BARWRITE TIP NUMBER ONE. Organize your study materials so that you can find things at a glance. Put the different subjects in three-ring binders in different colors. Sort the index cards you use for memorizing. Only carry with you the materials you will use that day.
A few years ago I asked a private coaching student to empty her black book bag for me. She was carrying around not just all her flash cards but all her BarWrite materials, all her PMBR materials, all her Pieper books, and all her class notes from every class she was taking. She was carrying everything around on her back all the time. Is it any wonder that she felt burdened, disorganized and tired?
BARWRITE TIP NUMBER TWO. Sort your flash cards. If you are using flash cards for one set of rules, don't write those rules anywhere except on flash cards. For example, write all the rules you are memorizing for the BarWrite MBE system on cards of one color, and use a rubber band to keep them separate from your other flash cards. The rules that student was memorizing for the BarWrite class fell into two groups, those for the BarWrite MBE system and those for the BarWrite classes on the New York essays. The student had written some of the rules on index cards, some in notebooks, and some on the grids BarWrite had distributed. There was no system to which rules were where. In addition, although the student's index cards were several different colors, the colors had no meaning. Some of the cards had BarWrite rules, some had Pieper mnemonics. Is it any wonder that she kept promising herself to memorize the rules for the BarWrite MBE system, but somehow at the end of every day, she had not gotten around to it?
BARWRITE TIP NUMBER THREE. Order a copy of the classic book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays and the CD Companion right away, and get started. The St. John's Law School Forum called it "possibly the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation." The just-issued Third Edition contains the classic text plus a new 2006 Appendix on "How to Do Legal Analysis." For more information on Scoring High, click here. To order the book click here .
If you are preparing for the New York bar exam, remind yourself to sign up for the must-take BarWrite Seven-Day Essay-Intensive Group Coaching School that begins on Sunday, May 28, in New York City. The Seven-Day School includes two days of MBE study techniques, plus four days of essays and one day of Multistate Performance Test. Gemma Waananen 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 the BarWrite web site, at Seven-Day School.
By the way, you will receive
Mary Campbell Gallagher, J.D., Ph.D., is president of BarWrite™ and BarWrite Press. Dr. Gallagher holds the J.D. from Harvard Law School and the Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Illinois. BarWrite's mission is applying linguistic systems to teaching writing, including legal writing and the bar exam.
Dr. Gallagher is the author of Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays: In-depth Strategies and Essay-Writing Practice That Bar Review Courses Don’t Offer. The Third Edition contains the classic text plus a new 2006 Appendix on "How to Do Legal Analysis." Students should check their law school bookstores or order from BarWrite Press, at BarWrite.com. Bookstores can order on the usual retail terms from Legal Books Distributing.
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