Law Students

Bar Exam Tips

By KHernan881

This is the time of year when people, some annonymous, some not, start posting their advice for studying for the July bar exam on various web sites such as Ms. JD.  I still read a number of these websites -- the same ones that I read when I was in law school.   It is my recent reading of some of that advice that has prompted this post.   I will try to address a few common threads that I see handed out as internet advice, each of which I have affectionately called "myths" below.  Obviously, this is also just one person's advice so take it with a grain of salt...

Myth #1:  If you study too much, you will burn out.  First of all, who is to say how much studying is too much?  I had classmates who studied around the clock in law school.  They outlined, re-outlined, made flashcards, joined study groups, bought 3-4 hornbooks per class, and on and on.  I knew people that took the same approach to the bar exam.  They signed up for three or more prep courses, hired a tutor, listened to PMBR on tape in the car and in the gym and on and on.  In each case, that didn't seem to "burn" these folks out.  They handled it just fine.  I guess my point is that the point when studying is "too much" is different for everyone.  Don't listen to the person next to you in BarBri that says that if you study more than 4 hours a day, you'll burn yourself out before the exam.  Also, this is likely the most important test that you'll ever take.  In many states, such as CA, if you pass you'll never know your score.  That means that you'll never know if you studied too much or just enough.  The only way to find out your score is to fail and...well... that doesn't seem like a great way to determine if you are studying too much. Therefore, I say study all that you can handle, emotionally, physically, socially, etc. 

Myth #2: If you did well in law school, you'll do fine on the bar exam.  Obviously, this is a flawed premise as you know that there are people at your law school that did very well but can't pass a bar exam for anything.

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Full post as published by Ms. JD on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).