Re: Bar exam and other exams

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I agree with most of your post. I passed the baby bar on my
first attempt. From my experience, I have concluded that
success on passing the baby bar (and probably the Gen. bar
as well) is not how many hours one studies law, but how they
study what is likely to be tested on the bar.

I believe that many (if not most) students spend far too
much time studying (especially reading!!)and not enough time
concentrating on learning how to put what they do know on
paper, under time constraints, and in a format that the bar
examiners are looking for. The bar examiners do not care
about "esoteric facts" or some new "insightful analysis."
Just learn the basic black letter law and give it to them in
the format you want and you will pass.

On 4/26/07, DL student wrote:
> 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!