Once you have evaluated your work, what do you do then? Feel bad about all the issues you missed or the analysis you could have done better on? Nope. I recommend that you re-write your answer. This is true for both the essays and the performance tests.

Re-Writing an Essay

I realize that many of you may think that re-writing an essay answer may be a waste of time. However, I would argue the opposite. A re-write is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to review the law and practice the analysis.

Every time you write out a rule, you are studying and memorizing. So believe it or not re-writing an essay actually allows you to work on memorization, while working on your essay writing skills. And better than that, it is more interesting than just reviewing an outline. Re-writing also allows you to practice writing out the rules as you would on an actual exam. This is excellent practice! You want to have those rules at your fingertips so you can write them out without really having to think about them.

Also, re-writing allows you to reflect on your analysis of the facts. It helps you think through the facts yet again and focus on why the graders included those specific facts. It allows you to practice analysis based on those facts. And as we have discussed in previous posts, the essays are really focused on analysis. Without quality analysis, you cannot pass.

Re-writing also allows you to work on your time-management skills. One of the things students often complain about is not being able to finish their answer in the time allowed. Going through a re-write allows you to use hindsight (which we know is 20-20) to make better time-management decisions and try new things. It gives you an opportunity to focus on your speed of writing. And since getting the words on the page is part of the exercise, this is definitely something you want to work on. Re-writing is a great opportunity for that.

I also think it is important that you get used to what writing your best exam answer feels like. For each person this is different as we all work a bit differently. But you want to start to understand the parameters of “your best” answers. What an answer feels like that covers all of the issues and has quality analysis. Getting used to writing quality answers helps your initial drafts to become better and more closely reflect what you want to do on exam day.

Re-Writing a Performance Test

Re-writing a performance test is equally important in your bar exam preparation. I think a performance test can be even more challenging to force yourself to do (especially in California where a performance test takes three hours to complete). But whether you are taking the California Performance Test or the MPT, re-writing is very important if a performance test doesn’t go your way.

If you got the structure or organization for the performance test wrong, you need to go back through the material and determine where you should have found the correct organization. You then want to write out the performance test using that organization to show yourself how the performance test is supposed to flow. The folks who write performance tests get only so creative, therefore it is likely if you are well versed in the performance test that you will start to see patterns or “things you have seen before.” To be able to do this, though, you have to study the exams and learn from your mistakes.

Time-management issues, as discussed above, are also worked on through re-writing. If on the first draft you ran out of time, you need to practice allocating your time differently to see what you needed to do to finish in the time allowed. Re-writing allows you to play with this time allocation, which will likely lead to better time management in the future.

No One Likes Re-Writing, But It Is Worth It

I don’t know of any students who look forward to re-writing an essay or a PT that they have been struggling with. But really, it is worth your time. This is just part of the bar exam study process that you have to get through. Investing in re-writing can help you refine your writing and be more successful on exam day.

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• How to Wait for Bar Results on Friday
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Schedule something nice to do for yourself: Waiting is very stressful, right? You likely are feeling the anxiety build up in your body, possibly making you feel stiff, sore or even have trouble sleeping. So, do something nice for yourself. Schedule a massage or attend your favorite work-out class. Or schedule a nice dinner with friends. Do something that makes you happy. It will help as you count down the hours.

On a personal note, when I was waiting I worked out with a personal trainer a few times a week (at 6:00am – so glad I don’t work out at 6:00am anymore!). Anyway, during results week, I was such a ball of stress that we worked out every morning and he created different boxing workouts for me to work off the extra stress. I think it actually helped a bit!

On results day, if you can, leave work early: I wouldn’t check results at work if you can help it. Most places you work, if they are full of lawyers, completely understand and will be okay with you leaving early on that Friday or not coming in at all.

I left work around noon and went to a movie to kill time. It was one way to make the time pass and distract me from the hours ticking by. I used to joke, “Know how to make time stand still? Count down the minutes until your bar results are posted.”

I recommend that you check your results with another person if you can: Checking your results is a pretty stressful experience and whether you are full of relief or disappointment, it is likely having someone there to talk to after getting the big news is helpful. So consider checking your results with a friend or loved one (even someone who isn’t a lawyer). I think it makes the process a bit easier (and they can confirm for you what you read on the screen).

Warning, checking on a mobile device may cause great frustration: I have watched people check results on mobile devices and also heard stories of folks trying to get the results to load on a Blackberry. Slow service or difficult to read websites may make checking your results on your phone impractical. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be. Just try to be near a computer at 6:00pm. That will make things much easier for yourself.

In the end, do whatever feels right for you. It is okay to be anxious, but try not to let the anxiety be too much for you. Whether you pass or fail, at least you will know and the wait will be over.

