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Written by Jason R. Wolfe
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Tuesday, 20 November 2007 23:55 |
The bar exam, that wonderful point in the life of every lawyer where our skills are tested and measured those of our piers. Those magical two or three days where we analyze problems and calmly move through the multi-state questions. Oh, who am I kidding, its miserable. The bar exam is a gut-wrenching, nerve-racking exercise and anybody who tells you otherwise has not taken one.
The bar exam is a right of passage that every lawyer must go through and so the question becomes not will you take the bar but rather how can you pass the bar. The bar exam is an exercise that is best enjoyed once and so it should be paramount that you maximize your opportunities to pass the exam on the first try.
There are myriad study methods and prep courses that are offered, each offering what they think are foolproof ways to prepare for the bar exam. I am not going to give my opinion on specific companies or products in this brief article, that I will leave to your own research. I will rather try to set out some guidelines that helped me pass the Colorado bar.
First, devote as much time as you can to preparation; the bar exam is less about specific points of law and more about learning how to take their test. Particularly with respect to the multi-state bar exam questions or MBE. The MBE, for those who do not know, is the multiple choice section of the bar exam consisting of 200 questions taken in two 100 question increments over the course of six hours and covers six subjects including torts, contracts, real property, constitutional law, civil procedure and criminal law/procedure.
Success on the MBE, I found, came through practice. As the saying goes “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Answer – practice. The same principle applies to the MBE. Most of the preparation companies will provide you with sample MBE problems. Do them all. Do as many as you can in the weeks leading up to the exam, this is how you will pick up the bar examiners tricks. In my preparation I did well over 2,500 MBE practice problems and when it came to exam day, I felt as comfortable as one could under the circumstances.
Another good point with respect to the MBE is to practice under timed circumstances. Try to set out 33 questions and do them in one hour or less. Roughly one question every 90 seconds or so. This pace will keep you on track to finish in the allotted time.
The other portion of the bar exam are the essays. This is the portion that will likely vary from state to state (as opposed to the MBE which is uniform among those states that participate). Some jurisdictions have a one-day essay portion (e.g. Colorado) and others take two days for essays. Either way, there are many more subjects that are fair game on the essays and this part of the exam really becomes one of time management. I would suggest to practice with essays and again, practice under timed situations.
In Colorado, we had nine essays and roughly twenty minutes to answer each questions. I typed my answer, but regardless if you plan to handwrite or type your answer, practice like you take the test. You don’t want to get into the exam and be uncomfortable with a keyboard under your fingers.
You may have already had the internal debate of whether to take “bar exam classes” while in law school. When making these decisions keep in mind most preparation companies will provide you with all you need to know for the bar exam topics. If you pay attention during the preparation lectures you should gain enough of an understanding to do well enough to pass. For instance, while in law school I never took commercial paper and so going into the lecture for that topic was my first look at the difference between order paper and bearer paper and while I am by no means an expert, I know enough to answer a question and hit the high points.
The bar exam is a difficult test and it should be approached with the appropriate respect but it is not impossible and you will pass, you only need to put in the time to study and study properly. There are entire courses and shelves upon shelves of books that you can use to help get you there, but whatever study method you choose, stick to it. Religiously. Devote yourself to the Zen of the Bar for eight weeks and good things should happen. They did for me.
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