The big news last week was the epic fail rate of California’s February 2018 Bar Exam. This was a foreseeable consequence of law schools admitting people with lower than average academic credentials in recent years with no accountability. But from the test taker’s perspective, this is still a bitter pill to swallow. Chances are this was their second time failing. They will have to take the test again in July along with a fresh crop of graduates. I wouldn’t blame the test takers if they feel anxious, frustrated, and broke.
My alma mater has a consistently dismal pass rate which gave me an opportunity to speak to people who have failed — sometimes on numerous occasions — but eventually passed. Today, I want to share some of the general advice they gave when preparing to take the bar exam for the nth time.
Let it out. Understandably, you’ll be upset, sad, depressed, or all of the above. You need to release that negative energy inside you before you think about what to do next. So do what you need to do to get out of your funk, whether it means engaging in mindful meditation or mindless fun. If you need to break something, do it in a rage room. Get the frustration out of your system quickly because you have work to do.
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Carefully evaluate your score and plan accordingly. Once you feel better, look at your score because that will determine how you should study for the upcoming exam.
If your score was close to passing, then it probably means your study habits and test-taking skills are mostly fine. So you can study the same way you did before but you should spend more time on weaker subjects. If you can get a copy of your exam back, review it, and have others review your essay answers for substance and clarity. If you did not perform your best due to something beyond your control, take steps to ensure that something similar will not happen in the future. For example, if you had a family emergency, make sure that someone else will be available to take care of it while you are studying and taking the exam.
But if your score was significantly below the pass cutoff, then that means you have serious issues that need to be addressed. You will need to be honest with yourself about what went wrong. You probably spent too much time watching TV. You didn’t pay attention during the bar review lectures. In sum, it is very likely that you did not do your best on the exam because on many occasions, you deliberately chose to do something more fun instead of studying. I say this because I also did this on many occasions. If you are serious about passing the bar, you must come to terms with your bad habits and commit to studying seriously.
If you believe you studied genuinely and diligently, then you may need to change the way you study. If you took a bar exam course, do not go back, especially if the company charges you extra. You might not retain information well by listening to lectures and reading. You may need a specialized tutor who can help you figure out how you can study more efficiently. Or you may need a coach who will keep you accountable by constantly nagging you.
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Spelling and grammar matter. I hate to be the grammar nazi, but details matter on the bar exam. You have to keep in mind that many bar exam graders are practicing attorneys. These are the same attorneys who whine in message boards and chat rooms about the younger generation being entitled, and how the profession is dumbing down its standards to accommodate them. They are likely to think that if a poor writer is allowed to pass the bar exam and become a practicing attorney, their writing will one day be seen in memos, court pleadings, and maybe even a Supreme Court opinion. They also have to grade many exams so they will not be able to read each one in great detail.
Despite this, I think they will grade fairly. But given their time constraints, if your exam answers are illegible due to numerous grammar and spelling errors, they will assume that you cannot reason well and will be likely to read your exam answers with an increasing degree of skepticism and contempt. If your exam score is close, this detail can mean the difference between passing and failing.
When you read your essay answers, proofread them to make sure that they contain no grammatical errors. Many times, you may not notice the errors, so you should have a professional review them and give feedback.
Don’t dwell on your past grades or your school’s past performance. It’s bad enough that you failed the bar exam. If you graduated from a low-ranked school, you have become part of the statistic. You are one more reason why your alma mater should be put on probation or even shut down. If your law school grades were subpar, you might think that your failing the bar exam was inevitable.
You can’t let this get to you. The more time you spend on dwelling about past failures, the less time you have to study. As I mentioned previously, if there was ever a time to feel like a special snowflake, this is it.
Keep in mind that the bar exam is not like a law school exam. If you know the material and can adapt to the needs of the exam grader, chances are good that you can pass the exam despite doing badly on law school exams. For example, in a law school exam, you have several hours to spot as many issues as possible and discuss both sides of the case. The essay is graded by a law professor who knows all of the details in the subject area. In a bar exam essay question, you generally have to get to the point quickly and clearly. They are graded by lawyers with time constraints and they are probably not experts in the subject area that is being tested.
The above are just a few suggestions to help you cope and prepare for the next exam. There are many others that may better suit your situation. But keep in mind that the goal is not to eventually pass the bar exam, but to pass the next one. There are words to describe people who pass the bar on the 5th, 6th, 10th, 14th, or even the 48th try. Persistent can be one of them. But I can’t think of any other words. At least not any nice ones.
Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at [email protected] and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.