In General
The Bar exam is the last real "test" that you're ever going to have to take. I know that you've probably heard the cliched line "the LSAT doesn't prepare you for law school, law school doesn't prepare you to take the Bar, and the Bar doesn't prepare you to practice law"; however, I'm not so sure that this is actually true. You see, while the LSAT was an absurd test that indirectly tests how well you will do in law school by looking at your logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension, the Bar exam only tests one thing - your knowledge of the black letter law. There are no insane time constraints (in my opinion), there are no grey areas of the law, and there are no areas that you cannot prepare for by paying attention in class! With that being said, it does test your ability to convey information under pressure.
Each state has a different bar exam, and there is no immediate right of "reciprocity" simply by taking one state's bar exam. What that means is that if you want to be able to practice in more than one state, you need to either take that state's bar right from the get-go, or wait for a certain period of time and be "waived in" by a member of that Bar (i.e. an attorney). As a side note, you don't have to try and be an over-achiever and take 2 bars just to get a job; while most employers would look favorably on such enthusiasm, you have to ask yourself if you want to risk failing one test (or both) just to make yourself look better.
The Connecticut Bar
In Connecticut, the Bar itself is a 2-day exam that is held once in late July and again in February. Like most states, Connecticut does one day of essays (12 essay questions) and the other day is all multiple choice questions (200). You will have 6 hours each day which is split up into 2, 3-hour chunks and an hour for lunch in the middle.
The essays can come from CT specific law, OR they can be a variety of multi-state questions. When I say CT specific, I don't mean that you have to know specific Connecticut case law; rather, a lot of these subjects don't test CT law at all (puzzling, I know). The reason is that CT, unlike NY, borrows 6 of its questions from a bank of multi-state questions, while the other 6 are drawn up by CT examiners. For now, just know that the only truly CT specific law that you may be required to know is Connecticut Civil Procedure (not all that different), Connecticut Constitutional Law (very unlikely, and if there is a question, it will probably involve CT Criminal Procedure), and Connecticut Professional Responsibility (highly likely)... in fact, one of my questions on the July 2012 Bar was entirely devoted to LPR.
In addition, there is talk that the CT bar will soon include essays that are more like what you encountered in your 1st year of law school - predictive memos. These essays, called "performance essays," have been used for some time now in CA and NY. I apologize that I won't be able to help in this realm, but I'm sure that you can find more information on line. For now, just know that it's a possibility that you'll see one or more when you take the Bar.
The multiple choice questions, on the other hand, are only multi-state questions. What is important to note is that the multi-state topics are "double tested". Here is a list of all the subjects that will be on the bar, separated by "multi-state" and "CT specific":
Multi-State:
- Constitutional Law
- Contracts and Sales
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure (more investigative)
- Evidence
- Real Property
- Torts
- Administrative Law
- Agency
- Commercial Paper
- Connecticut Civil Procedure
- Connecticut Constitutional Law
- Conflict of Laws
- Corporations
- Equity
- Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure
- Partnership
- Personal Property
- Professional Responsibility
- Secured Transactions
- Suretyship
- Trusts
- Wills
Alright, now that you have a taste of what the Bar is, here 's a chronological outline of what you can expect in the year or so leading up to the bar (your last year of law school):
Professor Litvin's Free Bar Prep Course (begins in your 3L year)
The first real opportunity to experience the Bar exam will come about half way through your 3L year in the form of Professor Litvin's bar prep course. Professor Litvin has been giving private lessons to prepare for the Bar for years and years, and has offered his course to QU Law students for free . Before 2011, this was the only "course" that that he taught for QU; recently, however, he has begun to teach Evidence again.
The course starts with a full-length, 200 question, mock exam to determine what your starting point is. After that, every Saturday (or Sunday), you'll need to come in for 3 to 4 hours in order to take some practice questions, listen to his pre-recorded lecture giving you a brief summary of whatever subject the previous weekend's practice questions concerned followed by an explanation of each of the questions. The explanation is the most helpful thing because you learn what the right answer is by understanding why the other 3 are wrong. Professor Litvin also holds several full-length practice Bar Exams, which are by far the MOST USEFUL parts of his course that you can participate in. Yes, it's going to be a huge buzz-kill to sacrifice 7 hours of your time, but the more accustomed you become to taking the exam, the better.
I have been told by many attorneys in the field that his course was the reason that they passed the bar, and several have told me that you only need his course in order to pass. However, it appears that over the last couple of years Professor Litvin has been pushed out of business, more or less, by Barbri, Kaplan, and other courses that students have to pay for. As far as I understand, before 2011, Professor Litvin used Barbri's outlines and Barbri's materials to teach his class in exchange for promoting Barbri to his students. Barbri eventually wised up, figured out that lots of QU students were simply not taking its course because Professor Litvin essentially offered the same course for free, and changed its deal with Professor Litvin. Accordingly, as of this year (2012), Barbri began to strictly enforce its copyrights and not allow Professor Litvin to use current materials to teach his Bar course. While that might not be the end of the world, it's certainly enough to scare students away because they assume that if it's not the "latest", it's not the "greatest".
