Bar Exam Success: A Comprehensive Guide
Author:
Berman, Sara J.
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2020
25 chapters
have results for BAR
Introduction 57 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Intensive bar review
- If you are just beginning 3L or 4L, get a head start. Use the tools in this book, and take practice exams. If your school does not have a mandatory bar success course, take advantage of any optional or extracurricular bar-prep programs. Starting early will help you lay the groundwork to get the most out of bar review and significantly increase your chances of passing the bar exam the first time around. Getting an early start in bar review is essential; think of it as you would shopping before meal prep, or painting a base coat before adding layers of color.
- Law students and bar takers may seem so stressed out that you hardly recognize them. You may be offended at their “disappearing” into their studies. “How hard can it be?” you wonder. “Isn’t the bar exam just another test?” Law school is bar is just another test. This book will help you understand why the bar exam is so different, and so difficult, and it will help you learn how to lend a hand, or back off, as needed. As a key player in the life of someone taking the bar exam, your support is critical. So, thank you for helping the law student in your life to succeed.
- does not accurately predict whether you will pass the bar exam after law school. The LSAT is not designed to predict bar passage, and it can be destructive to think it does. First-year (1L) grades are a better predictor of bar success, but even the person with the lowest graduating GPA (grade point average) in your law school class pass the bar exam. It is not your grades but what you learn from,
- Focus also on physical, mental, and financial readiness. Put aside money for bar review and summer living expenses after graduation in a bar fund. (More on bar exam budgeting in
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Set Your Goal and Commit to Success 68 results (showing 5 best matches)
- You have drafted a bar exam business plan. (See .) You have made a commitment to invest in yourself by seeking help from experts and enrolling in a reputable full-service bar review. You have set up a bar fund. If need be, you will take out bar loans or work as a “rep” (someone who helps recruit others to take the course) to finance your own bar review course. Your plan also includes time off from work, child care, household help, and any other assistance you may need.
- fine is taking the exam without being fully invested in passing it. If you are on the fence about the bar, commit to either taking the bar before you begin bar prep.
- There are some tests you can and should take just to see how you do and to learn from the experience: a simulated bar exam, practice tests generally, and perhaps the PSAT. But it is important to do your best in all high stakes exams, such as the SAT, LSAT, MCAT, GRE, CPA exam, and the bar exam. Do treat the bar exam as a “practice test.”
- I am reminded of a student who approached me in bar review confessing he had not understood anything in his law school evidence class, but that it had all come together in bar review. Had he let his low grade in that class dictate his to master the material for the bar, he would have failed the exam. Instead, he threw himself in, engaged fully in bar review, found that the rules made much more sense than they had in school, and passed the bar the first time around. The key to his success was admitting and facing his weakness. In a way, he was fortunate that his professor gave him a low grade; it was his wake-up call. Law schools do students no favors by inflating grades.
- : No worries. While I urge you to do as much early work as possible so that bar review is mostly “review” and not new learning, some intensive bar prep will involve learning new information. Even if you took every subject in law school, the bar exam tends to cover a wider breadth of material than did most law classes; you will thus continue to learn and memorize new rules (often even up until the day before the exam). This is fine. No worries. While bar review covers more material than was presented in law school courses, the bar exam tests concepts in less depth than do most law school finals. (One of my colleagues used to say law school is scuba diving; the bar exam is snorkeling.)
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Develop a Plan for Success: Your GPS to Bar Passage 117 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Review your bar fund. Hopefully, you have been stashing away money since orientation and now have enough to pay for the bar review course, but now is the time to research bar loans and scholarships if your fund is low. Talk with your law school financial aid office. Figure out a way to obtain the money you need to get the expert help you deserve. Do not opt to skimp on bar review because you don’t have the money. If you fail the bar exam, your costs will multiply, and it will be even longer before you can begin paying back your student loans.
- Consider taking all or most bar subjects offered, even if they aren’t required courses. I say because studies don’t indicate a strong correlation between having taken all or most bar courses and bar passage.
