Author: Dwight Zenzano

Dwight Zenzano is the author of the Bar Exam Blog at www.dcbarexam.com and tutors for bar exams across the country. He specializes in the Virginia and UBE (DC) bar exams.

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Bar Exam

Less than 2 weeks until the July 2011 bar exam – Some tips

This is the critical time for studying. If you are concerned about the studying (or lack thereof) you have done so far, put that behind you. Now is not the time to debate in your mind if you spilled any milk and whether or not you should cry about it. Double down and focus on your goal: Passing the bar exam in 2 weeks time.

A few tips for the MBE takers out there: Go back and review the FRE. Re-read the rules and then do a handful of evidence questions. You’ll be surprised to see how much “easier they seem”. For contracts, review the UCC2 distinctions. For criminal law, go over the common crimes and know the elements cold. For crim pro, know the search warrant exceptions. For con law, know the difference between due process and equal protection; and also make sure you know the fundamental rights. For torts, know the elements of the major torts and make sure you are clear on negligence. Finally, for property, don’t get too hung up on future interests (RAP, etc.) but instead focus on things like landlord/tenant law, mortgages, etc.

Essay takers, I urge you to do past essay questions. In my opinion, there is no better method of studying for the essays than doing actual essay questions.

2 weeks is a long time and more than enough time to really hammer home the core areas of the law that you must know in order to pass the bar exam. Good luck!

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Bar Exam Virginia Bar Exam

1st Weekend in June – Time to start studying a VA essay primer

For those of you who have not started studying yet, this weekend is the time to do so. We’re at less than 2 months till the July 2011 bar exam, so this is the time to start.

For all of you taking the Virginia bar exam, I have some tips to share for the essays and short answer section, which is 60% of your overall score. First, the basics. You have approximately 36 minutes per essays, and 36 minutes for 20 short answer questions. Of course, you overall time is 3 hours and you can divide it up however you want, but it breaks out to 36 minutes per question approx. In the morning section you have 5 essay questions, and in the afternoon section you have 4 essay questions and 20 short answers. For the afternoon section I recommend doing the short answers first (they usually take much less than 36 minutes) and then finish off the last 4 essay questions of the day.

Take a look at the past essay questions and model answers (available from GMU and W&M) for years past and look for frequency of subjects tested. (NOTE: The barbri frequency chart is flawed and many of the years/subjects are incorrect, so I recommend looking at the questions yourself and not blindly relying on inaccurate materials.) The VA bar examiners have openly stated that they like testing subjects that a new attorney is likely to encounter. Read into this!

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Bar Exam DC Bar Exam

DC Bar Exam February 2011 Results

A bit late, but I wanted to post a link and quick analysis of the Feb 2011 DC Bar Exam results. First and foremost, congratulations to everyone who passed, especially to those whom I know personally! Great job. Now, on with the results:

http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/membership/current_members/examResults.cfm

100 people passed this time around, which is a 71% pass rate among first–time takers, which is quite good, and a less impressive overall pass rate of 48%, but still better than what we have seen in the past. This exam appears to have been graded more uniformly that the last time around, which is good to see.

Here is another link directly to the PDF of the results:

Click to access SuccessfulList_2011-02.pdf

For those of you who did not pass, again, I encourage you to re-evaluate the approach you took and try something new. If you are interested in tutoring, read my past posts on how to select a tutor. My roster for this summer is almost full so anyone interested in tutoring either for DC or VA should reach out sooner rather than later as I only tutor a few students each exam period.

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Bar Exam DC Bar Exam Virginia Bar Exam

Virginia February 2011 results posted, still waiting for DC

Virginia posted their pass list this week:

http://www.vbbe.state.va.us/bar/barresults.html

Overall pass rate was 60.71% with first-time takers doing a little better at 68.57%. Congratulations to everyone who passed, especially to everyone I know personally! It was a fair but tough exam and the 60% pass rate shows that. For those of you who did not pass, check out the William and Mary website and go over the model answers. Also, look at your breakdown of scores that the VBBE will send you and see if the MBE or essays were your weak point. Study differently for the July 2011 bar exam and don’t lose hope.

As for DC, let’s hope the results are posted next week.

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Bar Exam Tutoring

Tutoring for the July 2011 bar exam

As bar results for the February 2011 DC and VA exams roll in, this is the time when I begin to receive multiple requests for tutoring assistance. Most of my students are repeat takers for the simple reason that nearly everyone who takes the bar exam for the first time starts with a commercial prep program such as barbri. When that fails, they seek out alternatives such as individual tutoring. More than half of the people that come to me looking for assistance have taken the bar 3 or more times and have tried at least 2 different commercial bar prep programs. What I find is that all the commercial bar prep programs have more or less the same approach and use an unmanageable amount of study materials. This is where tutoring comes in because with the 1:1 attention, you have someone that can guide you through your studies week by week and steer you in the right direction instead of simply following a 2-month syllabus/study schedule blindly, regardless of where your individual strengths and weaknesses lie.

With that being said, for those of you who are considering tutoring, here are a few tips when seeking out a prospective tutor:
1) Be prepared to discuss your bar exam history. So, have your past scores (broken out by MBE & essay scores) ready and gather up a list of your previous study materials/methods.

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Bar Exam MPRE

Suggested prep for July 2011 Bar Exams (MBE Focus)

For those of you wanting to get a head start on the prep for the summer bar exam, I’d recommend picking up some used PMBR materials. First, get the PMBR 6-subject MBE Audio Lectures. These come on either a single DVD with MP3s, or as a 32-CD set. Then get the PMBR Red book to do some practice questions. You can find these used on ebay or cragslist or wherever for pretty cheap. I’d recommend listening to the entire audio lectures once or twice and then tackle maybe 50 questions per subject in the red book. This should be a good start before you start barbri or whatever other program you will be doing. Most programs today do not emphasize the MBE enough and it really deserves more attention and a unique study approach. Most people that fail the bar exam do so because of low MBE scores. You can write a fluffy essay and still pass the bar exam but you can’t BS you way past the MBE. So if you want to get an early start, focus on the MBE.