GUIDELINE FOR NEW YORK BAR EXAM

TABLE OF CONTENT

I.          SUMMARY

II.        THE DETERMINATION

III.       REGISTRATION AND RELATED MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

IV.       THE SUBJECTS

V.        THE PREPARATIVE MATERIALS

VI.       REVIEW CLASS

VII.     TIME LINE AND READING METHODS

VIII.    PREDICTIONS OF THE QUESTIONS

IX.       DAYS RIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM

X.        WARNINGS

I.          SUMMARY

This guideline is based on my personal exam experience. Since I took the exam as a foreign-trained LLM student, accordingly this is prepared primarily for LLM students. However, some parts of it may be used as general reference for every examinee.

II.        THE DETERMINATION

Before the registration for the Bar Exam, ask yourself “why do I take the exam, have I determined to pass it for this time?” If your answer is “I will try my best, if I fail, I will take a second try.”  Think it twice. The problem is that you never know what your best efforts are until and unless you produce the result at which you once aimed. Intelligence, patience, etc. are important, but your determination is decisive.

To me, I had the determination to pass it at my first attempt, the determination originated from the love to my parents and my sister RJ Chen.

III.       REGISTRATION AND RELATED MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS

As to the registration for New York Bar Exam, you are advised to keep an eye on www.nybarexam.org. You can find out all things about the registration from the aforesaid website, including but not limited to the time for each exam, the registration requirements, deadline for filing.

Some tips for LL.M students who obtained their LLB in a civil law country. If you are not sure whether your foreign education can qualify you for the Exam, you are recommended to request for an advanced evaluation for your eligibility. The form can be downloaded from http://www.nybarexam.org/eval_form.pdf. A civil law county trained LLM shall prepare the followings in advance for your registration:

1, Your Bachelor Degree and Its Translation from the issuing authority;

2, Your Diploma of Graduation and Its Translation from the issuing authority; (In some jurisdiction, the No.1 and No.2 may be combined in one instrument)

3, Your Transcripts and Its Translation from the issuing authorities;

4, (1) If you are licensed to practice law in a foreign country, copy of your license and its translation from the issuing authority; (2) alternatively, you can request a certificate from your LLB law school to the effect that you have accomplished the degree with qualified results and is qualified for admission to practice law in your home country.

IV.       THE SUBJECTS

The subjects for New York Bar Exam include:

(I) MULTISTATE BAR EXAM (MBE 200 MULTICHOICE)

1.         Constitutional Law

2.         Contracts/Sales

3.         Criminal Law/Criminal Procedure

4.         Evidence

5.         Real Property

6.         Torts

(II) NEW YORK PART (50 Multi Choice and Five Essays)

Besides the MBE subjects, it includes:

7.         Agency

8.         Commercial Paper

9.         Conflict of Laws

10.       Corporations

11.       Domestic Relations

12.       Equity

13.       Federal Civil Jurisdiction and Procedure

14.       Lease

15.       Mortgages

16.       New York Practice

17.       No Faulty Insurance

18.       Partnership

19.       Personal Property

20.       Professional Responsibility

21.       Secured Transaction

22.       Trusts

23.       Wills

24.       Works' Compensation

(III) MULTISTATE PERFORMANCE TEST

Basically, it is not a test on your legal knowledge, it is legal writing skills.

V.        THE PREPARATIVE MATERIAL

Unlike China, there is no official review materials published or designated by Department of Justice. The most influential preparative materials are published by the two commercial publishers, BARBRI and PMBR. BARBRI publications cover all subject. PMBR is self-defined as MBE Specialist. Regardless of your decision of review classes, those materials are vital to your exam.

BARBRI have nine books in total, each is like a block. I always put them together as my stool. PMBR has two books, a red book and blue book, each of which contains a lot of practice MBE questions.

I do not know where there is anybody who finished all the books before his/her exam. For my time is very limited (May 20, 2007 ~ July 21, 2007), I just finished three of all the books: (1) BARBRI Conviser Mini Review, containing short outlines of all subjects; (2) PMBR Blue Book, containing 100 multi choice of each MBE subject and one full set of MBE practice (200 Questions). (3) BARBRI New York Testing (NY Multi Choice and Essays).

