Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Finish the MPT and Bar Exam Essays on Time" »
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Finish the MPT and Bar Exam Essays on Time" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Admission, Bar Exam, BarWrite Schools | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
"People always say that time changes things, but actually, you have to change them yourself." -- Andy Warhol
The bar exam season is here, and so students are asking me, "How many practice MBE questions should I do every day?" They expect me to give them a big number, like 33 or 50 or 100.
In fact, I take a totally different approach to the MBE. Numbers have nothing to do with it. My method for raising your score on the MBE is painful but effective, and it does not involve 33 or 50 or 100. I say that the way to raise your MBE score is to learn more law and learn to do patient legal analysis. That's right: learn more law, do better on the bar exam. What a concept! But learning more law is painful. Patiently applying the law to practice fact patterns, one element at a time, is slow and agonizing. And on many days, you won't feel the progress you are making.
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Admission, BarWrite Schools, Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), TIPS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE BAR EXAM:
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This is Part II of our series on Memorizing for Higher Bar Exam Scores. Read on for information on how to raise your scores
Memorizing is so helpful that it surprises me how often students ask me to teach them how to memorize. I am also surprised how often they have wrong ideas about what memorizing is and how to do it. People who don't know how to memorize are losing a lot of time in their study process. Memorizing makes all studying quicker and easier. Every grade school teaches students to memorize the times tables. Every school should teach students how to memorize.
The first wrong idea is that memorizing a rule means the same thing as getting the general idea of a legal principle. Not so. Memorizing means committing the words on the page to memory, so that when
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Part II of Memorizing for the Bar Exam" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Can
memorizing help raise your scores on the bar exam? Yes, and memorizing
will also help you practice law. That's how the brain works and
grows. Read on for Part I of our series about Memorizing for Higher
Bar Exam Scores and see below for information about BarWrite® bar classes for New York or for All States.
Surprised that memorizing is so good? We all use our memories intensively every day. We remember our telephone numbers and our loved one's names, and we remember what we are supposed to buy at the grocery store and what happened last year and ten years ago. Without memory, we would be lost in the hell of amnesia. Not only can we remember much of what happens, and the things we hear about, but we also know how to put things into our memories systematically, by practicing new skills. And for
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Why Memorize for the Bar Exam? Part I" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Exam, BarWrite Schools, Memorizing, TIPS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE BAR EXAM:
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Technorati Tags: Bar exam, bar examination, blog, memorization
The bar exam is only a few months away, and chances are you are preparing for the bar exam or you know people who are preparing for the bar exam. Here is a list-- please share it with your friends--of the FREE and other programs BarWrite® will be offering for the February 2010 bar exam, either for ALL States, or for the New York bar exam. The Earliest Enrollment discounts end October 1, but if you miss those discounts, stay tuned for other offers. ALL For-Fee courses include the opportunity to enroll for the online MBE tool Adaptibar at a discount. For further information about all BarWrite® programs, whether FREE or Fee, visit http://www.BarWrite.com.
* NEW! FREE for ALL STATES. Tuesday, October 6, 2010, 7pm Eastern Time. FREE BarWrite® Teleseminar on "HOW TO PLAN YOUR BAR EXAM STUDY SCHEDULE."Here's your chance to get ready for our BarWrite® bar-prep courses and get really ready for the bar exam. Hand-outs with suggested schedules included.
* NEW! FREE for ALL STATES. Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 7pm Eastern Time. FREE BarWrite® Teleseminar on "WHAT TO EXPECT ON THE BAR EXAM." Get ready for the bar exam. Hand-outs with ways to analyze your bar-readiness(TM) included.
* FREE FOR ALL STATES. SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS. FREE BOOKLET with two Chapters from Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher's highly-acclaimed book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays. This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum. The whole book and the companion CDs are also available at BarWrite.com. See announcement at bottom of this message.
* January 25, 2010, or February 15, 20010. BarWrite® 1-DAY
MPT BOOT CAMP FOR ALL STATES. Normally $137.00, now $87.00.
