Thursday, May 19, 2011

Preparing for the Bar Exam - Black Letter Law

Many of you will start your bar review course in a few days - you might be lead to believe that you must read everything, learn everything, and do everything the review instructors tell you to do or you will fail the bar exam. Realistically, this will probably result in you feeling overwhelmed and anxious. Make no mistake - you need to master the law, but the way you go about it is up to you. Bar review courses are designed for the "average student" and not everyone learns the same way or at the same rate. You should build an effective study schedule based on your individual strengths and weaknesses.

First, a solid knowledge of the law is required to answer bar exam essays and multiple choice questions. Simply attending lectures and reading through your bar review outlines does not allow for you to internalize the material in a way necessary to respond to these types of question. The bar exam requires you know the rules with precision, and you have to have a solid understanding of these rules. Consequently, your study plan should include time to memorize black letter law and time to practice making use of the law.

It is important to keep in mind that studying the material is one thing, practicing with it is another. We have already discussed the importance of doing practice problems; and it is important to remember that there is a method to learning from practice exams. It is essential to become familiar with the structure, style, and content of the exam questions you will see on the actual exam, thus the bar examiners' questions can be a primary source of study material. Most jurisdictions make past questions available on their websites. Likewise, the NCBE offers the opportunity to purchase released MBE questions on its website, and these questions are a great way to prepare for the bar exam. Remember when using practice problems to study for the bar exam, there is a difference between "answering" questions, and "analyzing" questions. You must know the reason you answered the question the way you did - it is not enough to get the question right, you must know how you've reasoned through the question to arrive at the right answer.

For more tips on learning the black letter law, you should reference Chapter 7 of Professor Darrow-Kleinhaus' book, Acing the Bar Exam (Thomson West 2008).

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