Since people who don't go to law school probably don't much care or think about what law school is like and those who did already took the bar... well, probably a primer in all the ways that bar prep/the bar exam is different from law school/law school exams is kind of lost...But both involve "IRAC" (Issue -Rule - Analysis - Conclusion). Just with different emphases.
In law school and what's tested on exams is all about A(della... no, wait I really meant Analysis). Analysis adores complicated and nuanced issues that have no definite conclusions, and which teeter atop the rules awkwardly enough to require extended analogies, and a heavy handed peppering of caselaw, arguments, counter-arguments, and counter-counter-arguments, policy/equity considerations and ... so on.
Bar exams are mostly about the R(ules). Generally, what would be an entire page of any laws schoolish analysis turns into something that looks like "Rule. Here, A did this. Thus A is that." And given the 4200 characters (with spaces) limit per answer... I don't suggest breaking out the law student analysis or failure is pretty imminent. So, a little different
Bar exams are mostly about the R(ules). Generally, what would be an entire page of any laws schoolish analysis turns into something that looks like "Rule. Here, A did this. Thus A is that." And given the 4200 characters (with spaces) limit per answer... I don't suggest breaking out the law student analysis or failure is pretty imminent. So, a little different
The bar people describe this as "a drive-by approach to law," a "fire drill, legal game" and "a mile wide, but an inch deep" and other adorable colloquialism that are meant to admonish law students to abandon all prior habits and spit out choppy awkward baby paragraphs in a style to which they are fully unaccustomed.
The moral being - they've spent a lot of time at Barbri trying to knock the lawyer right back out of us: "end of sentence, period, move on" is kind of the mantra. I can't help but feel like we've got it backwards and the bar should come before law school so that students have this great wealth of generalized knowledge about the entire field and some familiarity with the rules that allows them to choose their areas of specialty and develop their analytical skills.
The moral being - they've spent a lot of time at Barbri trying to knock the lawyer right back out of us: "end of sentence, period, move on" is kind of the mantra. I can't help but feel like we've got it backwards and the bar should come before law school so that students have this great wealth of generalized knowledge about the entire field and some familiarity with the rules that allows them to choose their areas of specialty and develop their analytical skills.
My plan for the future of law is this: bar prep and exam first with a requisite score before schools are allowed to accept you (weed out the profession a bit), then two years of law school with increasing specialization and more focus on practical skills, and finally admittance to the bar by sponsorship of a supervising attorney where you will spend your last year interning. But that's just my opinion on the matter.
Anyways, enough boring words, here is my day to day in boring photo-journalistic approach:
I start my day with an online checklist. It basically governs everything I do. But checking things off it oddly satisfying and it tells me that I'm 10% of the way through.
Before lecture, we read an in depth outline on the substantive law we're covering on a given day. I do it on my treadmill because I cannot sit any more than I already am sitting for all the other stuff and my back really hates me right now!
Then we go to lecture, but I'm too bashful to take photos of this. It's on the SU campus for me which is a gorgeous little campus. It's kind of neat, because we have different lecturers every day and while it superficially resembles class, it really isn't class at all. They ultimately aren't putting their names behind our performance and we don't have to prove ourselves to them. There are no in class discussions (right there you're out of law-law land considering the insanity of law students) and ultimately the "homework" we do, isn't homework. It's not graded, it's not for them to evaluate whether to put their name behind us. It's training. They are training us to do a miniature mental marathon. Anyways, back to pictures!
After Lecture, we compile our notes and make "checklists" which are shortened-form lists of things that are meant to trigger more details. We are also expected to watch an "essay approaches" video. While the lecture focuses more on the rules most likely to be on the bar, this addresses how to organize an answer and just relayers the material a third or fourth time
For lectures and our checklists, we use a shorter outline book, which is much more to the point and laser pointed on relevant issues.
Then comes the fun part! We're not supposed to spend too much time on our checklists and memorizing the material, but to delve right into writing exam essays and learning from all the things we missed. Learning by doing and/or by failing approach. Basically every day is a miniature montage of failure and despair leading up to a vague sense of accomplishment and competency that - of course - degrades to failure and consternation with the next day's material. We do new topics every day, of course, with reviews of old topics over the weekend. Some of these are submitted and returned with feedback of a more constructive nature than "you suck," although that's probably frequently warranted.
They have "model answers" (although since these "models" usually exceed the character limit by leaps and bounds and occasionally entirely skip the "analysis" part and just give us detailed lists of the rules, I'm not sure how fair it is to call it a model anything) and a passing answer after the question, so we can go back and grade ourselves. I usually cross out incorrect or superfluous things and write the stuff I missed or that was better worded in red and then amend my notes. Then I cry softly to myself between rants of annoyance at the sheer inanity of some aspect of the model answer and how it kind of didn't address something sort of obvious etc.
Because it is all about memorizing a billion areas of law, it takes a while to remember. I keep lists kind of everywhere so that i can drill prior subjects when I'm brushing my teeth etc. It's also a snazzy and cheap decorative statement and alternative to wallpaper
Then... the cycle begins again. End of sentence. Period. Move on.
Anyways, enough boring words, here is my day to day in boring photo-journalistic approach:
I start my day with an online checklist. It basically governs everything I do. But checking things off it oddly satisfying and it tells me that I'm 10% of the way through.
Before lecture, we read an in depth outline on the substantive law we're covering on a given day. I do it on my treadmill because I cannot sit any more than I already am sitting for all the other stuff and my back really hates me right now!
Then we go to lecture, but I'm too bashful to take photos of this. It's on the SU campus for me which is a gorgeous little campus. It's kind of neat, because we have different lecturers every day and while it superficially resembles class, it really isn't class at all. They ultimately aren't putting their names behind our performance and we don't have to prove ourselves to them. There are no in class discussions (right there you're out of law-law land considering the insanity of law students) and ultimately the "homework" we do, isn't homework. It's not graded, it's not for them to evaluate whether to put their name behind us. It's training. They are training us to do a miniature mental marathon. Anyways, back to pictures!
After Lecture, we compile our notes and make "checklists" which are shortened-form lists of things that are meant to trigger more details. We are also expected to watch an "essay approaches" video. While the lecture focuses more on the rules most likely to be on the bar, this addresses how to organize an answer and just relayers the material a third or fourth time
For lectures and our checklists, we use a shorter outline book, which is much more to the point and laser pointed on relevant issues.
Then comes the fun part! We're not supposed to spend too much time on our checklists and memorizing the material, but to delve right into writing exam essays and learning from all the things we missed. Learning by doing and/or by failing approach. Basically every day is a miniature montage of failure and despair leading up to a vague sense of accomplishment and competency that - of course - degrades to failure and consternation with the next day's material. We do new topics every day, of course, with reviews of old topics over the weekend. Some of these are submitted and returned with feedback of a more constructive nature than "you suck," although that's probably frequently warranted.
Because it is all about memorizing a billion areas of law, it takes a while to remember. I keep lists kind of everywhere so that i can drill prior subjects when I'm brushing my teeth etc. It's also a snazzy and cheap decorative statement and alternative to wallpaper
Then... the cycle begins again. End of sentence. Period. Move on.
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