Post
by Djruss » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:52 am
I came across these boards recently and as someone who has passed a bar exam in three different states over 18 years of practicing law I thought I'd share my own experience with preparing. My most recent one was the February, 2017 Hawaii Bar exam. I am also licensed in California and New York. I'll give you what I did and then highlight the most important tip that worked for me every single time.
I took these exams in 1999 (California), 2005 (New York) and of course Hawaii's a few months ago. Its pretty shocking to see how much more information there is available now and how much even more pressure is generated by the Internet these days: In 1999, when I was fresh out of Law School, it was mostly just keeping up with your peers - there was nothing like it is now.
So here is my preparation detail. Note, it changed over the years as my life and available time changed. Also, I took the full bar exam in all of these states (I did not take an attorney's exam). I'll start with what I did from law school and then what I did while working full time for 2 other exams. You will notice changes in how I prepared:
1999, Summer, California: I did what every law student was doing. I took Barbri. I took the multistate prep course available back then (is it still around by the way? I remember the instructor reminding us of the time limit for each question and saying "hit and move on! hit and move on!"). I went to Barbri classes [videotape viewings].
I read the outlines. I then made my own outlines out of those outlines and studied from my own: I've seen some strange criticisms of this technique but I find the act of physically writing down my outline (not just typing) and then studying from that makes it much easier for me to memorize and understand the material. It also, if youre like me and like to handwrite your test answers [I hear that's archaic these days], it has the additional benefit of preparing your hand / wrist for the bar exam [yes, that little callous that pops up on your finger during your preparation will harden and be a useful protector for your skin when you take the exam].
I wrote every practice essay and turned them in to Barbri to be scored.
I do not recall how many performance tests I did, but it was a few at least. However, I felt extremely comfortable with what this tested and with a closed universe and all materials I needed provided to me it felt, perhaps in a strange sadistic way, fun to me that I'm being challenged like that ("heres everything you need to create your answer / bake a cake, now show me you can use it / bake it").
I did hundreds of multistate questions. But not over a thousand. I do not recall the exact amount. But I did not do *all* or even close to it.
I handwrote the actual essay and performance portions of the test.
Result: Passed on first attempt. I always felt my strength was in writing and so I did focus heavily on that during preparation. I have no idea how I did on the MBE since they did not send your score if you passed. However, what I can say is that for me I felt incredibly frustrated with the MBE practice questions in general, and I personally did not feel doing more made me any better at determining what "the best answer" is - what can I say, my mind played devil's advocate too much (which, by the way, is a good attorney trait...just not really for an MBE question you have less than 2 minutes to answer).
I never thought I would take another bar exam again and did not want to, until the idea to move to New York popped in my head; so, of course...
2005, February. I'm a full-time employed associate at a law firm. I did not have the time I did as in law school. So I decided to play to my strengths, and just do what I can to stabilize my weaknesses. This time:
1. I did not attend any barbri classes. In retrospect, I decided those were a waste of valuable time for me. They're covering whats in the books anyway. So I just purchased barbri books.
2. I created outlines from those by reading and outlining the conviser mini review on a topic. I would then cross reference that with the larger outline just to see if anything I felt was important from the larger outline was missing from the CMR [or, sometimes the larger outline did explain something better than the CMR]
When doing this I tried to average 2-3 outlines a week at a minimum.
3. After creating those outlines, I studied / memorized them. This typically took me 2-3 times going over my own outlines. Could take a few hours or more per topic, but was able to complete memorization in about 2-3 weeks.
4. Took a few practice essays. For the rest, I read the questions and then would either jot down issues I saw [and mentally/quickly go over how I would attack the essay] or just quickly issue spot in my head and read the model answer. Also, since the NY board of examiners publically made available prior model answers online, I studied those.
5. I took a quick glance at the performance test materials just to re-familiarize with the general things it covers. I took no practice tests nor did I read any of the sample test questions. As I recall NY back then had 1 performance test and I felt comfortable I could tackle a closed universe.
6. MBE: I did maybe 200 questions. Yes, you read that correctly. I spent one 3 hour session doing 50 questions (like a half marathon), the rest was here and there doing 10 or 20 at a time, and timing myself. I then perused the detailed answer section (even for questions I didnt read) for maybe another random 50 questions just to get the gist of the rationales supporting some of the wonky answers. Why? Because I felt like doing more, for me, was a waste of my time and wasnt going to make me any better: I was averaging like 5-6 correct out of every 10 and wanting to chuck my book out the window when I wasnt getting better which is what happened when I took the CA bar.
I handwrote the test.
Results: Passed on my first attempt. NY did give my MBE score and I was right on the mean [I dont recall if it was raw or scaled, but I did receive it]. Pretty sure what carried me was the essays and performance test.
So, that was it, no more bar exams for me, right? Why do that again after passing twice.
Well, you fast forward about ten years later, are married, have a one year old, are a partner in your firm and manager of your office, and your other partners are pushing you (because of proximity) to be licensed in Hawaii.
Before I detail this, I will just say after going through this as a father and a husband (who had an extremely supportive wife, many blessings on her!), I have a large amount of empathy for anyone who has to prepare for a bar with a little one / a child or baby. It is extremely challenging (whether you are working or no).
So with increased responsibility at home and at work I tackled the Hawaii February 2017 bar preparation much the same way as with New York. The biggest difference was I took maybe 1 or 2 practice essays, and at a minimum glossed over the model answers for the others. I did maybe 200 Multistate questions (of which I averaged, again, getting about 5-6 correct per 10, although closer to 6). I spent maybe 20 minutes reviewing the rules for the performance test. So, the "practice" portions of everything I did even less of than when studying for NY.
My memorizing of the law / material, however, remained the same: I would read the Barbri CMR and make my own outline, and just cross-reference with the larger outline to make sure the CMR didnt miss anything. I then committed the material to memory by reading from my self-created outlines. For some things that "didnt make sense" or I was unsure of, e.g. distinguishing all the different constitutional tests, I would just use google to assist me by reading an actual case on the issue. Bottom-line: My goal was to ensure I understood the material, not just memorize it. If this means reading a court's reasoning for a principle of law that may not be 100% clear to you, do it.
I also still handwrote the test (shocker, eh? Sorry, some habits just die hard I suppose - just so you know, I actually print handwrite, not handwrite handwrite. What's funny is when I first took the bar in 1999 there were hundreds of hand writing exam takers in the room. In Hawaii in 2017? I think maybe 20, with the vast majority of test takers on lap tops in another room).
Result: Passed on first attempt.
Conclusion: I found what works for me. The reality is, I found it extremely important in 2005 and 2017 to make sure I understood the material, not just memorize it: There is a difference. Once you understand the material, applying it to a set of facts, e.g. "issue spotting", becomes much easier, and I think it shows for the essay portion.
In any event, I did not write this to "impress" anyone. Rather, it was to impress upon you to do what makes you feel comfortable in learning the material. My method is just one way you can try. Feel free to try it or your own: There is no one correct way.
If there's one piece of advice I learned from all this to pass on and I'll repeat it again: Dont just memorize, understand the material (which is how my own outlining helped me as I would make sure I understood what I was outlining and what words I would use to describe / summarize the concepts before moving onto the next section to outline). This provides a huge confidence boost and prepares you for almost anything they try to throw at you: I should know, been through it enough times!
