Jenny’s Somewhat Helpful, Tongue in Cheek Bar Exam Tips

I realize its approaching that wonderful time when law students start to panic about the bar exam.  In the interest of helping out poor law students (I am still young and green enough to remember BEING one of those poor law students) I offer these somewhat helpful, somewhat tongue in cheek tips for the bar exam. Caveat (that’s a nice lawyerly word to use on your exam by the way — makes you sound smart, see tip five), I’ve only taken one exam and I’ve only taken Ohio’s test AND I self-studied.

1.  Study the state distinctions in the rules.  At least for the July 2005 edition of the 2.5 day torture fest, the examiners loved testing where Ohio’s rules differed from the “Model” rules or the Federal rules (i.e. in Civil Procedure).  If you were up on those areas, you were golden on the essays.  I was not.  (I ruled the MBE — except for criminal law — which is how I think I passed)

2. PMBR makes CDs with taped lectures.  Put them on your ipod and listen to them even when you’re doing other things (like exercising).  They are excellent.  As I said, I rocked the MBE and I think that’s why I did.  Also I followed the advice in tip four below.

3.  Take the bar courses during law school.  It really helps.  I guess its a little late for that advice. Still, I didn’t take Criminal Procedure, Secured Transactions (that’s UCC Article IX ), or Estates / Wills and I passed. Mainly by following the advice in number five.

4.  The MBE is cruel — either you know it or you don’t, and they try and trick you, so even if you do know it, it looks like you don’t.  The MBE is black-letter law.  So if you’re good at memorizing, you’ll be good at the MBE.  I recommend learning what some of the rules are and then using the process of elimenating answers.  For example, although there might be just ONE question on the MBE about, say, the Rule Against Perpetuties, RAP kept cropping up time after time as a potential answer in the Real Property area.  You might be tempted to just not study or know RAP since its only one question, but knowing what RAP is (and don’t ask me what RAP is because the day after the bar exam I erased it from my memory and replaced it with Civil War stuff) makes it easy to knock it out  as an answer and it probably will appear more than once as a potential answer.  Also, do lots of practice questions … you’ll start to learn how the examiners try and trick you.  Treat each of the multiple choice questions as a true/false and you should do ok.  It worked for me (and c’mon, we all know I am not the brightest star in the sky).

5.  Even if you have no clue what you’re talking about on the essays, pretend you do.  Throw in all those cool terms you learned during bar review for the topic and hope you sound smart and the examiner figures even if you don’t know your stuff, you’ll be good at faking it. Hey, part of being a real world lawyer is sometimes faking it or, at least, adapting on the fly. So show them you KNOW how to be a real lawyer and maybe they’ll have pity on you.  Someone had pity on me.  Somehow I actually got points on the Will question and I was way, way, way out in left-field.  In fact I was so far out in left-field I wasn’t even in the same time zone as the examiner.

And one last tip … if you did decently in legal writing, I wouldn’t even bother studying for the Multi-State Performance Test (the MPT).  I didn’t spend one minute on it, and got two excellent scores.  I know no-one who did bad on it and no-one who failed because of the MPT.  So I think you might have to be particularly talented to blow the MPT. Seriously, if you did well in your legal writing classes or you have some clerking experience writing stuff, you should be fine.  (That said, don’t blame ME if you don’t study for the MPT and you don’t pass!)

NOW, I am going to go work on my website.

pass lists

Pass lists in states other than Ohio have been slowly posting to the internet. Its interesting to see who passed from people who took the bar exam in other states. Then again, it feels almost voyeuristic to be checking to see who passed and who didn’t pass.

I’m not sure about how I feel about this whole, let’s publish the public list thing. I can’t really argue with posting it after a period of time has passed — after all, who is an attorney in a particular state is a matter of public record. Nevertheless, I have to say that I really don’t like the way Ohio handles it. Ohio published the public list right off the bat — something most states didn’t seem to do. If your name was on the list, well congratulations. If not, well, um, you get to enjoy spending the last week of February back in Columbus. I think it would have been a bit, well, kinder, to code the list (i.e. do it by exam number, password protect it, something like that) for at least for 48 hours or so. If you didn’t pass, I think its a little nicer to be able to break the news to other people rather than for everyone all over the country who knew you were taking the bar to know you failed, maybe even before you could check yourself. But that’s just my opinion.

