How To Pass The [Texas] Bar While Enjoying The Hell Out Of Your Summer Forum

[Barre]

This is an article about how to pass the bar without ruining your summer. The online discussion forums were always a great source of information to me during law school, and I wanted to add something to the literature. I took the Texas bar, but these principles can be applied to pass any bar.

The bar is not that hard. But law students freak out about it, and can drive each other into a frenzy of over-studying and stress. Bar prep companies feed the anxiety, charging hefty sums and putting students through all-day test prep sessions with hours of homework afterward. It doesn’t need to be that way. Although the bar is a tough exam, the fact is you don’t need to study ten to twelve hours a day for two months. I think that’s overkill.

I took (and passed) the July 2015 Texas bar as a first time test-taker. While studying for the exam, I worked hard, but never past 6 p.m. (3 or 4 p.m. in the early stages), didn’t work weekends, went out a lot, explored a new city, and took a trip 10 days before the bar. Where many people were reportedly stressed out all summer, I had an amazing time. I wanted to share my thoughts on how I did that for all of you anxious test takers out there. I think that life is too short not to have one while studying for the bar.

I succeeded in law school with a variant of a method outlined on top-law-schools.com (Success in Law School - A Unique Perspective, www.top-law-schools.com/success-in-law-school.html). My method here is similar in that I focus on learning from a short, dense bar outline and then placing heavy emphasis on practice exams.

About the bar. In Texas, the bar is a two and a-half day exam. 40% of your score comes from the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). It is a multiple choice section that will be administered on day two of the exam. 40% of your score comes from the Texas essay section. It is a series of twelve short essays that will be administered on day three of the exam. 10% of your score comes from short answers on Texas Civil Procedure and Texas Criminal Procedure sections, and the remaining 10% comes from the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), in which you write a memo or brief based on facts given on the exam. These last three will be administered on the first half-day of the exam.

When to start studying. I studied for the bar for two months. I finished law school in May, and took the bar on July 28. Start studying around June 1. You’ll be tempted to start in May because your classmates, gunners that they are, will be starting early. Don’t. First of all, you need a little vacation after law school. It will make you fresh for when you start studying. Second is the law of diminishing marginal returns. There is only so much you can do to prepare for the bar, and starting too early won’t help you much. If your bar prep course starts before June 1, by all means attend those sessions, but don’t feel the need to start hardcore right away.

What materials you need. Sign up for a bar review class. Some major ones are Barbri, Kaplan, and Themis. I don’t think it really matters which one you take. I took Barbri. I didn’t find the course that useful, but a prep course adds some structure and confidence to your bar-prep life. By all means enroll in one of the less expensive ones.

You’ll need a bar outline. I used Barbri’s Conviser Mini-Review (CMR). The CMR is a dense book that contains all the information you need to know for the bar. That was, almost exclusively, what I used to study. I would ignore the multitude of other books, they just lay out the same information in about 5x the space. You can probably buy an edition of the CMR on eBay. Beware of older ones though because they won’t have Civil Procedure, which was added to the bar recently. Presumably, the other test prep companies have a similar one-shot outline book that you can use. Or, I’ve heard that baroutlines.com has ones you can buy for $100. In any case, find an outline.

You’ll need practice questions. For the MBE, your bar prep class will provide you with practice questions. Barbri has whole books of them, and you should take advantage of that. However, the Barbri practice questions are not exactly like the real thing. Supposedly they are harder. But the key point is that they are different, and you want to be doing at least some real exam questions that you’ll do on test day. It always pays to do the real thing. To that end, I bought Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, Fifth Edition (Emanuel Bar Review). This book has great down-to-earth strategies that will help you and boost your confidence on the MBE. It also contains many real live MBE questions, not the off-brand ones that some prep companies come up with. I have also heard good things about AdaptiBar, but the Emmanuels book worked well for me.

You’ll also need practice questions for the essay section. For Texas, you can go straight to the bar examiners’ website and look at selected answers to past essays (http://www.ble.state.tx.us/MainPage/examinfo.htm). Every essay exam for the last fourteen bar exams (seven years) is posted. Sample answers written by actual test-takers are posted. You should do many of these, as I will discuss later. In addition, you can find questions and answers for the Civil and Criminal Procedure and MPT online there too.

How to study. Here is how I studied for the bar. The first month, I reviewed the material in the bar outline. The second month, I almost exclusively did practice questions.

First off, take a look at what all the types of bar exam questions look like. Do this on day one. Review a few MBE questions, some essay questions, Civil and Criminal Procedure questions, and an MPT. Just get a birds-eye view of what you’re dealing with.

My goal for the first month was to have gone over every section of the bar outline, from Evidence to Secured Transactions to Torts. For the first month (about June 1 – 28), I studied from about 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. I would start the day at a Barbri lecture. Afterwards, I would hit a coffee shop and go over the material for a few more hours. Then, I would go to the gym, go out with friends, do whatever. All told, I probably went to about half of the Barbri lectures or less. I didn’t find them that useful, but they added some structure to the day. The key part of studying is doing practice exams, as I will remark on later. I also didn’t do (almost) any of the Barbri homework assignments. I just spent this month familiarizing myself with the material. I would do some practice questions as I went along, but didn’t go hard at this point.

