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ON: Bar exam tips question


Healthygarden

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Healthygarden
  • Lawyer

I passed the exams and want to ask the community about these tips I want to share with friends who have to take it this Nov.

This might be controversial, but I don't really agree that reading and understanding everything is necessary for passing. In the short period of time that I had for studying, understanding and reading everything would have lead to burnout.

 

Instead:

1) browse through the pgs and highlight/underline dates, acts, If--> thens. This is just a cursory glance and if time runs out for this, it's ok. Prioritize step 2

2) Have at least 2 weeks to do this:

- mark your indices alphabetically (I.e. highlight when Aa --> Ab --> Aba etc) 

- practice with those indices; i did maybe 10-20 questions a day

**I also caveat studying tips with the fact that everyone studies differently and you do whatever works for you. BUT I think I want to emphasize that the bar is exam really is just like any exam (maybe even more flawed).

Maybe I was too chill and got lucky lol but the bar exam is a poor way of assessing someone's skill and so I just stopped playing its game so seriously.

 

What do people think?

Edited by Healthygarden
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  • Healthygarden changed the title to ON: Bar exam tips question
Apple
  • Lawyer

I'm going to add my own strategy, but admittedly it differs from most people's practice. I passed both examination on the first try. 

For both exams, I did not overlap in my study. I dedicated 4 consecutive weeks for prepping for the barrister and 3 consecutive weeks for the solicitor.

  • I began by reading the materials from start to finish. This wasn't an exercise of memorization, but an exercise of familiarization. While doing so, I made note of sections I wasn't familiar with. 
  • I then went through the materials and tabbed them up pursuant to broad categories. I used coloured tabs for each section so that I could visually see what each section dealt with. Again, while doing this I noted areas that I was unfamiliar with.
  • Once tabbing was complete I read through the materials again. I did a general reading of areas I was familiar with but then focused my attention on the areas I was less familiar with. I highlighted some area, but highlighting was very very minimal.
  • For the final days of study I would just flip through the materials so that I kept fresh in my head where information was located (the colour tab system worked wonders for this exercise). 
  • did not do any practice exams/questions

During the exam I had little to no issue finding the materials, when necessary. My familiarization with the materials and the location of various topics made it so that I did not need to use indexes and in general increased my speed when I needed to look information up. In fact, I never printed any indexes off.  

Edited by Apple
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Sureaboutnotbeingsure
3 hours ago, Apple said:

I'm going to add my own strategy, but admittedly it differs from most people's practice. I passed both examination on the first try. 

For both exams, I did not overlap in my study. I dedicated 4 consecutive weeks for prepping for the barrister and 3 consecutive weeks for the solicitor.

  • I began by reading the materials from start to finish. This wasn't an exercise of memorization, but an exercise of familiarization. While doing so, I made note of sections I wasn't familiar with. 
  • I then went through the materials and tabbed them up pursuant to broad categories. I used coloured tabs for each section so that I could visually see what each section dealt with. Again, while doing this I noted areas that I was unfamiliar with.
  • Once tabbing was complete I read through the materials again. I did a general reading of areas I was familiar with but then focused my attention on the areas I was less familiar with. I highlighted some area, but highlighting was very very minimal.
  • For the final days of study I would just flip through the materials so that I kept fresh in my head where information was located (the colour tab system worked wonders for this exercise). 
  • did not do any practice exams/questions

During the exam I had little to no issue finding the materials, when necessary. My familiarization with the materials and the location of various topics made it so that I did not need to use indexes and in general increased my speed when I needed to look information up. In fact, I never printed any indexes off.  

Hey! Great advice. So when do you write the bar? During Articling or after? I’m a bit confused about the process. Where do we buy study material from? How do I know which indices to buy? I would love any advice!

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Rashabon
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45 minutes ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Hey! Great advice. So when do you write the bar? During Articling or after? I’m a bit confused about the process. Where do we buy study material from? How do I know which indices to buy? I would love any advice!

You can choose when to write the bar. Most people tend to write it before starting articling in May/June. There are other sittings. It is typical to complete prior to finishing articling, as otherwise you won't be called to the bar on completion of your articling.

Study material comes from the LSO.

Don't buy indices.

Read more here: https://lso.ca/becoming-licensed/lawyer-licensing-process/licensing-examinations

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Sureaboutnotbeingsure
56 minutes ago, Rashabon said:

You can choose when to write the bar. Most people tend to write it before starting articling in May/June. There are other sittings. It is typical to complete prior to finishing articling, as otherwise you won't be called to the bar on completion of your articling.

