6. Wear The Hat of The People That Write The Questions & Grade the Answers.

The Fear Factors: Fifteen Reasons Why Applicants Fail The Bar Exam.

On the bar examination, presentation takes second only to the answer that you write on an essay, an MPT, or on several short answer, civil procedure questions. The person grading your work must be able to understand what you have written, otherwise, that person may show great disdain for your work. And, you don't want that. Well, what do you want?

1. You want to make certain that the grader can read your writing. Pay strict attention to those vowels. Close loops, dot i's, cross t's, and distinguish between a's, e's, o's and u's. No need to cause confusion.
2. Place one hump on n's and two on m's, please. An examiner should know that the answer to a bar exam question is "no," and not, "Mo," or "Moo."
3. Make sure there is adequate white space between each word you write. It makes it much easier on the eyes - the grader may already have difficulty reading a word, but since there is white space on either side of the word, the grader will take more time to try & decipher what you have written. Plus, the white space just makes the work easier to read, anyway. No one will have to contort her face to read what you, the applicant, have written.
4. Don't use $10.00 words when writing. Stick to words that cost $0.50 cent (yes, 50 Cent - I use whatever works). You do not have to invest a lot in a word in order for it to convey a message. Write in basic (everyday) English. Examiners' are not impressed by the quantity or quality (with one caveat) of the words you use. Examiners' want you to use language that is appropriate for this exam; often that is language directly related to the substantive law of the question.
   
5. Skip lines, please, unless you receive instructions on the exam to do otherwise. I am amazed at how many people forget not to string a series of circles on line after line, page after page, without considering that other people have to read their work. Don't forget, people, the folk reading your work are human beings. You know, they breathe air, eat food, work, have families, go on vacation, etc. Those who process your work expect a certain level of - - quid pro quo from the writer who is asking to be a member of the bar. Yes, even in the bar exam, graders' expect respect, too.
6. Don't scratch a hole in the paper to erase words that you do not want the examiner to see. A single-line through the word will do. Examiners' make mistakes, too - - they have seen enough exams to know that applicants are sometimes nervous and write too quickly, or say one word when they meant to say another word. We all do it. Twenty-five blue holes in an exam booklet is not that pretty, though. Someone might wonder whether you are trying to duke it out with the word, instead of cross it out.
7. Do not try to squeeze in additional words that you forgot to include initially, onto the same line. You ever write a sentence on a line, then decide that you needed to add additional words to the sentence ... on the same line? But now you don't know where you will place the words. So, instead of thinking of some other alternative solution, you decide that you can just squeeze another full sentence within the same space as the original sentence. Then when you can't get it all on that line, you start to write alongside the margin, such that eventually, there are words on the lines of the page and all four sides of the page, too. Not a roadmap, is it? Need I say, don't do that. What about finding a place on the line where you want to add words and writing the words, "See FNTE 1," below. Not too fancy, but it works. Signal the examiners' to find the additional written gold, at the end of the page. They won't be mad; they will like the organization, though, and that you thought about their feelings. No, I'm just joking, but they will like the idea that you are in control of your examination and you are not making them work to find or to read the answer.
8. Do Not Write Notes To the Bar Examiners. Notes often look like this: Sorry. Ran out of time, so I did not finish. Sorry, I did not understand the question, so I did not answer it. Sorry. The person sitting next to me was eating Cheerios, and it distracted me. Sorry. I will see you in February 2011. A zero is a zero, regardless of the sorry. I was in court once and was late. Both parties were late. The court asked me why I was late, and I told the court, "I will offer no excuse." The court went immediately to my opponent and asked him the same question. He told the court, that it was raining, that traffic was worse than usual because of the rain, something about an umbrella getting stuck in the machine that views coats, etc., and some other stuff I can't remember. I did have an excuse, but I knew that it did not matter, so I did not even proffer it. The judge did not say one word to me, but he rolled on the other person. It doesn't mean that I was right and the other person was wrong, but the bottom line in law is, there are very few valid excuses. Very few. Do not excuse yourself from answering the question. If you want to write something to the bar examiners, how about writing an answer. Let's try that, first.
   
9. Do Not Rob Peter To Pay Paul. If you have 45 minutes for a question, take 45 minutes and move on. Do not give a property question more time than a torts question. Don't you know that two separate examiners' are grading two separate tests. The person grading torts does not know that you put a hurting on the property question. And, the property question person does not know that you committed an assault and battery on the paper when you wrote the torts question. The only thing examiners' can tell about work that is incomplete, is that the work is incomplete. That's all they know and that's all they need to know to give you an insufficient score on that question. Who knows if examiners' draw further conclusions, like whether you did not have time for this question (like you did the question before it). I don't know. But I do know that I don't want to take the chance of making one examiner think that her question was not as answer-worthy as another examiner's question. We can't afford to have that, can we?
10. Think Like An Examiner When You Are Preparing To Answer Questions. Why did they include this fact? Why did they talk about a red house instead of just a house? What do they want from me? Why does this question have four parts? Why doesn't the question just ask for a full explanation? Why have they said, "talk about this," but don't "talk about" something else. Who are these people? What would you want from an examinee (applicant) if you were sitting on the other side, waiting to pin the word, Esq., on someone's chest.