- So, since I’ve noted good reasons to take courses other than bar courses and acknowledged that there may not be a strong correlation between law school curriculum and bar passage, why am I suggesting that some students may be well served by taking as many bar subjects as possible during school? Because bar review can be far less stressful when students are
- Ideally, your bar review will give you a solid schedule, taking you through eight weeks, subject by subject, and covering most everything tested on your exam. The schedule will tell you what to do and in what order. Hopefully, your bar review will also provide instructors to answer questions if you are unclear about certain concepts. In bar review, you will also:
- What might come up in June and July that you could take care of before intensive bar prep or after the bar exam? (Bar season is not the time to pick fights with your spouse or significant other. It is not the time to make major household or family decisions. Ask yourself, what can you do to free up as much time for studying as possible?)
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Practice Tests: The Heavy Lifting 143 results (showing 5 best matches)
- : becoming an effective bar reader. Active bar reading is the single-most important key to bar passage; it is the success thread that runs through all types of bar testing. While there are unique aspects to and strategies for tackling the different forms of testing, all of them require this highly focused form of active reading that I refer to as “bar reading.”
- For practice bar exam questions: In intensive bar prep, a reputable bar review will typically provide all the practice questions you need. You may also be able to get the materials before June to dig in early, if you have already enrolled in (and especially if you have already paid for) your bar review. To find materials to review on your own, you might start with any past exams that are posted on your state bar’s website (especially if there are also sample passing answers or issue outlines). You may also be able to purchase updated materials from reputable commercial publications.
- Earlier you learned that “bar is active critical reading. Bar is clear logical writing. It is often recommended that first-year law students and bar takers write using a style template known by the acronym IRAC: issue, rule, analysis, conclusion. For bar writing, as I will detail below, the acronym IRPC—issue, rule,
- key terms because the headings and subheadings gave the grader a clear road map. The purpose of these basic examples was to take you through the process, from bar reading, thinking and issue spotting, to outlining, and then writing simply in a logical style, proving each element of the rules you stated with facts from the fact pattern. If you are reading this well before you even start bar review, it should help give you a window into the strategy of essay writing for bar exams. If you are reading this during bar review, hopefully it will help you see ways to sharpen your essay reading, outlining, and writing skills. Again, these writing examples would not be sufficient for law school essay answers but illustrate the basic framework of passing bar exam answers.
- Note: There are some jurisdictions where bar graders seem, based on the answers that they publish, to want more definitive conclusions. Follow the guidance of your ASP faculty and your bar review for jurisdiction-specific advice on bar essays.
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Introduction to Part I 13 results (showing 5 best matches)
- of this book focuses on first-time passage. Many jurisdictions test with the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), which means the exams are virtually the same format, with 30-minute multistate essay exams (MEEs), 90-minute multistate performance tests (MPTs), and a 200 multiple-choice question component, the multistate bar exam (MBE). Other states administer their own bar exams, some with fewer but longer essays (for example, California and Florida) and some with more essays (as of this writing, the Virginia bar includes nine essays). States using the UBE may also include state-specific testing components for bar licensure.
- Many students fail the bar exam. Sadly, many to fail. Too many believe that statistics will dictate their fates. You are not a statistic. Demystify the bar exam. Learn to set and achieve goals. And, start working now to replace any trace of self-doubt with what will become a well-worn path of hard work and strategic training.
- make up for failing the bar exam. So take the time during law school to read this book cover to cover, and plan ahead so you’re not taken by surprise and find you just don’t have enough time to do it all in intensive bar review. Take your current classes seriously so you don’t have to in bar review what you could have mastered during school.
- Some students are too busy with work or family to devote the time necessary for bar studies. Some don’t pass because they don’t enroll in a reputable bar review, or they don’t do the work in the courses for which they sign up.
- Others find themselves after graduation doing too much “bar . Students may be told by upperclassmen, professors, or bar review salespeople that they can easily pick up subjects in bar review. Many 3Ls, for example, have taken an impressive array of electives but have not taken criminal procedure, remedies, family law, or business organizations. When they realize how much they have to catch up on, they panic. Time spent learning brand new material in bar review may set in motion a negative cycle: students are reluctant to take practice tests when they don’t know the law, so they postpone skills practice, and then end up even further behind.
