Law School Life
A Letter to My Former Self Preparing
for the Georgia Bar Exam
Ellis Liu
Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP
[email protected]
Dear Ellis,
Congratulations on graduating law
school. Now get over yourself–the
bar exam is around the corner, and
you are doomed if you procras-
tinate like it’s another law school
exam.
Here are four things to keep in
mind:
(1) Set a realistic schedule. Many
people fall behind the bar review
schedule. Unless you are only a cou-
ple days behind, do not attempt to
catch up to the bar review schedule;
doing so may risk sufficient study
time for the topics you know least.
Reevaluate your schedule to focus
on the topics you need to study,
based on what you know least and
what appears on the exam most
(i.e. do not spend four days on
Commercial Paper and one day
on Property).
(2) Focus on practice problems, not
outlines. You have learned most of
this material in law school, so do
not spend too much time in the
outlines–dive into the practice
problems.
One strategy: review outlines twice,
then do multiple choice questions
(when you come across a question
you cannot answer confidently, do
not guess–just mark it as "to be re-
viewed"). Then review the outline
re: only the questions you missed/
14 April 2017
marked as "to be reviewed." Do not
spend time reviewing the outline re:
questions you answered correctly
(you have learned it in class, studied
it for finals, and reviewed it for the
bar exam– you will not get those
questions wrong on test day).
On practice essays, remember to
“think like a lawyer." Essays pri-
marily test your ability to reason,
to organize, and to present. Learn
the specific rules and exceptions
as best you can, but if you get an
essay and you blank on the pre-
cise rules, do not get caught in the
weeds. Take a step back, consider
the general principles of law, and
reason through the question. Focus
on the reasoning behind laws gener-
ally, how to organize that reasoning,
and how to present that reasoning
applied to a fact pattern.
Legal writing is formulaic and bar
exam graders can be analogized to
calculators: they read your content
(like a calculator reads numbers),
and they follow your content if you
use the correct signals like a cal-
culator follows (+)(-)(/)(x). Nearly
every sentence should start with
(1) "According to [law]"; (2) "Here,
[facts]"; or (3) "Therefore, [conclu-
sion]." These words are your signals,
like (+)(-)(/)(x).
(3) Eat, sleep, and exercise. Bar re-
view is mentally exhausting–your
brain needs to be in optimal con-
dition through these next weeks.
Ignoring your health will burden
your brain: lack of sleep clouds
your mind, unhealthy food slows
metabolism and affects self-image
(now is not the time to deal with
self-image issues), and lack of ex-
ercise deprives your body of help-
ful hormones. In the cost/benefit
analysis, the extra hours you spend
on your health are more beneficial
than those same hours applied to
bar review when your brain and
body are less healthy. Also, call your
parents.
(4) Most importantly, you will not
fail the bar exam, and you must ac-
cept this now. Exam passers share
three qualities: (1) they graduated
from an accredited law school, (2)
they prepared for the exam, and (3)
they are not anxious. You possess
the first two qualities. Do not let
anxiety hold you back. Have faith
that you possess the first two quali-
ties, and the third quality will follow.
Finally, just do you. You have been
studying for exams for the past two
decades–and you have been do-
ing it very well. If you study best
by memorizing outlines, do that.
If you are a flash carder, do that.
Work alone or work in groups–just
do what you have been doing. Do
not change what ain't broke.
▪