Can you research and write a good brief or legal memorandum?
In 90 minutes? This intensive all-day boot camp, our
most popular course, teaches you how to boost your
score on that most-overlooked source of competitive
advantage, the Multistate Performance Test
(MPT).
* Wednesday, January 13, 2010. BarWrite® 1-DAY ESSAY BOOT CAMP FOR ALL STATES. Early Enrollment Discount tuition is $97.00. *One full day of essay organization, analysis, and performance, using Dr. Gallagher's highly-acclaimed book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays, PLUS essay materials from your own state. Good for ALL STATES. http://www.barwrite.com/1day- essay-bootcamp.html. [Caveat. New York has so many legal distinctions and it tests on so many subjects that we strongly urge students taking the New York bar exam to enroll in the 3-day New York boot camp, instead.]
* January 26-28 -29, 2010 or February 16-18-19, 2010. BarWrite® 3-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP. Strenuous training to boost your New York essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New York Bar). Spend a few days in New York City raising your scores on the New York bar essays! Early Enrollment Discount is $367.00, to October 1, 2009.
*******
* STARTS JANUARY 3, 2010. BarWrite® 10-DAY NEW YORK
ESSAY-INTENSIVE/RETAKER GROUP COACHING SCHOOL.
MBE-NY ESSAYS-MPT. Helps you pole-vault the bar.
"My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma Waananen
Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). For
retakers, foreign-trained attorneys and first-time
takers. Dr. Gallagher highly recommends that
foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or
Pieper with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE
GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. Early Enrollment
Discount for new students is $1147 to October 1.
BarWrite ALUMNI qualify for additional discounts. Visit
***
BarWrite® 10-DAY PREMIUM PACKAGE INCLUDES
* 10-Day BarWrite New York Essay-Intensive/Retaker Group Coaching School * Private Consulting Program on Study Schedules * Private Coaching Program on BarWrite MBE Study System(TM) with Dr. Gallagher. * $3,250 and up. Call for eligibility (212) 327-2817.***
BarWrite® PRIVATE COACHING
MBE, ALL-STATES ESSAYS, ALL-STATES MPT * 10-Hour Packages * At mutual convenience * In combination with classes or boot camps * $1,500 and up in addition to tuition for class or boot camp. Call for eligibility (212) 327-2817.*****
Our advice is, Enroll today! Visit
"I sat through one course of BARBRI, two courses of PMBR, one Marino Retaker course, and two BARBRI Marino essay courses. Finally, I took the 10-day BarWrite course, and it was the only one that made me feel prepared for the New York bar exam. The only course that I now recommend to other people is the BarWrite course, which I loved." -- Stefanie Weiss, Brooklyn Law School (Member, New York bar)
For more information visit http://www.BarWrite.com
Wishing you the greatest success on the bar exam,
MCG
Note. All dates and locations will be confirmed when we complete business arrangements with site hosts.
And now a key hint for how to study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Free and Fee Study Aids for the February Bar Exam" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
FROM BARWRITE®: HOW TO MANAGE TIME ON THE NEW YORK DAY OF THE NEW YORK BAR EXAMINATION
The time structure for the New York day of the New York bar examination is your lifeline for excelling on the bar exam. Focus on time. Grip your external time cues, including your watches, your clocks, and your notes to yourself that tell you when each part of the exam will begin and end. Time is key. The structure of the exam is time.
Avoid thinking about constructs in your own mind, like your lifetime goals. Avoid thinking about family fights. Avoid noticing events in the outside world, like the actions of your seatmate or the activities of the proctors. Your structure is time.
MORNING SESSION: 9am - 12:15pm. The morning session is three hours and 15 minutes long. It begins at 9am and ends at 12:15pm. There will be 50 New York multiple choice questions (NYMC) and three New York essay questions. Stay on time. Keep a steady flow of raisins or other small fruits moving through your system for fuel. Nothing crunchy, please.
