Making a Game Plan, and Sticking to It

Let’s talk about developing a game plan for the Multistate Essay Exam portion of the bar exam.

When you sit down for that Tuesday afternoon portion of the bar exam, when you will receive a packet of six essays during which you will have 3 hours to complete all of the essays, already have in mind a game plan—a strategy—on how you will attack those six questions.

I usually offer my students two strategies. Ultimately, they need to decide which strategy works best for them.

Both strategies begin the same way: READ THE CALLS OF THE QUESTIONS FOR EACH OF THE SIX QUESTIONS FIRST.

This should take you less than a minute. Trust me, it does. I’ve timed it with more than 100 students previously.

You will want to read the calls of the question because you want to give yourself a head’s up as to what questions you’ll be answering once you get to that question. You don’t want to be surprised on the bar exam whenever you have the opportunity to eliminate the element of surprise. So give yourself an idea of what you’re going to be faced with over the next three hours during that very first minute.

Okay, then what?

There’s two strategies you can implement, and hopefully you’ve identified which one will work best for you.

But before I discuss those two strategies, let me explain what you generally should NOT do: YOU SHOULD NOT GENERALLY ANSWER THE QUESTIONS IN THE SAME ORDER THAT THE QUESTIONS ARE GIVEN TO YOU UNLESS YOU’VE DELIBERATELY IDENTIFIED THAT ORDER AS THE BEST ORDER.

Remember that the bar exam is all about getting enough scaled points to get 270—or whatever threshold your jurisdiction requires.

To maximize points, you will want to find a way where you can earn the most points most quickly.

If you simply answer the questions in the order they are provided to you, it would be unfortunate if you realized that Question 6 was an easy Agency and Partnership question that you could have received a 6 on if only you had enough time at the end of the three-hour testing period.

With that said, here are two strategies, along with the pros and cons.

Strategy 1: Answer the questions, beginning with the subject that you’re most comfortable with, continue with the next comfortable subject, and so and so until you end with the most difficult subject for you.

Pros: You get the easiest subjects out of the way first. You feel confident. You ride that momentum from one question to the next. And, if you don’t manage your time properly, and you run of time for the last question, then you run out of time on a question that you might not have scored high on anyway.

Cons: If you start with the subject with which you’re most comfortable, you might inadvertently spend too much time on that essay. So you need to be more mindful of limiting yourself to only 30 minutes and then move on to the next question. Remember—going over just 3 minutes on each of the first five essays means you only give yourself 15 minutes for the last question. Plan accordingly. Another Con is that your perception of your weaknesses may not be the reality—at least relatively speaking. Remember that the MEEs are graded on a relative grading scale. So if you’ve done appropriate studying, and if you believe that you’re still weak in a particular essay subject, then other exam takers will likely find that subject difficult, too. On difficult questions, you may not even have to write a solid answer to get a good score. If the majority of responses to a particular question is meh, then even an above-average response could garner a 6.

Strategy 2: This is opposite of Strategy 1. Instead of beginning with your strongest subject, begin with the subject that you most fear. Then work your way to the next most difficult subject and so on and so on until you end with the easiest subject.

Pros: You have to answer all six questions anyway, so why not get the hardest question out of the way first? Once you get the hardest question out of the way first, then you know the rest of the essays aren’t going to be as bad. I’m not saying the rest of the essays are going to be easy peasy, but relatively speaking, you should feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that the hardest work is done at that point.

Cons: If you’re someone who’s confidence can be shaken easily, then answering a question that might cause a lot of anxiety could have lingering effects on the next four or five questions. Also, if you begin with the hardest question first, you might inadvertently find yourself spending more than 30 minutes trudging through that first question, mustering something to write to earn yourself at least a 3. If you spend more than 30 minutes on the more difficult questions in the beginning, then you don’t leave yourself the full time you should be giving yourself for the easier questions that you’ve left yourself for the end of the three-hour block.

Determine which strategy will work for you, and then follow that strategy on exam day.