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Originally published in Student
Lawyer magazine, February 2003 (Vol. 31, No. 6). All rights
reserved.
Brace Yourself for the Bar Exam
Fasten your seatbelt and hold on. Your school may be among
an increasing number that realizes the value in prepping students
for the exam of all exams
by Cynthia L. Cooper
Ten Tips for Passing the Bar Exam
The setting is the cavernous Jacob Javits Convention Center in
New York City. Bar examinees are hunched over their tables, with
a watch menacingly ticking off each 1.66 minutes they can spend
on a single jammed fact pattern and set of frustratingly similar
answers on the multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination. Concentration
is imperative.
Suddenly a woman starts galloping down the aisles, flailing her
arms, yelling, “I am a covenant running with the land!”
Or, is it a man who is unbuttoning his shirt? Maybe it was in
a conference center in Oregon? A hotel ballroom somewhere in the
Midwest?
“So you’ve heard that story, too? I have no idea if
it’s true,” says Richard Litvin, a professor at Quinnipiac
University School of Law in Connecticut who leads a free supplemental
bar exam preparation program at the school and has taken the bar
in five states.
“But there is a story—and I believe it is true—a
guy has a heart attack during the bar exam and is on the floor,”
Litvin says. “Someone taking the test, who happens to be a
doctor, tends to him. But then the proctors won’t give any
extra time to complete the exam.”
The mythology surrounding the bar exam is as striking as the reality.
In 2001, there were 72,838 bar exam takers in the United States,
with 48,114 passing and 24,724 failing. That’s a pass rate
of 66 percent nationally, with state-to-state variations cutting
a margin of roughly 30 percent in each direction. Recent highs and
lows find Indiana with a pass rate of 35 percent in winter of 2002,
and Utah with a pass rate of 94 percent in summer of 2001. (Because
there are more repeat exam takers in February, pass rates tend to
be lower in winter than in summer.)
Trends are not friendly. Concerned about sinking pass rates, the
Committee on Bar Admissions and Lawyer Performance of the Association
of American Law Schools conducted a study. The report, released
in October 2001, concluded: “In the past decade, at least
10 states have raised their passing scores and others are evaluating
proposed increases. As a result of those changes, the percentages
of test takers passing the bar has also dropped. It is unclear why
this trend exists. In some cases, the review of the passing rate
took place as part of the regular review process that occurs in
the state. In others, no rationale was provided at all.”
Unsettling developments are emerging in the two states with the
largest number of people sitting for the bar exam—New York
and California, which each has more than 12,000 test takers each
year.
But what matters to individual takers has less to do with trends
and more to do with passing, pure and simple. After three years
of exams in law school, it turns out that the main thing a degree
buys is the right to take a mega-exam, quite unlike the rest.
“It’s the cruelest trick,” says Steve Friedland,
a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and a
teacher for one of the national bar prep courses. “You walk
across the stage and collect a diploma, and then you have to start
all over again.” A key difficulty, he says, is that questions
are not labeled by topic, as they are in law school courses, and
a different kind of integrated issue spotting is needed. Law graduates,
he adds, must quickly become adept at handling this new challenge.
Michael Moiso of Beaverton, Ore., experienced an even crueler
fate. He took a prep course, he studied hard, he failed.
“I was devastated,” Moiso says of his experience with
the summer 1992 Oregon bar exam. “I couldn’t believe
it because I’m very competitive. I felt embarrassed. My wife
had pre-planned a celebration party, and I didn’t feel like
going through with it. So I canceled it. I felt like an outcast.”
A graduate of Willamette University College of Law, Moiso re-evaluated,
started over, and passed the following February. He now knows what
tripped him up.
“The difference between passing and not passing is probably
the failure to manage the stress, and that’s precisely what
you need to do,” says Moiso, who has since written a book,
Don’t Stress the Bar Exam (Pillar House, 2001), with 40 tips
for handling exam pressures. For example, he recommends that students
use visualization, practice deep-breathing techniques, and visit
the exam site in advance to get comfortable with the surroundings.
“The last thing you want to happen on the first day of the
exam is to get lost on your way to the exam location, or to have
misjudged the time it takes to arrive,” Moiso writes.
With students shouldering large tuition fees and loan burdens,
schools are paying increasing attention to the bar exam. Credibility
is on the line for the schools, which often are judged and ranked
by students’ pass rates. And the Association of American Law
Schools committee found other good reasons for schools to be concerned,
including the notion that law students expect they will be prepared
to join the profession upon graduation.
“While this expectation does not create a contractual obligation,
the admission of a student carries a moral obligation on the part
of a school to prepare him or her for a career as a lawyer,”
the report states.
The American Bar Association’s standards on law school accreditation
prohibit schools from offering bar exam preparation courses either
for credit or as a condition of graduation. So noncredit perks are
mounting: counselors, special enhancement programs, outside speakers,
and accelerated learning programs, provided as freebies to students.
By 2001, nearly 40 percent of law schools offered a special program
to enhance bar performance. The commercial bar preparation programs
are designing new offerings to carry into law schools.