NEW YORK MULTIPLE CHOICE: 9am - 10am. Start with the NYMC, and move through the questions, one foot in front of the other, at a steady pace. Treat the NYMC with respect, but do not dally. I suggest that in order to have 45 minutes available for each essay, you should allow 60 minutes for the 50 NYMC, finishing at 10am. That is 1.2 minutes per NYMC question, or three-tenths of a minute less than the New York Board of Law Examiners suggests. Do use all 60 minutes, but do not go over time. Do not second-guess yourself. Keep moving. Promptly at 10am, switch to the first essay question.
FIRST NEW YORK ESSAY: 10am - 10:45am. Pick up the first question in your packet, whatever it is. Forget about trying to pick an essay that is easy for you. Just begin with the first essay question. You have a production job here, producing paragraphs, so get in position on the assembly line and execute your job. At 10am, start reading and outlining. At 10:15am, start writing on the first page in your test booklet. You will spend five or six minutes on each paragraph. Finish the first essay at 10:45am.
Remember. You must stay on time. If you are not finished by 10:45am, do something drastic. Put together whatever law, facts, and conclusions you can, jam it all into one sentence, and write it on the page. Bits of blood, hair, nails, are fine. Just finish. Get out of there!
SECOND NEW YORK ESSAY: 10:45am - 11:30am. At 10:45am, start reading and outlining the second essay. At 11am, start writing on the first page in your test booklet. Finish the second essay at 11:30am.
Remember. You must stay on time. Bits of blood, hair, nails, anything! Just finish. Get out of there!
THIRD NEW YORK ESSAY: 11:30am - 12:15pm. At 11:30am, start reading and outlining the third essay. At 11:45am, start writing on the first essay page in your test booklet. Finish the third essay at 12:15pm.
Remember. You must stay on time. Bits of blood, hair, nails, anything! Just finish. Get out of there!
LUNCH: 12:15pm - 1:30pm. Remember to Eat the Right Food.
AFTERNOON SESSION: 1:30pm - 4:30pm. The afternoon session is three hours long. It begins at 1:30pm and ends at 4:30pm. There will be two New York essay questions and one Multistate Performance Test (MPT). Remember. The exam is about sticking to your time structure. Time is your lifeline. Check your watches before you begin the afternoon session.
FOURTH NEW YORK ESSAY: 1:30pm -2:15pm. At 1:30pm, start reading and outlining the fourth essay. At 1:45pm, start writing on the first essay page in your test booklet, five to six minutes per paragraph. Finish the fourth essay at 2:15pm.
Remember. You must stay on time. Throw in bits of blood, hair, nails, anything! Just finish. Get out of there!
FIFTH NEW YORK ESSAY: 2:15pm - 3pm. At 2:15pm, start reading and outlining the fifth essay. At 2:30pm, start writing on the first essay page in your test booklet, five to six minutes per paragraph. Finish the fifth essay at 3pm.
Remember. You must stay on time. Throw in bits of blood, hair, nails, anything! Just finish. Get out of there!
MULTISTATE PERFORMANCE TEST (MPT): 3PM - 4:30PM. The MPT is entirely about following directions and managing time.
At 3pm start tearing apart the Partner Memo into the little bits of information and analysis that the partner wants to find in your work product, and outline your task. Do your research. Write your headnotes in your test booklet. No later than 3:35pm, start to write your MPT task. Leave the first page of the test booklet blank. See below.
Make sure that you place ample landmarks at the tops of the pages in your work product. Use headnotes, numbers, and letters, so that the grader can see by looking at your page what is going on in there.
At 4:25pm, take the last five minutes to write the opening page and closing page of your work product. Go back over the partner memo for one last reading, checking to make certain that you have done everything the partner asked you to do. Review the format. Make sure that a memo has memo format, a brief has brief format, etc.
Finish the MPT at 4:30pm.
CONGRATULATIONS! You've completed the New York day, and you've done it on time!
***
AFTERWARDS, send BarWrite® a brief email, please. Let us hear how it goes. Staff@BarWrite.com.
Tell your friends about BarWrite®.
We're rooting for you.
