July 2008 Bar Exam Preparation

Hello Everyone,

If you are taking the July 2008 bar exam, then I recommend that you begin (if you have not already begun) your studies now.  It is never too early to start preparing for the bar exam.  If you are in your last semester of law school you are probably busy with your final classes and perhaps looking into or seeking employment opportunities.  While these are both important, you should not delay in preparing for your next major hurdle - that of passing the bar exam.  If you have not already chosen a bar review program, then you had better get going on that very quickly.  Whether you have enrolled in a course or not, you should begin your studies now.

Here is what I recommend:

1.     Prepare for your bar prep by determining where you will study when you are not in class (will it be your bedroom, an office, a library?  Think about it and make a plan).

2.     Make a list of your best and worst subjects in law school.

3.     Identify your strengths and weaknesses early (for example, do you have trouble with MBEs or with writing?  You ought to know by now which areas you have difficulty with in terms of testing.  This will be important as you will want to devote more time to the areas that present trouble).

4.     Set aside time each week to study for the bar.  Your bar class will likely not begin until after you graduate from law school.  However, you should NOT postpone your studies until then.  Instead, begin taking practice mbes so that you can begin to familiarize yourself with the format of the bar exam and re-acquaint yourself with subjects that you have not studied in a long time.

5.     Begin preparing your family and friends for your upcoming unavailability (see our post about “disconnecting” during bar studies).  Your family and friends know what it has been like to have you in law school.  They certainly remember that you have midterms and finals and that during those few weeks each year that you were probably unavailable.  However, they may not have an appreciation for the battle that is ahead of you when you begin your preparations for the bar exam.  You will do yourself a great service in explaining to everyone now what this process will require.  Let your family and friends know that you will be unavailable once you begin your bar studies.  It is very helpful to prepare those around you for your absence.  I am not suggesting that you don’t talk to anyone at all for two months.  However, if you are serious about passing the bar exam, you will limit your social activity and focus on your studies.  To really have an excellent chance of passing the bar on your first attempt (or any attempt for that matter) you will need to study all day and everyday for two months.  During this two month period of time you will need to take breaks.  BUT, you will not have time to go out several nights a week, to take lots of phone calls, spend copious amounts of time emailing and text messaging and surfing the net.

Stay tuned for more advice in the coming days and weeks.  Also, if you are interested in receiving our free MBE strategies call our office at (562) 799-5581 or simply send us an email at: pass@barnonereview.com

Congratulations to all of you who are about to graduate from law school and good luck to all who are awaiting bar results from the February 2008 bar exam!

Sincerely,

Program Director/Founder
Bar None Review
(562) 799-5581
barnonereview.com

 

Bar Exam “Predictions”

Hello Everyone,

As is pretty common during this time of year, I have received many questions about bar exam predictions for the upcoming bar exam. I am pasting my reply to one of these questions below. See what I had to say to George below.

We should have more information/predictions posted by Tuesday, so please visit again. But, keep in mind that no one can predict the essay topics on the bar exam. It would be incredibly foolish to think that you could predict which subjects to study and which subjects you could skip. Yet, I have students ask me every bar round for advice about “which subjects” to study. The answer is: everything. You need to study every tested topic.

Stay tuned . . . more postings to follow in the next few days. Until then, good luck in your studies!

Sincerely,

Lisa Duncanson
Founder/Program Director
Bar None Review

Hello George,

First of all, thank you for visiting.

I am currently in the midst of grading my students’ three-day simulated bar exam. I will be returning their exams tomorrow and as a result do not have a great deal of time to respond today. However, I will post a list of possible topics that I think could be particularly likely - given their absence on past exams. Check back on Monday or Tuesday and I should have some information up then.

Until then, here are some of my thoughts: Criminal Procedure perhaps crossed with another topic (like Evidence) or simply just Criminal Procedure all by itself.

Civil Procedure is pretty high on everyone’s list of predicted topics (I would guess that most bar review companies would be predicting Civil Procedure), simply because it has not been tested in some time. Add to the fact that it has not been tested in a while and that there are a few California additions (as of July 2007) now being tested, and I think most anyone in the bar review business would predict Civil Procedure.

Corporations also has not been tested in some time and is another likely subject. However, it is really important to recognize that you need to know every subject and know it well because the California bar examiners have really designed an exam that is nearly impossible to predict. In fact, the examiners actually employ statisticians to make sure that the frequency and pattern of subjects chosen for the exam are not predictable.

Here is a warning that I give all of my students - do not think that because something was just tested on the prior exam that it will not be on the very next exam. You CAN NOT discount these topics or presume that what was on the last bar exam will not be on the next. A perfect example of this are the past two bar examinations (February 2007 and July 2007). Both of administrations tested Constitutional Law First Amendment Speech. Yet, most people presumed that since it was just tested on the February 2007 bar exam that it would not be tested again on the July 2007 bar exam. In fact, many topics have repeated three times back to back from one bar exam to the next.

If you were to review every past bar exam over the past 25 years in California you would see that nearly every bar round there is a repeat of 3 subjects from one bar exam to the next. Often these show up in the form of a cross over on the next exam where the topic repeats. For example, you might see a full blown First Amendment Speech essay (as we did on the February 2007 bar exam) and then it is followed up on the next bar exam administration as a crossover (we saw this in July 2007 where Criminal Law Murder was one call of a two call essay question and First Amendment Speech was the second call of that essay question).

I hope this helps for now. I will do my best to put up more about topics I think are likely. I would use this information as a way to include additional review on certain areas - but, NOT as a replacement for studying and reviewing all areas. I am sure that you realize this.

Thank you again for your comment. If you wish to contact me directly you may do so at pass@barnonereview.com

Please bear in mind that I will be pretty swamped for the next few days. However, we try to respond to every email as quickly as possible.

Good luck to you!

Sincerely,

Lisa Duncanson
Program Director/Founder
Bar None Review
(562) 799-5581
barnonereview.com