With only two weeks to go, the bar exam countdown is on. In honor of this particularly hellish time of year, I’ve compiled my top 10 bar exam catchphrases and explained why they are so popular. If you are seriously stressing out over the bar exam, one of these frequently repeated pieces of advice may help you.
1. “Where is your because?”
Analysis is the most important part of essay writing, and, unfortunately, it is typically the part that students struggle with the most. Specifically, many students are unsure how to connect fact to law to explain their reasoning to support the conclusion. I’m constantly reminding them to use connecting words like “because” and “when.” That is probably why I find myself muttering “because, because, because, because” in my sleep, Wizard of Oz style.
Schenck Price Competes Smarter With Lexis+ With Protégé
LexisNexis sat down with John Ursin, Managing Partner at Schenck Price, to learn how the firm is using legal AI to strengthen client service and daily legal work.
2. “How many practice questions did you do this week?”
When it comes to the bar exam, practice makes passing. Yet, for some reason, most students don’t do nearly enough practice questions. I am constantly on my students to do more practice questions and holding them accountable to doing so weekly. If you are coming up short in the practice question department, now is the time to kick it into high gear.
3. “Outline your essay responses before you start writing.”
There is always a ton of resistance to outlining. However, an essay response that has not been outlined is typically a disorganized mess. The most common objection I hear is that there isn’t enough time to outline. This is definitely not true, because outlining forces you to organize your thoughts, which allows you to write faster. It just takes some practice to get it right.
Learning After Law School
Once you’ve got your law degree, how do you keep your professional skills up to date? Share your perspective in this brief survey, and you may be eligible to win a $250 gift card.
4. “You know how to make sentences.”
Which of these things sounds easier to you? Memorizing a few key words for each rule you need to know or memorizing paragraphs of rules you need to know? The first one, right? Yet, most students desperately try to memorize rules verbatim. This is a bad game plan because it takes a ton of time that would be better spent on practice questions. Instead, memorize just the important elements and trust that you know how to make sentences out of them.
5. “Stop trying to memorize everything.”
While we are on the topic of memorization, I frequently find myself convincing my students that they don’t need to memorize every single rule that could possibly be tested on the bar exam. While, in theory, it would be great if you had the time and brain space to do that, it is just not realistic under the circumstances of traditional bar prep. Instead, studying for the bar exam is a bit like gambling. You have to focus on the most frequently tested areas first and just do your best with everything else.
6. “No more videos.”
Bar prep lectures are a necessary evil. They can be a great refresher for law you haven’t seen in a long time and way to learn new law quickly. However, they are just one small piece to the bar exam puzzle and students often drag them out by pausing to take notes or replaying complex parts. If you are still getting bogged down watching the videos, it is time to move on.
7. “There is no ‘best’ answer on the MBE.”
When I die, I will remember trying to convince students to use process of elimination on MBE questions as the greatest battle of my life. The standard on the MBE is to choose the “best” answer, not to choose the “right” or “correct” answer. This is actually a huge distinction because “best” can mean the better of two good answers or the best out of four bad answers. The best way to find the best answer (see what I did there) truly is process of elimination. So, in the name that all that is holy, stop looking for the right answer.
8. “Take a break.”
Burnout is a real thing during bar prep. Students push themselves way too hard and can sometimes end up in a bad place (both physically and emotionally). It is important to know yourself and your limits so that you know when you need to push yourself or when you need to pull back. At the end of the day, it is just a test and your physical and mental well being is more important.
9. “Did you time yourself?”
If I’m being honest, few things irritate me more during bar prep than students handing in essays they took hours to write. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may only have 30 minutes to one hour to write each essay. By spending substantially more time writing your practice answers, you’re not getting an accurate depiction of how you will perform on game day. The only person you are cheating here is yourself.
10. “Stop talking to other students.”
The comparison game is strong during bar prep, and students become extremely concerned with what everyone else is doing. This is a recipe for disaster because everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are different when it comes to learning and memorizing. If you find yourself comparing yourself to others, the best thing to do is limit the amount of time you spend talking to other bar exam candidates.
Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at [email protected].