Alright, that being said, here's my 2 cents: Professor Litvin's class can be an effective pre-preparation class if you can muster up the energy to do it. When you're half-way through your 3L year, you're going to have "senioritis" so bad that you'll be lucky if you roll out of bed in the morning, so you're not going to want to blow 1/2 of your weekend on preparing for a test that is 1/2 a year away (I know I didn't). What I did, and I advise you to do as well, is participate in at last 1 full-length practice exam, get your score, analyze it a bit to figure out what your trouble spots are, and then go into Barbri a bit more prepared than the majority of your classmates.
There are some students, however, who may benefit from participating in as much of Professor Litvin's class as possible, including:
- Students who did not take one of the core classes (go to at least those lectures).
- Students who are not good standardized test takers (probably should make the effort and go to all lectures).
- Students who are not particularly strong writers (at least figure out when he's assigning practice essays and submit them for his review)
- Students who plan to work (part time or full time) during Barbri (again, probably should go to all lectures)
- Overachievers!
The Application Process
The next step that you need to take is applying to take the Bar. In CT, our Bar application process is VERY involved, and will take you months to complete. It's not that there are thousands of blanks to fill in; rather, there are just lots of things that you need to send out for / request that might take a long time to get back. In addition, the Bar application is expensive - $600 for the exam that I sat trhough, as well as another $100 if you plan to type it (the Examsoft license fee). You start the application for the July exam in January of your last year, and the application is due in April.
Aside from filling out the application completely and honestly, here are the major requirements that you need to know about. *Please note that some of this information may become outdated the longer this blog exists, and that I'm just putting this out as a heads-up, not a step-by-step guide on how to fill out your bar application.*
- Employment Records - you need to provide a very detailed record of your employment history (including periods of unemployment) from the last 10 years or from the age of 16 and on, whichever is shorter. In addition, you also need to send out employer reference forms for all of your employers from the last 5 years. The hassle is that you have to send a cover letter, a reference form, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope with each one! Talk about a pain!
- Personal and Professional References - you need to provide 3 personal references and 3 professional references. This requires you to send out a cover letter, form, and self-addressed, stamped envelope to each one, and you need to keep in mind how expedient your friends/professors/bosses will be in returning your references.
- Driving Records - you have to provide driving records for every state you resided in for more than 6 months. This will cost you $ (probably between $ to $25 per state), and can take a couple of months to get back to you.
Barbri
Barbri is a bar preparation company that has essentially cornered the market (at least in QU). There are other courses, including Kaplan's bar prep course, but I can't tell you what those courses are like because, well, I didn't take them! In any event, know that they're all about the same, but that Barbri is used by the majority of students to prepare for any bar exam.
Signing up and Shelling Out Some $$
You'll no doubt see a Barbri table set up in the main foyer once or twice a week, and probably more days than not as the semester draws to a close. While those tables are great for snagging the occasional free pen or candy bar, they're also there to get you signed up for Barbri as early as possible; you see, the earlier you sign up (and pay, of course), the greater discounts you get.
You can sign up by talking to a Barbri representative (usually one of your classmates) and giving them all of your information or by going online to their website and signing up. Either way, you're still going to have to pay!
I signed up in January of my 3L year (my last year) and paid ~ $3,300. I believe that I could have saved at least a couple hundred dollars had I signed up during the fall of my 3L year, but what the heck, I really didn't want to bother with it then.
That not-so-little fee will get you the following (all of which will be explained in further detail below):
- Enrollment in their in-class course (you can choose between Hartford or QU and either the evening course or morning course).
- Access to their online database of Bar review lectures.
- A huge stack of Bar review books, including a number of books filled with nothing but practice questions.
- Access to a variety of other online applications, including Barbri smartphone apps and Barbri memory retention programs.
The stack of books won't land on your doorstep until about a week before graduation. There's really not a lot you can do before then, so just enjoy yourself for a while, go see your family, and relax.
The "Preview Course" begins the week after graduation. It's basically a series of questions from each of the multi-state subjects (discussed above), along with a brief video lecture to analyze the problems and explain the answers. It's nothing too serious, but the lecturers do dish out some good tips to help you try and remember things. As always, here's my 2 cents: I took advantage of the course because, to be completely honest, I was bored that week. After doing the problems, I felt like an idiot, which was a good thing because it made me focus that much more during the actual Bar review lectures. I would strongly recommend it to anyone without anything better to do that week. In addition, I would suggest that you do the preview course if you didn't do Litvin's course - it'll at least jar you a bit and make you study.
