How to Pass the Bar Exam San Francisco CA

Steps

1. Finish Law School with at least a B-. Most States require a law degree as a condition precedent to taking the Bar. This requirement is perplexing since law school does very little to actually prepare you to take the Bar.
2. Find a good bar preparation course. BarBri is in every state and covers both the essay and MBE portions of the exam. PMBR is an excellent choice for MBE preparation. These courses give instruction on the actual nuts and bolts involved in taking the Bar.
3. Do what they tell you in step 2. This may seem obvious but all good bar preparation courses stress practice and training over study. Almost every person who does not pass the bar fails because of an incorrect assumption about how to approach bar prep.
4. Study only from the mistakes you make on MBE practice questions and by comparing your essays with sample essays provided by your prep course. DO NOT SPEND HOURS READING OUTLINES. READ THEM ONCE. THEN THROW THEM OUT AND START PRACTICING! Still, you should prepare and memorize your own one page outlines that cover particular bar subjects. The bar examination measures how well you spot the issues in the question and a mental outline gives you a checklist for those issues.
5. Review step 4. If you wanted to win the Tour de France you could purchase expansive literature on vela-physics and wind resistance. You could study all aspects of how to reduce the drag co-efficient and improve velocity performance. In short, you could become the absolutely best informed person on the sport itself. All of this superior information will not be useful to you while you gasp and wheeze laying sprawled out on the ground after the first 10 minutes of the first stage of the race. Why? You cannot study your way to good performance on the Tour de France anymore than you can for the bar exam.
6. Ready yourself properly. The bar exam is an endurance test and it requires training, conditioning, and practice:
   • Train: Right out the gate start writing sample essays to sample essay problems. Always do this under the same time constraints that will exist at the exam. Then take the time to review your essay against sample answers. Do not worry that you have not got a clue as to what the law is in a given area. Identify the issues and check your work later. This is how you learn. Every person who fails with almost no exception has said "I do not know the law well enough to start doing practice exams. I need to study more first." This attitude almost always guarantees failure.
   • Condition: for the ten weeks or so you have to prepare do at least 20 to 50 MBE multiple choice questions a day. ALWAYS TAKE UNDER TIMED CONDITIONS. Do not fret that you cannot finish in time. Check all your wrong answers and understand why you made a mistake. As you do this, patterns will begin to emerge. You will start to recognize them and then your speed and efficiency will improve.
   • Practice: Like performing at Carnegie Hall you must practice, practice, practice. Francis Bacon once said Truth arises more readily from error than confusion . Take this seriously. Your mistakes are where you will master this exam. Your mistakes are your gold mine. Cherish them and keep practicing and keep making mistakes and keep learning from them.
7. Eat healthily.
8. Sleep a lot.
9. Exercise.
10. Choose one video game and play it an hour a day to improve your focus and reactivity. Keep playing the same game and improve your performance. It will help keep you focused.
11. Visit the art gallery, chill out - whatever you do to relax, do it.
12. Focus on the relevant issues:
    • To accurately answer Constitutional Law questions, focus on the issues of state action, due process, equal protection, and the 1st Amendment.
    • When faced with Contracts questions, underline the terms of the offers and the acceptances, focus on oral agreements, underline any dates mentioned in the fact patterns, and notice if the sale of goods has occurred.
    • To answer Criminal Law and Procedure questions, focus on the issues of search and seizure, right to counsel, and Miranda warnings.
    • Familiarize yourself with the key Evidence issues of hearsay, impeachment, and character evidence.
    • For Real Property questions, pay special attention to the issues of ownership and rights in land. Also, make sure that you are able to distinguish between an easement, profit, and license.
    • For Torts questions, focus on the areas of negligence, intentional torts, and products liability.

Tips

• The MBE is a challenging test and you will have an edge if you focus on the areas and issues mentioned above. Good luck!
• Bar Exam Questions and Answers | Study For Law

Warnings

• Do not cram. Successful preparation for the Bar requires gradual conditioning over a period of time. If possible, avoid other law students unless at bar prep classes. Go out to dinner, see a movie....avoid alcohol and drugs. You need sleep, nutrition, and endurance.

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