Study material comes from the LSO.

Don't buy indices.

Read more here: https://lso.ca/becoming-licensed/lawyer-licensing-process/licensing-examinations

Thank you. Can I start studying for it during my 3L? It’s overwhelming haha. If someone would write it after 3L (April till May/June) is that enough time to study? What if one fails while Articling? Would they just try again until their article is completed?

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PulpFiction
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18 minutes ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Thank you. Can I start studying for it during my 3L? It’s overwhelming haha. If someone would write it after 3L (April till May/June) is that enough time to study? What if one fails while Articling? Would they just try again until their article is completed?

There's no need to study while in 3L, there's plenty of time to study after you finish up in late April. Enjoy your final year of school and learn as much as you can. If you fail, you have multiple rewrites available, and you write until you've passed both. I believe you have three attempts at the exams before you need permission from the LSO to write a fourth time.

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Rashabon
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27 minutes ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Thank you. Can I start studying for it during my 3L? It’s overwhelming haha. If someone would write it after 3L (April till May/June) is that enough time to study? What if one fails while Articling? Would they just try again until their article is completed?

You can't really study until after you finish, as they don't release the materials until April/May. There is plenty of time to study for it in that window. It is an open book, multiple choice exam. It's not the hardest test in the world and there are many ways of studying for it, some of which may be overkill quite frankly.

If you fail, you can rewrite although there is a cap before needing special dispensation. Some people fail one or both exams on their first attempt and then go on to try another time - as noted, there are multiple sittings in a year.

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AnonymousAnon
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If you fail one of the exams during your first sitting but pass the second do you then need to re-write both exams during your second sitting? 

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Rashabon
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34 minutes ago, AnonymousAnon said:

If you fail one of the exams during your first sitting but pass the second do you then need to re-write both exams during your second sitting? 

No.

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Apple
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4 hours ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Hey! Great advice. So when do you write the bar? During Articling or after? I’m a bit confused about the process. Where do we buy study material from? How do I know which indices to buy? I would love any advice!

I wrote both in June (June 1st for the Barrister and June 24 for the Solicitor) as I wanted to get them done with before articling commenced. But you can write them during your articles.

Study materials are given to you by the LSO sometime in April. Don’t buy indexes - it’s a waste in my opinion. 

The entire process is governed by the LSO so their website is the place to go. 

2 hours ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Thank you. Can I start studying for it during my 3L? It’s overwhelming haha. If someone would write it after 3L (April till May/June) is that enough time to study? What if one fails while Articling? Would they just try again until their article is completed?

Respectfully, if you’re getting overwhelmed about the process already you need to get that under control. 
 

If you focus and apply yourself to studying the time between graduating and writing in June/July is more than enough time to prepare, but this might depend on how good you are at studying. 

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Sureaboutnotbeingsure
3 hours ago, Apple said:

I wrote both in June (June 1st for the Barrister and June 24 for the Solicitor) as I wanted to get them done with before articling commenced. But you can write them during your articles.

Study materials are given to you by the LSO sometime in April. Don’t buy indexes - it’s a waste in my opinion. 

The entire process is governed by the LSO so their website is the place to go. 

Respectfully, if you’re getting overwhelmed about the process already you need to get that under control. 
 

If you focus and apply yourself to studying the time between graduating and writing in June/July is more than enough time to prepare, but this might depend on how good you are at studying. 

Why are indexes a waste? Is the alternative to make your own? Is there a guide available on how to make them?

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Apple
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1 hour ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Why are indexes a waste? Is the alternative to make your own? Is there a guide available on how to make them?

I never said indexes are a waste. I said paying for them is a waste. It's a waste to buy them because there are free ones readily available and the quality of the free ones often exceeds that of the paid ones. If you're wondering how to make indexes, just look at indexes used by prior students and mirror them. Again, I never used indexes so I can't speak much to them, but I did glance at the ones produced by UofT students and as indexes they looked good. 

For myself personally, I did not see the utility in indexes because of my particular learning abilities. If I read something once I generally know with a degree of certainty where to find the information if necessary. Having gone through the materials numerous times and tabbed them up, my degree of certainty was near perfect. Consequently, when a question required me to verify information on the exams I was easily able to find the exact page for the information without need for an index. There were two questions throughout the solicitor exam where I referred to the table of contents provided with the study materials. I recognize that this is a unique way to take the exam and unless you have a similar capability as myself I think you should use indexes. Most students use them. 

