Tag Archives: bar prep

April 6, 2020 · 6:06 pm

Planning for the Bar Exam in the Midst of the Pandemic

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This is a challenging time to be finishing law school, and the current uncertainties about the timing of bar exam in light of the COVID-19 pandemic likely add to your stress. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to bar studies in this context, and I thought it would be helpful to consider different approach to bar studies during the last weeks of the semester.

For some of you, the transition to online learning has been difficult. You may find it hard to stay focused on school work for a variety of reasons – family or roommates are distracting, you have financial concerns, your job actually has increased demands, you’re facing physical or mental health challenges, the internet doesn’t always work, or being forced to study at home may have disrupted successful strategies you’ve used in the past to address a learning disability. You may not be ready to shift your attention yet to studying for the bar exam, and if that is the case, that is OK. It is OK to just focus on what needs to be done right now, and wait until after your final exams are over to worry too much about the bar exam. (Aside from making sure you don’t miss any deadlines for filing your application to take the bar exam.) And in particular, if your bar exam has been postponed until Fall, just remember that there will be additional months to study for the exam.

In comparison, some of you may have found the transition to online learning a smoother process. You may have more time than you’ve had in the past to study, and, if so, you may be looking for something productive to do with that time. If you will have to work during your bar studies, you may want to spread out your bar studies over a longer period of time as well. So for those who are ready to get a jump start on their bar studies, I have these suggestions:

  • First, think about whether you are currently taking a course that relates to the bar exam content. For example, many law schools offer courses in the final year that focus specifically on bar exam skills, or review of Multistate Bar Exam content. Or, you may be taking an upper level course that is bar tested, such as Business Associations/Organizations, Trusts and Estates, Evidence, or Family Law, or Criminal Procedure. If so, these courses relate directly to your bar study goals. As you study for your final exams in these classes, think about how to create study aids that will still be useful during the bar prep period. For example, you can create flashcards for the black letter law, set up comparison charts for the distinctions between your state’s laws and the majority rule, or create flow charts or other visual study aids for complex issues you are studying. Taking this approach has a double benefit – you will perform better on your final exams for these classes, but also build a stronger bridge to your summer bar studies. (This suggestion works for those who feel like they can’t worry about the bar exam right now as well – if you are taking one of these classes, you are automatically advancing your bar studies without additional effort.)
  • Second, BarBri is offering this 70-question Baseline Assessment for anyone planning to take the bar exam this summer. The Baseline Assessment is free, and you do not have to be signed up for BarBri’s bar prep course in order to take it. It is available to everyone. If you take the Baseline Assessment, BarBri will send you a report giving you specific information about areas of strength and areas that you will want to prioritize for improvement during your bar studies. If you are signed up for BarBri’s bar prep course, your results will also be integrated into that platform to further personalize study suggestions for you in the early weeks of bar prep. (Note: I do not receive any benefit from BarBri for mentioning this assessment.)
  • Finally, over the next several weeks, most commercial bar prep companies should begin providing early access to their course materials. If you find that you have the time to do so, you could begin using that early access to study for the bar exam. Just a note of caution though – don’t overdo things early on. You still want to make sure you focus your attention first on your classes this semester, and you don’t want to burn out before you get to the bar exam.

The important thing is that you ultimately determine what is the right thing for you to be doing right now. For some students, waiting to focus on the bar exam after graduation in the best plan, while for others getting started now is key. Don’t listen too much to what other students are doing in this regards, but really consider what you need. And if you need guidance and support in that process, don’t forget that you can reach out to the academic and bar support person or persons at your law school. They can help you develop your personal plan for bar exam success, taking into account your priorities and challenges. And they can suggest further resources to support your study efforts.

Looking for updates about your state’s bar exam? The National Conference of Bar Examiners provides updates about each state’s bar plans on its COVID-19 updates page, available here.

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February 19, 2020 · 4:10 pm

Last Minute Advice for February Bar Takers

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

It’s less than a week until the start of the February bar exam, and I’ve been having conversations with some tired, stressed-out bar studiers. I think it’s time for a pep talk, so here is my advice for the final days of bar prep:

First, assess your weaknesses and come up with a daily plan for the remaining days of bar prep. This is not the time to study all of the bar company outlines cover-to-cover. What are your weakest, actually-tested subjects? What topics within those subjects do you find most challenging? Focus your energy on those things, rather than attempting to review everything. When you review cover-to-cover, you are actually spending a lot of time on law you already know, and there’s no value to that approach in the final days.

