Tips for British Columbia Bar prep?

[ONLawStud]

Hi all,

I'm an ON law school graduate and have secured articling in Vancouver. I'm enrolled for the September PLTC but am unsure how to go about preparing for the Bar exams here. I would like to get an idea of when people start studying. Also, how did you approach studying for the Barrister & Solicitor exams? 

I'd sincerely appreciate as much detail as possible. I've been having some difficulty coming across the right information about this. 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hegdis]

Relax for the next four weeks. Attend every class. Do the readings. You will be fine. 

[Psychometronic]

I'm not sure how much you already know about PLTC, but it's different from the Ontario bar in that you have graded assessments in addition to the bar exams. Over the course of 10 weeks, you spend somewhere between 3-6hrs per day in class (depending on your instructor - some let you out earlier than others). Outside of class, you have readings, five ungraded assignments meant to serve as practice runs for the assessments, and four assessments. The bar exams come after the assessments. 

This kind of schedule doesn't give you much time to study for the bar exams. I had six days after my final assessment before my barrister and two days between my barrister and solicitor. Strategy is key in managing this kind of schedule and it varies from person to person. I read through the practice materials during the course of PLTC and highlighted key words. I started reviewing while preparing for my final assessment and mostly relied on CANs to give me a sufficient overview of the subject areas. I also familiarized myself with the indices so I knew what the key words/topics of each subject areas were.

If you're really ambitious, you could try to study for the exams during the course of PLTC, but I quickly found it challenging to juggle the assessments with exam study. The assessments also have a higher threshold for passing (70%) as compared to the exams (60%), so you do want to put in sufficient effort in the assessments. 

Anyway, that was my experience.* Some people put in less effort and passed everything. Some people barely read the practice materials and still passed. I didn't want to take that risk so I read everything. 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Psychometronic
*From the May 2021 PLTC session

[Lilbub]

On 8/4/2021 at 12:31 AM, Psychometronic said:

I'm not sure how much you already know about PLTC, but it's different from the Ontario bar in that you have graded assessments in addition to the bar exams. Over the course of 10 weeks, you spend somewhere between 3-6hrs per day in class (depending on your instructor - some let you out earlier than others). Outside of class, you have readings, five ungraded assignments meant to serve as practice runs for the assessments, and four assessments. The bar exams come after the assessments. 

This kind of schedule doesn't give you much time to study for the bar exams. I had six days after my final assessment before my barrister and two days between my barrister and solicitor.

Were the six days you had to study for the bar exams included within the 10 week PLTC period? Or was it 10 weeks of class, and then an additional week to complete the bar exams? Currently trying to figure out my LSAP dates. 

[Psychometronic]

12 hours ago, Lilbub said:

Were the six days you had to study for the bar exams included within the 10 week PLTC period? Or was it 10 weeks of class, and then an additional week to complete the bar exams? Currently trying to figure out my LSAP dates. 

Everything is subsumed in the 10 weeks. I had my last assessment on the Wednesday of week 9 (or thereabouts). Barrister exam was Tuesday of week 10 and Solicitor exam was on Friday of week 10.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Psychometronic