My February 2008 bar prep strategy

For the February 2008 bar exam, I used most of the same strategies I used for the July 2007 CO bar exam that I ended up passing. I posted my study strategies last fall after CO bar results came out – the links are below:

How I studied for the MBE

How I studied for the MPT

How I studied for the Colorado bar essays

This time around, I kept my MBE strategy more simple. I religiously used my Strategies and Tactics for the MBE book by Kimm Walton and Steve Emanuel (as in the Emanuel outlines from law school). I CANNOT say enough about how wonderful and invaluable this book is. I ordered it before the July 2007 CO bar exam and I honestly and sincerely believe this book played a large part on my ability to pass that bar exam as well as the February 2008 bar exam. If you only buy one bar prep book, buy this one. I’m not kidding. Screw the BarBri, MicroMash, and PMBR books. I had all those books, but I ignored them and exclusively used the S&T book. I stuck Post-It notes in the practice question sections with the question numbers written on the Post-its so I could just write my answers on them without having to drag out a notebook (and going back and forth between the S&T book and a notebook). I need to take a picture of my S&T book sometime to illustrate my point.

I also used my Study Group MBE software and BarBri StudySmart MBE software. I also have MicroMash, but I did maybe a total of five questions on that software before abandoning it in favor of BarBri and Study Group. My favorite MBE software is Study Group, hands down. It’s much easier to use, and even better it does not require any installation so you can put the software on a flash USB drive and plug it into your work computer, then run the software off there. There are also internet-based MBE software such as AdaptiBar but I can’t vouch for how effective they are. AdaptiBar uses actual, released MBE questions but so does the S&T book, so if you’re buying that book I probably wouldn’t get AdaptiBar. I used NCBE’s MBE Annotated Preview 2006 and I would recommend it – it’s only $26.00.

I also used Google Documents (through my gmail.com account) to type out the answer explanations to each MBE questions as I discussed in my “How I studied for the MBE” post above. This has proved to be VERY helpful and I strongly recommend that you either write or type out the answer explanations to your practice MBE questions. I saw a huge difference the next time I took the MBE after doing this. I would not even have finished reading the MBE question before law points and elements and such were already popping into my head, and I already knew the answer before I even read the answer choices. The first two times I took the MBE I was absolutely lost and clueless. I did not feel that way on the last two MBEs. Yes, they were still hard and difficult, but I think the difficulty for me was trying to remember exactly what the law was, or what the elements were.

I aimed for at least 25 practice MBE questions a day but didn’t always succeed. However I always focused on the answer explanations. I found that those were the most important part of each practice MBE question. You definitely have to understand WHY a specific answer is the correct (or wrong) answer. Don’t make the same mistake I did before my second bar exam failure of focusing on quantity over quality – I had aimed for 100 questions per day or around that, mindlessly answering questions thinking that practice made perfect, even though I was not focusing on the law or the answer explanations behind the question. BIG mistake. My MBE went down TEN points from my first attempt. If I hadn’t made that mistake, I believe I could have passed on my second attempt.

I focused on my MBE outlines as well. I ignored the Convisers this time around because I’d already incorporated most of the Convisers into my MBE outlines. They are not overly long or complicated. To me, they were short, to the point, and easy to understand and follow. I would refer to those outlines if I was stumped on a practice MBE question. I received these outlines from a friend, and I liked the format and layout of the outlines so much I made my own, using those outlines and verifying them with Convisers, as well as plugging in new stuff. I was going to post them on here, but Google Documents kept screwing up the format, so you can e-mail me at frustratedbarexaminee@gmail.com to get the outlines. You can use the same format of these outlines to make your own state-specific outlines like I did for the essay portion of the last bar exam.

As for the MPT, despite my vowing to pay more attention to the MPT this time around, I still didn’t spend much time on it. I didn’t review past MPTs and scoresheets like I’d planned. I like to think that I’m a pretty good writer, and it doesn’t hurt that I write memos and draft orders in my job almost every single day, so I felt I had a good handle on the MPT. I re-read my favorite MPT link, How to Format Legal Memos on the MPT by Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher of BarWrite Blog. I also read BarBri’s MPT Workbook but it didn’t really seem all that helpful to me. Too many complicated formats such as wills, et cetera. It seems that most of my MPTs except one were in memo format, and I think that the one non-memo MPT was a brief? My personal MPT motto was when in doubt, IRAC.

