Don’t know anyone who teaches there. Thought you might be a Gator for a moment, but it appears you dodged that bullet.
Today is the first day of my bar exam prep course (BARbri, for those taking notes at home.) So, it seems like as good a time as any for an update.
I made law review and graduated last week in the top 25% of my class. I am still happily married, notwithstanding the dean’s first week warning that “those of you who are married will soon be divorced. Those of you who are single will… still be single.”
I worked full time the whole time.* For the first year (and much of the second) the schedule was absolutely crushing and I gave serious thought to dropping out. Not incidentally, more than half of my cohort (evening program students who began with me) did drop out, fail out, or transfer to the less demanding full-time program. We began with 81 or 82 and had 34 at the end of last semester. That includes four people who were “added” from the previous year’s class because they didn’t have enough credits to graduate.
I’ll also be working during bar prep, though on a slightly reduced schedule. I basically discovered my attention span is 5-6 hours max anyway, so taking off for bar prep completely doesn’t make sense.
I totally followed this advice. Talked my arse off, and my classmates indicated I mostly avoided the gunner tag. And it did help my grades.
I actually didn’t touch a study guide my entire time in law school. The closest I got was listening to one of the free CDs from Kaplan on 1L courses in the car.
I definitely did this.
Did this too. In fact, I was on the law review editorial board; I’m the only part-time student to do that in the journal’s (relatively short) history.
Definitely did this.
I was a little shocked to discover how few students attempted to write on to law review (especially since I got on that way.) Less than a quarter of the eligible students submitted essays (though I suspect a few more tried the essay and gave up.)
*I probably wouldn’t have gone at all if I didn’t have a solid employment opportunity waiting for me (it’s a fourth-tier school, so in a job market like this one a number of my classmates will struggle to find jobs.)
Seeing this thread title pop up again gave me pause. Wouldn’t it be horrible if we got stuck in some sort of Groundhog Day situation where we got sent back to first day of Law School every 4 years? 
I’ve had nightmares along these lines … :eek:
Hey, if I got to go back knowing what I know now… 
Actually, dude, I was wondering if I could borrow your notes.
BARbri is what I used, and I passed the bar on my first attempt, even though I went to law school in another state. Worth every penny. Out of curiosity, what does a bar review course run these days? Think it was about $1200 when I took it…but we got sworn in by John Marshall.
congratulations, Really Not All that Bright! best of luck for the bar ads.
Thanks!
The base price of the Florida course is a hair under $3,700, but the school made a deal with BARbri and Kaplan where we paid $2600 provided we signed up a year in advance.
Wow…the price has really gone up. Still, it will be worth it to you. If it’s anything like the course I took, they’ll teach you everything you need to know to pass the bar exam…including the current test format, sample questions from previous exams, time management strategies, etc.
Good luck. I look forward to your post announcing you’ve passed and been sworn in.
Me too. Exam is July 29 (Florida stuff) and 30 (multistate). You’ll probably see my post around then whining about how I’m sure I failed. Results should come out around September 15.
Is the price of bar ad preps tax-deductible? Bar ads here were considered educational, so you could claim them (if your firm didn’t pay for it).
If I may, do you have a legal job post-bar (or curently)?
Are law school loans going to be an issue?
Congratulations on graduating from law school.
Congratulations, RNATB! Good luck on the bar ads!