Cramming for the Bar Exam

With just over four weeks to the July bar exam, think about alternatives to the bar prep courses:

CALI, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, provides interactive tutorials on more than 900 legal topics. They cover general areas of law to specific legal concepts. If you have not used CALI, you need a Brooklyn Law School authorization code to access the tutorials on the web. Ask a reference librarian at the library Reference Desk.

Wolters Kluwer has six separate Bar Review Exam Edge Mobile Apps covering Evidence, Property, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Torts, and Criminal Law. The six subject areas from Emanuel Bar Review are easy to download on an iPhone or iPod. Each app features 33-34 questions, identical in scope and content to those frequently asked on today's MBE. Features include two different formats for quizzing yourself: Review Mode and Test Mode; a review Mode that features a "Notes" screen to capture your personalized notes via the touch-screen keyboard; a test Mode that randomizes the questions to present you with multiple test-taking experiences; a timer (in both modes) that helps you control and improve your question-answering speed.

Visual learners may want to review attorney Nathaniel Burney’s blog, The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law, which began in December 2011. It publishes detailed and creative comics exploring criminal law concepts like mens rea, conspiracy, and defenses. A book-length version of the comic is due out in the fall with a whole set of comic-style study aids in time for next year’s MBE. Finally, for more traditional supplements to bar exam study (including study guides for the MBE and past bar exams), take a look at our July 2010 post on Bar Exam Study Aids or see the 2009 video Pass the Bar!: We Did, You Can Too available in SARA, the BLS Library catalog.