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Advice to Law Students on Preparing for the Bar Exam

Due to several events that have transpired over the last few years, I have decided to create a webpage dedicated to assisting law students to avoid some of the mistakes that I made in law school that probably contributed to a far more stressful Bar Exam review. The February 2009 Oklahoma Bar Exam was one of the lowest passage rates in Okalahoma history. I was one of the 56% that passed. Watching numerous of my friends study for and fail the Bar Exam, left me asking, “What else can be done?” I hope to fill part of that void with some advice. This page is dedicated to my friends that did not pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam.

Recommendations for ALL Law Students

• Congratulations! You made it into Law School. If you are reading this portion of my advice, then I suspect that you are either a 1L or a 2L. If not, you are more than welcome, but you may find the advice a bit outdated for your situation. Feel free to skip down to the Final Semester Law Student Advice section. For those 1L and 2L, you are in for an experience of a lifetime (both good and bad). Prepare yourself and your family for the next several years. You experience will probably be a mixture of a euphoria-agony. That is normal. Law School requires more from you than you ever dreamed. It requires focus, discipline, and most of all, TIME. If you put in the time required, you will probably become a ghost to your friends and family. I speak as a part-time student that worked the entire time I was in law school. For those that do not work, it may be a bit easier. Regardless, it WILL strain your relationships! Numerous law students I knew (including myself) went through a divorce during or shortly after law school. Prepare them and yourself. It will not be easy, but it is a necessity. The following paragraphs are advice that I give based on my friends and my experiences in school. I hope it helps.

• What to expect from Law School Professors? Law School professors are just like individuals in every other profession. You will find some that are even tempered and some that have the temperment that even a badger can't stand. Some are masters of their craft, and some are absolutely inept. Some will challenge your intellect by a verbal eviceration in front of the entire class, and some will try to guide you as a mentor. The best thing that I can tell you, is to go in expecting the worst type of instruction that you could receive for your learning style. If you get what you are expecting, then there is no big loss or suprise. If it turns out that there is a perfect fit, then you are ahead. Although the variety of styles makes for an almost schizophrenic nighmare, the variety will train you to cogently debate your opinions in front of classmates with an aversarial authority figure. This will be invaluable when you get into practice, and the time comes that you must educate a judge on an issue at a hearing.

• How to prepare for the first class? Every semester of Law School begins the same. Most professors post the syllabus and required reading prior to the first day of class. As elementary as this sounds: DO THE READING! This may seem somewhat lacking in prophetic value, but I can't tell you how many classes that I attended that someone did not read for the first class. Trust me, you do not want to be the person that the professor tells, "so you think you will be a lawyer, when you can't even follow my syllabus..." Not a good place to be. There are always a few professors that don't post their first reading. That is usually a gimme, so take it and move on. The point is simple "follow the professor's instructions." This too will be invaluable in the practice of law. One of the most overlooked items is the local Court rules for filing. Fail to read the instructions in that scenerio, and you will hope to get just a tongue lashing from the judge, opposed to getting your case dismissed! A tough one to explain to your client. "Opps, sorry, I'm an idiot" doesn't quite work...

• How to prepare to recite cases in front of the class? Simple, READ AND BRIEF EVERY CASE, EVERY CLASS. This is really not as hard as it sounds. The first part of the profound statement is to read all the assignment, including the footnotes. I had several professors that loved to make people look foolish by calling on them to recite a case from the footnotes. It is ALWAYS a bad start when you say, "I didn't read the footnotes" or worse yet, "I didn't read for today." You have just painted a HUGE bullseye on yourself for that professor to repeatedly call on you to recite a case throughout the semester (more like EVERY class). The next key is to brief the case on paper or on your laptop. The things that should be in your brief: facts, issue, rule, and holding. Get the facts that important for this case (some professors want minutia for facts, but most only want important facts that make that case unique). The issue is the key point that is being decided. The rule is statutes, regulations, previous holdings of other cases cited in the case at hand as authority for the Court's decision. The holding is what the Court decided to do with this case (i.e. the new rule created or the old rule followed).

• How much and what should I study during the semester? I would have given my arm to know how much and what to study my first year of law school. Don't get me wrong, I was not an idiot in undergrad...in fact, I was a Registered Nurse when I entered Law School. However, knowing how and what to study is a sadistic game invented long ago by evil professors to ritualisticly haze first year law students (ok, so I am being a little over the top there).  Honestly, the best metaphor I ever heard about law school was that "it is a game where the professor tells you there is a ball, hides the ball from you, and then beats you up when you can't find the ball." Hearing this was like hearing angels singing for the first time because I realized that law school does not teach you the law, it teaches you how to teach yourself the law. This holds true in every aspect: from spotting the underlying issue of the case, to understanding the court's analysis of the rule of law, to determining what the holding of the case is and why. My first year of law school was agony because I had difficulty sifting minutia from important facts. Sadly, the best advice I can give is to ALWAYS do the reading assignments and brief the cases. This will mean at least 1-2 hours a night must be devoted to each class, depending on the length of the assignments. However, doing the reading will train you mind to understand how and why the court rules as it does and train you as to what the court believes is important. It WILL take training to learn how to read and understand case law. Practice is the only sure way that I know to master it.

