Pass the Bar Exam with Dr. Stipkala's Proven Method

Pass the Bar Exam

with Dr. Stipkala’s Proven Method

By

Jeremy M. Stipkala, Ph.D., J.D.

To Codey, my inspiration, my muse!

© 2018 Jeremy M. Stipkala

Persimmon Woods Press, LLC

eBook ISBN 978-0-9997997-0-3

Paperback Book ISBN 978-0-9997997-1-0

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. How to Study

III. Essays

IV. Practical Test

V. The Multiple-Choice Part

VI. What to Expect on Exam Day

VII. A Final Word of Encouragement

I. Introduction

You have graduated from law school. Congratulations! You should be extremely proud of your achievement. You are joining an honored, noble, and justice-enabling profession. We lawyers are the workers and warriors who build, maintain, and defend the foundational structure of civilization itself.

There is just one teeny tiny little problem. You have to pass the bar exam to receive a license to do all that building, maintaining, and defending. And do not forget all the rent paying, grocery buying, and student-loan repaying that you have to do, too. That bar exam is a two or three-day contest in which you must regurgitate everything you ever learned in law school. And if you eventually fail to achieve a passing score, your investment in your law school education will have been for naught. (I vastly overstate the demands and importance of the bar exam, but you will not believe me until you pass.)

There is just one further teeny tiny little problem: Law school does not adequately prepare you to take the bar exam. Sure, law school attempts to teach you the law. Perhaps, law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer. Maybe even more than you care to remember, law school also exposes you to the think-on-your-feet kind of stress that lawyers sometimes endure. But law school does not teach you how to study for and pass the bar exam! Really? you ask. Yes, really, I answer. When was the last time you braved six hours of examination in a day, two or three days in a row, in a life-changing, make-or-break kind of way?

Consider running a marathon. How would you train for the marathon? You can read books and books about how to train for and run a marathon. You can watch videos, even movies, about others who have conquered the feat (feet?). But do you think that reading all the books and watching all the videos in the world about marathons would allow you to run 26.2 miles with any hope of success, or of even living through it? Dear Reader, it would be foolish and dangerous for you to read a book about running a marathon, and then go strap on some comfortable shoes and take off down the street for 26.2 miles with no other preparation.

Going further with the marathon analogy, law school vis-à-vis the bar exam prepares you to run nice little 5K and 10K fun runs. Surely a person who can run ten kilometers (six miles) is more likely to finish a marathon (alive) than a person who leads a completely sedentary lifestyle. Even so, our hypothetical fun-runner needs to train, and train differently, before she steps up to the starting line on Marathon Day.

That is what this book aims to do. Let’s take smart people who have graduated law school, and teach them, train them, to pass the bar exam – mentally and physically. That is you, Dear Reader! Graduating from law school proves that you can pass the bar exam. That was a marathon of a different sort; now we will train for a new marathon since you have proven that you can run well.

Your mentor’s credentials are ample. I have studied for, taken, and passed the bar exams in South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., in addition to the United States Patent Bar Exam. In the course of those victories, I have honed my approach into a tested – and proven – method for passing any bar exam. I have mentored friends who have not passed the bar exam, and seen them adopt my successful method to turn discouraging failure into magnificent triumph. My hard-fought and hard-won achievements on those bar exams and with those friends burn inside of me, and I strongly desire to pass on what I have learned so that you, Dear Reader, can get your license to practice law sooner rather than later. If I help you to pass the bar exam, remember to pay it forward: Help some future law school graduate study for, train for, and pass the bar exam.

(Back to Table of Contents)

II. How to Study

A. Planning Your Study

How do you study, train, prepare for a bar exam? There are three essential aspects to your bar exam preparation. First, you need to internalize a considerable amount of substantive law. Second, you have got to practice, practice, practice. (If this were a marathon, you would have to run, run, run.) Third, you must manage the precious time you have to prepare. The bar exam will happen at the end of February, or at the end of July, whether you are ready or not.

Let us see how those three essential aspects combine in a suitable preparation plan. Suppose it is January 1st or June 1st, and you will take the bar exam on the last Tuesday and Wednesday in February or July. That gives you approximately fifty days to study. If at all possible, clear your schedule of every other responsibility. Take a leave of absence from your job; send your kids to grandma’s for two months. If it is not possible for you to do those things, then may God bless you. You can still pass the bar exam, but it will be more demanding. (I have seen people do it – pass the bar exam while working and taking care of kids!) Simply put, your plan should give adequate attention to each subject, both to absorb and to practice, given the time. If you have to choose between studying and practicing, choose practicing. You may face a question for which you do not remember or have not studied the law no matter how much you study; later chapters will explore how to successfully attack that question. For now, know that tackling practice test questions will hone those skills.

First, you must determine the areas of substantive law that will appear on your bar exam. Your state bar website should list subjects that will be tested. Also, your law school will have information about the bar exam for the state where the school is. Many states (twenty-eight at the time of this writing) use the Uniform Bar Examination created by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. It is imperative that you learn early which subjects will