Questions about preparing for ON bar exams

[Bachtowork]

I have some questions about studying for the Ontario bar exams. Do most people use charts and summaries to prepare for the exams (or during the exams)? In addition to indices, U of T students have shared charts and summaries that they've prepared. I just wonder if they are necessary, if using so many things ends up making this process unnecessarily unwieldy; additionally, I feel just familiarizing myself with the summaries and charts would take quite a bit of time, time that would be better spent practising with the detailed table of contents and/or indices.

That leads me my next question: can anyone who has written the exams recently chime in on whether they were able to pass with just the detailed table of contents? Many people said that they found indices too unwieldy and that the detailed table of contents was sufficient (even superior); since the exams have supposedly gotten harder, I've been wondering if that advice still stands. 

Lastly, the general consensus seems to be to guess for any tax questions - does this mean we can skip reading any materials that are related to tax or just anything that involves calculations? Tax seems to be sprinkled throughout the materials: in Family Law, there is a chapter called "The tax principles of family law"; in chapter 36 of Estate Planning, there are sections on "Estate administrative tax" and "Income Tax"; chapter 40 of Estate Planning is on "Taxation at death and personal tax planning"; chapter 41 of Estate Planning has a section on the "Taxation of trusts"; chapter 42 of Estate Planning has parts called "Income taxes at death" and "Other income tax issues"; chapter 43 of Estate Planning has a section on "Estate administration tax"; similarly, there are sub-sections in Real Estate on tax topics and sub-sections and whole chapters on tax in Business Law. Can we really skip all of that? Seems like quite a bit of material to skip, but of course, I really don't want to do any unnecessary studying.

[TheJoker]

Some people use charts and summaries - I used indexes for the most part and the odd chart when it came to the barristers exam and there were questions re: filing and appeal deadlines. I got my indices from LexPD because I was getting a family member to print them out and I couldn't be bothered to amend the UofT ones to my liking. I didn't use the detailed table of contents because I preferred the specificity I got from using a detailed index (which took me straight to the page/paragraph I needed). Overall, I felt it saved me time (but again, its up to you). I also have test anxiety, so I knew the detailed TOC was not for me.

My studying strategy was as follows: skim the materials and highlight (I colour coded my highlights - pink for case names/legislation, blue for deadlines/time limits, and so on). I then started doing practice tests (I was writing in November, and started doing tests from August onwards). I used a mix of Access Bar Prep, Ontario Bar Prep and Emond. The exam isn't as simple as read the question, and find the section to slot in the answer. It involves a little more understanding of how to apply the relevant section to the question. 

I didn't fuss too much about tax. I skimmed the sections during my initial read, but that was it - when I did practice tests, and they involved a tax question, I just made note of the tax principal used in the question (i.e., how it works) next to the relevant section in my materials and left it at that. I lucked out and didn't get any tax questions on my actual exam, so that played a part in my success I think. I wrote the exams once in Nov and passed so, for me, doing all of the above was worth it. 

 

[Bachtowork]

33 minutes ago, TheJoker said:

Some people use charts and summaries - I used indexes for the most part and the odd chart when it came to the barristers exam and there were questions re: filing and appeal deadlines. I got my indices from LexPD because I was getting a family member to print them out and I couldn't be bothered to amend the UofT ones to my liking. I didn't use the detailed table of contents because I preferred the specificity I got from using a detailed index (which took me straight to the page/paragraph I needed). Overall, I felt it saved me time (but again, its up to you). I also have test anxiety, so I knew the detailed TOC was not for me.

My studying strategy was as follows: skim the materials and highlight (I colour coded my highlights - pink for case names/legislation, blue for deadlines/time limits, and so on). I then started doing practice tests (I was writing in November, and started doing tests from August onwards). I used a mix of Access Bar Prep, Ontario Bar Prep and Emond. The exam isn't as simple as read the question, and find the section to slot in the answer. It involves a little more understanding of how to apply the relevant section to the question. 

I didn't fuss too much about tax. I skimmed the sections during my initial read, but that was it - when I did practice tests, and they involved a tax question, I just made note of the tax principal used in the question (i.e., how it works) next to the relevant section in my materials and left it at that. I lucked out and didn't get any tax questions on my actual exam, so that played a part in my success I think. I wrote the exams once in Nov and passed so, for me, doing all of the above was worth it. 

 

Thanks! I hope I get lucky too and get little to no tax questions. I have test anxiety too, now I can see why the indices can be more efficient, though I get tripped up when I see the same terms appear multiple times. Why didn't you like the U of T indices? I've heard that those are some of the best ones; I'd like to try others, but if I test different ones, it'll be too expensive. 

Did you attempt the same practice exam more than once? If there isn't much utility in doing that, I'll split exams with friends.