Wishing you the greatest success on the bar exam,
MCG
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Between now and Game Day, first, recite your MBE rules every day. Practice MBE analysis every day.
Second, outline two essays every day and compare your answers with sample answers--in the bar course book or in the BarWrite binders. More law! More LAW! Remember that if you use an exception, you must also use the rule as a higher-level rule. And terms in every rule of law cry out to be defined. Learn your law in clumps of rules. You must set off the bells on the bar-exam-o-meter with lots of rules of law. MORE LAW!
Third, in stages, quickly review all of your subjects. Create check-lists in your mind for topics in the major subjects (CPLR, Contracts/UCC, Criminal Law and Procedure, Corporations, Wills, Domestic Relations, Torts, Real Property). The bar exam is difficult because it requires you to have everything top-of-mind. You will need to rely on short-term memory. Get it stocked up. Make sure all your knowledge of law is simultaneously available to you by going over everything, one last time.
Remember, you must get a good night's sleep each night before the bar exam. So your studying will end at noon on Monday. Watch a movie in which the Good Guys win. I like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." My sister, who teaches at DePaul, suggests "Master and Commander."
Watch for further blog posts.
Wishing you the greatest success on the bar exam,
MCG
http://www.BarWrite.com
And now a key hint for how to study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: The Bar Exam is Next Week" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher's BarWrite® Tips for Avoiding Stress and Panic in the Final Weeks of Study
NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The bar exam starts Tuesday, July 28. What can bar candidates do to avoid stress and panic, and so study more effectively, during these intense final weeks? Bar-exam expert Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher, President of BarWrite®, which offers bar-preparation courses in New York City, asked her students for ideas for reducing stress and maximizing study results, and she chose these ten suggestions:
1. Make a realistic daily schedule that includes both study and exercise. Plan for variety in your studying, and stick to your plan. Get up early and do your most challenging studying first. Take a five-minute break every hour. Work steadily. Do not aim for speed, which just causes stress and reduces how much you can learn.
2. Pray. Do yoga. Use meditation or hypnosis tapes. Get a full-body massage the last week.
3. Stay away from electronic devices which intensify stress, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, text messaging, and email. Turn your cellphone off. Use earplugs while studying.
4. Get plenty of sleep.
5. Schedule some time on one special day each week for taking care of yourself. Get a haircut, do your grocery shopping, clean your room.
***********
We interrupt this message for a word from our sponsor. BarWrite will offer the famous One-Day All-States MPT Boot Camp on Monday, July 20, and the notorious Three-Day New York Bar Essay Boot Camp on Tuesday, July 21, Thursday, July 23, and Friday, July 24. All will take place at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street. For more information, or to enroll, visit http://www.BarWrite.com.We now return to our message. *********
6. Schedule 15 minutes every day for having fun. Walk your dog, play a musical instrument, horse around with your children. Read something enjoyable before bedtime.7. Have one supportive person you can speak to for 10 minutes a day, your safe person.
8. Focus on how much you have done to prepare, not on how much you have not done. If you do what you plan to do every day, that's all you can hope for. Your results on the bar exam are in the hands of the gods.
9. Breathe deeply. Breathe in for seven counts, hold for one count, exhale slowly for seven counts. Repeat until calm. Relax. Smile.
10. Finally, perhaps the man who made this last suggestion was not serious: Listen to Barry Manilow recordings while you study, to increase the pain. Then you will never want to take the bar exam again.
BACKGROUND ON DR. MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER and BARWRITE®. A graduate of Harvard Law School who holds the Ph.D. in linguistics, Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher is president of BarWrite® and BarWrite Press, which offer large courses preparing candidates for the bar exam, and author of the book and CDs Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays. The St. John's Law School Forum called Scoring High probably "the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." Dr. Gallagher's next book, How to Organize for High-Scoring Performance on the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), is due out in October. A widely-published writer, Dr. Gallagher lectures at universities around the country and is also an Adjunct Instructor in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University. For information on BarWrite courses and publications visit http://www.BarWrite.com.
