Raising the Bar: Final Strategies and Preparations for the February exam

Happy Valentine's day to a group of people whose main thought is probably "Aaaahhh f*ck, the Bar exam is exactly 2 weeks away!" Hopefully by this time you've gotten a chance to practice enough essays, multiple choice questions and MPT's to feel like you have a hold on them. I would highly recommend building up your stamina for the duration of the exam by taking full-length multiple choice practice exams and devoting a day to MPT's and essays. I'd also recommend adjusting your sleep and studying schedule so that you're used to being awake and using your brain when the exam will start. 

If you don't have flashcards yet, now is the time to be making them. If you do have flashcards, now is the time to start memorizing them. You can access practice tests from the Bar examiner's website: http://ncbex.org/multistate-tests/. Some are free and some have to be purchased. 

Also, some last minute warnings/preparations:

If you live in a winter state, the Bar examiners frown on winter boots and will subject you to additional searches. As you know, they take their clothing restrictions seriously. Fingers crossed that it's not a snow day when you have to take the exam! 

Raising the Bar: When you have to retake

October 6th, 2011 was the day that they released the pass list for those of us that took the July Bar in Colorado. I'll never forget scanning the list, excitement and anticipation building, then scanning it again, wondering where my name was. However, the next ten minutes are blurry- I vaguely remember that I was calling my mom, clutching the cat, sobbing, and trying to eat a cupcake all at the same time. 

For those of us that are facing another Bar exam, it's easy to get discouraged. Or pissed off that we'll have to unwrap all of our food and put it in a little plastic bag to take into another intense exam. Or even embarrassed when we sit through that CLE where the presenters keep congratulating everyone on passing

There are two aspects of Bar Prep attack that I'd suggest for us second(+) timers: mental preparation and study planning. 

Mental preparation: 

Two Confessions, Two Things I Didn't Know, and Two Bar Exam Tips

A confession: on the first essay on the first day of the California Bar Exam, I spent 20 minutes writing on the completely wrong area of law.  As in: the question was, quite clearly, about torts, and I was writing a criminal law essay.

A confession: on the last performance test on the last day of the California Bar Exam, I had no idea what one of the five questions was even asking of me.  As in: when I got to the question, I was baffled. What was the question even getting at?

My Bar experience was bookended by two terrible moments. And those two terrible moments haunted me for months. I'm sure I got plenty wrong on the Bar Exam, but those two things I knew, for a fact, that I had really screwed up.

But here are two things I didn't know: I wasn't alone and I had passed anyway. Sure enough, in discussing the exam after the fact (not that I recommend this, by the way), plenty of people had written a portion (or all!) of that first essay on criminal law (it was tricky). And were people confused by the same question that had puzzled me? Yep! But, hey, we all passed anyway.

A Year Later: Reflections on Studying for the Bar Exam

Just one year ago, my law school class and I were studying for the California Bar Exam--sitting through BARBRI lectures, cursing timed essays, and spending hours in coffee shops drinking espresso and making flashcards (and complaining). 

For those of you currently studying, I've collected a few bits of advice, one year later, from my lovely and brilliant law school friends.  Here's what they have to say:

Michelle says: Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good

The bar is supposed to be minimum competency. Trying to achieve perfect scores on all sections will drive you crazy and likely harm you in the long run.

Katie says:  Study Smart

If something BarBri is telling you to do is not working for you, be brave and try something new. You have time to adjust.

Studying for the Bar Exam: Three Outlines

Editor's Note: This summer, back by popular demand, Ms. JD is pleased to feature a series of posts on bar exam prep.  The series will include some of our most highly-read articles from past years, as well as new content for all those taking on the bar exam challenge.  Good luck!  For more bar study tips check out Ms. JD's archives.

Last spring, I met with a newly minted attorney who shared with me this tip for passing the California Bar Exam: Start with a long outline and reduce, reduce, reduce.  She suggested that I make an outline for each subject and reduce each outline to no more than ten pages. Similarly, the wonderful Jessie, Ms. JD's Executive Director, suggested having a very short, pared-down outline for each subject. 