 

[TheJoker]

On 5/20/2023 at 3:34 PM, Bachtowork said:

Thanks! I hope I get lucky too and get little to no tax questions. I have test anxiety too, now I can see why the indices can be more efficient, though I get tripped up when I see the same terms appear multiple times. Why didn't you like the U of T indices? I've heard that those are some of the best ones; I'd like to try others, but if I test different ones, it'll be too expensive. 

Did you attempt the same practice exam more than once? If there isn't much utility in doing that, I'll split exams with friends.

 

The UofT indices seemed a little messy for me - I don’t know if it’s an aesthetic thing or not for me but the formatting seemed inconsistent and I know that will bother me. Also, I think the indices for the bylaws and rules section of the materials were incorrect (I could be mistaken but I firmly recall some areas needing to be adjusted by the user). Because I was under a bit of a time constraint when it came to printing, I just went with the Lexpd ones. They were about $100 or so. I know affordable bar prep also provides indexes for $99 alongside their test questions (another option to consider). While affordable’s questions aren’t the greatest, they’ll give you a chance to test out your indexes.

I did practice the same exam multiple times but I tried to leave about a week/10 days between retrying it just so I didn’t have a good recollection of the questions. But splitting with friends is also a good option (I didn’t know anyone writing the bar at the same time as me so I didn’t have that option). 

 

[Bachtowork]

36 minutes ago, TheJoker said:

The UofT indices seemed a little messy for me - I don’t know if it’s an aesthetic thing or not for me but the formatting seemed inconsistent and I know that will bother me. Also, I think the indices for the bylaws and rules section of the materials were incorrect (I could be mistaken but I firmly recall some areas needing to be adjusted by the user). Because I was under a bit of a time constraint when it came to printing, I just went with the Lexpd ones. They were about $100 or so. I know affordable bar prep also provides indexes for $99 alongside their test questions (another option to consider). While affordable’s questions aren’t the greatest, they’ll give you a chance to test out your indexes.

I did practice the same exam multiple times but I tried to leave about a week/10 days between retrying it just so I didn’t have a good recollection of the questions. But splitting with friends is also a good option (I didn’t know anyone writing the bar at the same time as me so I didn’t have that option). 

 

Thank you for your reply. I agree, for some reason I don't like the U of T indices. I ended up printing and binding the OLE indices, but they weren't that helpful during the actual barrister exam. I've heard quite a few people say that indices weren't really that useful for the most recent barrister exam, so I wonder if it has become much harder. 

I heard the solicitor exam is quite PR-heavy, some even said theirs was 50% PR. Was that the case for your solicitor exam? 

[Dood]

There were a fair amount of PR questions on solicitor. Maybe slightly more than barrister - I can’t remember, I was frazzled by the end. I was much less familiar with the solicitor topics and hadn’t fully read everything. I just didn’t have time as I was working full time. I resigned myself to having to just brute force the solicitor exam using the indices and TOC. Using a time sheet was critical to staying on track for me. My experience with solicitor was much more frantically-page-flipping-for-the-answer than barrister. With barrister, I felt like I knew most of the answers without looking at the materials and finished quite early (I do civil lit in a common law country). Solicitor was the exact opposite for me.

[Bachtowork]

1 hour ago, Dood said:

There were a fair amount of PR questions on solicitor. Maybe slightly more than barrister - I can’t remember, I was frazzled by the end. I was much less familiar with the solicitor topics and hadn’t fully read everything. I just didn’t have time as I was working full time. I resigned myself to having to just brute force the solicitor exam using the indices and TOC. Using a time sheet was critical to staying on track for me. My experience with solicitor was much more frantically-page-flipping-for-the-answer than barrister. With barrister, I felt like I knew most of the answers without looking at the materials and finished quite early (I do civil lit in a common law country). Solicitor was the exact opposite for me.

Yeah, I'm finding solicitor more difficult than barrister and don't have time to read everything. At this point, I'm just going to focus on perfecting PR and doing as many practice questions as I can, and hope for the best. Which index did you use? I'm probably one of the few people who don't find them that helpful.  

[QueensDenning]

Is it just me or were like 90% of the PR questions pretty common sense? I didn't look at the materials much for PR on the barrister and wasn't planning on re-reviewing the PR materials but now I'm getting a concerned 

[Disbarred]

36 minutes ago, QueensDenning said:

Is it just me or were like 90% of the PR questions pretty common sense? I didn't look at the materials much for PR on the barrister and wasn't planning on re-reviewing the PR materials but now I'm getting a concerned 

I thought the PR questions were gimmies to make up for some of those obscure timelines in civ pro section 

[Bachtowork]

1 hour ago, QueensDenning said:

Is it just me or were like 90% of the PR questions pretty common sense? I didn't look at the materials much for PR on the barrister and wasn't planning on re-reviewing the PR materials but now I'm getting a concerned 

Perhaps they were, for some reason much of the barrister exam is a blur to me now. Since PR is likely to be a huge component of the solicitor exam, I just want to be safe and reread it; I've seen quite a few people recommend mastering/rereading PR since it's relatively easy to go through and so that you won't have to look up any of the answers for PR. 

