Certainty in Essay Qustions - Facts Dominate Everything

Facts dominate everything. Of course, the ultimate goal of bar exam writing is getting excellent grades and passing the Bar. However, our goal in executing the writing itself is to know what facts to use and how to group them and treat them differently by the grades given (and a sense of knowing the number of grades given). Another way of looking at it is knowing what issues to analyze to what levels, using how much time to analyze each into what depth, or knowing when to stop - when we know we have already grabbed sufficient grades for passing/high pass and it's crucial for the overall grade and passing goal to move on because the opportunity cost otherwise can take too much of a toll.

For simplicity's sake only, and because calling it is not in itself material, the System allows the "4Rs": By using the Right facts, writing about the Right legal issues in the Right depth, with the Right amount of resources available at a point in time during the exam. You can substitute the "Right" with "Reasonable" and think of them in the same way. What really matters with fussy words like them is, of course, knowing how much right/reasonable is right/reasonable.

Facts. The R describing Facts dominates the rest. To address a question prompt, everything begins with the facts given. Everyone in law school knows some facts trigger issues that should be spotted and analyzed to address the prompt. What matters practically is how to quickly identify those facts under exam conditions when "scanning" is a more appropriate description than reading, especially for the second run. Students need a systematic way of knowing the usual contestants of winning facts that stand out and marking them both mentally by impression and on the question sheet by pencil in an efficient manner that is relatively independent of the laws at this stage.

Here is an example of one of the many types of keywords you "mine" in your first read of the facts, because grades are assigned: every time there is a quote " " in the fact pattern, you know it is the grader's way of telling you that there are grades assigned to it. It may be a statute potentially triggering the issue of "Negligence Per Se," or it may be a person's statements that trigger the issues of Hearsay/Double Hearsay and/or Some of the Hearsay Exceptions. That's a few issues right there and many grades to grab. You have the certainty that a fact in quotes must be used before even finishing reading the rest of the questions. Thus, annotating the quote very quickly is one of the first things we should do while reading the fact pattern for the first time.

Issues. How does the student know if it is a major issue they are analyzing when the question prompt does not directly give it away? The answer is, again, the facts. The ability to make such a distinction in a systematic and portable way enables a student to create a strategic advantage for each piece of Bar writing before committing the limited resources to writing an answer that comes with a substantial opportunity cost - a decision to write about something automatically means the forfeiture of the chance of writing about something(s) else. It's thus crucial to make each word count.

Depth. For some analyses, issues, and circumstances, it's allowed and advised that students write the IRAC they are taught in law school in the complete Issue-Rule-Analysis-Conclusion form. While for other analyses, issues, and circumstances, an expedited form of IRAC is recommended. Still yet for some analyses, issues, and circumstances, the IRAC in its most accelerated and simplified form is the optimal choice for the best flow of writing and grade-grabbing purposes. Students need a systematic way of knowing each form and when to use each. The clue comes again from the facts.

In addition, everyone in law school is familiar with terms such as "argue from both sides," but to what extent is it necessary for the Bar Exam? The method teaches students the ground-level specifics to avoid ambiguities in terms like this that are often left open to interpretation, speculation, and ensuing opportunity cost.

Resources. The two limited resources a student sitting in the Bar has are time and energy. Since committing time and energy to one thing forfeits the opportunity to commit to other(s), striking a balance in obtaining the optimal point of the 4Rs maximizes one's performance and grades for the Bar Exam writing.

It is the practical system of application interlinking all core components underneath that makes the ultimate difference. You will know what I am talking about when you write bar exam essays in a flow.

Success in Bar essay and performance test writing is the result of the 4Rs done right, or in the negative term, not done wrong - one did not spend the limited resources on analyzing the wrong issues, spending too much time, over-analyzing the minor issues by using less important facts, causing insufficient time spent in reaching the expected depth of analysis for the major issues, and failed to utilize the essential facts to a fuller extent.