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The Transition from Student to Professional 36 results (showing 5 best matches)
- One of my nontraditional students didn’t think he needed to pass the bar exam. He had a steady, well-paying job for years, was getting his J.D. for promotion within the company, and decided to just take the bar exam because all of his classmates were taking it. Midway through bar review, however, he was unexpectedly laid off. Suddenly, he to pass the bar exam. He has since gone from working in a small practice to being a partner in a large firm and is licensed in multiple jurisdictions.
- Perhaps it is human nature to seek the easy route. Some bar reviews try to make bar studies easier with short lectures, apps, and games. I have nothing against fun in studying or in life. I am all for it. But I remain steadfastly convinced that working slowly, steadily, carefully, and
- In practice, you will have to follow the rules. Learning these rules now will help you in your law school professional responsibility course, on the MPRE, and on the bar exam. You must have a command of ethical rules to writing a passing answer on a bar exam professional responsibility essay question and to spot any ethical issues on the MPT.
- for a lifetime, you must also act in a professional manner. Start now. Acting in a professional manner will help you in school, on the job, in bar prep, and on the MPT portion of the bar exam itself, which may test ethical or professional issues.
- Some think of the bar exam as a bridge between law school and law practice. I see it more like a mountain. A bridge makes the journey easier. The bar exam is not designed to make your transition easier, but to test whether you have what it takes to survive on the other side. The good news? Once you make the climb successfully, you never have to do it again. And you are close. I ask students to call me “Professor Berman” while in school, but to feel free to use my first name once they pass the bar. The moment you are licensed, we are colleagues. But it is often hard for people to call former professors by their first names. That mountain between the world of law school and the professional world is steep. Do you think of yourself as
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Get and Use Quality Expert Help: Reliable Bar Review Courses, Academic Support Faculty, and Trusted Mentors 69 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Beware. If anyone promises you a foolproof, quick, or easy system to pass the bar exam, walk away. Quality bar review instructors, like personal trainers, do make it easy. They keep you on track. Reliable experts will tell you there are no shortcuts. Studying for the bar just is hard work.
- Bar review also helps identify what you do and do not need to know. The bar exam tests an enormous amount of material. In an ideal world, we would say to master everything before you go in. But (a) the world is not ideal, and (b) that would be a waste of your time, energy, and brain “disk space.” A reputable bar review will flag what is heavily tested and what areas have historically never or rarely been tested. That doesn’t mean that a never-before-tested area cannot suddenly appear on your exam, but history repeats itself and so do bar examiners. One of the most helpful parts of being enrolled in a reputable bar review is getting sound advice on what should be covered only superficially, and what you should know in depth.
- You may want or need to supplement your bar review, but you should not cut corners. Bar review is a floor, not a ceiling. In other words, you can (and often should) do more than is on your bar review calendar, but without very good reasons, do not do less. I must include a metacognition caveat here: Bar review is not “one size fits all.” Courses are designed to help the majority of students. Use your best judgment to tailor some aspects of your bar review to meet your needs. You are the one who is going to go into that exam. No one else. If you are not learning from certain assignments, switch them up. And, if you need advice or help doing this, talk with your ASP faculty or bar mentor.
- Many bar applicants pay for bar review and expect the knowledge will magically enter their brains, kind of like sleeping with textbooks under your pillow. When they find the concepts are not simple, they look for another course that promises to make it easier. Some people end up enrolling in several bar reviews and still failing the bar exam. There are no quick fixes. As we said above, joining a gym will not get you fit. Buying a bar review course will not make you pass the exam. You must do the work, the learning, the thinking, and the heavy lifting of practice tests.
- Bar reviews will tell you it is crazy to look anything up outside the bar review outlines after May (December). I would be the first to say, start early so that bar prep is truly
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Write and Post Your Schedule, Then Adapt It to Maximize Productivity 84 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Just because a bar review sets lectures at a certain time in the day does not mean you need to listen to them at that time—especially if you are in an online bar review. Most of my students felt obligated to attend or listen to morning bar review lectures and until I brought up the possibility of shifting the timing; they had never considered when would be the best time for them.