I wish everyone the best of luck on results day (especially my fabulous bar students!).

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And remember:

It is just a test!

 Take a listen! (Click on the image below)

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• Do We Have to Write Out Practice Answers?
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Issue spotting alone does not help us refine our exam writing skills.

I believe that the bar exam is testing your essay exam skills as well as your knowledge of the law. Although you can be minimally competent in your knowledge of the law, you must be an expert exam taker. So since you need to become an expert in writing exam answers, it is critical to practice writing out entire answers on a regular basis. Issue spotting is not enough! Why?

• Issue spotting alone does not allow you to practice writing out analysis. On most bar exams it is the analysis that makes the big difference between passing and failing. Although some students think they understand how to write out analysis, often they are over-confident. You need to practice arguing the facts to get the maximum amount of analysis points possible.
• Issue spotting alone does not help you with time-management issues. Almost every person studying for the bar exam struggles with time management. These exams are hard to finish on time! Issue spotting doesn’t help with time management at all. It doesn’t let you practice how to allocate your time for different issues and it doesn’t force you to be concise and move through the exam quickly. Remember, you are graded only by what is on the page, so if you don’t have enough time to write down your answer, that can be problematic.
• Issue spotting alone doesn’t help you refine your exam-taking process. I encourage students to have an exam-taking plan as they sit down to each individual essay. This plan should be practiced over and over again so it becomes a habit (if it is a habit, it is unlikely this plan will go out the window when you are in the stress of the exam). Issue spotting doesn’t really help you refine your exam-taking plan. And for something to become a habit, it has to be done over and over again. So make sure you are taking the time out to write as many essays as possible.

Does this mean that you can never just read and issue spot a bar exam question? No, but you need to be smart about balancing that practice with writing out full essays. In my opinion, you should be writing every day that you are studying for the exam. Why wouldn’t you? It is the way you are going to be evaluated on exam day. And the more you do it, the easier it gets.

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• Warning! Burnout Ahead!
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• The Key to the Performance Test: Find Your Approach
• The Performance Test: Why You Should be Studying Now
• The 7 Areas of Bar Exam Preparation

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Many students already have their bar review materials sitting at home, waiting to be opened. Some students are already cracking into those materials, trying to get a jump start on prep.

However, if this is you, I warn you, burnout may be coming!

I think we all have experienced burnout at one time or another. To be honest, I am recovering from a bit of it myself right now (which is why the Bar Exam Toolbox went a little silent for a few weeks). Alison and I threw a conference called Catapult 2013, which was a huge success. But it was a ton of work. And while I was working on Catapult, my list of things to do after the conference just got longer and longer.

When the conference was over, did I take a nice break to celebrate my success before diving back into work? To be honest, not really. I had to jump right into my to-do list and work on post-conference items. It has been two weeks since the conference and you know what? I am still pretty exhausted! And my productivity has suffered. Why do I feel so burned out? Well, I didn’t schedule time to relax and recuperate after doing something hard. The time I should have spent relaxing and rejuvenating would have likely made me more productive in the last few weeks. But it didn’t seem smart, so I didn’t do it. Oops, my mistake.

What can you learn from my recent experience?

If you don’t take a bit of a break between finishing your law school exams and studying for the bar exam, you will likely start to suffer from burnout. This is going to make your exam studying much more challenging, make you less productive, and also likely increase your anxiety. None of these are good things.

What can you do about it? Schedule some time off! I know money is tight for folks, but even getting out of your house to go hiking a few days in a row would be a great break. Or go visit family. Do something other than sitting in front of a computer and thinking about the law. Clear your head. Celebrate your success of being done with law school. The bar exam study period will be waiting for you when you return and there is plenty of time to prepare for it. Taking a break will actually help make you a better bar studier and have a more productive bar study process. Burnout during the studying process will just slow you down and make this whole process more difficult.

Remember, take care of yourself! You are only as good a bar taker as the body and mind that shows up that day. You deserve a break. Graduating from law school is an amazing thing. Enjoy the moment. There will be plenty of time to study for the bar exam.

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• One and Done: The Best Bar Exam Motto
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• The Performance Test: Why You Should be Studying Now
• The 7 Areas of Bar Exam Preparation

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If you are taking the bar exam for the first time, you want to do what you can to make sure this is the only time you need to take the exam. 

I spend a lot of time talking to people about bar exam experiences, including those ending in failure. What is interesting is that most folks seem to have an idea of what might have happened to cause the failure. They will mention things like not studying enough, being distracted, struggling with anxiety, or not practicing enough. They will confide in me that they knew that things weren’t going so well, but they just trudged forward hoping it would work out. Sometimes it does, but often it doesn’t.