As for the essays – if you’re taking CO, refer to my “How I studied for the Colorado bar essays” post above. I don’t think my study strategy for the essay portion of the February bar exam here was that great. I just obtained released bar essays from the bar association and practiced over and over. It was hard to put together boilerplates or cheat sheets because the essays here are analytical rather than checklist-style like Colorado. I also made my own state-specific outlines using the same format as the MBE outlines, and that helped me learn the state material. I guess I didn’t exactly bomb the essays if I passed, but I also don’t feel that I should offer advice on this front. I truly got lucky on this part. I can only tell you what I did.

In short, here is my MBE strategy:
1) Use the ENTIRE S&T book. Use Post-It notes throughout the practice question and simulated MBE sections of the S&T book.

2) Use MBE software.

3) Use NCBE’s MBE Annotated Preview 2006.

4) Use Google Documents to type out answer explanations to practice MBE questions.

5) Shoot for 25 practice MBE questions a day. Focus on QUALITY over quantity (i.e. don’t just mindlessly answer 100 MBE questions a day). Do a couple of full-length (or even half-length) practice MBEs in the last couple of weeks before the bar exam.

6) Use my own MBE outlines. You can either just use them or type them out yourself. I found that typing out my outlines again really helped me to remember the material better than if I’d just skimmed them.

How I studied for the MPT

This actually will be a very short post because… I didn’t study very much for the MPT. I didn’t practice MPT questions. I read over BarBri’s MPT Workbook, and that’s about it. I had taken as many written paper classes as I could in law school, and also had a lot of practice writing memos and motions, so I figured I’d be ok.

However, it can’t hurt to read over a couple of recently released MPTs and look at the scoresheets to see what they’re looking for in each MPT. I plan to do that for the next bar exam.

I also found this great MPT link before the July 2007 bar, and it’s worth reading: How to Format Legal Memos on the MPT

Readers, please feel free to post your MPT advice in the comments. I could use some advice myself!

My scores

My scores finally arrived in the mail today. Here goes:

MBE – 139
(129 in July 2006, 119 in February 2007)

Essays/PT – 156
(141 in July 2006, 151 in February 2007)

I raised my old score by 25 points for a total score of 295, 19 points above the passing score of 276. I’m glad to learn that I passed by a good margin, and didn’t scrape by with only 1 point above the passing score or something.

Now I can write a post about my MBE study strategy although 139 isn’t exactly earthshattering, especially if one of my readers got a 152 on the MBE and still failed the Colorado Bar Exam (unbelievable, by the way). It’ll be a long post, so it may take me awhile.

My bar exam reflections

Now that the bar exam is over and now that I’ve finally had a proper night’s sleep, I can reflect on the bar.

Why do some people get all trussed up for the bar?? I saw several women wearing dresses or dressy clothes, full makeup, hair done, and even high heels. Why? I showed up in my comfy sweats and forget about makeup. I showered each morning but that’s about the extent of it. I can’t believe anyone would actually be comfortable taking the bar in full makeup, tight clothes and uncomfortable shoes. The only reason I would have worn heels to the bar would be to have a spiked heel handy to drive into my jugular if something catastrophic happened, such as my laptop crashing during the essay/MPT portion.

The essay topics were totally random. At least my guess that Wills was going to be on the bar turned out to be correct. I was blindsided by the Admin Law topic but it was pretty similar to the February Admin Law question so I was able to answer it. Corporations really confused me. A lot of the essay questions were very open-ended and annoyingly vague. I wanted more details!!! They didn’t have Torts or Criminal Law, so I was disappointed at that considering I was only 2 points away from getting perfect scores on both topics on the last bar. Also, since they tested Criminal Procedure in the morning, I was so sure they would test Secured Transactions in the afternoon, but no such luck. I had sent Cyber Janitor my bar essay topic breakdown of all the topics tested on the CO bar for the last 4-5 years, and he pointed out that Crim Pro and Secured Transactions seemed to always be tested together, so I was looking for Secured Transactions. No dice.

