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HOW TO DOMINATE THE BAR EXAM?

COMPONENTS

The bar exam is broken up into three components as follows:

Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)

6 hours and 200 multiple chose questions

Multistate Essay Exam

3 hours divided into six 30-minute essays

Multistate Professional Test

3 hours divided into two 90-minute simulations

Each of component of the bar exam tests a different strength.

1. MBE – Tests your nuanced understanding of 7 areas of the law.

  1. Civil Procedure
  2. Constitutional Law
  3. Contracts
  4. Criminal Law
  5. Criminal Procedure
  6. Evidence
  7. Real Property
  8. Torts

2. MEE – Tests your ability to issue spot major topics and write in Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion (IRAC) for 16 areas of the law

  1. Civil Procedure
  2. Constitutional Law
  3. Contracts
  4. Criminal Law
  5. Criminal Procedure
  6. Evidence
  7. Real Property
  8. Torts
  9. Agency
  10. Partnership
  11. Corporations & LLCs
  12. Family Law
  13. Trusts
  14. Estate
  15. Secured Transactions
  16. Conflict of Law

3. MPT – Tests your ability to write like an attorney

Generally, you will be tasked with writing either

  1. an objective memorandum or
  2. a persuasive brief.

STRATEGY

MBE

There are four strategies for dominating the MBE. One (1) create an MBE specific outline, (2) volume, (3) understand the major issues and nuances of missed questions, (4) question approach.

  1. MBE Specific Outline
    1. Create an outline with the topics listed below and memorize your outline.
      1. Civil Procedure
      2. Constitutional Law
      3. Contracts
      4. Criminal Law
      5. Criminal Procedure
      6. Evidence
      7. Real Property
      8. Torts
    2. There two ways to create this outline. There is the slow way or the fast way.
      1. The slow way is to go through the commercial outline(s) you have purchased and start condensing it or them into the issues you see tested on the MBE section of the bar exam most often.
      2. The fast way is to review your commercial outlines and create an outline with all the Subtopics listed. Next, complete MBE questions copy and paste the rules from questions you have missed into the subtopics of the outline per topic below.
  1. Volume
    1. Take 4,000 – 6,000 problems
    2. I have personally used BarMax, Themis, and Barbri. I have also tutored students using Kaplan. I personally liked Themis, because their software seems to learn your strengths and weaknesses steers you towards your weaknesses to strengthen them. This will alleviate the need determine exactly how many problems from each area of the law you should take.
  1. Understanding
    1. After missing a problem, it is imperative that you read the reason you missed the question. If you continue to miss this same type of question, open up the physical commercial outline that was purchased and read that area of the law until you understand it. Memorization will not help you if you are consistently missing the same type of questions. You are missing it, because you may not understand the concept.
  1. Question Approach
    1. Read the call of the question, first so you know what the problem concerns. There are 7 areas of the law being tested on the MBE in no particular order. Therefore, if you do not read the call of the question first, you are not going to know what area of the law you should be thinking about before you read the problem and will force your mind to sort through the 7 areas of the law to select the applicable areas of law all while reading the question. It will be easier on your mind, if you know what area of the law you should be thinking about before reading the problem.
    2. Read the problem and call of the question Twice
    3. Come up with the answer to the question in your head
    4. Select the answer that you came up with in your head. (Do not review all the answers trying to find the best fit.

MEE

There are four strategies for dominating the MEE. One (1) create an MEE specific outline, (2) writing IRAC (3) Check your answer against the model answer (4) volume