The question I always ask myself is why students don’t take steps to remedy the situation when they know on some level it isn’t working. Usually the answer is something along the lines of “Well, everyone is telling me if I just do what the commercial bar review course tells me to, it will be fine.”

Okay, that is true for many people (that was true for me). But why would you ever think that your gut instinct was wrong? Or just blindly march forward when you are sure things aren’t going well? No! You must take action! You must decide what doesn’t feel right and fix it. You must explore different resources, get advice, and get help.

Most people tell me they don’t want to ask for help because it may be too expensive. Sure, help can sometimes cost money, that is true. But stop a moment and consider how expensive it is to take another bar exam. That is more time of not working, paying for a tutor, paying the fees to the bar exam, booking the hotel—the costs are looming large here. It is worth it to invest a bit more money into the first experience—to try to make it your last.

If you are studying after a failure, you should have the same motto.

If you are coming back from a bar exam failure, it is even more important that you live by this motto. You can’t not take studying and preparing seriously. You must decide you have the time, energy, dedication, and financial stability to take on this exam again. I tell students that if they need to take a bar exam season off to get to this point, that is better than studying in a situation that is not set up for success—because each failure only makes it harder to go back and study. Instead, you want to see studying again as an opportunity for you to be empowered. You should get help that you feel good about, a plan that you feel like sticking to, and then challenge yourself to give it everything you have got. There is absolutely no reason not to.

I challenge you to go “all in” in your bar preparation. Give it everything you can. Ask for help when you need it and give yourself the best chance you can for success.

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(1)  You need to have an approach.

(2)  You need to practice that approach.

(3)  You need to get feedback on your writing.

What is a performance test approach?

I consider a performance test approach to be the “how to” of what you do when you get the packet. You want to approach each exam, generally, in the same way. This keeps you on task, makes you efficient, and even helps with exam anxiety. My students tell me they feel ready for the performance test portion when they get to that part of the exam and say, “Okay, here we go again!”

I would argue that there is not one perfect approach for everyone. Instead you need to try different approaches to see what works for you. You might learn a few different approaches, be it from your commercial bar review course, your private tutor, or even a book (such as Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test by Mary Campbell Gallagher, JD, PhD).  In order to try these out, you must practice, practice, practice.

Basically, you want to focus on an approach for each portion of the test.

Task Memo: You will get a memorandum giving you your task. There is a lot of quality information in this part of the test.  It is so important that you actually need to read it twice. Furthermore, following directions is incredibly important on the performance test. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to frame your answer correctly since following the directions amounts to such easy points. Warning! If you ever find yourself saying, “Hey, I know they said to do it this way, but I am actually going to do it this other way,” please stop yourself! Danger zone! You must do it as presented to you by the bar examiners.

File: The file will have a bunch of different documents relating to the assignment at hand. These can be transcripts, contracts, depositions, letters, you name it. Your job is to sift through the facts looking for the relevant ones. You are on a hunting expedition. If you find yourself highlighting everything on the page, you are in another danger zone! Not everything is relevant. It is important to note that some students like reading the file first and some the library. I find it is a personal preference. You should try a few both ways to see which is right for you.

Library: The library will have statutes, cases, and the like. It is here that you are searching for the law to apply to the facts in the file. Again, don’t get caught up in highlighting every word. Instead, you must sift through all of this information in order to determine what is actually relevant and on point to complete the task at hand. I sometimes tell my students to “sit on their hands” until they see something relevant to highlight. It sounds silly, but it works.

Crack open a performance test and see how it goes!

The best way to find the right approach for you is through practice and feedback. Get started today! What do you have to lose really? If you are really good at the performance test, then you can feel confident about one portion of the exam. If you struggle with it, you have plenty of time to practice and learn different approaches to conquer the exam.

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Start learning about the performance test.

Whether you are in California where it is called the performance test (and lasts three hours) or you are in another jurisdiction that tests using the Multistate Performance Test (MPT)( lasting 90 minutes), you should start learning about this part of the exam. How do you do that?

Check out past performance tests.

For those sitting for the California bar exam, the bar publishes entire exams starting in 2007 including high scoring student answers. For those studying for a jurisdiction that uses the MPT, go to past MPT packets here (from the NCBE) and here (from the Maryland bar).

If you have never seen a performance test before, take a moment right now to download one. There really is no reason not to. Why wait until the last minute to check out what this part of the test looks like?

But the exam is still months away!

This is true, but here is a secret—the performance test does not require you to know any law whatsoever. None. Zip. Nada. That is the beauty of the performance exam. You don’t need to know any law to be successful. You just have to be experienced at taking the performance test. And you gain that experience through practice.

