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Ask The Professor: Bar Review As Football

Don’t just learn the law, but train to pass the bar exam.

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Okay, hear us out… studying for the bar exam is a lot like playing football.

Before you can win a football game, you need to learn the playbook and practice the plays. Teams that do not practice well or do not know the playbook will struggle to wins games. Similarly, students who are unprepared end up being unsuccessful on the bar exam.

Simply stated, knowing the playbook does not win the game. Being able to execute it does. Same is true about the bar exam. Knowing the law does not get you to pass; it is about being able to score points with your knowledge…

The bar examiners’ content outline is the playbook. Your study materials are the plays. Without knowing what plays can be called (the law in general) or the routes and assignments (the specific testable rules), you won’t even be able to play the game. But, as anyone who has ever played football can tell you, practice (doing MBE questions and writing out essays) is the most important part.

Simply knowing the law is not enough. Students studying for the bar exam need to not only study the substantive rules and concepts, but they must include targeted skills training on the MBE and essays. Just as coaches are important for a team’s success, so are tutors, essay, MBE, and MPT workshops for students studying for the bar exam — especially for students retaking the exam.

Too many football metaphors? The bottom line is that there are many stages to preparing for the bar exam. Make sure you don’t ignore skill instruction. Practice doesn’t necessarily result in a favorable outcome. Perfect practice does.

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As bar exam pass rates continue to decline nationwide, many are asking themselves what has gone wrong to result in such dramatic pass rate drops. While several factors may be contributing to double digit drops in pass rates, a lack of proper skill-based bar exam preparation is surely exacerbating the problem year after year.

Retakers of the bar exam many times make a critical error in that they think they did not know enough law. It is more likely they did not know how to score points with the law they did know.

To win a football game, teams need to have a good offense and defense. To pass the bar exam, students need to know the substantive law and understand how to apply their legal knowledge to a given fact pattern to score points.

Don’t just learn the law, but train to pass the bar exam.

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Professor Joseph Marino has been a fixture in the world of legal education for the past 40 years. Whether you’re just starting law school, about to take the bar, or an attorney in need of CLE, he and Marino Legal Academy are here to help. He is the Director of Marino Bar Review and the Marino Institute for Continuing Legal Education. He writes a bimonthly column, Ask the Professor. Visit the Marino CLE page on ATL, connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook, or email him via info@marinolegal.com.

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