- As of the writing of this edition, the bar exam is administered on paper, but many students take all their practice tests online. There are advantages to practicing in the same format in which you will take the bar exam. So, you may want to take practice tests, at least some of them, on paper. This means you may need to print practice questions, even if you are wasting paper or spending money doing so.
- Study a bar review outline (and draft your own condensed version of that outline) for one bar-tested subject. (Moving with about a subject per week, give or take, you can usually get through the tested subjects in a semester.)
- Listen to bar review lectures or review notes from bar review lectures.
- Students will often ask, “Shouldn’t I still be applying for jobs during bar review?” You should definitely work actively with your career services office and on your own to find a job you graduate. If you don’t have a job lined up by graduation, turn your full attention to bar review. But, be sure to have several current resumes and cover letters on hand, ready to go, so that if you hear about a job, you can simply shoot your application out. Don’t spend active time job hunting during bar review. But, if something comes your way, be ready to apply.
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Why Didn’t I Pass the Bar Exam? 13 results (showing 5 best matches)
- If the bar exam was harder than you expected, you need to train more rigorously this time. This exam is a different ballgame from law school, physically and mentally. Bar exams last for days and are exhausting. In law school, each final exam covered one subject alone; the bar covers a host of subjects, all of which require you to memorize and quickly recall many rules. Bar applicants are more stressed-out than you may have anticipated; you may have been thrown by the psych-out factor. Get on a new study schedule now. Review all of . If you can, take off time from work to study so you can give the months before your next bar your total concentration.
- of this book, go read each chapter. Then, look back at your answers to the questions in this chapter and see if you can add to your diagnosis of how to improve and make your next bar exam your last bar exam.
- WHY DIDN’T I PASS THE BAR EXAM?
- Do any of these reasons people commonly fail the bar exam fit your situation?
- You got by in law school—maybe not top of your class but you passed everything and graduated. You thought you would knock it out on the bar exam. You thought,
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Rethink “Failure” and Use Your Previous Experience as Preparation for Success 9 results (showing 5 best matches)
- , and create your new bar exam success plan. Start fresh, adding in the points you made just above. Reread all of
- of this book and create a smart, new strategic plan. Consider targeted improvement. You may not need a full-service bar review again. Or, you may want a different full-service bar review course. (Do you get a free repeat course? If you do and you know that you just didn’t do the work, that may be the way to go. On the other hand, changing courses may help. Talk with alumni who passed after more than one exam and see what they did differently, and talk with your ASP faculty.)
- Whatever you did or did not do preparing for or on the last bar exam, now is the time to face up and make the necessary changes. Figure out what you need to do for success next time.
- You can understand the major rules and theories. You got through law school, right? There may be weaker subjects but there is nothing tested on the bar exam that you are incapable of understanding.
- Maybe you need a different approach or a different professor or study guide to explain certain concepts. Perhaps you should try a new bar review this time.
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Endnotes 21 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The following, one of many phrasings of the consumer protection argument for bar exams, comes from D. Riebe’s article,
- Raising the Bar
- Many applicants have posted great “bar results videos.” One I found at the time of writing from a search of “an applicant’s and his parents’ reactions as their son finds out his bar results” was particularly moving.
- Does Law School Curriculum Affect Bar Examination Passage? An Empirical Analysis of the Factors Which Were Related to Bar Examination Passage between 2001 and 2006 at a Midwestern Law School
- Bar Exam Insiders Debunk Myths about Test
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Copyright 4 results
- Discounts are available for books ordered in bulk. Special consideration is given to state bars, CLE programs, and other bar related organizations. Inquire at Book Publishing, ABA Publishing, American Bar Association, 321 N. Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60654-7598.
- This edition is an updated version of “Pass the Bar Exam” published by the American Bar Association in 2013. The views and opinions expressed in this book are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or express any policies or positions of the author’s current employer, the nonprofit AccessLex Institute, where the author serves as a director in the Center for Legal Education Excellence.