Many of the subjects will be familiar to you from law school, like Con Law, Civil Procedure, or Property. Review them. Other subjects will not be familiar. I never took Wills & Trusts, for example, so it took me some time to learn that section. But I was able to do it via the bar outline and some practice exams. Oil & Gas is a mishmash of contract and property law with some new terms thrown in like “habendum clause” or the “Duhig doctrine.” Learn these from the outline. Some of the material doesn’t really make sense until you start doing practice essays. This is particularly true of Commercial Paper and Secured Transactions. I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about no matter how many times I read it or listened to the lectures. But the essay questions are similar from year to year, and as you start do them you’ll understand.

A month before the exam (say, July 28) is crunch time. This is when I really started studying. I went from about 8 to 5 or 6 p.m. I did practice questions all day long. In the morning, I might knock out a few dozen multiple choice questions, and in the afternoon, I might do several practice essays. Same went for the Civil and Criminal Procedure. I would just knock them out. I did not study longer than that because it wouldn’t have been productive. There’s a limit to how much quality studying you can do in a day.

When you are doing practice questions, focus on what you are doing wrong. When you get a multiple choice question wrong, make sure you understand why. Then, write down the rule you learned as a result. Write it down, don’t just think it. Writing is repetition that will help you remember it the next time it comes up. The same goes for essays. Check your essay answer against the sample answer. If your answer is missing points, write them down. Go and add to your answer the stuff that the sample test taker put on his. This will help you remember it for next time. Also, rely on real sample answers written by real people where possible. Answers written by prep companies tend to be too perfect, and trying to reproduce them under real conditions will lead you astray. I started out doing practice essays open book with no time limit, and then progressed to timed, closed-book ones.

By the time the bar exam rolled around, I had done most of the past essays available on the Texas bar examiner’s website. When the actual bar came along, I had seen almost everything before (with the exception of one essay question from left field—the Texas bar examiners will always put in one random question to throw you off – don’t sweat it). So I was able to do fine.

For the MBE, I probably did between five hundred and a thousand practice questions total. Other people did far more. I have always thought the MBE is akin to the LSAT in that you can’t move your score all that much. Others may think differently. I got a 144 (scaled) on the MBE, which is about average. I don’t really think I would have done much better even if I did a thousand more questions. In any case, the key is just to learn from what you’re doing wrong, and keep doing practice questions. When studying for the MBE, most of the time I would do ten or twenty questions and then go back over the answers. Your bar prep company may offer a practice midterm under timed conditions. This is very useful, take it seriously. You also want to do some practice under timed conditions yourself. Take three hours to do 100 questions and see how you do. If you want some extra MBE work, buy the Emmanuel’s book I mentioned above.

Regarding the MPT: I studied minimally for this. I did two or three practice MPT questions. They are just like writing a memo or brief for your legal writing class. I would recommend doing a few of these and reviewing the sample answers. As always, if you missed things, make sure you re-write your essay to incorporate them. Understand what the MPT test-makers are looking for. The first time I did an MPT, I was off the mark, and my essay didn’t look like what they wanted. On the next one, I adjusted and came out with a more normalized answer. Do likewise.

Regarding the Texas Civil and Criminal Procedure questions: These are memorization heavy. For example, a classic question is “What are three rules that a court should follow when fixing the amount of bail?” You will write a one or two sentence response to this.

Performance on test day. When test day rolls around, you want to be mentally on your game. First of all, be prepared with the little things. Make sure you bring all the items you need—your exam ticket, pens, pencils, water (if it’s allowed), etc. Get these ready several days before the exam. Think about parking, and scope out the bar exam location if you haven’t been there. Having been there before will put you at ease when it’s time to take the test.

Pack your lunch for the bar exam. You don’t want to deal with trying to find somewhere to eat and worry about getting back in time. And eat breakfast before the test to get your brain moving. The night before the exam, stop studying around 4 or 5 p.m. and take the evening off. Watch a movie. Make sure you sleep well. If you have trouble sleeping, consider asking your doctor for something like Ambien. Sleep is important and you don’t want to lose that edge during the exam. During the bar, don’t study the evening after a test day. Rest is more valuable than whatever negligible gain you’ll make from last minute cramming.

A word about stress. At some point, probably around July 1, the fear will hit you. You will realize it is four weeks until the bar exam and you are not ready. You will lambast yourself for messing around the past month and think there is no way you will pass the bar. Good. Use that fear. It will motivate you to study hard. This last month is the crucial part of studying, and I won’t minimize the importance of hard work at this stage. Go hard every day. But during this time I still never worked past 6, nor did I work weekends. I maintained my life. More than that is unproductive. Also, make sure you exercise, eat right, and sleep well. This will help you manage stress throughout the process.