In the end, I used three sets of outlines during my studies: long outlines, short outlines, and one ridiculously short outline, which I dubbed “Law Math.”  This method worked brilliantly (or at least well enough to earn a passing score on the California Bar Exam). I found paring down the law to be a good—albeit challenging—exercise and continually reducing the information helped make the sheer volume of rules to be memorized manageable.   Brevity and terseness became more and more valuable as the exam approached and, by the final weeks, I had reduced all the subjects to an incredibly concise ten pages total.

After the jump, Janet shares the details of each outline and some "Law Math" equations.

Somewhere there's a ballroom filled with the sound of furious typing ....

Just a quick word of good luck to all this week's bar exam takers. Plenty of advice here about surviving the ordeal. But at this point the train has left the station and the best wisdom I can share is don't panic, keep your head down, it'll all be over soon enough.

I wrote this shortly after sitting for the bar back in 2007:

I took the California exam and my computer failed in the middle of the second essay day. My screen just turned bright blue. I raised my hand and the proctor handed me a piece of paper that instructed me to try restarting and then switch to a bluebook. So I restarted - and started writing in the bluebook while my computer rebooted. My computer crashed again about one minute after rebooting, at which point I abandoned it and stuck to the bluebook.

I think two things saved me...

1. My Outline helped me remember exactly what I'd written and what I still needed to write.

2. My ability to stay calm saved me time and mental energy.

The proctors will not help you - so don't waste time arguing with them about that. Likewise, stressing over whether or not your computer will have stored the work you've already done or will come back to allow you to finish will not help you. Assume your computer saved up until the last 30 seconds of work and will be able to retrieve those saved materials. Go from there. Don't waste time explaining to your readers - they'll know exactly what happened.

My essay outlines were key because I had already figured out more or less what I was going to say and then could look and back and figure out about how much I had already said. I didn't need to repeat myself and restate arguments I'd already made. I was also able to maintain a sense of organization despite writing my answers in two different formats.

The not-panicking goes for much more than computer crashing scenarios. Practicing for the exam, I always circled MBE questions I didn't know for sure. After circling the first 25 questions of my actual MBE I realized that that approach was no longer viable. So I stopped circling all but those I had no clue about and just kept going. I didn't slow down and try and spend more time understanding these questions, I just kept moving. At the end of the day I had circled half of the MBE questions as ones where I truly had no clue between two answer choices - or no clue, period. For those keeping track at home: that's half. So even if I got every single question I didn't circle correct (unlikely) I'd need to get half of the ones I did circle right to pass comfortably (also unlikely). Needless to say - I felt like crap after day two, but that didn't change the fact that I still needed to get through day three. I just kept telling myself that everyone feels like that about the MBE (and they do) and moved on.

My point is this: you can do it! Just stay with it, keep working, and when you can't make it work, move on.

Good luck!!

Hate the Bar Exam? Read on

The legal blogosphere is abuzz over Elizabeth Wurtzel's latest musings on the problems of the legal profession. Her target: the bar exam. If you're going to complain about the bar exam, this is the time to do it, with thousands of nervous studiers buckling down for one last push before the big day(s).

Wurtzel, a July 2008 NY Bar failer, points out that plenty of famous lawyers have failed the bar exam, including Kathleen Sullivan, Hillary Clinton, and Jerry Brown.  Wurtzel posits that she and other folks from her YLS who failed have this determinative quality in common:

The common denominator among the bar-failers in my class at Yale Law School—and there were a few—was a complete inability to comply with senseless rules; they weren’t the best students, but they were the tartest and the sharpest people—and the least likely to accept the constraints of Big Law that make neither financial nor intellectual sense ....

I'm not going to pretend to know why some people pass the bar and others don't - in my group of friends there was no such discernable pattern. But I also fancy myself a sensless rule rejector. I was the only person I knew in my law school class who did not apply to work at a law firm during on campus interviewing. I was the only public interest student in my tax concentration. But there's rule rejecting and then there's biting your nose to spite your face. The bar exam is painful, expensive, and time consuming. Not something you want to do twice if you can possibly avoid it.