- The materials contained herein represent the opinions of the authors and/or the editors, and should not be construed to be the views or opinions of the law firms or companies with whom such persons are in partnership with, associated with, or employed by, nor of the American Bar Association unless adopted pursuant to the bylaws of the Association.
- © 2019 American Bar Association. All rights reserved.
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Enlist Your Troops and Lose the Naysayers: It Takes a Village of Positive People 78 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Make life during bar review as easy as possible. Some bar takers who are parents of young children ship their kids off to grandparents for the summer (or for winter break for February bar takers). Many use paper plates for every meal. And, unfortunately, some choose to save time by eliminating showers. (Kidding there! But you get the point!)
- It is amazing that even lawyers sometimes forget how much time and energy the bar exam really takes. If you are clerking for an attorney, stop for the summer (winter, if you are taking the February bar exam) unless working just a couple of hours in a law office will help keep you motivated. Make sure your colleagues and boss understand your commitment, though. If the lawyer begs you to come in and research something when you know you must be studying for the bar, stick to your studying. (If there is a case you just don’t feel like you can let go for the summer or winter if you are taking the February bar exam, let go anyway. Say “No.”) Trying to prove yourself worthy by doing extra work when you cannot afford the time will backfire if you don’t pass the bar exam. Pass first; then go the extra mile.
- First-generation students may find it difficult to get support from family members who are unfamiliar with the rigors of the bar exam, and who may believe that the bar exam is “just another test.”
- You may find yourself in a relationship with someone who resents the time and energy that bar success requires and either intentionally or inadvertently sabotage your bar-passage goals. (Some students, when they step back, recognize a pattern of getting into fights with a partner, spouse, or significant other before set of final exams. If this is you, be aware and be as careful as possible to protect yourself when you are getting ready for the bar exam.)
- Learn to rely primarily during your intensive bar preparation months on those who are already supportive: your mentor, other recent graduates who passed the bar exam,
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About the Author 1 result
- has served as a professor of law and director of academic and bar success programs in law schools in California and Florida, and lectured in bar reviews for more than two decades, helping thousands of students pass bar exams nationwide. Berman gained expertise in distance learning in legal education through 15 years on the faculty at a fully online law school. She has published two books and numerous articles on the bar exam and learning for law students, and coauthored primers on the civil and criminal justice systems, written initially for self-represented litigants and extensively used by law students preparing to become tomorrow’s lawyers. Visit the author’s SSRN author page at
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The Home Stretch: Eliminate Distractions and Embrace Success 57 results (showing 5 best matches)
- If you are still in law school, get a good picture of yourself in your cap and gown, with all the graduation regalia. Sit with those visuals. Let these images that symbolize the realization of years of hard work sink in deeply. (In most schools, graduation is held before bar review begins, so you can keep a graduation photo on your desk or computer while you study for the bar.)
- Years ago, I met some former students to celebrate on the evening of the last day of their bar exam. They told great bar exam stories, among those describing a group who lunched next to them at a nearby table, wearing sweatshirts from a top tier law school and, seemingly, drinking beer. Despite the sweatshirts, they could have been from any school, and they might have been pretending to drink alcohol at lunch, but they were joking and laughing, saying how “easy” the morning had been so loudly that my students were certain they were trying to intimidate other bar takers in the restaurant. Unfortunately, that is not the only story I have heard of bar takers staging bravado to try to intimidate other exam takers. People often tell of leaving a morning session only to have another applicant ask something like, “Did you see the business organizations crossover issues on that contracts question?” knowing full well that it was a straight contracts question without any business... ...bar...
- Bar examiners are very strict about what you may bring in and what you may not. No fooling around. Many jurisdictions require you to bring everything in a clear plastic bag. No purses, backpacks, or briefcases. Can you imagine failing the bar because you inadvertently wore or brought in something that was prohibited. It has happened. Do not let it happen to you. Read all the rules carefully.
