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Personally, I noticed when I used CRAC, my essay scores were higher. Maybe it conveyed confidence as writer, but I used it ever since, even where I was told IRAC was preferred.
Has anyone else specifically used CRAC over other forms and noticed a difference?

I strictly used Crac at on the bar. The reader sees your answer twice.

CIRAC

I can only speak for the 2 BAR exams that I took. It all depends on the format of the state's essays. For instance, in PA the issues are very easy to spot. Each question has 3-4 subparts, and each subpart contains a specific issue to discuss. Often, the issues can be ascertained easily by the specific questions that are asked. So for PA, it was meaningless to include an issue statement. And I didn't do so.

For NJ, the essays were more opened ended. Each essay contained many many issues that you could discuss, and it was impossible to discuss all of the issues. So for that exam, I formatted it by multiple mini-IRAC statements for each question.

Ultimately, my advice (and what I was taught) is to avoid the Issue statement if you possibly can. The exam graders want to see clear concise writing and are more concerned with the application of facts. Repeating an issue statement when it's obvious might actually annoy the exam graders.

LSATclincher wrote:I can only speak for the 2 BAR exams that I took. It all depends on the format of the state's essays. For instance, in PA the issues are very easy to spot. Each question has 3-4 subparts, and each subpart contains a specific issue to discuss. Often, the issues can be ascertained easily by the specific questions that are asked. So for PA, it was meaningless to include an issue statement. And I didn't do so.

Ultimately, my advice (and what I was taught) is to avoid the Issue statement if you possibly can. The exam graders want to see clear concise writing and are more concerned with the application of facts. Repeating an issue statement when it's obvious might actually annoy the exam graders.

This. I used CRAC over IRAC for the Texas bar exam and scored very high on the essays (based on my MBE and cumulative score). The question sub-parts contain the issue to discuss so repeating it is a waste of time when you should be applying the law to the facts.

logdog wrote:CIRAC

CIRAC for sure.