The bar exam is quickly becoming a distant memory. Oh, sure, of course I’ll be checking the pass lists again for the next couple times to see if my friends who graduate later pass. But that horrible, unrelenting stress and pressure … well, that’s now a distant memory for me.

If you want to give yourself an ulcer, take a bar exam.

sworn in

I was sworn-in today.

Oh, and do I have a race report for Murray Ridge. That was one for the ages. But more on that in a later post.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Sixty degrees, almost no clouds in the sky. I went down to Columbus with my parents for the new lawyer swearing-in cermony. My only worry going down was that there was no seat assignment card in my congratulations letter packet. This turned out to be no problem. They had a table in the front where they simply gave us our seat assignments if we didn’t have the card for some reason.

The Ohio Supreme Court holds the admission cermony in two sessions — the first, in the morning, is for law schools in southern Ohio; the second is for law schools in the northern half of the state. Its held across the street from the State House at the beautiful Ohio Theatre. They had a HUGE organ which was kind of cool too.

The event started promptly at two. Its actually an open session of the Ohio Supreme Court, though its not extremely formal or anything. There were a couple of speakers, then they issued the oath. After the oath was issued (and we officially became attorneys), they called each person up and handed them a large packet with their Certificate of Admission. I don’t know how they seated us, but I ended up in seat B116 which put me right at the front — second row, good seats. The only thing I didn’t like was you couldn’t sit with your friends or classmates. The cermony was over by 3:15.

The Certificate is really cool — its big and fancy and signed by the Court with a big gold seal of the state on it.

Only bad news is I have to pay a $300 registration fee. I am so broke its not funny. And now I need new running shoes too. Argh.

reflections on the bar exam

What can I say? I am extremely happy. I feel like I had a very large and angry monkey (kind of like the evil monkey on Family Guy) on my back that was very expensive to feed. That monkey has run off into the jungle and is gone now! I was so excited that my best law school friend passed too. It wouldn’t have been the same if we hadn’t both passed. Despite our success, though, my law school is apparently doing a very poor job of preparing us for the bar. We had the lowest pass rate — overall and first-time takers — of any Ohio law school. I’m sure they aren’t happy with the results of the exam.<br />
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A word on my prep for the bar, since I didn’t do Bar/Bri like most everyone else did. Here’s what I did, in case you’re curious and are thinking of going a different route too. I bought the Ohio Course from the <a href=http://www.barexam.com/>Study Group</a>. I felt the materials were adequate; however, I also didn’t feel that well prepared for the actual Ohio essay topics. The Study Group stuff did not make a big enough deal out of the Ohio law distinctions in each subject — the audio CDs were generic black-letter law, which was good for getting the basic law down, but it didn’t stress the Ohio distinctions and they tested heavily on that. I also felt it should have covered Crim Pro and there should have been CDs for the multi-state areas that stressed Ohio law distinctions seeing that those are essay topics here. <br />
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For the Multi-State, I used a computer program with sample multi-state questions from the Study Group. I did all the questions twice. To learn the multi-state subjects, I bought a pair of used (last year’s) PMBR books (the red and blue books) and I bought a set of audio CD lectures. I read repeatedly through the outline book, did half the blue book questions, and I listened through the audio CD lecture set twice. I must say that I would recommend PMBR because I felt very well-prepared for the MBE.<br />
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That was all I used. I didn’t take any classroom courses. I did nothing at all for the MPT — I didn’t even open the book the Study Group sent me. I felt fine on the MPT and the MBE — what worried me was the Ohio essays. So I’m not sure I would recommend the Study Group, despite my success.<br />
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As far as the time I put in, I basically studied from June 1 to the bar exam. Some days I studied probably only an hour or two, but most days I put in probably three to five hours a day (the time I spent increased the closer I got to the exam). That includes time listening to the lectures and doing questions. <br />
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I never did a simulated MBE; I didn’t write any essays. Smart? Probably not. Did it work? Yes. Why did it work? Don’t know, but I think I’ve basically figured out how I learn. I don’t NEED to sit with a group of people — in fact, that’s distracting. I work best by myself at my own pace. I graduated with honors from law school, so I know how to write an essay exam answer. I learn best by hearing something and then reading it in front of me, so that’s how I studied for the bar. <br />
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I think half the battle with the bar exam is understanding how YOU personally learn best and then working to maximize your strengths and weaknesses. For me, I felt that as long as I knew the law, everything else would fall into place. Like I said, I write pretty well and I never have time problems in finishing tests. So I focused most of my energy on learning the law. But, if you happen to be a poor essay writer or poor at time managment, then it probably would behoove you to do practice MBEs or to write practice essays. I think its important to spend your time on your weak areas (for example, for me Crim Law is a very weak area) and not waste your time and energy on stuff you are already good at.<br />
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Finally, would I recommend a home study course? Maybe. If you don’t need to go to class to motivate you and you can find a good study course, then I’d do it. You’ll save some $$ and you’ll save time (commuting for example). It lets you pace yourself (can be a good or bad thing, of course). You can always rewind the CD to listen to a track again; if you’re sick or life requires something, you can easily take a day off and make it up when it works for you. If you’re taking a bar exam in the near future, good luck. :)