The actual course consists of watching pre-recorded lectures (about 3 hours for each subject) while taking notes in a "handout" book with which Barbri supplies you. You have the option of watching the lectures in-class OR watching them on your computer wherever you want (the video is the same whether you're in class or watching it on your own time). The in-class morning course begins at 9:30 am and the evening course begins at 5:30 pm.
Now here's where you are going to have to be completely honest with yourself: if you are capable of staying focused and not taking a "break" every 10 minutes, maybe you can pull off watching the lecture at home. On the other hand, if you're going to get distracted easily or your apartment/house is less conductive to learning than being in a lecture hall, you should consider going to the in-class sessions. According to Barbri, your odds of passing are increased by going to the in-class lecture. However, I believe that there is a compromise - watch the lectures whenever you want, but go to the library to watch them. It's more comfortable than sitting in the same seats you've sat in for the past 3 years, you can watch with friends and make fun of the lecturers a bit (whatever makes it easier, right?), and you'll still get the benefit of being forced to study (i.e. "well, I'm already here... I might as well do it!").
After the lecture, you are expected to review the lecture notes. To me, that means look at the "handout" book that you took all your notes from the lecture in and transcribe those pages while condensing them at the same time. You should be able to shrink 30 pages of handouts to ~ 10 pages of condensed, outline-form notes. However, this is not required... it's just what I did. You could just as easily re-read your lecture handout book.
After that, Barbri recommends 8 to 10 hours of outside studying... that's IN ADDITION TO the 3 hours of in-class lecture! Okay, I know what you're going to say - that's ridiculous, and no one can be expected to do that. You're right... even the lecturers say that the calendar they want you to adhere to is "superhuman". However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do as much as you can to make the concepts sink in. For example, while I was fairly comfortable with Criminal Law, I was almost completely deficient in Evidence (despite having taken the course!); accordingly, I probably took 3 or 4 hours to work on crim and about 10 hours to refresh my recollection on evidence (or is that past recollection recorded, lol). Realistically, you should expect to do about 5 hours outside of class for each subject, taking more time on those subjects with which you have the most trouble.
The lectures end about 2 weeks before the Bar, but that doesn't mean that your work is done! Barbri has tons of outline review, practice problems, and other things to keep you occupied for about 8 hours per day. Those days will feel reminiscent of your "reading period" before 1L exams, except 3x worse in that you're cramming all 3 years worth of knowledge into a 2-week span! Just breathe and remember the following:
- The exam is pass / fail. You don't get an award for getting more than a passing score, so don't shoot for the moon!
- Of the 200 multiple choice questions (10 of which are "experimental" and don't count), you only need about 125 correct. Your raw score of 125 will be converted to about a 140.
- Of the 12 essays, which are graded on a scale of 0 to 7, you only need an average of 48 points (4 points per question). Again, your raw score will be converted.
- If you do better / worse on either the multi-state portion or the essays, you can compensate a bad essay day with a good multi-state day and vice versa. A passing score is calculated by the total number of points between your essays and your multiple choice questions.
Actually, this is probably the worst part... despite the fact that you take the Bar in July, you have to wait until the end of September to get your score! During those 2 months, you're just going to have to try and not worry about whether your passed or not.
In my experience, the last week is the worst... you recount the essays that you screwed up on, think about the questions that you and your friends discussed after the exam (even though you shouldn't have done that in the first place!), and pray to God that you passed (even if you're not religious, lol). I can tell you that I passed even though I thought I bombed 3 whole essays - an Admin. essay (only finished about 1/2 of what I wanted to), a Corporations essay (I'm fairly certain there wasn't one coherent sentence in the mess of an answer I put down), and a Criminal question (it was on criminally negligent homicide and I started discussing duty / breach / cause / harm, lol). Just know that everyone thinks they did horribly, and that there are 12 essays total - enough so that if you get a point or two extra on a few other, you've made up for your atrocious attempts at the 2 or 3 you messed up on.
The form in which they tell you whether you've passed or failed is also quite scary. The Bar Examining Committee puts up a link on the judicial branch website which brings up a PDF document that lists all of the people who have passed. In other words, EVERYONE will know whether you've passed or failed, and trust me, EVERYONE looks at that list! By the way, the list is posted at about 10:00 am on whatever day the BEC says it will be published.
What happens after you pass... and you will!
After you pass, you'll receive a packet in the mail congratulating you and giving you information on when/where you'll be sworn in and admitted to the Bar. Unfortunately, the make you wait an entire month before you can be sworn in (although they do make exceptions in extraordinary circumstances, i.e. being deployed). The swearing in ceremony takes place at the CT Supreme Court. Everyone who passed the previous bar exam is sworn in by the Supreme Court Justices at the same time, and it is only after you are sworn in that you can practice law.
After the swearing in ceremony, you will receive your juris number (the number that you will use from now on to file appearances). Once you receive your juris number, you have to register with the Grievance Committee (done annually), and then you're all set.
I wish you nothing but good luck on the Bar, and I hope that you have found this post useful!
