7 Weeks Until the February 2011 California Bar Exam

Dear California Bar Reviewers,

After a one week holiday hiatus, welcome to the latest installment of our CA bar exam newsletter. In this issue, we consider:

• Important Upcoming California Bar Exam Dates
• California Bar Exam Study Strategy: Improving MBE Exam Fitness
• California Bar Exam Essays In-Depth: Issue Analysis, Part 2 of 3
• Next Issue Preview

Important Upcoming California Bar Exam Dates

• Final Filing Deadline (All Takers): January 18, 2011
• California Bar Exam: February 22-24, 2011

California Bar Exam Study Strategy: Improving MBE Exam Fitness

A key to preparing effectively and efficiently for the bar exam is balancing reviewing/memorizing the material with improving test-taking skills, including essay writing, answering MBE questions, and completing performance tests. If you spend too much time reviewing the substantive material, your essay writing and multiple-choice fitness will be limited and under-developed.

MBE Practice With Answer Explanations

In terms of MBE exam fitness, the best way to prepare for the MBE is practicing questions and reviewing answers to missed questions. As part of your bar review, you should possess a number of practice MBE questions available to you. Remember, you need MBE questions with explanations to the answers in order to correct your incorrect answers and learn from your mistakes. Unless you are taking a diagnostic or full practice MBE, answering practice MBE questions without answer explanations is counter-productive, as you will not know why a question was answered incorrectly.

Frequency and Volume of MBE Practice

The frequency, nature, and volume of MBE practice sessions should be an elementary component of your bar review. There are several variables you should consider when undertaking practice MBE questions. First, you should spend just under 2 minutes (1:48 to be exact) on each question to mimic exam conditions. Avoid the temptation to spend 3 or even 4 minutes per question during your initial practice sessions. You will get more out of the practice if you spend 2 minutes on a question, answer it incorrectly, and then review the explanation as to why your answer was incorrect, then if you spend 4 minutes on a question and answer it incorrectly anyway. Additionally, by adhering to a per question time limit, you are constantly training yourself under exam time constraints. Besides a per question time limit, you should also consider the volume of practice questions as your bar review progresses. This should be spelled out in your bar review study schedule with each MBE practice session becoming longer while simultaneously increasing the time interval between practice sessions. For example, in the first couple of weeks of your bar review it is not uncommon to do 25-50 practice MBE questions a day in several sittings per day. However, by the last couple of weeks of your bar review, MBE practice sessions should reach at least 100 in one sitting. Of course, due to the sheer time commitment to complete 100 questions and review incorrect answers, the sessions will be less frequent than your initial practice sessions of just a handful MBE questions at a time. Remember, the difference in mental and physical effort between completing 10 MBE questions in 20 minutes and 100 questions in 3 hours is significant.

California Bar Exam Essays In-Depth: Issue Analysis, Part 2 of 3

Our Essays In-Depth feature is an excerpt from our California Bar Exam Essay Solution On-Demand Workshop or one of our subject-specific California Bar Exam Essay Primers. This week we continue our series on Issue Analysis.

Recall the Nature of Issue Analysis on CA Bar Exam Essays

In our last issue, we identified that Issue Analysis "should evidence the applicant's ability to apply the law to the given facts and to reason in a logical, lawyer-like manner from the premises adopted to a sound conclusion. An applicant should not merely show that he/she remembers the legal principles, but should demonstrate his/her proficiency in using and applying them." In part 2, we continue to identify and highlight common mistakes individuals commit when presenting Issue Analysis on their California bar exam essays.

Common Issue Analysis Mistake: Incomplete Analysis

Another common Issue Analysis mistake is Incomplete Analysis. Incomplete Analysis occurs when a portion of the legal standard is omitted entirely from the analysis of the issue. For any issue raised on a CA bar exam essay, you will necessarily include a legal standard (i.e., "the rule"). We often refer to such legal standards as "statements of the law" for an issue. Generally, the statement of the law for an issue will identify the various elements of the pertinent legal standard. Incomplete Analysis occurs when an individual omits one or more of the stated elements from the substantive analysis of the issue (note the distinct, separate nature of the statement of the law and analysis for any one issue).

For example, consider the elements of common law burglary: a) the breaking and b) entering the c) dwelling house of another d) at nighttime e) to commit a felony therein. Notice how there are 5 distinct, individual elements that must be proven in order for a charge of common law burglary to be upheld. Incomplete Analysis occurs when one or more of these 5 elements is omitted in the subsequent burglary analysis. Incomplete Analysis occurs because individuals will tend to concentrate their analysis only on those elements that are the most contentious, as determined by the facts of the question, while simply forgetting to address the less contentious elements. However, a complete treatment of an Issue requires that you address the entire legal standard in your analysis, not just a portion of the legal standard. Of course, you should concentrate your Analysis on those elements that are contentious but not at the expense of complete omission of the remaining elements of the law.

The Incomplete Analysis Solution: Verify Your Analysis Against the Pertinent Legal Standard

To avoid the common mistake of Incomplete Analysis, actively remind yourself to verify and double-check that each element of the pertinent legal standard is evaluated and presented in your analysis for an issue. Ideally, a thorough, complete essay outline will enable you to parse the legal standard into its constituent elements. Then, this verification can be as simple as crossing off each element of the legal standard from your outline as you address each one in your full, written answer.

Next Issue Preview

In our next issue, our Essays In-Depth feature will complete our evaluation of common Issue Analysis mistakes.

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Study smart,

-The BarReviewSolutions.com Team