I’m a JD

Assuming I passed all of my classes (an assumption I perhaps should not make after the Admin Law exam from Hell), I am now a JD. Should I feel different? I don’t feel different. But if I think about it, there are some differences. I’m more careful now and I always put on my seat belt. My vision is worse. I weigh less. I now read contracts (or at least scan them!) before affixing my John Hancock. I have a ton more debt — both credit card and student loan. I know what some fancy words like res ipsa loquitor (did I spell that right?) and res judicata mean, or at least I kind of know what they mean. I tend to think more critically about things and I don’t make as many assumptions. I have a huge collection of highlighters (and I mean HUGE). I got some cool free stuff (and I still have some loyalty points from Lexis to cash). I met some awesome people and some not so awesome people — all told, I think I gained some cool friends.

What else has changed? My grandfather died. My dad got cancer. My grandparents on my mother’s side reconciled with her so I “gained” some grandparents. Irwin the Angelfish passed on to the Big Fish Tank in the Sky. I learned I liked to cook. I decided to at least stay in Ohio for awhile and take the Ohio bar. My surfing improved, slightly. My running improved a lot. I battled an eating disorder. I lost touch with all of my college friends and the few I knew in high school. I did not get to read much about the Civil War or put much time into the website. I got closer to Significant Other. I made a bunch of trips to Gettysburg. I stayed sane … I think. I obtained a collection of impressive looking legal books. I learned to hate the bookstore. And to hate insurance companies — particularly those that prey on students — even more. Bought a suit. Then bought another. Learned how to interview.

What hasn’t changed? My hair. Still a runner’s ponytail and its still that odd auburn chesnut brown color its always been. Still dress pretty much the same. My musical tastes haven’t changed … though they have expanded. Still a Civil War buff. Still a surfer. Still a runner. Still love bird watching. Still have fish. Still like to follow horse racing. Still have not seen a Triple Crown winner in my life time. The Indians still stink. Cleveland still has not had a champion — in anything. Still don’t particularly like the law or the idea of being a lawyer.

Regrets? Not going to a better law school. Not working harder on my law review note … I wanted it published. Not getting better grades first year. Not finding a job with a law firm 2L summer and taking an “academic” job instead. Going to law school altogether, probably. If I had it to do over, I’d have become a high school history teacher and a track coach. But c’est la vie.

A JD. Me. No one would think it to look at me. I still look like I am in high school or at best early in my college career. I should feel different. But, I just feel like I’m a little bit older.