I had a slightly panic-inducing moment after the afternoon essays and MPT on Day 1 when time was called. I glanced over at my seatmate’s laptop screen and noticed he only had three or four sentences on his ExamSoft essay screen. His essay was very brief, while all my essays averaged between 2,000 and 3,000 character (near the limit of 4,000 characters allowed per essay). I too had gone into brain dumping mode, as Cyber Janitor put it. It’s funny, normally if you saw that someone had written a very short essay, you’d probably think he had done badly, but my confidence is at such a low point because of my two bar exam failures that I actually started to panic, wondering if my essays were too long (if there’s such a thing!). Even if he had bubbled in a giant smiley face on his MBE scoresheet, I probably still would’ve freaked out too, wondering if I should have bubbled in a giant smiley face on mine as well.

Speaking of the MBE, I thought that the PM one was more difficult than the AM one. I didn’t fill in all my answers at once. I only answered the questions that I knew and the ones that I had to really think about, I left those for the second run through the MBE booklet. The really difficult questions were saved for last so I could focus on them with the time I had left. I finished the first run-through in about an hour with 53 answers. Then I did two or three more run-throughs until all the questions were answered. I really have no clue how I did on the MBE though.

I can’t even say if I did better than previously. I don’t feel GOOD or BAD about my performance. I just feel indifferent. I have zero confidence in myself at this point. It’s been a difficult year with having my ego stomped flat twice by the Colorado Board of Law Examiners. I’m pretty sure I failed the bar. I don’t want to get my hopes up only to have them crushed yet again when the results are released.

Day One

I can’t decide if I want to vomit uncontrollably or slit my wrists. I honestly have no clue how I did today. I felt numb and disconnected all day, if that makes sense. It’s like having had an arm and leg sawed off, so by the time they get to the third limb, you’re already numb to the pain and trauma.

I can’t believe they tested Admin Law twice in a row, after not having tested it in about three years! They also tested Evidence, Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Agency, CO Family Law, Federal Jurisdiction, Corporations/Contracts (not sure what was going on with that essay question to be honest), and Wills.

The MPTs were kind of difficult for me, so I’m not sure how I did. What did everyone else think of the MPTs? I’m not trying to be one of those jerks who discusses the bar exam with everyone in an attempt to psych them out – it’s just that I’ve never really gotten to discuss the bar exam with anyone before.

I’m just glad today is over with.

Outlines again

After my momentary meltdown on Saturday over my Property outline, I was talked into at least tackling my Criminal Law/Procedure outline since I need to memorize the elements of each crime anyway. I’m almost done with it, and then I’m not sure if I’ll take up Property again. I might do a really short Constitutional Law outline. But Property really, really sucks. I have half of the Property outline done, so I just need to finish the other half. Eventually.

I also did several MBE practice questions this weekend and I’m pleased to see that I am getting a lot of correct answers, so perhaps I shouldn’t knock outlining MBE subjects. My friend MC who passed the bar on her second try, said that making her own MBE outlines really helped her a lot on her second time around. It seems a lot of people are advocating doing the outlines, so I’ll try to get through at least Con Law, but I’m not going to neglect MBE practice questions either, even if that means it takes longer to get the outlines done.

I really like the strategy of typing out the answer explanations to every MBE practice question. I find it’s really helping me to understand MBE questions better.

In a couple of weeks I’m going to start updating and refining my Colorado essay boilerplates. I’m not sure if I’m going to study for the MPT. I actually never studied for the MPT both times I’ve taken the CO bar, and I always received higher than average scores on the MPT both times. I will probably comb the web for MPT advice such as formatting.

My February scores

The mailman must’ve sensed he was in imminent danger of a bitchslapping if he didn’t deliver my Colorado scores today, because they finally arrived! Here goes:

MBE
My raw score was a very painful 97. That means I got over a HUNDRED questions wrong! I did the worst in Torts and Contracts on last July’s MBE, so I tried to bone up on those for February’s MBE. Well, I did worse on Torts this time around. So bad that only 0.2% of all MBE takers did worse than me on Torts! Ouch. Obviously my MBE strategy for February was a complete disaster so I’m glad I’m overhauled my strategy this time around.

