Passing the Bar
Professor Vernellia Randall

During Bar Review

Home General Advice Essay Exams Multiple Choice Performance Other

 

Two Weeks to 60 Days Before Bar Exam

 

  1. EXECUTE THE PLAN
  1. Preliminary Matters
  1. Study Room (quiet, limited intrusions, use an answering machine at home, etc.).
  2. Supplies (pencils, ink pens, tablets of letter size paper, wrist watch, Tylenol).
  3. Organize bar review materials, outlines, tapes, etc. into piles by subject for convenience.
  4. Study groups, study partner, or individual study.
  5. For relaxation: gravitate towards ‘light’ fun and entertainment. Limit or avoid mentally/emotionally-engaging activities, like horror flicks, soaps, etc.
  1. FIRST: Build a good, solid foundation of the black-letter law.
  1. REVIEW each bar exam subject, one by one; digest each well. Make sure you understand the basics before moving on. Work out a couple of essay problems on the subject already reviewed before moving on, just to be sure you are getting the 'hang of things.'
  2. OUTLINE each subject, in your own words, from your own memory, only referring back to the bar review materials to refresh memory, etc.
  3. ORALLY RECALL WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED. After your foundation of black-letter law is completely built, go for a long walk (in the park, in your back yard, etc.), and orally recite each outline of each bar exam subject, as you understand it, from memory. What you are trying to do here, is to develop a natural feel for the law that you have learned. You want your grasp of basic legal concepts to flow as naturally to you as reciting your own street address or name. Later, review any concepts that you tripped on.
  1. SECOND: Ask questions.

If you have a question about something you hear during a lecture, or you believe something you have read in your bar materials is incorrect, or you want a clearer understanding of a difficult point, etc., ASK. Ask as many questions as come to mind now, because you won't have the opportunity to do this later during the "real" bar exam.

  1. Law School Professors
  2. Bar Review Lecturers
  3. Law Library
  4. But -- use common sense and use your time wisely.
  1. THIRD: Practice exams.

Be absolutely sure you know the exact format of your State's bar exam (MBE, essay, briefs, legal memorandums, etc.)!!!!!!!!!!

Also, at this point in my studying up to the last day of the bar exam, I took leave from my job.

  1. MBE QUESTIONS
  1. I scheduled for myself, daily 3-hour rounds of 100 MBE questions:
bulletno bathroom breaks;
bulletno phone calls;
bulletno snack breaks;
bulletno cheating on time;
bulletI recorded all MBE answers in pencil, on copies of the same oval-ring answer sheets as were to be used during the "real" bar exam.
  1. At the end of each round, I’d take a 10-minute break, then return to score my work:
bulletI reviewed all answers presented in bar materials;
bulletI watched for signs of faulty understanding of legal concepts and important distinctions (e.g., habit evidence versus character evidence).
  1. NEVER, EVER BECOME DISCOURAGED WITH YOUR SCORES!!!!
  1. Likewise, don’t become overconfident with days of high scores.
  2. Practice makes for perfection.
  3. The more MBE problems you work out, the more familiar you will become with how to play the MBE ‘game.’
  1. With the MBE, you must train your brain to swiftly wrestle with a vast amount of information, while at the same time catching important distinctions in the law. My study routine helped me to increase my physical and mental stamina for the bar, and helped me to curb my urge to daydream after an hour or so of MBE questions.
  2. Don’t work too fast; don’t work too slow. Practice under the same time constraints as will be required during the "real" bar exam.
  3. Do take advantage of at least one in-class, practice MBE exam offered by a bar review course.
  1. ESSAY QUESTIONS
  1. I scheduled my essay practice rounds in one-hour increments, allowing myself one-half hour per essay question.
  2. Do write out good number of essays as you would do during the bar exam.  Some bar review organizations may even be willing to grade these for you.
  1. IRAC
  2. Penmanship, etc.
  1. By simply outlining many of my essay answers (under reduced time allowances, e.g. 10-15 minutes per question), I was able to plow through a lot more fact patterns more efficiently.
  2. At the end of each round, I’d take a 10-minute break, then return to compare my responses to those in the bar review materials:
bulletI reviewed all essay responses presented in bar materials;
bulletI watched for signs of faulty understanding of legal concepts and important distinctions;
bulletKEEP IN MIND: these are subjective-type questions: there is no "single" correct answer – thorough ANALYSIS is important.