Second, quit paying attention to your scores on your multiple choice practice sets. I always get emails from bar studiers in the last few days before the bar exam who are panicked because their scores suddenly dropped at the end. Your scores in the final days are usually not predictive of your ability to pass the bar. Instead, they may reflect the fact that you are tired, you are not taking adequate breaks from your studies, you aren’t sleeping, or you are rushing through the questions and not focusing enough on the details of each question. View practice MBE questions as an opportunity to just continue reviewing the law, regardless of whether you get the questions right or wrong.

Third, keep using essay questions in your studies. Even if you don’t have the time to fully write out your answers to the essay questions, take the time to issue spot and evaluate whether you have a plan for completing the analysis for each issue. This can be a great way to spot topics that you need to spend a little extra time on in the final days.

Fourth, run through your bar exam preparations. Have you checked the emails from the bar examiners as well as the bar examiners’ website to make sure you know what you are required to bring with you to the exam, what you are allowed to bring in the room, and what is prohibited? Get everything together so that you aren’t scrambling at the last minute. Evaluate how long it will take you to get to the bar exam location from where you are staying, and add significantly more time than that to ensure that you will have plenty of travel time regardless of emergencies. Want to know more about what to expect on the days of the exam? Most law schools send representatives from Academic Support, Student Services, or the Alumni Office to support their students on bar exam days, and they will have insight into some of the logistical concerns you may have.

Finally, and most importantly, make your health the highest priority in the final days of bar prep. Get on a sleep schedule that mirrors the timing you will need on bar exam days, and go to bed at a time that will allow you to get 8 hours of sleep (even if you don’t actually sleep that entire time). Sleep is the most important priority at this point – you will focus better if you have enough sleep, adequate sleep helps you manage stress better, and you will remember what you have studied more if you’ve protected your sleep. Eat regular meals, and make sure that they are nutritious. Your brain isn’t fed by junk food! And finally, take regular breaks. Bar studiers often don’t take enough breaks because they feel that the breaks take away from their study time, but breaks help your brain recharge so it can continue doing the hard work. If you find your attention wandering or you just can’t remember things you have known before, it often means you aren’t taking sufficient breaks.

Keep focus in these last days of bar prep, and know that your hard work will pay off in what you accomplish next week. It’s time to go out there and rock the bar!

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July 21, 2015 · 1:17 pm

Last Minute Bar Prep: Using Checklists

Image courtesy of lordjiew at freedigitalphotos.net.

Image courtesy of lordjiew at freedigitalphotos.net.

In a previous post I talked about how to create checklists to study for final exams in law school. Many of the techniques that work in law school are also helpful on the bar exam. In the final days before the bar exam, you are most likely reviewing your commercial outlines and taking practice exams. Maybe you have created some flow charts or flashcards to help you learn the material better. A checklist is a simple, quick way to focus your studies even more.

So how should you create bar prep checklists? You will create one checklist for each subject. Go through the outline, creating a quick list of all topics and subtopics—if the outline has a table of contents, this process can be even quicker. Don’t include any details–your checklist should be made up of key words and phrases, not tests, definitions, or other detailed information. Try to fit your outline on one or two pages. (You can create columns if necessary.) It shouldn’t take very long to create the checklist for each subject.

Now, what can you do with this checklist? Here are three good ideas for how to use checklists as you study and take the bar exam:

(1) Use your checklists to evaluate what issues you need to focus on during your final days of bar prep. For each item on the list, ask yourself: Do I know the law related to this issue? If I see this issue on the exam, am I prepared to analyze it? If yes, cross it off the list. Bar studiers often study by reading through the entire outline over and over again, but this is an inefficient way to study. You want to focus your attention on the issues that you aren’t as comfortable with, and the checklist helps you to do that. The next day, print out a new copy of the checklist and go through this process again. You should be able to focus your attention on fewer issues each day.

(2) Use your checklist to think about the relationship between legal issues. Sometimes when you are studying from an outline, it is difficult to see how issues relate to each other. But one of the keys to spotting issues in an essay question is understanding those relationships. Because a checklist strips everything away except for the key issues and sub-issues, it is easier to identify those relationships.

(3) If you commit the checklist to memory, you can use it on the exam to spot issues. It may not be possible to memorize every checklist, but usually bar studiers have trouble identifying issues for some subjects more than others. For those more difficult subjects, a memorized checklist can help you stay focused if you get an essay question on that subject during the bar exam.

Checklists are a quick and easy tool for focusing your studies in the final days before the bar exam. I wish you the best as you study for the bar!

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