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Rashabon
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I worked on a U of T index group and dutifully updated an index and then promptly never touched or used it again. I found it got to the point that it had too much information and wasn't all that useful. I used the detailed table of contents that came with the materials to look up answers. I had time to look up pretty much every answer, and I have good spatial recall so having read through all my materials once (and some stuff twice, but not much), it wasn't hard to find the answers.

Some people will disagree and not be pleased to hear this, but the bar exam isn't overly difficult and doesn't even test knowledge - it tests your ability to find an answer quickly in an open book. Caveat that the barrister exam includes lots of professional responsibility questions which aren't as easy to find as the other questions, but the answer is usually pretty obvious.

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Healthygarden
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Thanks all, Ill probably just show them this entire post lol.

I used UofT's indices and they were fantastic -- I probably relied on them because I didnt really read all of the material.

20 hours ago, Sureaboutnotbeingsure said:

Thank you. Can I start studying for it during my 3L? It’s overwhelming haha. If someone would write it after 3L (April till May/June) is that enough time to study? What if one fails while Articling? Would they just try again until their article is completed?

Hey it does seem overwhelming to those outside the process but they are just two exams. Would no recommend studying while at 3L, focus on enjoy 3L and then when youre done finals, take a breather and then tackle.

You have time 🙂 many NCA students (albeit mature students) i know didnt adhere to the April schedule, they just sought AN exam schedule and studied accordingly. You got this, good luck.

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epeeist
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Caveat: I did not write the multiple choice bar exam (though I've done other professional multiple choice exams). My perspective is as a volunteer tutor through LSO; people who've failed the bar exam can get several hours of free tutoring. Even though I only practice law part-time, my practice is focused on civil litigation only so that's the only area I tutor in and I have done so for years (also volunteer tutor for paralegals, though I do that less frequently).

A few thoughts:

1. Basically everyone I've tutored for the barrister exam knew enough to pass, many people have issues with the exam or its format (e.g. someone who, until the bar exam, had never written a multiple choice exam in their life because they'd gone to law school elsewhere and didn't do LSAT, no matter how brilliant is at a severe disadvantage). Do what works for you (obviously, the people I tutor already had what they do not work at least once...). Ignore me or anyone else if you're justifiably confident that your approach given your own knowledge and abilities is better. While some people don't need indices, almost everyone benefits from having one.

2. Almost everyone I tutor has had time management issues. My general suggested approach is go through and answer all the questions you're pretty sure you know the answer to without having to look up; then go back and do the questions that you're pretty sure you can look up easily; then lastly, divide the remaining time and do the difficult questions you're the least sure about how even to find the answers, on each one guess if your time allotted for that question runs out and move on. Purpose is, you spend the bulk of your time on the questions you're most likely to get correct, but don't waste time looking up answers you're pretty sure of, and towards the end if have to rush and guess, you're doing so on the difficult questions you were least likely to answer correctly.

3. The available practice exams I've seen (when people want to discuss their answers with me) tend to be poorly written and easier than the actual exam (easier, but also, poorly written and some questions I've seen hard to understand, have more than one correct answer, or have zero correct answers!). However, I think practice exams are very useful for, under exam conditions (timed, phone off etc.) seeing how well and quickly one can do the method in #2 above, and for those questions you look things up for, how quickly you can find topics with your current level of preparation and index. For instance, if you find yourself having problems finding the answers to particular topics, you need to refresh your memory and improve your index for those topics.

4. Your purpose is just to answer correctly enough to pass, NOT know or prove why the answer is what it is. Some people who identify that there are 3 wrong answers so the 4th must be correct, still feel that they need to know why that 4th answer is correct. NO, you don't. If you know the correct answer, that's enough, you don't need to know why it's the correct answer. Obviously this advice only applies to the multiple choice exam, not practicing law!

5. For civil litigation, I think the Rules of Civil Procedure for some topics like simplified procedure are more to the point than the materials and will help you get to the answer faster. I suggest incorporating the Rules in your index, and at the very least, have a copy (I mean printed out from the web).

6. The AGO has some guides including flowcharts in colour, adapting some of those can be very helpful, if you have some questions you can answer just by referring to an image you've adapted or created (similarly for some understanding appeal routes or claims, crossclaims, counterclaims, and third party claims can be helped with a diagram you prepare).

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