How is it that it doesn’t require knowing any law?

The performance test is designed to simulate an assignment you would get at a job as a new associate. You get a “task memo” from your supervising attorney, review a “file” (a bunch of facts), and a “library” (a bunch of law). You then need to put all of the pieces together to complete the assignment presented in the “task memo.” That is it? Yup, that is it.

So what makes the performance test so difficult?

I think the performance test is challenging for some students for a few reasons:

• Not following the directions or doing the task asked of them.
• Not managing their time well.
• Not writing in a clear and concise way.
• Not focusing on analysis (too many rule statements). Remember what makes us lawyers is learning to apply facts to the law.

Many of these issues can be overcome with practice and feedback, however. This is great news, because at this point you have plenty of time to practice. You still have months before the exam to work on these tests.

But won’t I forget how to do the performance test if I study for it early?

My students actually tell me that they feel like learning to do a performance test is a lot like riding a bike. You need to do the practice to get comfortable with the exam- taking approach and to get familiar with the different types of tests typically administered by your jurisdiction. But once you have “figured out” the performance test, you are typically good to go. You need to do a bit more practice to keep up your skills, but this can free up valuable time during the preparation period to study the mountains of law necessary to be successful on the exam.

What if I am working while studying?

If you are working while studying, you want to consider starting with the performance test and then move on to studying the essays and the MBE. Studying for the performance test early will help balance out your study time, as you get closer to the exam.

Have any questions? Please leave them in the comments.

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Focus on networking and making connections (and print some business cards).

It is very possible that many jobs won’t take a chance on hiring someone before getting bar results. This is understandable, right? Because of this, you may want to focus more on networking and making connections while waiting for your exam results and less on filling out and submitting job applications.

How can you network and make connections? One great way is to set up informational interviews (you can check out this handy guide on The Girl’s Guide to Law School). Spend some time on LinkedIn looking for folks you may be connected to (or not connected to) that you would like to meet. What do you have to lose by reaching out?

And go ahead and have some business cards printed up to hand out at these meetings. They don’t cost all that much money and they make you look so much more professional.

Attend conferences where you can network and meet new people.

Did you know that conferences can be a great place to meet up with people? Spend some time digging around for conferences that sound interesting to you and sign up. Sure, I know spending money before you have a job can be a little daunting, but you may meet someone fantastic at the conference, which could lead to a job opportunity. Or you may learn something interesting that you can talk about in a job interview. Basically, it is win-win. Alison and I attend quite a few conferences and we typically find that we leave with having learned something and likely with a few new connections. (And, hey, did you know that Alison and I are hosting a conference on April 13 called Catapult 2013 – Tools for a 21st Century Legal Career? You should check it out—it is going to be a blast. And how great is the logo?)

Check out volunteer opportunities.

Your local bar association or government agencies may have bar internships or volunteer opportunities where you can brush up on your legal skills while waiting for bar results. Sure, it would be better if you got paid, but volunteering and gaining training will still likely help you reach your goal of a paying job in the near future. And working is better than sitting on your couch watching DVDs and worrying about your bar results.

Take part in programs offered by your bar association to learn new skills.

Your bar association may even offer programs that you can attend (sometimes at very low cost) to help get you ready to practice law. These workshops are great opportunities to learn a few things and meet new people. Again, why not give them a try?

I know waiting for your bar results is hard and not having a job makes it even more difficult. But getting out there, networking, and connecting with others will only help you get your career started off right.

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What do I mean by this?

If you are taking the exam on your laptop, it is likely you need to load some sort of exam software onto your computer. If you have never done this before, you want to do this now. And by now, I mean immediately.

Why?

Because sometimes loading software isn’t as easy as you think. I got an email from a student of mine yesterday studying for the California bar exam. She is a repeat taker and figured that getting the software set up to take it again would be a non-issue. When she went to upgrade the software, there were some issues with her computer and it took quite a bit of time for her to troubleshoot to get the software working again. Thankfully, it did.

Test the software — even if you have used it before.

The same student also found out that the software company had made some changes to the software since the last time she took the exam. So it took her a bit longer to navigate around the software (by taking a practice exam) to get used to it. Luckily she did this 6 days before the exam, and not the night before (very wise).

Don’t leave computer work until the last moment.

I sent an email blast to all of my private tutoring students last night after getting the above mentioned email from my student. Some of them took the time to upload the computer software and also ran into trouble. Eek! At least it was trouble that could be remedied before exam day.

If you have not set up your computer for the exam, please do so now! Dealing with technical issues now will give you time to remedy them before exam day.

Good luck!

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