“How Do I Study for the Essays?
Many students have asked: “How do I study for the essays? There are so many essay subjects on the bar exam, and I haven’t even taken some of them in law school. Where do I begin???”
Don’t worry. Here’s a strategy you can implement. (Keep in mind that this strategy shouldn’t be a complete substitute for any comprehensive studying for a particular subject.)
1. Review every past actual released essay question in your state for the last 10+ years. If you are reviewing the essays from a commercial bar review company, make sure the materials include a complete inventory of the released questions.
2. As you’re reviewing the past essay questions, make a complete listing of issues being tested. For instance, if you have a Criminal Procedure question, keep notes that the question contains issues on Miranda, for example.
3. Create a comprehensive chart of all of the issues being tested in a particular subject.
4. Because examiners tend to repeat certain issues (usually because they make good essay questions), make sure, at the very least, you know the core concepts that have been tested in the past. For instance, after completing Step 3 above, you may have determined that Miranda has been tested at least five times since 2000 (as is the case in Tennessee, for example). Since Miranda has appeared on about 25% of the Criminal Procedure essays, you should make sure you know the basics of Miranda and have solid template language for that rule that you can easily remember and articulate during the stress and time crunch of the bar exam.
5. Then, once you know the core concepts of what’s been tested, then expand your review and studying of that core concept. For instance, continuing to use Miranda as an example, your review would then move on to learn the specifics of the (i) custodial requirements and the (ii) interrogation requirements.
6. Then expand your review of Miranda and its custodial interrogation element to include exceptions or special rules to the core rule.
7. Finally, once you know the core concepts that have been regularly tested, the specifics that relate to the core concepts, and some of the unique (and sometimes state-specific distinctions of all of the rules), determine how all of the legal principles fit into the broader scheme of the major issue that includes that particular core concept.