- Some people do well eating with friends who are also taking the bar, especially if you all agree ahead of time not to discuss the exam. Some people avoid other bar applicants completely until the exam is over. Will your classmates make you more nervous? If so, stay away from them. Stay away from anyone who does not make you feel great during exam days. (Remember , lose the naysayers—something even more important during actual bar days than it was during study days.)
- After the bar, maybe head to a bar that actually serves drinks! Or go to a nice dinner? Or sleep? Or . . .
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Praise For Bar Exam Success 14 results (showing 5 best matches)
- “From helpful study tips to suggestions for minimizing distractions, this book is an excellent resource to guide students through the challenges of bar study. Professor Berman is a seasoned professional, who condenses years of experience into easy to read and follow advice, perfect for anyone serious about passing the bar exam.”
- “Wanting to shape your destiny, this book is a must-read coaching manual with action plans to boot. Professor Berman takes the mystery out of bar prep, providing hosts of inspirational tips, courageous learning strategies, and concrete wisdom for overcoming the oft-expressed intimidation that so easily immobilizes many from achieving bar exam success—success that is well within the grasp of all law school graduates aspiring to serve as professional attorneys—none be barred. This book is not meant to be read but lived. Navigate your path through this book and you will be well on your way to passing your bar exam.”
- , Assistant Professor of Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Director of Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
- “If I could give only one resource to someone who wants to increase the likelihood of passing the bar exam, it would be this book. Author Sara Berman tells the truth about the challenge of bar preparation while showing the taker how—through preparation, planning, and practice—success is achievable. Rather than scaring them, the book encourages bar takers. That, itself, is why I will refer all my students to it.”
- BAR EXAM SUCCESS
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Introduction to Part II 3 results
- Note: All readers are urged to read the entire book. The strategies and tools in the first part will help you achieve success on your next bar exam. First timers: Force yourself to think in concrete terms about what failing the bar exam really entails. You will be more motivated to take the first time as seriously as possible and do everything in your power to pass.
- This part of the book is called “Repeating the Bar Exam,” “Failing the Bar Exam.” Be careful about the words
- Analyze your scores. And when you get your exam answers back (in jurisdictions that return them), determine why you did not pass and what to correct for success next time. If you need help doing this analysis, ask an academic support faculty member at your law school or hire a reliable bar review expert to help you make that assessment.
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Get Ready for Success: Reduce Distractions, Increase Your Focus, and Manage Your Time 62 results (showing 5 best matches)
- By the time you sit for the exam, your internal body clock should be on “Bar Standard Time” (BST). In other words, your peak concentration periods should be from approximately 9:00 a.m. to noon and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. There are two ways to get into that routine: either make the bar schedule your schedule from the outset, or study when you are most alert (even if that’s 2:00 a.m.) before July (or February, if taking the February bar exam), and then gradually switch to BST in July (or February).
- Stop reading blogs or posts that spread rampant misinformation about the bar exam. You don’t need “advice” from fools. Get your advice from a small number of trusted resources (e.g., your bar review provider, your ASP faculty).
- Plan a fun after-bar trip or activity and let your kids (if age appropriate) decide what that will be. (I worked for years with students who took the bar in southern California and brought their families to Disneyland for a few days after the exam.)
- Whatever time you give each day to study, keep your schedule consistent. Keep the commitment to spend a focused daily amount of time on bar preparation, preferably in uninterrupted blocks that mirror or exceed the length of time you will have to perform on your bar exam. (Get used to studying in at least three-hour time chunks.) And continue asking yourself what you can give up to make study time. Remember, the sacrifice is temporary! As soon as the bar is over, you get your life back.
- Bar prep is a temporary but full-time gig, even if you are working while studying. A student e-mailed me two weeks into bar review, saying how shocked she was that the study schedule mapped out activities for seven days a week. She thought it would be a five-days-a-week schedule, with time to “catch up on the weekends.” No. (Bar reviews usually include lectures and other lessons for at least six days each week, and often there is assigned homework and/or you will do your own homework on the seventh day.) This is yet another reason to plan early, get your schedule in place, and work out your time-management issues during law school. Don’t wait until bar review to experiment with time-management strategies.
