Last Minute Advice for the Weekend

The bar is getting close – don’t panic!

It’s Wednesday night as I write this, so that means Thursday and Friday are your last “big” days. Do as many MBE and fully written out essays as possible. On Saturday, start to taper off, as if you are preparing for a marathon, because you are.

Sat, Sun and Mon you should still:
**Review the law, especially memorizing elements
**Outline essays
**Small chunks of MBE questions
**Review things you need to memorize, or are struggling to memorize “buzz words”
**Redo MBE questions you’ve gotten wrong in the past
**SLEEP (get 8 hours of sleep starting Sat to be optimal)
**EAT WELL
**Take care of yourself mentally and do something that will relax you.

The last thing seems counter intuitive, but you need to be fresh, well rested and relaxed on Tuesday. Or at least, as well rested and relaxed as is possible. Similar to a marathon, or any exhausting sporting event, if you do 100 MBE the night before, you will not be at your best on Tuesday. Over the weekend, take an hour or two to pamper yourself, to deal with stress. If you are exhausted and anxious on Tues and Wed, that extra 2 hours of studying over the weekend won’t help.

In addition, be confident and trust your gut. For the MBE, don’t second guess yourself. Read carefully and make sure you answer what is being asked, but don’t keep going back to change your answers. For the essays, EXPLAIN yourself!

I’ll see you on the other side!

Last Minute Advice

So, you have a bit over a week before the MBE, what can and should you be doing?

First, be sure to treat this as a marathon. This means no doing 100 MBE the night before. Relax this upcoming weekend, make sure you are refreshed going into a marathon of an exam on Wed. Make Thursday or Friday your last “BIG” days, do 50-100 MBE questions on those days and then taper off, doing 5-15 each day up until Wed. But over the weekend before the MBE, don’t exhaust yourself doing another full practice exam.

So, what CAN you do?

1) Memorize Con Law. Yep, all of it. The scrutinies, the burdens, what is a suspected class…..once you have all of this memorized, con law MBE questions become a matching game. In addition, know the difference between equal protection and due process, remember, above all else, equal protection is treating groups of people differently. Sounds easy enough, but if you do NOT have two distinct classes of people in the fact pattern, it is NOT equal protection. In addition, “for the general welfare” is NEVER the right answer unless attached to tax and spend. Also, remember for any con law questions, crim pro included, you absolutely NED government action. The above will get you at least half of the con law questions, if not more. (Also, you know that I normally hate the word “memorize”, so take this to heart. You NEED to know the exact wording for con law)

2) KNOW HOMICIDE. seriously. know it like the back of your hand. Know the difference between murder, manslaughter and the different defenses. Know when a defense or mistake has to be reasonable or just honest. Know that for attempt you need INTENT. Always. You can NOT accidentally attempt something. Also, know that VOLUNTARY means VOLUNTARY, or intentional, and INVOLUNTARY means an accident.

3) Know negligence. Know it cold. Don’t skip steps, even on an MBE question. Is there a duty, was there a breach, and did that breach cause the injury? Do not skip a single element, you can not assume anything.

4) Know what hearsay is and all of it’s exceptions. Also, as for evidence, start by making sure that the evidence that is being admitted is relevant, then check for hearsay issues, impeachment issues, competency issues, and 403 issues. But, above all else, memorize hearsay exceptions.

5) For property, get used to outlining. All you can do. Make little outlines, letting you know who conveyed what to who. Draw in the margins, no one will know.

6) Last but not least, for contracts remember to go in order – don’t skip straight to damages, start with what law applies, then whether a contract was formed, is it enforceable, what are the terms, is there an excuse and FINALLY breach and remedies. And remember, for remedies, when stumped think about where the person WOULD have been had the contract been formed and where they are now. The damages they are entitled to is the difference between the two.

Make flashcards for the above and memorize, memorize, memorize this week. However – one caveat. Don’t spend hours memorizing, do it in 5-10 minute spurts, since you memorize more effectively that way.

Good Luck!

Torts Tips for the Bar Exam!

I realize that if you are taking the bar, Torts might not seem like it’s your biggest hurdle. And it’s probably not. However, as it’s usually considered an “easy” bar topic, it is easy to become complacent and make mistakes.