And now a key hint for how to study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Ten Tips for Staying Calm Before the Bar Exam" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Army Major Miles Gengler of Grand Blanc will take his oath and be admitted as an attorney licensed to practice in Michigan, despite being on the other side of the globe, thanks to a video conference arranged by the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
According to the Detroit Legal News Examiner story, Major Gengler took the February 2009 bar examination in February 2009, which was "two days before he was deployed to Iraq."
Says John Nussbaumer, dean of Cooley's Auburn Hills campus, “I promised Miles that if he passed the bar exam, I would find a way to get him sworn in even though he would still be in Iraq.” Nussbaumer continued, “Miles is putting his life on the line for our country; arranging for his swearing-in is the least we can do to show our appreciation for his service.”
And now a key hint for how to study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Admission | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
And now a key hint for how to study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Persistence for the bar exam" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Exam | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
It Takes a Village to Pass the Bar Exam
Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher's Five BarWrite® Tips for Persuading Family and Friends to Help You Focus While You Prepare for the Bar Exam
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nobody passes the bar exam alone. Successful bar candidates say their families helped them focus not just by encouraging them but by letting them study in peace. One successful bar candidate sent her husband home to his mother for two months so she could study for the New York bar exam. Another candidate sent his two-year-old son back to his home country. Long-time bar-preparation educator Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher, president of New York-based BarWrite®, says that the bar exam is stressful for everyone. But with support from family and friends, bar candidates can sail confidently through the bar-preparation period.
Dr. Gallagher offers bar candidates five tips for persuading family and friends to help them focus while they prepare for the bar exam.
1. Empower your family to help you eliminate non-essential activities. Explain that bar-preparation is all-consuming for everyone, not just you, and ask them to tell Uncle Harry why you can't go to his house for dinner on Sunday.
2. Enlist your spouse or significant other. You can't see much of him or her while you are preparing for the bar exam, let alone plan your wedding, but you can pledge your eternal gratitude.
3. Promise your roommates a great party later if they will help shelter you from outside voices now. Just for these two months, you must unplug your television set and seal yourself off from newspapers, radio, and the internet.
4. Ask for understanding from family and friends when you can't respond to telephone calls and emails. Then put a message on your phone line that says, "I will return calls after August 1," and an autoresponder on your email account that says, "I will answer messages after August 1."
5. Don't forget your mother. Your mother will be very proud when you become a lawyer, and she deserves your call. Staying in touch with your mother and saying Thank you will clear your conscience and help you focus on studying for the bar exam.
BACKGROUND ON DR. MARY CAMPBELL GALLAGHER. A graduate of Harvard Law School who holds the Ph.D. in linguistics, Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher is president of New York-based BarWrite® and BarWrite Press, which offer large courses preparing candidates for the bar exam, and author of the book and CDs Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays, which the St. John's Law School Forum called possibly "the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." Dr. Gallagher is preparing a study guide for the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). She is an Adjunct Instructor in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at NYU.
************
And now a key hint for how to begin studying and study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: It Takes a Village to Pass the Bar Exam" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
The time is 7pm Eastern Time on Friday, May 29, but participants should plan to come on the line five minutes early. Sign up FREE at http://www.BarWrite.com
OTHER SELECTED TOP PICKS FOR STUDY FOR BAR STUDY.
If you are preparing for the California bar exam, take advantage of all the resources Travis Wise offers, starting with his California Bar Exam Primer. http://www.twise.com/barexam/index.htm, and the CaliforniaBarExamPrimer@yahoogroups.com.
Our supplemental BarWrite® courses, both the New York courses and our ALL-STATES courses for the essays and the MPT, are the most demanding and rigorous courses in the entire bar-prep field, using state bar materials and our own proprietary systems. For more information visit http://www.BarWrite.com
HELP PREPARING FOR THE ESSAYS
Mary Campbell Gallagher, Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays (Third edition), New York: BarWrite Press, 2006 (Book and CDs) Available at http://www.BarWrite.com
HELP PREPARING FOR THE MBE
Steve Emmanuel and Kimm Alayne Walton, Strategies and Tactics for the MBE, New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc., 2005.