• How to study for final exams? Before I begin, here is a fun thought: generally, your ENTIRE grade for each class IS your final exam. This will usually be modified up or down by things like attending class, preparation, etc., but the most I have seen this raise a grade is 1/3 of a letter grade (but it can reduce it MUCH more than that). As far as how to prepare for finals, you should be briefing every case on a daily basis and taking notes during the lectures. Between those items you should have a good grasp on what the professor considers important. About one month prior to the end of class, start creating an outline (based on the class syllabus) with the case names, rules, and holdings. This outline will need to be updated after each class during the remaining classes before the break for finals. If you stick to this method, you should have your entire class condensed to outline form. You should not have open your book during the break before finals, and all of your studying can be done from your outline.

• Balancing "having a life" v. Law School Well, this is one area that I am probably not the best person to be giving advice. Although I remained a great dad throughout law school, my marriage suffered terribly and eventually ended in divorce. I have custody of my son, and our relationship is very good. I devoted the minimal free time that I had to my son, and our relationship did well. However, the time away from my wife took a heavy toll. I left law school a stranger to her, and her years of suppressed anger at me could not be contained. Sadly, I can give no pearl of wisdom here, other than take a little time every day to tell and SHOW your spouse that you still cherish them. Show them the reasons that you married them remain alive. Long hours away from each other are a necessity of the training for the profession you have chosen. Your spouse MUST know what these 3-4.5 years will do to your relationship. I wish you much better results than I (and many of my fellow students) had.

• Should I become a member of those organizations?
• Come back soon, I add more to this page as I think of things!

Recommendations specific to Final Semester Law Students

• Congratulations! You did it! Guess what? The marathon isn’t over! In fact, all you have really done is reached the final part of the marathon where all runners know "it is time to sprint the rest of the way." You have endured 3-4 years (in my case, 4.5 years) of living hell on earth. Now you have to endure 2-3 more months. You can do it. Do NOT be tempted to take a few days off to relax during Bar Review. You will quickly find that one day becomes two, which becomes three, which becomes a week, and that week becomes two weeks…congratulations, you just FAILED the Bar Exam. Stick it out, you have done it for years now. The next 2-3 months are what all the hell you endured for the last several years has been for, DO NOT FALTER NOW!

• University Bar Review? If your school offers a bar review course during the final semester, ATTEND IT! You are a FOOL if you don't! Although much of the information during the Bar review provided by your school will rehash much of BARBRI and PMBR, this is invaluable when done BEFORE those Bar Review courses. The additional time spent reviewing before the INTENSE review will help you absorb additional information during an incredibly stressful time. A few extra points on the MBE and Essays go a LONG WAY!

• IGNORE the attorneys in your firm, your family, or your friends that tell you "the Bar Exam wasn't that bad when I took it." Although they are probably right, the KEY phrase is "when THEY took it." The Bar has changed substantially since they took it (I would say mutated). There is evidence to show that the Bar Exam has increased in difficulty every year. Therefore, someone that took the Bar Exam five plus years ago, took an exam that is COMPLETELY different than the one you will be taking. Although they are probably telling you the truth about not studying much for the Bar Exam, you are NOT taking an exam like the one they took!

• Prepare yourself mentally, for the MOST intense studying of your ENTIRE Law School career. The next two to three months you MUST prepare to devote 8-10 hours per day, 5-6 days per week to intense study...YES, I DID say 8-10 hours per day. By the time you add up studying for the MBE, reading for BARBRI, and the BARBRI lectures, you are facing at least eight, and more realisticly, ten hours per day. You have a ghastly amount of the law to learn in a short period. If you do not stay on task, you WILL get behind and suffer. I do not recommend working during this time. However, some of us (like me) have families and jobs, and we can not take off during Bar Review (I worked my entire law school career and during Bar review). To those of you like me, FOCUS! You have to be VERY organized (some days I spent 14-16 hours studying, and some days I could not study at all -but overall, I averaged close to 50 hours a week of study).

• Prepare your family for what you will be doing for the next few months! Those of us that have spouses and/or children know how demanding a home life can be. You MUST explain, re-explain, and re-explain again what the implications of the Bar Exam are. If you fail, you will have a J.D. that will make you eligible to be a Law Clerk for $10-12 per hour. Some of your school loans will begin to come during the time you will be studying for the Bar a SECOND time (not a good feeling). Don't misunderstand, I am not saying ignore them. I AM saying make plans with them, and STICK to the plan (I had a wife and two children-I planned one day a week to do NOTHING, but play with the family). It can be done. However, it WILL mean you will have to make that time up on another day-like I said, some days I studied 14-16 hours!

