Category: Q&A

Posted on - 9 Comments on “Be Arrogant”: Arrogance as a Bar Exam Mindset

“Be Arrogant”: Arrogance as a Bar Exam Mindset

Not even gainful employment can save you from the terror of the bar.

The other day, I was talking about the bar exam with David, a coworker. Although he is a first-time passer, he passed each of the California, New York and Massachusetts bar exams on the first try some time ago.

I usually discuss the more tangible side of bar preparation.

But are there any mental attitudes that you may want to consider cultivating when preparing for the bar exam and during the daunting task of taking the exam?

We were having such fun exchanging our thoughts about the bar that I started recording our conversation (there go our billables). I interviewed his thoughts revolving around his core advice that day: Be arrogant.

What did he mean?

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Posted on - No Comments on Should You Get a Bar Tutor?

Should You Get a Bar Tutor?

A question that comes up sometimes is whether one should get a bar tutor. Since I have no experience with that, I had to find out how others have dealt with this issue.

On your behalf (because no one else did), I asked three people who took the bar the second time with a tutor and passed. There is a lot of great information here for those on the fence, so pay attention!

Since I usually talk too much, I’ll let L, D and E handle it from here.

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Posted on - 2 Comments on How to Apply Rules with IRAC

How to Apply Rules with IRAC

Essays: Get the “I” and “R” right, and the rest should flow relatively naturally. So these “I” and “R” would be good place to focus on throughout your essay preparation.

Even if you had just a few weeks to prepare for the bar, there’s still time to learn the “A” part of IRAC—applying the rules. Once you learn how to work facts into your answer, you may not need to practice the “A” part as repetitively as you would for issue checking and rule recitation or memorization.

I’ll demonstrate a simple and clean rule application, based on this question I got:

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