“In the past there was no concerted effort to enhance bar
performance at law schools. Gradually, more and more schools are
adding them,” says Ben Bratman, assistant professor of legal
writing at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, who started
a new position this year overseeing law school activities to aid
in bar exam preparation. The school has arranged a private program
for six Saturdays in January and February. In March and April, Bratman
will offer essay writing workshops.
Four Pennsylvania schools, including Pittsburgh, contracted with
BAR/BRI for “Bar Exam Accelerated Training,” or BEAT.
It concentrates on essay writing and performance skills. Although
students pay nothing, the schools pay $5,000 to $10,000 for the
service, says Annamarie Castellani, associate director for Pennsylvania
BAR/BRI.
PMBR also is branching into law-school sponsored programming.
“The schools are very competitive with each other, and they
are becoming more consumer-oriented. They realize students need
advanced information on this,” says Kenneth Dym, New York
regional director of PMBR, who conducts programs for 10 law schools.
Dym took the bar in New York and New Jersey after studying hard.
“I put effort in every day—eight hours a day,”
he says. “I knew if I didn’t pass the test, I wasn’t
going to be able to make a loan payment. It’s true even more
so for students today.”
At Quinnipiac, Litvin has designed his own supplemental learning
program, which begins in the fall of the third year. Provided at
no cost to students, the weekend sessions attract half of the third-year
class. A major element involves students taking practice exams culled
from past tests, which Litvin personally grades as if he were an
examiner. In late spring, Litvin works individually with students
who have marginal scores to identify strategies to address their
weaknesses.
The University of California at Hastings offers a program called
“O! The Bar!” “That stands for ‘Orientation
to the Bar,’” explains Laurie Zimet, director of the
school’s Academic Support Program. “Most students will
ultimately pass. It’s not a question of if they will pass,
but when will they pass.”
In addition to offering a roster of speakers, including some repeat
exam takers, Zimet focuses students on their learning style, whether
outlining, flow charts, or memory tricks. Because she believes that
an active learning program is essential, rather than passively watching
tapes or merely reading, she helps students create a personal training
program.
Aside from adjusting standard bar review programs to students’
own style, discipline is an essential element of success, says Edna
Wells Handy, author of You Can Pass Any Bar Exam (Practicing Law
Institute, 1997). Handy, part-preacher and part-teacher, conducts
private tutoring and leads bar exam preparation programs at schools
in New York, Texas, and elsewhere.
“You have to become a master of the law and a master of the
test,” she says. “You’ve got to embrace it. You
have to stop pretending. Did you really know promissory estoppel
in contracts? Now is the time to pay attention.”
Stress is a normal part of the experience, Handy says. “The
night before the exam, I woke up yelling, ‘Which way did the
robbers go?’” Handy recalls.
But the greatest thieves are those that steal away time and focus.
Handy’s biggest hint: Cancel everything possible and dedicate
yourself to passing the first time.
“Don’t get married. Love will wait,” she says.
“Your buddies are saying, ‘What’s one day at the
beach?’ You have to resist. Your parents don’t understand?
Invite them to sit in on your bar review.” Handy grants exam
takers one day off—Memorial Day or Independence Day.
As for a vacation? Plan one for the week after the exam, she says.
“You said you wanted to be a lawyer and this is part of being
a lawyer,” Handy reminds students. “It’s part
of the process you chose—voluntarily. Some people say, ‘I
didn’t know it would be like this.’ Well, it is. You
have the tools for success. Give it all you have.”
Ten Tips for Passing
the Bar Exam
“You need to think about what you know
and don’t know before you go into the bar review course. It
helps lessen the pressure.”
—Richard Litvin, professor, Quinnipiac University School
of Law
“When family or friends ask what they can give you for graduation,
say ‘money.’ Money for the bar review. Money so you
don’t have to work. And nutritious meals to put in the freezer
so you don’t have to cook.”
—Edna Wells Handy, author,
“Get into a structured regimen of study. It’s a building
process. It doesn’t come by going through the materials just
once.”
—Annamarie Castellani, Pennsylvania BAR/BRI
“Enlarge your outlines. Create your own flow charts. Create
your own mnemonics. Use your own tools.”
—Laurie Zimet, University of California at Hastings
“Emphasize what’s going to be tested. In evidence,
hearsay comes up a lot, but not the best evidence rule. You want
to know hearsay backward and forward.”
—Steve Friedland, professor, Nova Southeastern University
School of Law
“The heart of the bar exam is: ‘Do you know the rule
of law?’ Law school is teaching philosophy. You will be tested
on the substantive rules, whether or not you learned them in law
school.”
—Kenneth Dym, PMBR, New York region
“Pay attention to the technique of essay writing. It can
be learned and improved.“
—Ben Brattman, professor, University of Pittsburgh School
of Law
“You can read too much into a question. A lot of law school
emphasizes the complexity. A bar exam is on a more generic level,
and a simple answer is needed. The graders want you to come to a
conclusion, not just discuss various theories.”
—Bob Dinerstein, associate dean, American University College
of Law
“Don’t think because you are in the top 10 [percent]
that you don’t need a plan. The bar exam can trip up the best
and the brightest. You have to plan to address the idiosyncrasies
of this exam.”
—Michael Moiso, author
“Be confident of your abilities, and don’t let the
test scare you out of your wits.”
—Jerome Braun, State Bar of California
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