Here’s the MBE breakdown:

Constitutional Law
Raw score – 20 out of 33
Percent below me – 36.3%

Contracts
Raw score – 16 out of 34
Percent below me – 6.7%

Criminal Law
Raw score – 18 out of 33
Percent below me – 39.0%

Evidence
Raw score – 17 out of 33
Percent below me – 27.7%

Real Property
Raw score – 16 out of 33
Percent below me – 11.9%

Torts
Raw score – 10 out of 34
Percent below me – 0.2% (ouch)

Essays and MPT
I thought I had done well on all but 1 of the 9 essay questions. Apparently I was wrong. Even though I got a total score of 151 out of 200 for the essays and MPT, I’m still not happy with my shortcomings. For instance, Agency and Partnership is one of my favorite essay topics, and Essay 1 was based on that. However, in my stupidity I confused Partnership with Agency, and wrote an Agency-based response when I should have written a Partnership-based response instead. Argh! I really want to kick myself after seeing all the mistakes I made on the February bar. Colorado apparently regraded my essays and MPT because I was so close to passing, but I’m not surprised by that since they did it for my July essays and MPT too. At least I did well on the MPTs and rocked several essays, just not as many of them as I’d thought.

Essay 1 (Partnership) – 2 (overall mean 4.5)
See above about how I stupidly confused Partnership and Agency.

Essay 2 (Sale of Goods) – 2 (overall mean 3.39)
Yeah, didn’t do so hot here either.

Essay 3 (Contracts) – 8 (overall mean 5.47)

Essay 4 (Criminal Law) – 12 (overall mean 8.53)
I would’ve gotten a perfect score for this one but I gave the wrong definition of Manslaughter (correct defintiion: “killing provoked by heat of passion, which is provocation arousing sudden and intense passion without sufficient time for cooling off”).

Essay 5 (Admin Law) – 7 (overall mean 5.6)
This was a pretty random topic since Colorado hadn’t tested it since July 2005. Luckily I had prepared for this one.

Essay 6 (Torts) – 10 (overall mean 8.46)
I got a great essay score on Torts last July too. Interesting how I completely bombed Torts on the MBE, but got great Tort essay scores both times.

Essay 7 (Evidence) – 2 (overall mean 3.03)
Screwed up character evidence.

Essay 8 (Property) – 4 (overall mean 4.08)
This is the one essay I thought I had completely bombed, but apparently I did well on this one.

Essay 9 (Con Law) – 8 (overall mean 8.08)

MPT 1 – 13 (overall mean 12.35)

MPT 2 – 17 (overall mean 12.37)
Yay, I kicked ass here!

How to write MPT memos

I came across this helpful advice on how to format your MPT memos, provided by BarWriteBlog. Even though my problem is the MBE, I don’t plan to neglect my essay and MPT studying. I’d shoot myself if I got a great score on the MBE next time but a crappy score on the essay/MPT, and failed AGAIN.

How to Format Legal Memos on the MPT for Higher Bar Exam Scores:

MEMORANDUM

To: Bar Candidates

From: Mary Campbell Gallagher, J.D., Ph.D., President,
BarWrite® and BarWrite Press

Re: How to Format a Legal Memorandum on the MPT (Revised 4/2/07)

Date: April 2, 2007

INTRODUCTION

The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) allows bar candidates an extremely short time in which to research and write a legal memorandum, only 90 minutes. This memorandum will help you to use correct memo format, organize your memo, write powerful topic headings, finish on time, and earn a high score. We do not deal here with other important aspects of your legal memorandum on the MPT, including persuasive writing, argument from supportive law, distinction of or attack against unfavorable law, and skillful use of the facts. To do your best persuasive writing on the MPT, we recommend using the BarWrite® systems that are taught in the book and CDs Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays, the Under-Here-Therefore(TM) systems for the paragraph, for outlining, and for legal analysis.

DISCUSSION

To score high on a legal memorandum on the MPT, use the memo format the MPT asks for.

Using the memorandum format correctly is key on the MPT. The MPT point sheets indicate that the graders award points for the following:

(a) powerful topic headings,
(b) persuasive writing,
(c) argument from supportive law,
(d) distinction of–or attack against–unfavorable law,
(e) skillful use of the facts, and
(f) careful use of the memo format.

Note that the bar candidate is being graded on “careful use of the memo format.”