Steve Emmanuel, Law in a Flash Cards: Contracts. New York, Aspen Publishers, 2004
Steven Finz, Strategies and Tactics for the Finz Multistate Method (Second Edition), New York, Aspen Publishers, 2004
Adaptibar. http://www.Adaptibar.com
National Conference of Bar Examiners, http://www.ncbex.org
***
Wishing you all the greatest success on the bar exam,
MCG
And now a key hint for how to begin studying and study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Continue reading "BarWrite® Blog: Selected Top Picks for Bar Study" »
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher in Bar Exam | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
* FREE FOR ALL STATES. Chapters from book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays.
* MAY 21, 2009. FREE FOR ALL STATES. BarWrite® Teleseminar on "How to Plan Your Bar Exam Study Schedule."
* JUNE 15, 2009, or JULY 20, 2009. BarWrite® 1-DAY MPT BOOT CAMP FOR ALL STATES. $85.00 Early Enrollment. Discount to May 31. * Intensive practice organizing real MPT tasks and finishing on time.
* WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2009. BarWrite® 1-DAY ESSAY BOOT CAMP FOR ALL STATES. Early Enrollment Discount is $97.00 to May 31. * One full day of essay organization, analysis, and performance.
* JUNE 22-24-26 or JULY 21-23-24. BarWrite® 3-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP. Strenuous training to boost your New York essay scores. Early Enrollment Discount is $457.00 to May 31.
*******
* STARTS MAY 31, 2009. BarWrite® 10-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY-INTENSIVE/RETAKER GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. MBE-NY ESSAYS-MPT. Early Enrollment Discount for new students is $1947 to May 15. BarWrite alumni qualify for additional discounts. Visit http://www.BarWrite.com
***
BarWrite® 10-DAY PREMIUM PACKAGE INCLUDES
* 10-Day BarWrite New York Essay-Intensive/Retaker Group Coaching School
* Private Consulting Program on Study Schedules
* Private Coaching Program on BarWrite MBE Study System(TM) with Dr. Gallagher.
* $3,250 and up. Call for eligibility (212) 327-2817.
***
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MBE, ALL-STATES ESSAYS, ALL-STATES MPT
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Our advice is, Enroll today!
"I sat through one course of BARBRI, two courses of PMBR, one Marino Retaker course, and two BARBRI Marino essay courses. Finally, I took the 10-day BarWrite course, and it was the only one that made me feel prepared for the New York bar exam. The only course that I now recommend to other people is the BarWrite course, which I loved."
-- Stefanie Weiss, Brooklyn Law School (Member, New York bar)
For more information visit http://www.BarWrite.com
MCG
And now a key hint for how to begin studying and study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
Foreign-educated first-time-takers comprised 44.1 per cent of February candidates. This time they had a pass rate of only 37.1 per cent, as against July 2008, when foreign-educated attorneys had a pass rate of 54.8 per cent.
A number of factors cause the typically lower scores in February. The main factor is that the MBE is key to scoring the entire exam. When there are more retakers and more foreign-trained attorneys, as in February, the average MBE score will tend to be lower. Hence, scaled scores on all parts of the exam will be lower.
Congratulations to all who passed. The New York exam is a tough one. For those who did not make it this time, remember, all you have to do is keep on taking the exam, and you will pass. Needless to say, there are more and less efficient means for preparing, so look around for the right books, courses, and tutors, but persistence is key. Keep working, and you will succeed!
And now a key hint for how to begin studying and study effectively, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
How can I begin right away to study for the bar exam?
A. Here is the answer from BarWrite® founder and president Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher:
(I.) THREE HINTS FOR PREPARING FOR THE BAR EXAM *NOW.*
(1.) BarWrite® BAR PREPARATION TIP NUMBER ONE.
