Has anyone ever joined a study group that actually studied instead of gossiping and complaining? I haven't. Here are 3 reasons why you should not join a study group while studying for the bar exam. 1. You're not a therapist. Groups members will complain about how bad the lecture was last week, how they didn't have time to study and their inevitable impending failure. You will spend all your time reassuring your group members that they are strong enough to get through life and that they are not going to fail. All that time spent reassuring someone else, is less time you have study.
2. You're the teacher. Study groups work best when all group members start at the same level of subject understanding. This rarely, if ever, happens. If you understand many of the concepts already, you're wasting time teaching others. While the teaching exercise can be useful to a certain extent, you don't have to time to teach those that don't teach themselves.
3. The material is clear. The purpose of a study group is to discuss issues that are unclear. Confusion occurs in law school because professors present hypothetical after hypothetical without stating the clear black letter laws. This does not occur in bar review. The black letter laws that you need to know are clearly laid out for you in the lectures. If you don't understand the subject, the bar review course gives you a mountain of resources to figure it out. It really is as easy as looking it up!