In your Legal Writing course, you probably learned a format for the legal memorandum something like this:

(A.) Heading;
(B.) Issue(s);
(C.) Brief Answer;
(D.) Facts;
(E.) Discussion; and
(F.) Conclusion.

The MPT, by contrast, usually asks the candidate to use the following radically simplified format:

(A.) Heading
(B.) Introduction;
(C.) Discussion;
(D.) Conclusion.

The format on the MPT is so abbreviated that your knowledge of correct format will stand out. While these are the usual four parts of the legal memorandum on the MPT, incidentally, nothing requires MPT tasks to have identical formats. Read the directions in the supervising attorney’s memo with care.

Usually, however, there is no section in the memo for a Statement of Facts, no section for Issues, no section for Brief Answers. The memo on the MPT is short, short, short. It contains just a Heading and Introduction, a Discussion, and a Conclusion. We treat the Discussion in the next section and then return to the Heading, Introduction and Conclusion.

The supervising attorney memorandum will help you structure the central segment of your memorandum, called the Discussion, and divide it into sections.

One function of the MPT supervising attorney memo is always to help you to structure your work product. That holds true where the MPT task is to write a legal memorandum. In the MPT case called In re Steven Wallace, for example, the supervising attorney memo asks the bar candidate to write a two-part legal memorandum. That is, the Discussion section of the memo will have two main parts.

The supervising attorney memo specifies that in the first part of the Discussion the bar candidate will explain the legal and factual bases for the trustee in bankruptcy’s position that the client’s painting is part of a gallery owner’s estate in bankruptcy. In the second part, the bar candidate will examine in turn each of the statutory exceptions to the state bankruptcy law, seeking to put together a factual argument that the client’s painting is not part of the estate in bankruptcy.

When the supervising attorney memo tells you to do two things in your memo, you should divide your Discussion into those two main parts.

Powerful topic headings are a key part of the Discussion section of your legal memorandum.

After you have written each section of your Discussion, give it a powerful topic heading. Underline every topic heading. For example:

Under FCC sec. 2-326(3), Charles Client’s strongest argument in support of arbitration is that the contract he entered into with Bee Brokerage required “alternative dispute resolution.”

The topic headings guide the reader through the argument of the memorandum. They are signposts to your argument.

In writing your legal memorandum on the MPT, leave the first page and the last page blank, write the whole Discussion, and then go back and fill in the Heading and the Introduction on the first page and add the Conclusion at the end.

Leave the first page of your blue book blank. The last things you will write in your blue book are (i) the Heading and the Introduction for the MPT memorandum, at the beginning of the memo, and (ii) the Conclusion at the end.

In the order of writing the legal memorandum, again, you should leave the first page of the bluebook blank. If you have left the first page of the bluebook blank, then after writing the Discussion, that is, the body of the memo, you can go back to the first page of the bluebook and write the Heading for the memo and the Introduction.

Here is how to do the Heading for your memorandum. Almost at the top of the first page you should put in all capital letters, centered, printed, and underlined: MEMORANDUM.

Flush with the lefthand margin you will list the recipient’s name, the writer’s name, the subject, and the date:

To: Pat Partner

From: Candidate

Re: Charles Client – Arbitration of Securities Claims

Date: April 2, 2007

Only after you have finished your Discussion, that is, will you write your Introduction. The Introduction to your memorandum will say what the partner memo asked you to do, and it will report that you have done it.

Finally, when the Heading, the Introduction, and the Discussion are finished, you will add the Conclusion at the end. The Conclusion will restate what the partner memo asked you to do and state that you have done it. It will restate your conclusion and argument in one or two sentences.

CONCLUSION

A bar candidate can produce an MPT memorandum that will maximize his or her score by using the correct memo format, hitting the main points in the assignment, and managing time. Again, the bar examiners say that they are looking for:

(a) powerful topic headings,
(b) persuasive writing,
(c) argument from supportive law,
(d) distinction of–or attack against–unfavorable law,
(e) skillful use of the facts, and
(f) careful use of the memo format.

Follow the directions in the partner memo, hit the main points, manage your time, combine attention to these aspects of your work with careful attention to the BarWrite® systems for persuasive writing, and you can get a high score on a legal memorandum on the MPT.