• BARBRI? Don’t even think about taking the Bar Exam without at least BARBRI! (I only took BARBRI). If you are an auditory learner, BARBRI is essential to your passing the Bar. The course gives you many pneumonics for difficult areas of law. Additionally, they break down what areas have been tested for the last ten years, so you can focus your studies. Unfortunately, just like Law School some of the instructors keep you actively engaged, while some are the absolute best cure for insomnia. However, the course in my opinion is well worth the cost, since you get about eight books to study, plus the subject outlines and lectures. The outlines are WONDERFUL for focusing your learning in areas of law with which, you are not familiar or need refreshing.

• The MBE-“Torts, and Property, and Evidence, Oh my!” The Multistate Bar Exam will quickly become the bane of your existence in the coming months. The MBE is a 200 question multiple choice exam covering: Torts, Property, Evidence, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Criminal Law. Before you think “sweet, multiple choice,” wipe that thought COMPLETELY from your mind. It is not uncommon for the fact pattern of the question to be 1/3 to 3/4 of a page and each choice to be a sentence or two. The result is the question and the corresponding answers take a few minutes to read and analyze. Keep in mind, you have a total of 1.8 minutes PER QUESTION, or you will not finish the exam. This creates a high stress, power reading session for each question. Nearly, everyone that I know that failed the Bar, failed the MBE. It is grueling, and you MUST train yourself for it. The next two sections will be my advise on how I passed the MBE.

• The MBE-“conquer it or it WILL conquer you.” As I stated earlier, the MBE is grueling. However, there are several things that you can do to help. First, take at least the 3 day PMBR. The course will go through each of the seven areas of law, giving you sample questions from previous MBE’s. (I admit that I did not take the course, but I bought the red and blue workbooks). The workbooks are CRITICAL! You MUST devote time EVERY day to do at least 50 questions in the workbooks. In fact, if you have NOT completed the red book and much of the blue book by Bar Exam time, you haven’t done enough questions. (I did just under 3000 questions).

• The BIGGEST mistake that you can make in doing the MBE questions is to simply "do the questions." Instead, do the questions in the same manner you would be doing them on the MBE. Do nineteen (19) questions at a time, on a thirty (30) minute timer. This will give you 1.8 minutes per question and train you to internally monitor yourself. If you lose track of time, it will be fatal to your score (this happened to several of my friends on the Bar). Next, only do ninteen (19) questions at a time, so they are fresh in your mind when you review them. Remembering WHY you picked an answer is almost as important as grading the questions. Lastly, review even the questions that you got RIGHT, when I did this I found that I got several right for the wrong reasons-I was able to learn the right answer for the right reasons. The MBE is like NO exam you have EVER taken. You MUST train for it! (I followed this advice and scored a 157 scaled (to my knowledge, one of the highest on the bar exam when I took it).

• Don't reinvent the wheel! You passed Law School with at least a C average. You obviously know how to study. Your school's Bar Review, BARBRI, and PMBR will teach you what to study. I am going to make some generalizations now. For those of you with a C average, ATTEND EVERYTHING! This will focus your studying on what is critical, so you get those needed points to pass. No PAD or PDP parties, no going out on Thursdays to the Wormy Dog or $1 Beer night at the Redhawks, and no studying at the bars with friends! (lol, I speak from experience). For those of you with A & B averages: trust the study habits that you have used, so far. If you feel a lecture is a COMPLETE waste of time because your class notes are better, then they may be (I skipped 3 lectures for this very reason). But WATCH it, don't let your ego get the better of you (Again, I speak from experience) and study like CRAZY during the lecture time that you skipped.

• A word about study groups: DON'T! Unless your RELIED on this method of study during Law School, I don't recommend it. It is far too easy to get off task and lose valuable study time (remember, the are only so many hours in a day you can study). Actually, I started Bar Review in a study group that studied in a bar...I quickly left the group. Those study partners are friends on mine that I care about deeply, but I could not take the chance of studying to less than my ability. The Bar Exam is TOO important. Let your play time be your play time, and MAKE your study time, your study time!

• Check back soon, I will add more information as I think of it. YOU CAN DO THIS!

Disclaimer:

The information contained in this webpage is for general guidance on matters of interest only. The application and impact of laws and legal education can vary greatly from jursdictions and facts involved.

Accordingly, the advice is given with the understanding that the author, company, and website is NOT engaged in rendering legal, accounting, tax, or other professional advice and services.

Need More Information?

Although this page is geared for the final semester law students, I have tried to include information that will assist 1L's to NOT make many of the mistakes that my friends and I did.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me by clicking the email link, and I will respond as soon as possible.