Remember: The bar is just an exam, and most people pass it. Don’t stress about it overmuch, and don’t let it ruin your summer. If you go over the material and do plenty of practice questions, you’ll be just fine. Good luck.

[austinmom]

Barre,

Thanks for your thorough response.

I'm a first time test taker for TX. I'm already barred in NY and MS, but didn't practice long enough to waive in. Since it's been such a while since I've studied (last bar exam was Feb 2009), your outline was a helpful reminder.

It seems like the essays are pretty straightforward in TX. In reviewing the TX essays, did you make a rough draft of topics tested? In NY, the company I used had an outline of heavily tested topics and that's what I'm hoping to focus on as several of the topics in TX are completely foreign to me.

[BVest]

Barre,

Thanks for your thorough response.

I'm a first time test taker for TX. I'm already barred in NY and MS, but didn't practice long enough to waive in. Since it's been such a while since I've studied (last bar exam was Feb 2009), your outline was a helpful reminder.

It seems like the essays are pretty straightforward in TX. In reviewing the TX essays, did you make a rough draft of topics tested? In NY, the company I used had an outline of heavily tested topics and that's what I'm hoping to focus on as several of the topics in TX are completely foreign to me.

This is from memory (except for UCC questions, which I copied from my post in the Texas Saloon thread), so don't take it as full gospel, but I'm pretty sure of this:

Essays:
Consumer law (1): Almost always either Pure DTPA, DTPA + Texas Debt Collection Law, or DTPA + add-on statute (especially insurance). Pretty much all I needed to know I learned from DTPA flash cards online that are the first hit for DTPA Texas Flash Cards on google.

UCC (2): For the two UCC questions, UCC-3 (Commercial Paper) is almost always tested and UCC-9 (Secured Credit) is usually tested. UCC-2 (K) comes up less often. Here's the breakdown of late:

SC, CP (July 2015)
K, CP
K, SC
SC, CP
SC, CP
K, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, Combo K/CP (payment-in-full check/breach of warranty)
SC, CP
SC, CP
SC, CP (Feb 2009)

Real Property (2): Almost invariably, one O&G question (usually fairly basic about making a lease or termination of one on its terms), and one other real property question. The second question is usually fairly mainstream (Conveyance, leaseholds, homesteads, etc. see past questions) but July 2015 was out of left field (M&M liens)

Trust, Guardianship (1): Either one trust question (formation, duties, etc) or one guardianship question (standing and whether a guardianship is merited). I think this may have an unofficial pattern like trust in July and guardianship in Feb, but you can look through past exams for that.

Estates/Wills (2): Probably one question about a will (holographic, revoked, self-proving, lost, after-born kids, post-execution divorce, etc) and one about administration of an estate (letters testamentary, dependent/independent administration, executor, small estate, etc)

Family (2): Generally one about community property and one about parent-child relationships (conservatorship, support, paternity). Also look out for domestic violence angle.

Business Associations (2): One partnership question and one Corp question. Alternatively, a comparative question asking what your clients should form based on their planned business goals. Anyway, expect formation, duties, differences in types.

[Pneumonia]

tag

[Tiredbuthappyitsover]

Hi guys!! I've posted some tips below that I used to save a lot of time.

1. I changed my bar prep course from a very well known big box course to Reed Bar Review. PM me if you have specific questions about Reed Bar Review and you are thinking of signing up for it in any capacity. Basically, I loved Reed's MBE prep and strategy to memorize information for the Texas Essays.

2. I stopped working. DO NOT WORK WHILE STUDYING FOR THE BAR IF YOU CAN HELP IT.

3. I added Adaptibar to my preparation method. PM me your email if you need a discount code to sign up for it.

4. I added Critical Pass flashcards to my prep. PM me if you need a discount code to sign up for it.

5. I made sure to complete at least 2,000 MBE questions, and I did some MBE questions every day. I always reviewed the questions I got wrong, and even the ones I got right to understand WHY an answer choice was correct and why the others were wrong. After all, sometimes I just guessed correctly and got the right answer, but I couldn't rely on this for the real bar exam.

6. I took lots of full-length MBE exams and reviewed my mistakes. If I didn't know a rule of law or misunderstood it, I wrote it out in a notebook by subject (i.e. torts, contracts, etc.) and then reviewed those rules of law periodically.

7. I actually wrote out essays in full format while studying (and then I graded them). I didn't do this 100% of the time, but I did it at least 50% of the time. It was an uncomfortable process but it was ultimately VERY helpful to actually learning the information and memorizing it. Even when I didn't write out the essay in full format though, I outlined my answer at the very least and then graded that.

8. I used the model answers from the Texas BLE site to grade the essays I wrote in practice.

9. I focused heavily on the MBE as well as memorizing information for the Texas Essays (80% of your grade), and I didn't worry too much about the MPT/P&E until a few days before the test. That being said, do at least one or two practice MPTs at the beginning of your prep to make sure you can complete your task in the time allotted!

10. To study for the P&E portion, I exclusively did 10 recent practice exams and studied the difference between the Texas rules v. federal rules.

I truly wish each of you the very best!! GO KICK BUTT!