The bar requires both a huge knowledge base and real stamina - both skills that improve with study and practice. It tests your willingness to work long hard hours and perform under intense pressure. It tests other, less meaningful things - like your understanding of California civil filings deadlines - and Wurtzel takes aim there as well. But she isn't willing to divulge what she did differently to pass the second time around. My guess is the stakes were higher for her then - her BigLaw job probably hung in the balance along with her pride. I'm guessing there was some difference in her approach and that it reflects something we might want the bar to test.

According to Wurtzel,

There are many better ways that the ABA could keep the numbers down in the profession: for instance, while there are only 130 accredited medical schools, there are nearly 250 law schools that have been approved by either the ABA or a state equivalent.

On this point, we generally agree.  But then on this point our biases are aligned - you didn't pass the bar so you don't like it, but now you're in da club and want to keep it exclusive. Talk to these kids: they've been waiting in line forever!

Recent MBE Changes and the Importance of Using Updated Questions

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is notoriously one of the most feared aspects of the bar exam.  It certainly was for me.  It was the only time in my life 6 hours didn’t seem like enough time to finish an exam.  Every second counts on the MBE, and two minutes can make the difference between passing and failing.  I drank a Red Bull during lunch break to help me stay focused.  It had its payoffs (I believe drinking Red Bull helped me pass the bar) and its consequences – I had to rush to the restroom after lunch because I didn’t want to “waste too much time.”  Because there is so much pressure on the MBE, a better name might be the mental endurance test.  No matter what you call it, it’s important that you fully understand the MBE before you take it.  Over the next few months, you’ll have the pleasure of getting to know the MBE as well as I did or maybe even better. 

The MBE is the 200-question, 6-hour, multiple-choice portion of the bar exam administered on the last Wednesday in July and February.  Since the MBE tests content that is important to beginning the practice of law, the NCBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners) drafters evaluate questions on their relevance and credibility to beginning practitioners.  In recent years, the MBE has undergone many changes to become more consistent in style and format, resulting in more concise questions.

Ladies Start Your Engines - It's Time to Study for the Bar Exam!

To all the 3Ls wrapping up finals and trying on caps and gowns, my heartfelt congratulations. But you're not quite done yet. Now you have to study for the bar exam. On the downside, bar prep is no boring, stressful, and all-consuming. On the upside, this has been done before and those of us who survived to tell the tale have some advice.

First there's Ms. JD's advice columns and forum discussions. Topics of reflection include recommendations for diet and exercise, iPod classes, exam day rituals, and much much more. At the very least you can read my *now* amusing story about my computer failing in the middle of the California exam.

Then there is the vast collection of other online resources.  I am sad to report that my favorite of the bunch, "A Girl Walks Into a Bar (Exam)" appears to be defunct.

And finally, there are the hard copy options. One I came across recently is M.G. Groepler's "Daily Reflections for Bar Exam Study: An Inspirational Companion for Law Students and Experienced Attorneys Taking the Bar," which is a bit like yoga for the bar exam taker's brain.

So good luck to all those looking forward to a summer of outlines and pneumonic devices. In the words of good old Rosie the Riveter, "You Can Do It!"

Why I decided to go on my first real diet while studying for the Bar.

All advice I received for bar study strategy said that you eliminate all obligations, responsibilities, and distractions from your life before BarBri starts.  Bar study, I was told, will demand every brain cell and every free minute of your life.  On the first day of BarBri a rep from the company even told us that we shouldn’t take time to grocery shop or get hair cuts and that we should basically outsource every aspect of our lives to our personal support system of friends and family.

I took this advice to heart.  I prepped my spouse for months and months before hand that I wouldn’t be available to help with family responsibilities.  I warned my family that they wouldn’t be hearing from me and that I would be absent from all events for three months.  I was ready to disengage from life with the exception of my books, notes, and practice tests.

Here’s the thing with this strategy, I am better at juggling four balls than three.  I perform better when I am busy and multi-tasking.  I think that many women are like that.