To maximize credit on both the MBE and the New York essays, concentrate
on knowing two subjects cold: (a) contract formation and (b)
negligence. These are the topics with the largest numbers of questions
on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). In addition, Contracts/UCC, usually
including formation, appears on 8 out of 10 New York essay exams. The
best study aid is the yellow box of Law-in-a-Flash flashcards for
contracts. They used to be published by Emanuel, and they are now
published by Aspen Law & Business. Click here to order: http://www.aspenpublishers.com/emanuel.asp . The telephone number is (800) 317-3113.
(2.) BarWrite® BAR PREPARATION TIP NUMBER TWO. Do not use taking the bar exam to find out whether or not you are ready for the bar exam! The most important thing for you to *know* now is how you are doing in your bar preparation, and whether you are really getting ready or not. To tell whether you are making progress studying for the MBE as the bar preparation period goes along, locate two 200-question tests now, from the same source. It is important for these tests to be from the same source so that they are of similar difficulty. Give yourself the first test right now, under exam conditions--watch your time. Then, after you have been studying for the bar for a month, take the second 200 questions. Compare your scores. Then compare your scores on contract formation in the two exams. Warning. Do not rely on the percentages of questions you get right if you do twenty or fifty contracts questions at a sitting. That is unreliable.
It is smart to know exactly how you are doing at all times in your bar preparation, and it is foolish just to "give the exam a shot."
Another thing you should do now is to take five questions on contract formation, review the answers, analyze the fact patterns. Then in two days do the analysis on those same five questions again. I don't mean remember the answer choices, I mean work through the analysis: This is an offeror, this is an offeree, this is consideration, etc., etc. Pre-testing and re-testing is a technique educational testers use. It tells you whether you are making progress on your study or just--how to put it--spending your time. You should constantly review the key material, over and over, right until the bar exam. Re-test yourself on the key material many times during your weeks of bar preparation, to see whether you are on track to pass the exam.
Word to the Wise. *Reading* alone is almost useless. Law does not stick to the brain. You must study, review, recite, test, review, recite. Keep testing yourself on the same MBE questions, doing the analysis. The "right answer" does not matter. It is the careful, slow analysis that counts: this is an offeror, this is consideration, etc. The book we use in the LTS - Law Training Schools is The Finz Multistate Method. It has excellent tables of contents that allow you to do five questions on contract formation, review the subject, recite, test yourself on another five questions on contract formation and so on. It is published by Aspen. The telephone is (800) 317-3113. Visit: http://www.aspenpublishers.com/search.asp
(3.) BarWrite® BAR TIP NUMBER THREE. Sign up for the must-take Ten-Day BarWrite Essay-Intensive/Retaker School. It includes two days of MBE study techniques, plus four days of essays and one day of Multistate Performance Test. Gemma Waananen Kenney says, "Dr. Gallagher's MBE Method was phenomenal. I did exactly what she told me to do, and my score went from a 127 in February to a 149 in July 2000." For detailed information, and to enroll, visit http://www.BarWrite.com, and enroll on our secure website. Questions? Email Staff@BarWrite.com.
***
And now a key hint for how to begin studying now, from Bar Write Blog's sponsor:
SCORING HIGH ON BAR EXAM ESSAYS . This book "may be the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." -- The St. John's Law School Forum.
The BARWRITE® ALL-STATES MPT BOOT CAMP boosts your score on an often-overlooked source of competitive advantage, the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). THE BARWRITE® TEN-DAY GROUP COACHING SCHOOL
helps you pole-vault the bar. "My MBE went from a 126 to a 149!" Gemma
Waananen Kenney (Member, New York and New Jersey Bars). Dr. Gallagher
recommends that foreign-trained attorneys supplement BarBri or Pieper
with BarWrite's TEN-DAY ESSAY-INTENSIVE GROUP COACHING SCHOOL. THE BARWRITE® THREE-DAY NEW YORK ESSAY BOOT CAMP
boosts essay scores. "Dr. Gallagher takes the mass of information
studied and teaches her students how to apply it effectively in
essays," says Christina Valentine, Australian solicitor (Member, New
York Bar).
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