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I Feel Like I Was Kicked in the Teeth 17 results (showing 5 best matches)
- the bar exam without a huge investment and many steps of proving yourself worthy. If you were a person who at the first stumble simply left the path and looked for a smoother trail, you would not have finished law school, let alone applied for and sat for an entire bar examination. The fact that you got far enough to even take the bar exam is itself evidence of your potential. Your job is to get up, get going, and realize that potential.
- The timing of bar results is such that those who do not pass the July bar will most often prepare to retake the exam the following February, which means they will be studying during the holiday season. The holidays (Thanksgiving through the New Year) are often a difficult time, even without bar results in the mix. It may be very hard this year to eat, drink, and be merry with family and friends. For those of you who are now formulating your game plan to turn things around in February, gala festivities can sometimes be devastating, either because of your own beating yourself up or because others make offensive or insensitive comments.
- who is communicating to you directly or indirectly a lack of faith in your ability to pass the bar exam, get away from that person, minimize contact with that person, or put him or her off until March. It is a must to believe in yourself, to believe that you can and will pass the bar exam, and to surround yourself with like-minded people who will lift you higher. Avoid those who drag you down.
- Accept Where You Are and Refocus for Success on the Next Bar Exam
- Learn from your past; don’t let it define you. If you weren’t frustrated, you would not be normal. How can someone invest so much and not be frustrated? You put in years of study—your time, your money, your sweat, and your pride. But you are not alone, and you can turn it around. You did not pass this past bar exam, but you did not fail as a person. Once you get over the disappointment, you can turn this into a challenge, and go into problem-solving mode to figure out how to pass next time. If you think success means never failing, think again. Learn from this so-called “failure” and make it your step to success on the next bar exam.
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Celebrate Your Achievement and Acknowledge and Thank Those Who Helped You (Then Set Your Next Goal!) 19 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Is it hyperbole or offensive to equate bar results with news of a life-threatening illness? It isn’t meant offensively, so if it’s taken that way, I apologize. What it’s meant to acknowledge is how important this news is. Unless you have taken the bar exam, it’s hard to convey just how big it feels. You work and dream of law school for a long time, then you work for three or four of the hardest years ever, then you study intensively, giving everything you have for another several months before taking a grueling, multiday exam. After that, you wait even longer for results.
- You Did It. You Completed Your Bar Exam! (Now, You Wait, and Wait, for Results)
- You Did It. You Passed the Bar Exam! Congratulations! (Now, Set Your Next Goal!)
- Bar Exam Success Takeaways: What Have You Learned That Will Help You in the Future?
- YOU DID IT. YOU COMPLETED YOUR BAR EXAM! (NOW, YOU WAIT, AND WAIT, FOR RESULTS)
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Bibliography 4 results
- Below readers will find a list of selected titles that will be useful for student readers and anyone interested in law school and bar exam success. Resources particularly helpful to faculty, administrators and other educators can be found on file with the author.
- Bar Exam MPT Preparation & Experiential Learning For Law Students: Interactive Performance Test Training
- Law School Survival Manual: From LSAT to Bar Exam
- 1000 Days to the Bar: But the Practice of Law Begins Now
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Contents Part 2 5 results
- PART I: FIRST-TIME BAR PASSAGE: ONE AND DONE
- CHAPTER 2Develop a Plan for Success: Your GPS to Bar Passage
- CHAPTER 5Get and Use Quality Expert Help: Reliable Bar Review Courses, Academic Support Faculty, and Trusted Mentors
- PART II: REPEATING THE BAR EXAM: THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME
- CHAPTER 11Why Didn’t I Pass the Bar Exam?
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Conclusion 1 result
- Hopefully, you now see the bar exam as something challenging but doable, and you are ready to realize your potential and achieve your goals. When you pass and are equipped with a law license, a powerful and permanent stamp of credibility (so long as you guard it well), you be better able to find a job, some job. You may join the many bar members who, despite tough economic times, are still earning a good (or at least decent) living. Or you may look outside of the law altogether, but you will do so with proof of your capability to read and think critically and perform under intense pressure.
