Preparation for each topic of the bar exam
After attending your bar review lecture, you look at your outline, essay book, MBE questions, and wonder, “What should I study first?” While it’s great to experiment to find what works best for you, here’s a look at which method I used that worked for me. I ended up evolving from one method to another. I’ll tell you what that was and why I evolved, after learning the hard way.
First, let’s look at all the possible options you could study for each subject:
What could you study?
Let’s say you are in the process of learning mistakes. You could do any of the following:
1) Go to a reading class
2) Review class reading notes
3) Review the convisor schematic (or whatever schematic you have)
4) Ask MBE questions
– Timed or non-timed
– Review MBE answers, only wrong or all answers
5) Practice rehearsals
– Scheme only or full essay
– Timed or non-timed
– Review the outline of the model or the model test
– redo test
Bar exam preparation method no. #1: Less Effective
At the beginning of my preparation for the bar exam, what I generally tried to do was the following, in this order:
1) Review Scheme
2) Go to class reading
3) Review class notes
4) *Asking untimed/timed MBE questions
6) *Make an essay and outline without time/time
7) Repeat steps 1, 3 – 5, in the order and as far as you deem necessary.
*I would review sample answers after asking each set of questions
This system isn’t bad, but here’s why it wasn’t the most effective method for me:
Doing steps 1 and 3, on your own, was a HUGE waste of time. He often took a LONG time doing it, didn’t get much value out of it and was exhausted by the time he got to MBE and rehearsals.
Not only do the outline and lecture notes take hours and hours to complete, but I rarely felt like I could do better on the MBE essay or questions as a result of all the time invested.
Remember, EVERYTHING YOU STUDY SHOULD HELP YOU DO BETTER ON ESSAYS, MBE, AND PERFORMANCE TESTS (if applicable). After all, that’s what you’re tested for, not how well you memorized the rules. If what you’re doing isn’t improving you as a result, change your tack.
Here’s an example of what I did that really slowed me down:
During the end of the first two weeks of bar exam prep, we spent three full days in class reviewing contracts, analyzing at least 100 what-if questions. Then I decided that I was going to put everything else on hold and finalize the contracts. I went over each and every one of the hypotheses, until I was clear in my mind what the answer was. I put aside all my other subjects, essays, and MBEs, and spent three full days, yes, three straight days going through those hypotheticals until I felt like I had cold contracts.
Excited, I opened my MBE book to begin answering multiple-choice questions about contracts. After the first five questions, I almost burst into tears. I only got one correct answer! I didn’t know anything! I finished the multiple choice question set and failed more than the Detroit Lions 0-16 season. As you can imagine, a kind of panic took over my mind. I spent three days reviewing ONLY the notes for the contracts class, fell way behind on everything else, and couldn’t even pass the MBE.
Maybe I’d have better luck with rehearsals? I opened the book and my heart sank when I realized that I couldn’t answer anything at all. This was a huge turning point in my preparation for the bar exam. I had been only slightly behind in my studies up to this point. Afterwards, I fell WAY behind and never caught up (good news is, I was still able to pass!).
The point of the story is this: just going through notes, attack sheets, and schematics will get you nowhere. You MUST do actual practice essays and actual multiple-choice questions under time conditions to prepare to pass the exam. Use your lecture notes and outline to review where you went wrong on your practice tests.
I’m not saying NOT to review your outline or lecture notes. Has to! But only do it in a way that helps you on essays and MBE.
This is what I mean:
After taking a practice or multiple-choice essay, CHECK YOUR ANSWERS. As you review your responses, you will probably see many things that you did wrong. Then go through the outline and lecture notes to see exactly what you did wrong and how you can fix it next time. Often times, if you just review the model’s answer, it will point you to the relevant rule and how it’s applied, so you don’t even need to go back to your outline or class notes anyway. Still, please review them if you feel the sample answer doesn’t give you all the information you need. The information you need would be the amount by which you can eliminate a perfect answer if you were to see the same question again.
So this is the method I adopted towards the end of my bar prep that saved me a lot of time, energy, and advisory expense.
Bar Exam Preparation Method #2: Most Effective
1) Go to class reading
2) *Ask MBE questions without time/timed
3) *Do an essay and scheme without time limit / timed
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 in any order and as necessary
*Review each answer after each set of questions, using outlines and lecture notes if necessary
But how can I take practice tests if I haven’t looked at the rules yet?
I know this is what you are thinking. I thought that too.
The first MBE and the first two essays, you probably know absolutely nothing. At least, that’s how it was for me, without fail. I looked at each essay for the first time and just went blank. I barely knew enough to spend ten minutes writing an essay, let alone an outline.
Alright!
That’s how you’ll learn. I will go into more depth on preparing MBE practice essays and questions in a later post. Dive in, practice, review the model response, learn your mistakes, and dive back in. By the third essay you’ll have a pretty good handle on things and by the fourth you should be weeding out the passing answers!
Although this technique worked for me, the most important thing to do is DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU. During law school, if you have been the ‘outline writer’ or ‘rules memorizer’ and it has worked for you, stick to your method of reading and memorizing rules before you take an essay. That’s great. This is your bar exam and preparation. Do what you feel is right for you.
As always, best of luck in passing your bar exam.
“This name appears in the pass list.”