I plan on taking the Attorney Examination for CA. I was hoping to obtain CA bar materials from you if you recently took it.

I would appreciate it -- and any tips for studying. Luckily, I can waive the MBE portion ... :) Just wondering how hard the MPT and Essay portion is going to be ... and how best to study for it.

Thank you

Have fun in 3 days of hell

I plan on taking the Attorney Examination for CA. I was hoping to obtain CA bar materials from you if you recently took it.

I would appreciate it -- and any tips for studying. Luckily, I can waive the MBE portion ... :) Just wondering how hard the MPT and Essay portion is going to be ... and how best to study for it.

Thank youcheck eBay, there are often bar materials for sale there.

It was a long time ago, but I took the BarBri course and just did what they assigned, and did fine. But that was a month-long full-time exercise, which you may not have time for.

Hopefully the person selling the course to you can include the homework syllabus so you can have a plan for what to cover each day. You won't have the lecture, but IIRC the daily homework can be done in about 3-4 hours.

Plan on doing a number of timed practice tests, to get a feel for it. I recall one of my tests during the real exam was so long it took like 45 minutes just to read it all and take a few notes!

Good luck.

Have fun in 3 days of hellhe doesn't have to take the MBE, so it's only two days, with one day in between. Lucky bastard!

Thanks guys. I work in-house now after doing the stint at a BigLaw firm. However, I noticed during my corporate job search that many opportunities in CA require CA barred attorney's. So, I figured it might be a smart move to take the CA bar -- since they do not offer reciprocity.

I know CA has instituted the in-house exception; but, it seems many corporations still require the attorney's to be 'barred' there if the position is a good one.

I do work full-time now; but, figure it's now or never to get this done ... and I might as well suck it up and do it. I am watching Ebay as we speak ... :D

Question: Do you think I need to study MBE subjects to pass CA essay/performance sections?

I have not taken a bar in 4 years ... so, I remember absolutely zilch about a lot of things. However, I was hoping just to focus on the 13 essay subjects and performance aspect of the CA bar. Is that good enough or should I also study MBE materials?

Is the atty exam any different from the general exam (other than the fact that I do not take the MBE?) -- essay questions exactly the same or different?

MBE was a totally separate course for me. BarBri, Barpassers, etc. only cover the California test, so that should be enough. But this was quite some time ago, so things may have changed.

You'd have to confirm, but I think it's all the same test, attorneys or new grads. But I don't really know.

Been 10 years since I ran that marathon. At the time the General Bar Exam and the Attorney's Bar Exam were identical save and except for the deletion of the MBE. Thus day 1 and day 3 were the same for everyone. If I remember correctly, the ABE had an awful pass rate, like 30%. I think this spoke to how many guys were working right up to the exam rather than studying.

As for your subjects, unless it has changed, all MBE areas plus the CA specific areas are considered as fair game on the test. Bone up on CA's Community Property/Wills/Civil Pro/Ethics & Corporations and you'll get by. Get ready for evidence, they always hammer evidence.

Best study tactic is to simply write as many of the past tests as you can get your hands on. Any CA ABA school will have the last 50 bar exams on file in the law lib. Even though you don't have to take the MBE I recommend doing as many of the advanced PMBR questions as possible. It will improve your issue spotting.

Buena Suerte

NoSoup4U,
I took the bar four years ago and I'm in-house now as well. Let me see if I can answer (or reaffirm) some of the answers you see here:

1) Yes, all MBE subjects are fair game. Sometimes, they'll even combine them as a combo question with CA specific subjects in the essays.

2) Studying the Barbri materials should be enough for the essays. I used MBE specific materials for that portion and the bar prep materials for CA are pretty tailored to each type of section (i.e., MBE versus essays)

3) The best piece of advice I can give you is use BarBreakers by Jeff Adachi. It's a solid system for writing essays for the bar exam.

PM me if you have any questions.