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Acknowledgments 3 results
- Many people helped shape my theories about academic and bar exam success, first and foremost my students. So, thank you, to my former students and to law students everywhere. It is all about you. You are the guardians of our future—to you we entrust the sacred obligation and noble task of ensuring that we remain a society based on the rule of law.
- Thank you to my many colleagues and lifelong friends from UCLA, UWLA, Concord Law School, Whittier Law School, NSU’s Shepard Broad College of Law, BarPassers, and Kaplan Bar Review. You are far too numerous to name. I am thankful to all of you.
- Thank you to my friend, Professor Arthur R. Miller, whose voice was the first and remains the clearest of all bar review lecturers. Arthur, your simultaneous commitments to both the highest levels of legal scholarship and the most fundamental levels of legal understanding for lay people, serve as an example to us all.
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- Publication Date: November 18th, 2019
- ISBN: 9781641054621
- Subject: Bar Exam Success
- Series: Career Guides
- Type: Academic/Prof. Development
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Description:
The bar exam is not just another test, and this book is not just another set of instructions. This book is your personal success guide. Whether taking a UBE or a state-specific bar, students need to not only master the material but to train and prepare for one of the toughest high-stakes exam experiences around. This book will more than prepare you to pass the bar exam; the author’s words will motivate you to do what it takes to succeed in law school, on the bar exam, and in the legal profession. Particular chapters will help you to:
- Reduce Distractions, Increase Focus, and Manage and Protect Your Time
- Employ Powerfully Effective Learning Strategies
- Develop and Stick to Your Schedule
- Practice and Hone Skills for Success on MBEs, Essays, and MPTs
- Cope with Stress and Pressure, and Help Your Friends and Family to Help You Succeed
- Enhance your Positive Growth Mindset, Personal Wellness, and Sense of Belonging
- Transition with Confidence from Law Student to Professional
This book is written from the perspective of a bar mentor, your “trainer at the academic gym,” with concrete advice on how to handle the many challenges facing today’s law students. There are dozens of self-assessments, tools to help you face very real challenges on every level, and to organize and prepare to pass the bar exam. The book includes trustworthy advice and powerful personal examples from the author’s decades of helping students pass bar exams nationwide. The book is uplifting and positive, while harnessing cutting-edge, scientific learning theories.
The time spent studying for the bar exam that so many people dread and think of as a hazing ritual can be an empowering stage, if you approach it with the right attitude, get yourself equipped for success, and then work really hard. The author calls legal education “a power tool for social change.” Passing the bar and becoming licensed will allow you to wield that tool and find opportunities throughout your professional life to do well and to do good.
Whether you are first in your law school class or last, this book will help you achieve your goals and set you on a lifelong cycle of success.
“Professor Berman has written an illuminating and helpful book, drawing on cutting-edge social science, that teaches students how to master the bar exam and flourish in law school. Her insights are shaped by years of experience and advances in psychological and learning sciences. If law students read this excellent book, perhaps as early as when arriving to law school, they will develop skills they can exercise and master to achieve success.”
‒Victor D. Quintanilla, Indiana University Bicentennial Professor; Professor, Indiana University Maurer School of Law; Adjunct Professor, Indiana University Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
“From helpful study tips to suggestions for minimizing distractions, this book is an excellent resource to guide students through the challenges of bar study. Professor Berman is a seasoned professional, who condenses years of experience into easy to read and follow advice, perfect for anyone serious about passing the bar exam.”
‒Paula Manning, Professor Western State College of Law
“Wanting to shape your destiny, this book is a must-read coaching manual with action plans to boot. Professor Berman takes the mystery out of bar prep, providing hosts of inspirational tips, courageous learning strategies, and concrete wisdom for overcoming the oft-expressed intimidation that so easily immobilizes many from achieving bar exam success––success that is well within the grasp of all law school graduates aspiring to serve as professional attorneys––none be barred. This book is not meant to be read but lived. Navigate your path through this book and you will be well on your way to passing your bar exam.”
‒Scott Johns, Professor of the Pra