So I present to you, some torts tips!

1) Issue Spotting: For many, the tricky part of torts is issue spotting. This applies to the MBE and Essays. Remember that most facts are in the hypo for a reason, so what I do to spot issues is line up important facts on one side, and then on the other side, write the tort. This way, you know you are not missing anything. Also, if you forget a tort, and this will happen, you don’t just disregard the facts. For instance, you see that Bob punched Jim, so you write that down in one column, but then you forget that hitting is usually battery. This way, you can at least mention that Bob punching Jim is a tort, even if you can’t articulate that it’s batter. You won’t get the full amount of points, but you will get some credit for knowing that the facts are important.

2) Intent v Negligence: An intentional tort can not be done negligently. Negligence can not have intent. There are no exceptions. Negligence is always an accident, that’s why we call it negligence. If there is any intent, it is an intentional tort. This might seem obvious, but it’s something that’s easy to overlook in a stressful situation like the bar.

3) Vicarious Liability: This is heavily tested on the bar, and it is very important to understand this concept, so important that I wrote an entire article on it! Go here http://thebarexamdossier.blogspot.com/2009/10/vicarious-liability-what-it-is-what-it.html

4) Torts before defenses: Think of your exam like going into court; you have to first establish the prima facie claim before bringing up any defense. So many people want to just state “Bob did not commit battery because there was self defense…”. You have to FIRST establish there was a battery, THEN establish a defense. It makes sense, if you are a defense attorney, why would you bring up a defense before the plaintiff made out a claim?

5) Bad things happen to good people: And sometimes no one is responsible. It’s so tempting to think that everything that goes wrong is automatically a tort. It isn’t. Not every car accident is a result of negligence. You need to meet all elements of the tort, and sometimes an accident does not meet the requirements of negligence. This is especially important to remember on the MBE – sometimes the little old injured lady has no recovery options, and it’s sad, but you have to move on to the next question!

6) Negligence, negligence, negligence: This will most likely be heavily tested. Remember that to prove a claim of negligence, the defendant has to have a duty (usually you can put in “duty to be a reasonable…whatever it is that they’re doing”), they have to breach that duty (remember, no breach, no negligence!), that breach has to cause an injury (both the actual and proximate cause) and there has to be an injury. Don’t make assumptions about any element.

7) Strict liability is rare: It only occurs in 3 ways – wild animals, products, ultra hazardous activities.

On top of all of that, just remember to always explain WHY on your essays. This is the most important part of any exam; do not just restate rules, but explain why those rules are applicable to the current fact pattern.

GOOD LUCK!

A Note on Essays

There is less than a month before the bar, so I thought I’d share a few brief tips on essays. There are certain mistakes that all of my students tend to make, and it matters not what state you are in!

The point of the bar, besides torturing you and taking away your summer, is to test whether you can be a lawyer. Not whether you know the law, that is what your Juris Doctorate signifies. (please note- you DO need to know the law, but that is only step 1) So how does one prove that you are capable of practicing law? First, issue spotting. The bar overseers want to ensure that when a client comes to you, telling you about their no good very bad day, you don’t skip over some of their problems. Your first job as a lawyer is to identify the claims, or legal problems, since your clients aren’t going to do it for you.

Next, lawyers analyze. Or, if you listen to lawyer jokes, we argue. Yes, you need a conclusion, but it’s not the most important part of your essay. Focus less on the conclusion, and more on how you get there. Look at it as a “it’s the journey not the destination” type of cliché! In addition, remember that we all have a different perspective, and we all might view facts differently, so explaining how you get to a certain conclusion is going to help you gain points. It also shows the examiners that you can advocate for a certain point of view, which is what they are looking for.

Last, don’t be afraid to write simply and use plain language. This isn’t a law review article, and you’re not going to win a Pulitzer. Ditch the flowery and overly verbose language. Think “how can I get my point across and move on”, especially since the graders are reading your essay VERY quickly. You want your essay to be easy to read, because that makes them happier! It also makes things easier on you. It’s ok to be repetitive, or to use a formula. I can assure you that if an English teacher would be horrified by your writing, you are likely on the right track!

And most importantly – PRACTICE! It’s the best way to master doing these essays in such a short period of time.