels.
• Evidence writings/recordings questions are repetitive once you learn the framework.

Meanwhile, there are some subtopics that are honestly terrible ROI and way too time consuming.

At a certain point I realized:
you do NOT need to become a law professor in every subject to pass this exam.

Even if a subtopic only gives you 3–4 questions total, if it only requires memorizing 3 easy rules, that is STILL a great tradeoff.

I started with easier subjects like Torts and Criminal Law because building confidence mattered a lot for me psychologically. I would focus on getting the easiest/highest frequency subtopics to around 80%:

• homicide
• accomplice liability
• negligence
• other torts
• mortgages
• Equal Protection
• evidence writings/recordings

As time got tighter, I aimed for around 70% on the heavily tested areas instead of trying to perfect everything.

Crim Pro stayed around a 65% no matter how many times I revisited it. Sometimes you honestly just have to shrug certain things off and move on.

I also did not focus heavily on Property because there are WAY too many rules for certain subtopics compared to how often they appear.

I would:

• screenshot questions I got wrong
• print them out at work
• redo missed questions daily
• review Quizlets in bed at night
• redo old UWorld question sets for weak subtopics

UWorld’s “redo incorrects” feature helped me a TON.

BUT GOAT WAS LIFECHANGING ESPECIALLY THE TRICKS.

Toward the end, I binge watched Grossman lectures and did around 50–100 questions a day. I think I finished around 1,200+ questions total and averaged around a 69%.

Some weeks I only did like 200 questions depending on motivation. Obviously 1,800–2,000 is probably ideal if you are more consistent than me.

FOR THE MEE:
I basically taught myself all the MEE-only subjects in like 3 days.

I read maybe 3–5 essays per subject and heavily used the JD Advising One Sheets. I memorized the rules on those and honestly think that gave me enough to work with on exam day.

I also used ChatGPT Premium because I realized my issue statements were not specific enough. I would ask it for mini scenarios and practice mini IRACs in bed at night. That helped a LOT.

One thing I realized is that if you can identify the rule specifically enough in your issue statement, you are probably already picking up a decent amount of points.

FOR DAYS I FELT TOO EXHAUSTED TO STUDY:
I would just redo old UWorld questions for weak subtopics instead of trying to force myself into some “perfect” study schedule.

Toward the actual exam, I realized I got more questions right when I answered quickly and trusted myself. If I sat there overthinking for 2 minutes, I usually changed to the wrong answer anyway.

On my second attempt I finished BOTH MBE sections early.

FOR THE MPT:

• I reviewed one MPT my first attempt
• zero my second attempt
• read Goat’s guide and hoped for the best

I am NOT saying this is the ideal way to study.

But I AM saying:

• you do not need to study 12 hours a day
• you do not need to finish every prep course
• you do not need perfect essays
• you do not need to know every rule

You just need enough points consistently across enough areas.

Hi everyone — my name is Drew Novins and I am a bar exam tutor with 25+ years of experience.

With Goat's blessing, I am offering 2 FREE upcoming MBE classes:

• Friday, May 22 @ 6 PM EST
• Sunday, May 24 @ 12 PM EST

Sign Up:
novinslawprep.org

Email:
novinslawprep@gmail.com

Call/Text:
(516) 810-6822

If you reach out, mention you saw the post on Goat's Reddit page 😊

I thought removal wa snot proper because he did not remove in state court to federal court? (Am I making sense?)

!!!!!!!!!EDIT: RESOLVED

A D needs to remove in the same fed district court of the forum state court - and not the “federal court” of the forum state.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF ALL AGREE OR IF THERE IS STH WRONG.

First pic is yesterday’s practice for Crim Pro, second pic is today’s practice for Crim Pro AFTER finishing Goat’s modules …. I might actually have a chance at passing on my 4th attempt. Prayers 🤲🏼

I passed the February bar and built an essay practice platform with a friend of mine who's an engineer. We've had students write, and have tweaked the platform as it’s graded a few hundred practice essays, and I wanted to share some of the patterns that will easily increase a writing score.

When it comes to the essays specifically, what I found in the research was that bar graders only spend about 30 seconds to a minute and a half looking at your essay. Sometimes less. Once that clicked for me it changed how I approached writing. The real trick is making sure you organize your essays with proper headers and very clear IRAC. Your essay needs to be scannable (aka pass the “eye test”). And the real meat of your essay should be making the analysis section slightly longer than the other parts of the IRAC structure.

When it comes to rule statements, students get pressured to write the exact rules from memory. But when you're under pressure from the exam, there are so many rules tested that it's very unlikely you'll remember them all. Part of the trick is reverse engineering the rules from the facts. When you don't know a rule, you don't stress about it. You write a rule statement that sounds mostly right, as long as you spot the right issues that trigger those rules. You're ahead of the person who spotted the issue but froze because they couldn't remember the exact language.

For the analysis part, I used a kind of formula (which I believe Goat mentions in one of his posts):

X element was satisfied because of Y fact. X element was satisfied because of Z fact.

You could word that differently:

Due to Y fact, Z element was satisfied.

The point is that using those formulas forces you to tie in specific facts to specific elements. Even if they aren't completely legally accurate, to the eyes of a bar grader who is speed reading, you look like someone who can write an essay that passes for legal analysis.

For conclusions, instead of writing a basic conclusion like "Therefore, diversity jurisdiction was satisfied," it's better to append the conclusion with something. Anything. Like:

"Diversity jurisdiction was satisfied because Joe was a citizen of State Y and Sally was a citizen of State B, and the amount in controversy was $80,000."

That sort of conclusion looks better as a last sentence. You're adding analysis to the conclusion.

The more analysis you show, even if it isn't 100% accurate, the better and more polished your essay will look. You effectively want your analysis section to look longer than the other sections of IRAC.

This is what shaped how we built SHEP (shepbarprep.com). We designed the scoring around what a grader actually sees when they're speed-reading 200 essays: issue spotting, rule accuracy, fact application, and organization. You can try a free essay if you're curious. But even without the tool, if you focus on making your analysis longer and tying every element to a specific fact, that alone will help.

Happy to answer questions about what we've seen.