Posted by DL student on 4/26/07

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Can I vent something?

In trying to study for the bar exams and other law exams, I
am constantly bombarded by professors/professed experts
saying: "study more," use "analysis," "make better
arguments," "write more clearly," "support your position."
and on and on. Of course good essays use analysis,
arguments, and clear writing. It's completely conclusionary
to say someone did not pass because they did not use
analysis, arguments, and/or clear writing. That's like a
professor saying "you failed because you did not know the
material adequately. I suggest you learn more." Not the
least bit instructive, try learning how to teach!

I failed the baby bar the first time, and passed it the
second. The second time I deliberately dumbed down my essay
answers, resisted my urges to make interesting and
insightful analysis, and did not spend time on good writing.
Instead, prior to the second exam, I went through all the
model answers and cross-compared the terms in each answer.
If a term was identified in all the model answers, then I
made sure I remembered this and vomited it back up in
response to the appropriate question.

By the way, there are only about 8 questions ever asked on
the baby bar -- the facts are changed but they raise all the
same issues. Well, actually, they don't raise all the same
issues, but a passing answer mentions all the same terms and
does not waste time actually discussing what's novel and
important about the specific facts. From what I gather
reviewing the Bar questions and model answers, the same goes
for the bar.

I have found that actually learning the law, and actually
performing insightful analysis makes my exam grades WORSE,
not better, and just makes it difficult for me to predict
what a good shallow answer should be. Shallowness is what
is required -- just look at all the model answers.

So, when I read these schedules that say "take two months
off work and study law 8 hours per day at least per day,
live and breath the law, choke on the law, etc. etc" I
think -- how misleading !! Don't fool yourself into
thinking these exams have merit. Don't waste your
intellectual resources learning esoteric facts that will
never serve you in life and that will only alienate you from
the shallow state of mind that you will have to assume in
order to pass the exam. Save those intellectual resources
and use them for something important. Wish someone had told
me this before!

Re: Bar exam and other exams, 4/27/07, by 123.

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