  1. MBE Specific Outline
    1. Create an outline with the topics listed below and memorize your outline.
      1. Civil Procedure
      2. Constitutional Law
      3. Contracts
      4. Criminal Law
      5. Criminal Procedure
      6. Evidence
      7. Real Property
      8. Torts
      9. Agency
      10. Partnership
      11. Corporations & LLCs
      12. Family Law
      13. Trusts
      14. Estate
      15. Secured Transactions
      16. Conflict of Law
    2. This outline is more important than your MBE outline and you MUST memorize it.
      1. In order to create this outline, I recommend you purchase a commercial MEE outline from JD Advising and possibly Themis or another bar exam company.
      2. Use the JD Advising outline as a template and begin to define the subtopics of each area of the law in your own words.
      3. Next, go to your larger commercial outline to ensure that there is enough detail present in each definition to the subtopics, so that you understand the law.
      4. Finally, memorize the outline.
  1. Writing IRAC
    1. When answering an MEE problem, review the questions at the bottom of the problem. Copy and past the the question onto your word document and add the word, “whether” to the front of the question. This will be your issue statement.
    2. Next, List out IRAC
      1. Issue: Whether….
      2. Rule:
      3. Application:
      4. Conclusion:
    3. Issue: Add the word whether to the question.
      1. Issue: Whether…
    4. Rule: Type out the rule
      1. Rule: Murder in the first degree is…
    5. Application
      1. Copy and past the rule into your application section first. After you have coped and pasted the rule into the application section, review the facts from the problem, and start to insert the relevant facts into your rule, removing components of the rule that do not make sense, so you can write the facts and rule together in a manner that makes sense to the reader.
    6. Conclusion
      1. Copy and past your issue statement into the conclusion. Remove the word whether and insert the words, “Thus the court will likely find…”
    7. Examples:
  1. Volume
    1. Take at least 20 essays per are of the law.
    2. Essays that have been used on real examinations and their model answers will be more helpful than those generated by companies

MPT

There are four strategies for dominating the MPT. One (1) Task (2) writing IRAC (3) Check your answer (4) volume

  1. Task
    1. The task memorandum is the first document you will read in the file. It will tell you what type of document you will need to write. Generally, the document you right will be either objective or persuasive.
    2. Objective Memorandum
      1. These memorandums evaluate both sides of an argument objectively discussing both the pros and strengths of both and reaching a conclusion based on this analysis.
    3. Persuasive Brief
      1. These briefs state why the issue you are discussing will win, conceding your weaknesses, but still discussing your strengths.
  1. IRAC
    1. Issue(s)
      1. Unlike an MEE, you must find the issue statements. They are not simply given to you in questions. Generally, you will find the issues statements in the task memo. After you have found the issue statements, you must determine if you will be writing these issue statements in an objective manner like an MEE or a persuasive manner. In both cases, must add more detail to these issue statements than you would for an MEE. This means, you will need to custom tailor the issue statement to address exactly what you will be discussing, include the name of the statute, parties, etc… in the issue statement.
    2. Rule
      1. Your rules will come from the library. You will find the rules provided to you in two ways generally, statutes and case law.
        1. Statutes
          1. Simply copy and past the rule or condense the rule into the rule section of your IRAC.
        2. Case Law (SEE APPLICATION SECTION)
          1. You may find a rule in the cases to pull out, and if you do use this rule in the rule section, however if you do not you will need to use the case in your application section to compare it to your analysis.
    3. Application
      1. Your facts will come from the fact section. Copy and past the rule into your application section first. After you have coped and pasted the rule into the application section, review the facts from the problem, and start to insert the relevant facts into your rule, removing components of the rule that do not make sense, so you can write the facts and rule together in a manner that makes sense to the reader.
      2. Use the case law to compare your analysis to the case. You will differentiate your analysis form the case or discuss why your analysis is similar.
    4. Conclusion
      1. Copy and past your issue statement into the conclusion. Remove the word whether and insert the words, “Thus the court will likely find…”
    5. Examples
  1. Check your answer against the model answer
    1. Check your answers against the model answers
    2. Your answers should closely resemble the model answers in structure and substance. Of course, you will not write exactly like the model answer. That said, if you structure is not in line with the model answer this is an indicator that you will do poorly on the bar exam. Additionally, from a substantive standpoint, if you have not identified the correct issues or written the correct rules of law, this is also an indictor that you will do poorly on the bar exam.