VI.       REVIEW CLASSES

Similar to the bar review materials market, the review classes are nearly monopolized by BARARI and PMBR. Whether to take such classes is totally a personal decision. It may depend on a lot of factors: your assimilating ability in class, your study style, your time arrangement, etc.

VII.     TIME LINE AND READING METHODS

1, TIME LINE

Every successful candidate has its own strategy in connection with time line. In my case,  (1) familiar myself with each subject first, (2) practice. There are co-occurrence between refreshing and practice.

2. SEQUENCE OF EACH SUBJECT.

Generally, we shall review the Multistate Subjects first, and then the New York subjects. As to New York part, we should sequence them according to the frequency they appeared in the historical exams.

3. READING METHODS.

 Before my preparation, I print out a sheet to record my progress, the row is each subject, the column is to the dates of each my review. Every time I reviewed a subject, I would finish it at one time, generally one to six hours for the first time depending on the length of each subject. For the first time, carefully read each sentence and highlight some parts if necessary. Gradually, your speed will be faster and faster. You may finish a subject in 40 minutes even for such difficulty topics as Constitution, Torts or Real Property. Actually, what you do for the sixth or seventh time is to refresh your memory rather than to memorize them. The simple repeat will finally make you familiar with nearly all subjects. The reason why I use “nearly all subjects” is related with the next part. Unless you have form a system to manage the points in each subject, yon cannot say you are familiar with the subject.

4. AUDIO MATERIAL.

If you are tired of reading, you may listen to audio lectures. The Evidence and Constitution Audio prepared by PMBR is really great.

VIII.    PREDICTIONS OF THE QUESTIONS

An exciting topic? Every candidate is recommended to review the past exam and model answers published at http://www.nybarexam.org/pastexam.htm. After that, you would have a general idea about the question style and how to answer it. The IRAC rule (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) still applies to essay questions here.

After you analyze what were tested in the two years and their respective frequency (see a chart BARBRI prepared for its client, it is not hard to get it), also if you have really form a system of each subject, you can do some accurate predictions.

To be straight, I predicted five sets of essay question before I left Indianapolis for the exam. At the night (July 24, 2007) right before the exam, I predict the sixth set, and that was the first essay question tested in the following morning. The other four sets of question came out of the five sets I originally predicted. What a miracle? The only missed one is agency/partnership, the possibility that it be tested is very high in February 2007 exam.

IX.       DAYS RIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM

Beside the Study, be reminded that you have do other things for the exam, including:

1, Flights, if you are out of New York State

2, Accommodation. Make it as near as possible to the test site.

3, The local traffic.

4, Foods,

5, Medicines and etc.

X.        WARNINGS

1, This article is prepared by Zhenfeng Yan for general reference. No liability arising from reliance on this article can be claimed against the author in any case. You are hereby advised to make your own judgment and decision regardless of the content of this article.

2, Zhenfeng Yan is the sole author of this article and all rights with regard to this article are reserved. Any reprint or republication is prohibited unless permission either in writing or oral is granted by the author.

 – © ٠ ZHENFENG YAN ٠ 2007 –

When I checked the Bar result this morning, one of my colleagues put his hand on my heart to check whether it was accelerating. Maybe to his dismay, it just pulsated as normal. Then I told him, “from the time that I began to prepare the exam to now I am  looking up the result,  I never feel  nervous.” He replied with “do not be hypocritical.” I then said, “if you understand “the determination originating from love”, you won’t dispute with me about this.”

Once I thought I was very smart (actually I still think so), and I told myself I should not let my intelligence be humiliated.  Unfortunately, I did a lot of things that later indeed insulted my intelligence.  Clearly, I still lacked something, I thought it was determination to be successful.  Every determination has a reason.  To me at this time, the determination originates from the love to my parents and My sister RJ Chen. For the love to them, I can make every possible efforts to please them. Even if there would be only a smile on their faces, I would feel encouraged.

From the time I found the right approach, I never and won’t fail. I know my goal, and I know how to reach it. After making the efforts, the result is predetermined, that’s why I did not feel nervous at all this morning, because I already knew I would pass the exam. To be straight, several days ago, I have prepared the list of names with whom I will share the good news today.