[Whisk3yjack]

A large portion of the Solicitor is going to be PR questions and they are pretty simple. I read the PR section twice, but you could totally get away with not doing so. Most of the questions are something along the lines of:

Something has happened, what is the first thing you should you do?

a) something you clearly shouldn't do 

b) get instructions in writing from your client

c) something you should do later on

d) something you clearly shouldn't do 

[Bachtowork]

58 minutes ago, Whisk3yjack said:

A large portion of the Solicitor is going to be PR questions and they are pretty simple. I read the PR section twice, but you could totally get away with not doing so. Most of the questions are something along the lines of:

Something has happened, what is the first thing you should you do?

a) something you clearly shouldn't do 

b) get instructions in writing from your client

c) something you should do later on

d) something you clearly shouldn't do 

If I recall correctly, most of the PR questions on my barrister exam did not have obtaining instructions from your client as a possible option. 

[QueensDenning]

I don't think he's bring literal - but obtaining instructions from client before proceeding is the answer to a lot of the questions for sure. 

 

[Bachtowork]

15 minutes ago, QueensDenning said:

I don't think he's bring literal - but obtaining instructions from client before proceeding is the answer to a lot of the questions for sure. 

 

I know they weren't, but I barely saw that as an option on my exam (we don't all get the same version). 

[Whisk3yjack]

On 6/6/2023 at 4:16 PM, Bachtowork said:

I know they weren't, but I barely saw that as an option on my exam (we don't all get the same version). 

This was on last year's solicitor exam. Sorry I just realized I had not updated my profile to reflect that I am an articling student. The solicitor is much more PR heavy that the barrister. There will be a lot of PR questions disguised as other topics. You are a helping a client purchase a house and something happens is their fun little way to throw you off, but the answers aren't going to be anything related to RE law. It's going to be get instructions in writing from your client 

[Bachtowork]

56 minutes ago, Whisk3yjack said:

This was on last year's solicitor exam. Sorry I just realized I had not updated my profile to reflect that I am an articling student. The solicitor is much more PR heavy that the barrister. There will be a lot of PR questions disguised as other topics. You are a helping a client purchase a house and something happens is their fun little way to throw you off, but the answers aren't going to be anything related to RE law. It's going to be get instructions in writing from your client 

Thanks! That's reassuring and confirms what I've read elsewhere (that I didn't dare put too much stock into, because it seemed too good to be true). 

[jlaw]

Hi! Does anyone recommend buying the flash cards from Emond for the solicitor bar prep? I was thinking of buying them but don't know if it's worth it.

[penguin]

On 6/6/2023 at 11:59 AM, QueensDenning said:

Is it just me or were like 90% of the PR questions pretty common sense? I didn't look at the materials much for PR on the barrister and wasn't planning on re-reviewing the PR materials but now I'm getting a concerned 

I found the Emond solicitor practice exam questions on PR harder than the PR questions on the actual barrister so I'm definitely re-reviewing 

[QueensDenning]

43 minutes ago, penguin said:

I found the Emond solicitor practice exam questions on PR harder than the PR questions on the actual barrister so I'm definitely re-reviewing 

Yeah those were way harder. 

[Bachtowork]

7 hours ago, penguin said:

I found the Emond solicitor practice exam questions on PR harder than the PR questions on the actual barrister so I'm definitely re-reviewing 

I remember reading a post about someone who said they had to rewrite the solicitor exam and only had time to study PR. They passed on their second attempt and the only difference was their PR knowledge. This (as well as other posts) gave me the impression that PR is a very important element of the solicitor exam. 

[Apollo14]

I also found the Emond exams PR questions a lot harder. 

How many questions do you think is acceptable to "blind guess" on the solicitor exam? I've heard it's more common compared to the barrister and I've definitely found that with the practice exams

[TobyFlenderson]

2 hours ago, Apollo14 said:

I also found the Emond exams PR questions a lot harder. 

How many questions do you think is acceptable to "blind guess" on the solicitor exam? I've heard it's more common compared to the barrister and I've definitely found that with the practice exams

I guessed (between 2 options) about 40-45 questions and passed. 

[QueensDenning]

How we feeling about solicitors? 

I kinda thought it was easier than barristers. A lot more PR, and finally the written instructions option was prevalent. 

Certainly guessed my fair share of questions, though. 

[ShallowPockets]

3rd time solicitor taker (passed barrister)- I felt business law went fairly well, real estate went ok (ran out of time had to guess 4 of the last questions) and estate planning went TERRIBLE 

Agree with @QueensDenning lots of PR, I think there were only 2 PR I was a bit unsure of but the rest were straightforward

I think I failed again but it went better than my last 2 attempts for sure  

[Apollo14]

I would say it went better than the Barrister for me but I also felt like Estates was very difficult compared to Business and Real Estate. If we knew what the actual passing grade required by the LSO is I think I'd be feeling better at this point