6 Weeks Until the February 2011 New York Bar Exam

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Dear New York Bar Exam Applicants,

Welcome to the latest issue of our NY bar exam newsletter. In this issue, we consider:

  • Important Upcoming New York Bar Exam Dates
  • New York Bar Exam Study Strategy: Sensible MPT Preparation
  • New York Bar Exam Essays In-Depth: Issue Identification & Recognition, Part 2
  • Next Issue Preview

Important Upcoming New York Bar Exam Dates

  • New York Bar Exam administered, February 22-23, 2011

New York Bar Exam Study Strategy: Sensible MPT Preparation

An often overlooked aspect of NY bar exam preparation is preparing for the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) in a sensible, effective manner. Far too often, individuals will neglect or put-off MPT practice and preparation. The main reason for such neglect is that most individuals believe that their time will be better spent studying for other components of the NY bar exam instead of the MPT.

Conduct a Self-Evaluation of Your MPT Ability

For some individuals, it's a sensible decision to spend more time on substantive review of testable materials instead of spending time on the MPT. However, such individuals should possess a demonstrated competence from previous MPT-like experience. To determine if you possess such competence, ask yourself questions like the following:

  • Did you ace your legal research and writing class in law school?
  • Do you write legal research memoranda, brief, and client letters on a regular basis?
  • Are you comfortable with the time constraints and amount of material found on the MPT?

If you answered no to any of the preceding questions, then you can most likely benefit from structured MPT practice during your NY bar review.

MPT Preparation Tips

If you possess the need to include additional MPT practice during your bar review, consider some of the following MPT preparation tips:

  1. Simulate exam conditions: Utilize a full, uninterrupted 90 minutes to complete your practice MPTs (turn off all distractions and devices).
  2. Use a hard copy: Print out or utilize an available hard copy for each practice MPT.
  3. Outline answers: If you are pressed for time, spend 45 minutes to organize and outline an answer instead of writing out a complete answer. Check your outline against sample answers to confirm whether your effort is on target.
  4. Critically evaluate your efforts: Avoid the tendency to merely go through the motions of completing a practice MPT. Instead, identify weaknesses in your practice answers, as well as strengths. Apply lessons learned in future efforts.

As a reminder, if you know your legal writing contains weaknesses, then you will most likely benefit from regular MPT practice during your NY bar review.

New York Bar Exam Essays In-Depth: Issue Identification & Recognition, Part 2

Our Essays In-Depth feature is an excerpt from our upcoming New York Bar Exam Essay Solution On-Demand Workshop. This week we continue our series on Issue Identification & Recognition. Specifically, we continue our explanation of issue checklists and present a sample, albeit rudimentary, checklist.

A Sample Checklist

As explained in our last issue, each entry in a Checklist should be a cognizable "issue" for the subject being tested. To help organize the large body of material an individual needs to know for any one subject on the NY bar exam, it is often helpful to break up a subject into several checklists. For example, the subject of Torts can be divided into several, discrete areas, including: Intentional Torts, Negligence, Strict Liability, Products Liability, and Other Torts. In fact, this list of discrete areas itself is an overall checklist for the subject as a whole. Each area, though, can contain a checklist unto itself. For example, consider Intentional Torts. A sample checklist for Intentional Torts could include the following:

  • Assault
  • Battery
  • False Imprisonment
  • Infliction of Emotional Distress
  • Trespass to Land
  • Trespass to Chattels
  • Conversion

Notice how each entry in the above checklist is a cognizable legal claim or defense one party may raise against another.

Understand How Checklist Entries Relate to Essay Issues

In most cases, an essay question will be asking you to identify and discuss possible legal claims or defenses, or elements of legal claims or defenses, (i.e., "issues") that one party may bring or possess against another. In the case of a Torts question, this Intentional Torts checklist can provide you with a quick, easy way to recall all the possible intentional torts a party may claim against another party. Please note, for simplicity of illustration, defenses to Intentional Torts are omitted from the above checklist. Additionally, if you combine this Intentional Torts checklist with checklists for the other Torts subject areas (Negligence, Strict Liability, Products Liability, and Other Torts), then you will have a powerful, simple tool to assist you in identifying and recognizing possible "issues" on Torts essays.

Next Issue Preview

In our next issue, our Essays In-Depth feature will complete our series on issue identification and recognition via issue checklists.

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Study smart,

-The BarReviewSolutions.com Team